Beautiful weather and several specials highlighted the racing action this past weekend.
(Photo: Curt Bish of Oil City took home over ten thousand dollars for winning the Steel Valley Nationals. Photo by Rick Rarer)
Things got started Friday night at Thunder Mountain Speedway where Dan Angelicchio flexed his muscles by winning the super late model feature on championship night over Mike Pegher and Franklin’s Matt Lux.
This Friday the ULMS late model series will return to Brookville for the Mark O’Donnell Memorial which will see the winner taking home $3,000. Semi lates, four cylinders along with the Hell Week make up from July will also be on the card with racing at 7:30 p.m.
After breaking a four-year winless streak back in June, stock car driver Curt Bish of Oil City has been nothing short of red hot. Bish would win again in August to clinch his first-ever Sharon Speedway track championship. His momentum continued into this past weekend where he dominated the area’s biggest stock car race of the season.
Bish would start the weekend by besting 30 cars on Friday to win the King of the Hill title worth $5,000. Then on Saturday, he would come from his 15th-starting spot to pass stock car ace Bobby Whitling of Seneca for the lead on lap 50. From there he would lead the rest of the way to take home the $10,000 to win Steel Valley Pro Stock Nationals featuring the Penn-Ohio Championship Series.
Bish was quick to thank his crew, sponsors, and runner up Whitling in victory lane.
“Bobby is a tough competitor,” Bish said. “I like racing with him. He’ll race you clean so hats off to those guys. My car owners are $10,000 richer. I have to thank Bob and Brian Tarr. This is their car. They give me an opportunity to drive this car. I have to thank my engine builder Les Myers, car builder Chris Schneider, lubricant supplier Schaeffer’s Oil, they’re second to none, and all of my sponsors and family.”.
This Saturday at Sharon the USA-East truck and tracker pulls of Full Pull Productions will be in action. Sharon will close out the racing season the following week on September 20-21 with the Apple Festival Nationals featuring nine divisions of racing action.
Hummingbird Speedway closed out their season Saturday night with the Eric Witherite Memorial featuring the super late models. Invader Mike Pegher made his presence known as he scored the win worth $3,000. David Scott would win the King of the Hill while Zach Myers, Bob McMillen, and Jeff Huber would also close out the season with wins. Hummingbird will host a swap meet on Saturday morning October 12.
Mike Pegher closed out the season at Hummingbird Speedway by winning the Eric Witherite Memorial. Photo by Rick Rarer.
Action returned to Mercer Raceway this past Saturday with their sprint car, modified doubleheader where Adam Kekich won the 410 sprint car feature in just his third start of 2019. In the big block modified feature Rex King added another notch to his belt with his second consecutive Mercer win, this one worth $2,000.
Mercer will sit idle until October when they close out the season with the 20th annual Little Guy Nationals.
Lernerville Speedway will be back in action again this Saturday with their annual Autumn-Motive Fest/Pro Stock Pandemonium race featuring the Penn-Ohio Pro Stock Series. The RaceSaver 305 sprint cars will also be on the card this Saturday.
Pittsburgh Motor Speedway will also be in action this Saturday as they host the 410 sprint cars for the first of three consecutive Saturdays. Along with the sprints this Saturday there will be six support divisions on the card.
The All-Star Circuit of Champions visited central Pennsylvania over the weekend with visits to Bedford Speedway on Thursday and Port Royal Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the 52nd annual Tuscarora 50. Defending series champion Aaron Reutzel couldn’t have asked for a much better weekend as he won on Thursday at Bedford then won the 50-lap Tuscarora 50 on Saturday worth a whopping $52,000!
Rick’s Racing Roundup is brought to you by:
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Allegheny Grille
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About Rick
Rick Rarer, a Franklin resident, is the owner of Racestud.com and SprintCarNews.com. He has been covering racing for 19 years, taking racing photos for 14 years, and has covered races at over 100 tracks in 15 states. Most recently, Rick won the Bill Steinbach Media Award at the Lernerville Speedway Annual Awards Banquet
