News Director 
Story By: JIM BALENTINE / MICHAELS MERCER RACEWAY – MERCER, PA – Garrett Krummert held off Rex King, Brad Rapp and the rest of the Big Block Modified field to take the victory Saturday night at Michaels Mercer Raceway.
On a beautiful sunny warm late July Saturday, Michaels Mercer Raceway was able to complete its fourth show of the year.
Along with autograph night for the racesaver 305s and the big block modifieds, Garrett Krummert continued his winning ways in ‘24 by winning the big block modified feature; Rod Jones hopped into his son Roman’s racesaver 305 sprint and picked up his first sprint car win in nearly 20 years; Eric Gabany returned to victory Lane for the first time since 2022 in the 602 crate modifieds; Tim Callahan won his 21st career mini stock feature; the PA thunder on the dirt vintage modifieds were on hand as well with a great turnout with former late model racer Wally Stock winning the modified portion and Vincenzo Fiollo won the sportsman mod. The entire show was completed by 11:02.
The big Block modifieds made their second appearance of the year and an unsanctioned event and Garrett Krummert who started 4th won his six career in the big blocks at Mercer. The slim 10 car field was led by Brad Rapp for the first 2 laps until Krummert got around on lap 3. Krummert well then start to pull away from the field with the wrap, not leaving him out of his eyesight, but the real battle was for third fourth and fifth as a contested battle between Rapp, last nights winner at Lernerville Rex King Jr, Canadian Tyler Willard, and Will Thomas would thrill the crowd. Rapp would keep a small distance from the others as they would slice and dice going 3 wide occasionally.
King Jr would then overtake Rapp on lap 23 as Thomas moved into 4th on lap 22. King was a little too late to catch Krummert as he won by a massive 5 seconds in the non stop 8 minute 25 lapper. Rapp would be 3rd, Thomas 4th and Willard 5th. Krummert would say,”that was good starting up from helped but we will take it!! we have run 2nd too much..we needed a win.. if your car is good you can leave your car on the bottom and I have been coming here for about 20 years.. hopefully this turns things around so we can battle it out with Rex.”
The Jones family goes back to the first year of Mercer in 1951 and four generations have competed at the famed speedway. 3rd generation driver and veteran Rod Jones who has a 410 sprint win along with 29 mod lite features hopped into his son Roman, a 4th generation’s Racesaver 305 sprint and picked up his first victory in the class leading flag to flag. The race was marred by a violent double flip on lap 3 involving Jeremey Kornbau and Greg Dobrosky as both cars crashed hard into the wall in turn 2 flipping violently. Both drivers were OK. On the restart Jones would take off again as former track champion Jake Gomola would keep pace keeping Jones no further ahead than 1 second. last weeks feature winner Andy priest would suffer motor problems in the seat race, and have to start at the rear of the field in 16th place. Priest would methodically move his way through the field getting up to 5th by lap 15.
Mike Koehler who made his first appearance from Williamsport, Pennsylvania the home of the Little League World Series was impressive in his first run battling against the long time Mercer regulars staying in the top 5 the entire race. Another great battle occurred as Jim Pattock, Jarrett Rosencrance, and Vivian Jones along with Koehler would utilize the wide surface trying to catch the top 2. Priest would then move into 4th at lap 16 to challenge Koehler as Vivian Jones would stay in 3rd. At the end Jones would hold of Gomola by 1.1 seconds and become the 4th different winner in 4 races! Koehler finished 3rd ahead of Vivian Jones and Andy priest. When announcer Jim Balentine said that the Jones’ are now the first father and 2 children team to each win a sprint feature in the same division at Mercer since Lou,Dave and Dale have all won sprint features there…Thats pretty cool!!” Rod would say, “Roman is going off to college and he wanted to go with his buddies this weekend so I said I’ll drive!! It’s been since 2016 since I was in the 305 class but as far as winning a sprint feature…it’s been over 20 years!!”
Eric Gabany would lead from the pole to pick up his 17th 602 crate modified feature at Mercer and also become the 4th different crate winner in 4 races. Garrett Krummert doing double duty tonight would jump out of his feature winning big block modified into the crate modified and from his six starting spot move up to second by lap 10 in a thrilling inside pass of three other cars. Gage Priester, Jim Bryce and Pat Lane would put on an exciting battle trying to catch Gabany but did not see Krummert slowly moving into the mix. Krummert made a daring inside move from turn 3 to 4 sliding into 2nd. Krummert would then try to catch Gabany and hope for a caution but the rest of the race went caution, free ending in 8.41 minutes and Gabany winning by 2.8 seconds. “Anytime Krummert shows up you know he is going to be there but it wa a good run the car was perfect and the track was beautiful!! Gabany would say, “After not winning last year and this year you don’t know if it’s going to happen again so it’s good!! Preister was 3rd, Jim Bryce 4th, and Pat Lane 5th.
22 mini stocks were scheduled to start the nightcapper but Joe Campbell was a scratch after a fire erupted in the fuel cell in his heat race ending his night early. Campbell was ok.
Corey Bice and Chaz Smith would be on the front row both looking for their first career Mercer win. Bice would take the lead and held off the competition until lap 7 when 20 time winner Tim Callahan would overtake Bice. Devin Haley had another great run going in 3rd. Last weeks winner Andy Thompson would hit the turn 2 wall on lap 9 ending his night.
On the restart Mike Kelly would go high in turn 2 and crash hard into the outside wall with 2 wheels up on it. Kelly was ok. Chaz Smith who is improving each week would climb back into 4th on lap 11 and would try to catch Haley. Meanwhile up front Callahan would pull away and defeat Bice by 1.6 seconds to win his 21st career mini stock feature. Haley would end up 3rd, Smith 4th and Randy Ealy 5th. Callahan who is the sheriff of Mercer county would say ,”this division has advanced so far each year it gets faster and faster we built the car over the winter and been racing everywhere to try to get this car together. We just don’t know the right tires or gearing but we got it together tonight. This is a very competitive division!”
Next week will be the Al Priester memorial for the crate 602 modifieds as we honor one of the longtime supporters of the speedway who passed away this May of cancer. There will be a silent and a Chinese auction before the races behind the grandstands
Dirt Big Block Modifieds
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 29-Garrett Krummert[4]; 2. 165-Rex King Jr[6]; 3. 11R-Brad Rapp[1]; 4. 9-Will Thomas[7]; 5. 777-Tyler Willard[8]; 6. 13-Rick Regalski Jr[2]; 7. 35-Steve Slater[9]; 8. 29*-Eric Beggs[10]; 9. 66F-Kyle Fink[5]; 10. (DNS) 64-Rodney Beltz
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 777-Tyler Willard[1]; 2. 165-Rex King Jr[3]; 3. 29-Garrett Krummert[5]; 4. 13-Rick Regalski Jr[4]; 5. 35-Steve Slater[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Will Thomas[1]; 2. 66F-Kyle Fink[2]; 3. 64-Rodney Beltz[3]; 4. 11R-Brad Rapp[5]; 5. 29*-Eric Beggs[4]
Limited Modified
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 4S-Eric Gabany[2]; 2. 10S-Garrett Krummert[7]; 3. 71-Gage Priester[5]; 4. 1-Jim Bryce[6]; 5. 12L-Patrick Lane[3]; 6. 7-Brenten Kay[10]; 7. 14-Jeff Schaffer Sr[11]; 8. 7P-Caden Petry[8]; 9. 404-MIchael Kristyak[4]; 10. 1R-Brandon Ritchey[15]; 11. 02-Jeremy Beichner[1]; 12. 717-Bill Adams[9]; 13. 312-Ryan Gutherie[13]; 14. 07L-Mark Sevin[14]; 15. 113-Don Cornelius[12]; 16. 9H-Jacob McElravy[17]; 17. 51R-Thomas Rogers[16]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7P-Caden Petry[3]; 2. 1-Jim Bryce[1]; 3. 404-MIchael Kristyak[4]; 4. 4S-Eric Gabany[6]; 5. 717-Bill Adams[5]; 6. 14-Jeff Schaffer Sr[8]; 7. 312-Ryan Gutherie[7]; 8. 1R-Brandon Ritchey[9]; 9. 9H-Jacob McElravy[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10S-Garrett Krummert[5]; 2. 71-Gage Priester[1]; 3. 12L-Patrick Lane[4]; 4. 02-Jeremy Beichner[2]; 5. 7-Brenten Kay[8]; 6. 113-Don Cornelius[6]; 7. 07L-Mark Sevin[3]; 8. 51R-Thomas Rogers[7]
305 Sprints – Winged
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 82M-Rod Jones[1]; 2. 4J-Jacob Gomola[2]; 3. 22K-Mike Koehler[6]; 4. 20M-Vivian Jones[4]; 5. 21N-Andy Priest[16]; 6. 42-Jim Pattock[9]; 7. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[3]; 8. 72-Mike Mathieson[12]; 9. 34M-Aaron Marano[15]; 10. 71-Joe Coggin[8]; 11. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[14]; 12. 15-Lacey Shuttlesworth[10]; 13. 21-Hunter Hite[11]; 14. 36H-Seth Harrelson[17]; 15. 17S-Shane Heath[13]; 16. 88-Greg Dobrosky[5]; 17. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[7]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20M-Vivian Jones[1]; 2. 4J-Jacob Gomola[3]; 3. 88-Greg Dobrosky[4]; 4. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[5]; 5. 42-Jim Pattock[6]; 6. 21-Hunter Hite[8]; 7. 17S-Shane Heath[9]; 8. 34M-Aaron Marano[7]; 9. 21N-Andy Priest[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[2]; 2. 82M-Rod Jones[3]; 3. 22K-Mike Koehler[5]; 4. 71-Joe Coggin[7]; 5. 15-Lacey Shuttlesworth[1]; 6. 72-Mike Mathieson[6]; 7. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[4]; 8. 36H-Seth Harrelson[8]
Sport Compact
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 54-Tim Callahan[6]; 2. 10-Corey Bice[1]; 3. 02-Devin Haley[3]; 4. 13S-Chaz Smith[2]; 5. 38-Randy Ealy[4]; 6. 02D-Chuck Davis[8]; 7. 309-Jordan Reges[11]; 8. 10J-Bill Fuchs[14]; 9. 9R-Ben Aley[15]; 10. 22-Eddie Lombardo[21]; 11. 6-Mike Kelley[5]; 12. 5-Andy Thompson[12]; 13. 54X-Matt Urey[13]; 14. 60-Dillon Thorne[10]; 15. 77-Braden Bice[16]; 16. 0-Carl Ealy[9]; 17. 45-Andrew Thompson[7]; 18. 64-Summer Reges[20]; 19. 13-Joshua Funkhouser[17]; 20. (DNS) 999-Adam Aley; 21. (DNS) 40C-Joe Campbell; 22. (DNS) 325Z-Zack Swartz
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 38-Randy Ealy[5]; 2. 10-Corey Bice[1]; 3. 54-Tim Callahan[6]; 4. 0-Carl Ealy[2]; 5. 54X-Matt Urey[8]; 6. 77-Braden Bice[7]; 7. 40C-Joe Campbell[4]; 8. 999-Adam Aley[3]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 13S-Chaz Smith[2]; 2. 02-Devin Haley[4]; 3. 45-Andrew Thompson[1]; 4. 60-Dillon Thorne[3]; 5. 10J-Bill Fuchs[5]; 6. 13-Joshua Funkhouser[7]; 7. 64-Summer Reges[6]
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 5-Andy Thompson[1]; 2. 6-Mike Kelley[3]; 3. 02D-Chuck Davis[5]; 4. 309-Jordan Reges[7]; 5. 9R-Ben Aley[6]; 6. 325Z-Zack Swartz[4]; 7. 22-Eddie Lombardo[2]
