Parker Price-Miller Takes 410 Sprint Car Win At Lernerville; Rex King Jr. Scores In Big Block Mods

Story By: GARY HEEMAN / LERNERVILLE SPEEDWAY – SARVER, PA – The 2025 Fab4 racing season finally saw the green flag on Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

After two weather aborted attempts in the preceding weeks, Mother Nature finally brought sunny skies over The Action Track with a spring chill in the air as well. There were 82 cars in the pit area at race time, with some unique invaders to say the least, especially in the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Cars which saw a pair of central Pennsylvania regulars turn up and a national touring presence as Billy Dietrich, Ryan Smith and Chris Frank plus a touring Parker Price-Miller turned up in a stout weekly field of competition that included 17 cars. The Glassmere Fuel Service Late Models were represented with 19 cars in the pits with a collective 16 track championships among the starting field. The Diehl Automotive Big Block Modified and Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks both brought 23 car fields into the racing, with the area’s best drivers virtually all in attendance in both divisions.

There was extra money on the line as well as the fifth annual “Willie and Conda McConnell Memorial” took center stage for the night. The event, which honors the parents of Garage Crawl Facebook live show originator John McConnell, gave feature winners a great deal of enhancement for the effort. The Peoples Sprints raced for a solid $4,500-to-win marker, courtesy of a supplemental gift from Joey Peluso of Peluso Roofing while the Glassmere Late Models ran for a top prize of $3,000. The Diehl Auto Big Blocks ran for a cool $2,300-to-win while the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks winner received a substantial bump in pay with the winner taking home a sweet $1,150.

Parker Price-Miller made the haul worthwhile in the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car portion of Friday’s racing as he started on the pole of the 25 lap main event and never relinquished the lead in collecting his first career Lernerville feature victory. Price-Miller was the class of the field in hot lap group qualifying, laying down a quick time of 13.391. However, his attempt at a sweep was thwarted when he ran second to Dietrich in the first heat of the night. Nevertheless, Price-Miller started strong from the drop of the green flag as young Jacob Begenwald kept up as best he could, holding his second starting spot for a good portion of the race in impressive fashion. Dietrich, Tim Shaffer and defending track champion AJ Flick all made their way forward with authority until a miscue on Flick’s part ruined his chances in the near the halfway mark with a spin that put him to the back of the pack. Flick would rebound to finish sixth and behind the leader, Dietrich and Tim Shaffer turned up the wick as best they could, but Price-Miller was the undisputed class of the field on Friday night and crossed first under the checkers, winning by a 4.6 second margin.

Ken Schaltenbrand has forged two track titles and multiple feature wins in Glassmere Fuel Service Late Model competition over the years, but the win he took on Friday night may stand out as one that will be talked about for years to come. Six time champion Alex Ferree started on the pole but was eclipsed Logan Zarin early on as the two drivers had a modest amount of separation over the field early on. Zarin looked to be on his way to Terry Bowser Excavating Victory Lane at the halfway point until Ferree tracked him down in lapped traffic and began taking looks for the lead in the second half. Ferree looked to have the advantage until contact with a lapped car forced him to relinquish his chances and he found himself facing the wrong direction in turns one and two. It was a tough break for Ferree who had one of the fastest cars on the track and had driven near flawlessly. However, the door opened for defending track champion Michael Norris who had started sixth on the grid and had been at the front of the chase pack, which included Schaltenbrand who had been quick around the bottom of the speedway in typical fashion. When action resumed, Zarin and Norris battled hard with the two cars swapping the lead and Norris using the high side of the speedway, gathering momentum on the cushion. As the white flag waved, the two drivers were nearly door to door entering turn three and then made hard contact in turn four driving to the checkered flag as they both kept attempting to drive through it in a desperate attempt to reach the finish line first with damaged cars. Meanwhile, third running Schaltenbrand kept his focus and his foot on the gas, passing both cars and leading the final few feet across the line by a .082 second advantage, en route to the $3,000 payday.

History was made on Friday night in the Diehl Automotive Big Block Modifieds as Rex King Jr. collected his 40th career victory at the Sarver speed plant, moving him past Pro Stock legend Chris Schneider to 20th on the all-time Lernerville Speedway win list. King may have started from the pole position, but the competition behind him was as strong as it gets as DIRTcar Hall of Famer and eight-time track champion Brian Swartzlander made a surprise visit in the Bill Rose owned #6 machine and started to his outside. Directly behind them were defending track champion Garrett Krummert and former track champion Dave Murdick, and a fifth starting former track champion in Jeremiah Shingledecker to boot. King led in the early going as Swartzlander kept pace in the top three in the early going with Murdick, Krummert and Shingledecker all within decent range. As the laps wound to the halfway point, Krummert had made his way to second and then found his way around King for a brief time before King made the total commitment to the top side of the speedway, making his way back around Krummert for the lead in the second half of the 25 lap main event. Murdick finished a strong night in third while Shingledecker and Swartzlander rounded out the top five.

Curt J. Bish doesn’t come to Lernerville very often, but when he does; he’s among the fastest cars in the field. Such was the case on this night as he moved forward from his fourth starting spot to take the lead on lap three and held off front row starting mate Joey Zambotti the rest of the way, crossing the finish line with a 1.2 second advantage to collect the $1,150 top prize. Zambotti finished with a strong second place performance, his highest feature finish at Lernerville in over two years. Cody Koteles, Chris Schneider and Tim Bish rounded out the top five.

Racing resumes on Friday night as the BRP Modified Tour takes center stage with the first points race of the season for the regional tour. They’ll be joined by the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Cars, Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks and the first appearance of the season from the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Models as their drivers get a good look at their cars on the track in preparation for their upcoming Bill Emig Memorial as part of the Firecracker 100 weekend. Pits will open at 4 PM on Friday with grandstands opening at 5 PM and racing scheduled to take place at 7:30 PM.

Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car Feature: (Finish-Name-Start) 1. 71-Parker Price Miller[1]; 2. 8-Billy Dietrich[4]; 3. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[11]; 4. 11-Carl Bowser[7]; 5. 6R-Ryan Smith[9]; 6. 2-AJ Flick[6]; 7. 00-Chris Frank[2]; 8. 3J-Jacob Begenwald[3]; 9. 15-Ryan Turner[10]; 10. 79W-Will Fleming[8]; 11. 3-John Jerich[14]; 12. 21-Carmen Perigo Jr[13]; 13. 44-Pete Landram[15]; 14. 4K-Bill Kiley[17]; 15. (DNF) 7K-Dan Shetler[5]; 16. (DNF) 11H-Hayden Miller[12]; 17. (DNF) 76-Davey Jones[16]

Glassmere Fuel Service Late Model Feature (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[5]; 2. 1Z-Logan Zarin[3]; 3. 10-Jared Miley[7]; 4. 72-Michael Norris[6]; 5. 48-Colton Flinner[11]; 6. J4-John Garvin Jr[9]; 7. 9-Levi Yetter[2]; 8. 55-Chris Schneider[8]; 9. 1C-Alex Ferree[1]; 10. 77-Tyler Dietz[13]; 11. 84-Andrew Wylie[12]; 12. 2T-Rich Wicker[4]; 13. W3-John Weaver[18]; 14. 10L-Gary Lyle[15]; 15. 10C-Ryan Christoff[14]; 16. (DNF) 4*-Douglas Eck[10]; 17. (DNF) 12R-Ryan Payne[16]; 18. (DNF) 24-Tyler Wyant[17]; 19. (DNF) 15-Kodie Checketts[19]

Diehl Automotive Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 165-Rex King Jr[1]; 2. 29-Garrett Krummert[3]; 3. 61-Dave Murdick[4]; 4. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[6]; 5. 6X-Brian Swartzlander[2]; 6. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[7]; 7. 13-Rick Regalski Jr[9]; 8. 14S-Justin Shea[11]; 9. 9-Will Thomas[12]; 10. 87-Rocky Kugel[14]; 11. 9M-Cameron Miller[15]; 12. 17M-Kyle Fink[5]; 13. 72-Jim Kurpakus[17]; 14. B4-Brayden Beatty[8]; 15. 10-Darin Gallagher[18]; 16. 5A-Austin Eyler[10]; 17. 27R-Dave Reges[21]; 18. 55-Brenten Kay[19]; 19. 8M-Macey Adamik[20]; 20. 26-Karley Miller[16]; 21. (DNS) 56M-Jacob McElravy; 22. (DNS) 19-Lenny Bullis; 23. (DNS) 35-Steve Slater

Millerstown Pic-A-Part Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 29-Curt J Bish[4]; 2. 948-Joey Zambotti III[1]; 3. 1K-Cody Koteles[3]; 4. 55S-Chris Schneider[6]; 5. 11B-Tim Bish[5]; 6. 155-Tyler Schneider[7]; 7. 4-Brett Hutira[8]; 8. 27-Jacob Dietz[12]; 9. 101-Bruce Hartzfeld[2]; 10. 17S-Stephen Shelpman[13]; 11. 25-Jason Fosnaught[18]; 12. 55C-Brandon Connor[21]; 13. 10-Nick Kocuba[14]; 14. 64-Logan Koteles[10]; 15. 26-Mike Bordt[11]; 16. 152-Bill Swaney[17]; 17. 28-Dalton Gabriel[20]; 18. 0-Larry Kugel[16]; 19. 7A-Tom Robertson[23]; 20. 19T-Troy Norman[19]; 21. (DNS) 68-Andrew Hammond; 22. (DNS) 81-Mike Miller; 23. (DNS) 22-Chase Lambert