Rex King Jr. Battles His Way To First Big Block Modified Win Of Season At Lernerville Speedway

Story By: GARY HEEMAN / LERNERVILLE SPEEDWAY – SARVER, PA – It was indeed a great night for racing with fireworks to boot on Friday night as Fan Appreciation Night presented by #1 Cochran Automotive made its way to The Action Track on a cool and comfortable evening with a sizable crowd on hand.

Drivers were treated to a traction filled surface that widened out to produce some fantastic racing with lots of passing across all Fab4 divisions.

The Crusher Kid, aka Michael Norris found the surface to his liking as he found his way past the 16 Precise Racing Products Late Models lined up in front of him, which included a last lap pass of race leader Alex Ferree to come up with his second feature win of the season. AJ Flick continued his incredible run of success by making it three wins in a row at the Sarver speedplant as he quickly made his way through the front half of the field and then simply drove away once in front en route to the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car feature win.

Meanwhile, Rex King Jr. ran down a fast running Brian Swartlander at the front of the Diehl Automotive Big Block Modified feature while holding off an oncoming Garrett Krummert in the process to collect his first feature win of the season on the Lernerville surface while Tyler Dietz took home yet another feature win in the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock main event, emerging past a determined Chris Schneider late in the race for the win.

King Jr. Takes Hard Fought Diehl Auto Big Block Victory

Former track champion Rex King Jr. had been close to tasting victory in the first five race nights of the 2023 season as evidenced by multiple podium finishes to this point of the year. However, rather than by the stars aligning and lady luck simply falling his way, King simply put on a determined display of driving that saw him run down a legend while holding off a potential legend in the making to make his way to Terry Bowser Excavating Victory Lane.

Eight-time track champion Brian Swartzlander and Steve Feder brought the field to the green flag and spent the first few laps much the same way as they wound up on week one in April with Swartzlander in the lead and Feder in hot pursuit on the high side not far off Swartzlander’s rear bumper. Meanwhile, King Jr. wasted no time, moving forward from his sixth starting spot and immediately into the battle emerging behind the leaders which included Rick Regalski, Chas Wolbert and Garrett Krummert. At the completion of lap three, King made his way through the pack and emerged in the third spot as last Friday’s winner, Jeremiah Shingledecker joined the party towards the front, engaging in a wild, sometimes three and four wide battle, all with their sights set on running down the top three.

With six laps in the books, Swartzlander found himself in open air with Feder and King running second and third respectively. Feder then began losing sight of the leader and quickly switched his concerns to the oncoming King when the yellow flag waved when Dave Murdick went over the top lip of turn two with nine laps down. When action resumed, Feder nearly drew door to door with Swartzlander for the lead, but then found himself in a furious battle with King and an oncoming Shingledecker as the leader started gaining a sizable gap on his pursuers. Feder and King swapped the second spot for several laps until King made his way past on the low side of the speedway with 10 laps to go, and a lap later, Feder went over the top of turn two, erasing his chances of victory for the night. On the ensuing restart, King came up with a slide job for the lead coming out of turn four and was immediately presented with a new challenge from Krummert who had made his way past Swartzlander. Krummert worked on the bottom side of the surface feverishly, drawing even with King with just four laps to go, then taking the lead at the flag stand. King took the lead back with two sticks in the air at the flag stand and did not look back over the final two laps, collecting his first feature win at The Action Track this year.

“The track was a little different,” King Jr. said “We weren’t used to this today it was a little racy for us. I got nervous when Krummert started showing his nose there, he’s been so damn good this year that it’s a little nerve racking.”

Norris Cruises From Last to First in Precise Late Models

Following a heat race he did not finish which relegated him to the final row of the Precise Racing Products Late Model feature, few could have imagined the performance which was to unfold from former track champion Michael Norris. However, with a grippy and wide surface suited towards passing early and often, anything was possible for him as been evidenced by his career finishes over the years at The Action Track. And on Friday night, anything meant everything.

Doug Eck and Braeden Dillinger brought the field to the initial green flag and both went backward in a hurry as six-time track champion Alex Ferree bolted to the early lead as if he’d been shot out of a cannon. Meanwhile, Logan Zarin, Gary Lyle and Ken Schaltenbrand made up a formidable chase pack in the early going. With just three laps in the books, Norris was already making his presence felt as he advanced from his 17th starting spot to the top 10, using the high side of the surface to make progress and with five laps down, he moved to the low side of the speedway to vault himself into the top five, passing Eck and Schaltenbrand in the process.

Out front, Ferree maintained a four car length advantage over Zarin who kept the leader very much in sight in the early going. Norris then went back to the top to make his way around Daryl Charlier for the third spot with 14 laps to go, setting up a battle with the leaders just before the halfway point. Ferree then began encountering lapped traffic but had doubled his advantaged over the second running Zarin who was having to fend off Norris. The caution came out for a slowing Levi Yetter with 12 laps to go and when action resumed, Ferree pegged the restart using the top side of the track as Charlier made his way past Norris to retake the third spot and then past Zarin for second with 10 laps to go. Norris then turned on the jets and went to work passing Zairn for third, then re-engaging with Charlier for the second spot. Norris completed the pass for second with five laps to go then erased what was over a 1.3 second gap between himself and Ferree up front. As they came to the white flag nose to tail, Norris found just enough of a gap coming out of turn two to make a strong run past Ferree which he made stick coming out of turn four and across the line for his second win of the season in a truly amazing performance that saw him use every inch of the surface during his charge to the front.

“I screwed up in the heat and just wasn’t paying attention and run into the nine car,” Norris said. “I gotta say thanks to Dan and the track crew. The track had some character and there were traction spots that made it really fun, you could run high or low and it was smooth.

Flick Makes it Three in a Row

AJ Flick has won many features in his years at The Action Track over the years and won them in many different ways, but perhaps his performance on Friday night which made him a hat trick winner, might stand as one of his most dominant ones in the story of his career thus far.

Flick started 10th on the grid, having to serve his winner’s penalty from two weeks ago and was facing some stiff competition ahead of him. Bringing the field to the green flag was a front row comprised of Brandon Matus and Chase Metheney and once it waved, Matus shot straight to the top of the speedway and straight to the lead at the flag stand. Flick made his way up to fifth with just three laps in the books as Metheney, George Hobaugh Jr and Darrin Gallagher made up the pack behind Matus who amassed a two plus second advantage in the early going. With six laps in the books Flick made his way around both Gallagher and Hobaugh, then picked up the second spot from Metheney just one lap leader. Meanwhile, Matus found his nearly insurmountable gap closed in quick fashion, and just like that, his lead was gone.

With 15 laps in the books, Flick dove to the bottom in turns one and two and came up the leader down the back stretch, eclipsing the fast running Matus to take the lead. Making progress from the middle of the starting order was former track champion Jack Sodeman Jr. who had made his way from ninth to fifth in the first half of the race and then set out to battle Hobaugh for the fourth spot with 15 laps to go. But out front, it was all Flick all the time as the six time and defending champion simply kept adding to his pace while maneuvering around lapped traffic. Sodeman made his way to the flagstand ahead of Hobaugh with a last lap pass as just a moment before, Flick crossed the line with a 9.38 second advantage over second running Matus, lapping up to position 12 in the process during the green to checkered, 25-lap main event for the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Cars, Flick’s third straight such victory.

“Kudos to everyone here,” Flick said while pointing to his crew. “We’ve got a really good race car right now. Probably three weeks ago when we got our butts kicked at the World of Outlaws show up at Sharon, we knew we were off but we didn’t know we were that far off. We had to take a step back and look and find a few things and since that night it’s been an awakening for us and we’ve been really quick everywhere we’ve gone.”

Dietz Powers Past Pro Stocks

A Tyler Dietz appearance in Terry Bowser Victory Lane seems to be the new normal in 2023 as he has managed his way there in either his Pro Stock Car or his Late Model in all but one week out of six in the current regular season. And on Friday night, he was magnetized to it once again, but not until he found his way past a determined Chris Schneider in the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock main event.

Joey Zambotti and Schneider started up front in the 20-lap feature and in the early going, Zambotti looked as if he would be able to provide a challenge for the win until he slid over the banking of turn two, losing three spots in the process, with two laps down, enabling Schneider to take the lead with Dietz, who’d moved forward from his fifth starting spot to second. Schneider and Dietz gained separation from the rest of the back and embarked on a battle of division heavyweights while behind them, Cody Koteles and Jacob Dietz ran in the third and fourth spots.

Schneider looked stout and in command with eight laps in the books, but winding up his momentum on the bottom side of the speedway was Dietz who managed to be first to the flag stand at the halfway mark. Schneider was able to pull door to door running on the high side and swapped the lead with Dietz as the laps wound down in a thrilling battle that looked to be a dead heat at various times as Schneider held the lead with five laps to go. Dietz then made one final desperation attempt to put Schneider behind him for good with two laps to go as he dove to the bottom once again in turns three and four where he’d been fast all night and came up with just a bit more of a gap than he’d found previously. Once out front, Dietz never looked back, finishing a classic battle that saw seven lead changes between the two drivers as Cody Koteles rounded out the podium with a strong third place run.

“That was the most fun and the most impressive battle that I’ve ever had there,” Dietz said. “I’d been waiting to battle it out with him, it just seems like either he starts up front or I start up front or I can’t have my car hooked up on the same night he does but I’ve been waiting for a battle like that him for a while and I finally got to do it.”

Racing returns on Friday, June 16 for our Mid-Season Championship Night where there will be some highly valued provisional starting spots to our marquee events in 2023 up for grabs in all of our Fab4 racing divisions, including automatic qualifiers for the upcoming Firecracker 100 (June 22-24) and the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup (July 18) . Grandstands will open at 5 PM with racing at 7:30 PM, general admission will be $18, while children 10 and under will be admitted free of charge as always.

Diehl Automotive Big Block Modifieds Results:

American Steel Processing Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 45-Steve Feder[2]; 2. C3-Chas Wolbert[1]; 3. 165-Rex King Jr[3]; 4. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[4]; 5. 27R-Dave Reges[6]; 6. 64-Rodney Beltz[7]; 7. 10-Chelsie Kriegisch[5]

Thermo Twin Windows Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 13-Rick Regalski[2]; 2. 29-Garrett Krummert[1]; 3. 83-Brian Swartzlander[7]; 4. 75-Jeff Miller[5]; 5. 61-Dave Murdick[3]

Diehl Automotive Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 165-Rex King Jr[6]; 2. 29-Garrett Krummert[5]; 3. C3-Chas Wolbert[4]; 4. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[8]; 5. 83-Brian Swartzlander[1]; 6. 13-Rick Regalski[3]; 7. 45-Steve Feder[2]; 8. 10-Chelsie Kriegisch[12]; 9. 75-Jeff Miller[7]; 10. 64-Rodney Beltz[11]; 11. 27R-Dave Reges[9]; 12. 61-Dave Murdick[10]; 13. (DNS) 11R-Brad Rapp; 14. (DNS) 14S-Justin Shea; 15. (DNS) 35-Steve Slater

Peoples Natural Gas Sprints Results:

Terry Bowser Excavating Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 2-AJ Flick[2]; 2. 6-Bob Felmlee[4]; 3. 29-Dan Shetler[1]; 4. 12-Darin Gallagher[6]; 5. 13-Brandon Matus[3]; 6. 11-Carl Bowser[8]; 7. 21S-Brian Salisbury[10]; 8. 154-Shamus O’Donnell[9]; 9. 95-Garrett Bard[5]; 10. 55*-Matt Sherlock[7]

Glassmere Fuel Service Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 40-George Hobaugh Jr[2]; 2. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[1]; 3. 31C-Chase Metheney[3]; 4. 57N-Tyler Newhart[4]; 5. 08-Danny Kuriger[8]; 6. 33-Brent Matus[5]; 7. 23-Darren Pifer[6]; 8. 44-Pete Landram[7]; 9. 21-Hunter Hite[9]

Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 2-A.J.Flick[10]; 2. 13-Brandon Matus [2]; 3. 31C-Chase Metheney [2]; 4. 23Jr-Jack Sodeman Jr. [9]; 5. 40-George Hobaugh Jr. [3]; 6. 29-Dan Shetler [6]; 7. 11-Carl Bowser [11]; 8. 33-Brent Matus [12]: 9. 6-Bob Felmlee [8]; 10. 08-Danny Kuriger [7]; 11. 12-Darin Gallagher [5]; 12. 23-Darren Pifer [14]; 13. 21S-Brian Salisbury [13]; 14. 95-Garrett Bard [17]; 15. 44-Pete Landram [16]; 16. 57N- Tyler Newhart [4]; 17. 21-Hunter Hite [18}; 18. 154-Shamus O’Donnell [15]; 19. 55-Matt Sherlock [DNS]

Precise Racing Products Late Models Results:

#1 Cochran Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 1Z-Logan Zarin[1]; 2. 1C-Alex Ferree[3]; 3. 9-Levi Yetter[4]; 4. 3RK-Daryl Charlier[6]; 5. 14-Braeden Dillinger[5]; 6. 66-Todd Bachman[2]; 7. 22B-Darrell Bossard[9]; 8. 9K-Clayton Kennedy[7

GetPhil.com Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[1]; 2. 77-Tyler Dietz[4]; 3. 10L-Gary Lyle[7]; 4. 14A-Dan Angelicchio[9]; 5. 20-Doug Eck[6]; 6. J4-John Garvin Jr[8]; 7. 11-Joshua Powell[5]; 8. 81-Mike Miller[2]; 9. 01-Ron Hall[3]

Precise Racing Products Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 10-Michael Norris[17]; 2. 1C-Alex Ferree[3]; 3. 3RK-Daryl Charlier[8]; 4. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[4]; 5. 1Z-Logan Zarin[6]; 6. J4-John Garvin Jr[12]; 7. 77-Tyler Dietz[10]; 8. 14-Braeden Dillinger[2]; 9. 10L-Gary Lyle[5]; 10. 22B-Darrell Bossard[13]; 11. 14A-Dan Angelicchio[7]; 12. 11-Joshua Powell[14]; 13. 20-Doug Eck[1]; 14. 81-Mike Miller[16]; 15. 9K-Clayton Kennedy[15]; 16. 66-Todd Bachman[11]; 17. 9-Levi Yetter[9]; 18. (DNS) 01-Ron Hall

Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks Results:

Hovis Auto and Truck Supply Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 00-Tyler Dietz[10]; 2. 1K-Cody Koteles[1]; 3. 55S-Chris Schneider[7]; 4. 27-Jacob Dietz[3]; 5. 27X-Dylan Morando[6]; 6. 948-Joey Zambotti III[9]; 7. 25-Brett McDonald[8]; 8. 26-Mike Bordt[11]; 9. 68-John Peterman Jr[2]; 10. M5-Tony Magill[4]; 11. (DNS) 7A-Tom Robertson

Millerstown Pic-A-Part Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 00-Tyler Dietz [5]; 2. 55S-Chris Schneider [2]; 3. 1K-Cody Koteles [4]; 4. 948- Joey Zambotti [1]; 5. 27-Jacob Dietz [3]; 6. 25- Brett McDonald [7]; 7. 68- John Peterman Jr. [9] 8. 27X- Dylan Morando [6]; 9- Mike Bordt [8]; 10- M5-Tony Magill [10]; 11. 7A-Tom Robertson [DNS]