Weaver Makes 174-Mile One Way Trip A Profitable One Saturday At Michaels Mercer Raceway

Story By: JIM BALENTINE / MICHAELS MERCER RACEWAY – MERCER, PA – On fan appreciation and start of summer celebration night Lock Haven Pennsylvania’s Jeff Weaver Jr. traveled 174 miles west to Michaels Mercer raceway presented by Sunbelt Rentals and made it a profitable one by picking up his first ever Mercer IMCA racesaver 305 sprint car feature event Saturday, June 7 over Vivian Jones.

In another exciting finish in the top shelf trucking dirt 602 crate sportsman feature Mercer Pa’s Eric Gabany was able to get underneath leader Gage Priester on the white flag lap out of turn four to win his 18th career limited modified event.

Randy Ealy picked up his first King’s forestry SCDRA mini stock feature since July 31, 2021 in the night capper. The three division event which included kids bike races at intermission, was able to be completed by 9:21 PM.

Second generation driver, Jeff Weaver Jr., who has been a multi time feature winner at Clinton County Speedway on Friday nights brought his number 52 IMCA race receiver 305 Sprint West and was able to pick up his first victory at the historic Speedway. The 10 car feature event put Weaver on the pole alongside defending track champion Vivian Jones with Weaver immediately taking the lead at the start. With the track surface being tricky due to all of the rain lately in the area made for a challenging race as Jones and Weaver would battle throughout the 20 lap affair. Jones at one point during the race lost ground, but then collected herself back in to be running side-by-side with Weaver. As the laps were winding down, Jones made one last effort off of turn number four at the finish, but it was not to be as Weaver went on for the win by a short margin. Jarrett Rosencrance ended where he finished in third Nolan Groves moved up four spots to finish and fourth and another Clinton County winner Timmy Bittner would finish in fifth. “I love this place!” Said weaver in H&H materials victory lane, “it’s awesome we ran the 270 micro during the little guy nationals for some years and now in the sprint car. She’s good on starts and my car was struggling but I was able to get out front and run my race and get here.”

The Top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman $1000 to win special would also go down to the wire as pole sitters Jordan Ehrenberg and Gage Priester would first do battle back-and-forth on the race, track, switching lines throughout the tricky racing surface. Veteran Billy Adams would run the high side away from the rough part of the track and continuously battle as well with the top two. Eric Gabany who started near the tail would methodically make his way to the front and by lap eight would be battling Adams for fourth. Priester would then take the lead and with five laps to go GABANY would set his sights on the top two and would be battling with Ehrenberg for second with 5 laps to go. Erin Berg would drift high in turn four with two to go letting Gabany get on the inside to take 2nd, then on the back stretch of the final lap, Gabany would go in between Priester and Ryan Rife, who was a lapped car to go three wide into the final corner. Priester would hit a rut and dart to the top of the track while Gabany would slide underneath to pick up an exciting win and his 18th career Mercer crate modified win. Gabany would say,” it was a blast I didn’t expect to be up here from the back but I’ve done crazier things.. I’m on torsion bars so it’s a little softer and I had it to the floor the whole time. I had to split the lapped car and I didn’t know what was going to happen so I sent it!!” Priester would end up 2nd, Ehrenberg 3rd, Adams would finish 4th and Caden Perry 5th.

In the King’s forestry SCDRA mini stocks it would be all Randy Ealy as he would lead flag to flag in the 650 to win mini stock 15 lapper. 15 time winner Carl Ealy would be part of a grinding crash on the backstretch of lap 1 getting up in the air but did not flip and landed hard. Carl was ok. On the restart Ealy would pull away and would take the win by 4.88 seconds over Andy Thompson, Joe Campbell, Andrew Thompson and Josh Eakman.

The next event will be on Saturday June 28th 2025 and we honor the great Bud Miller with the return of the All star circuit of champions sprint cars for the first time in several years.

Racesaver 305 sprints A Feature 1 20 Laps

1. 52-Jeffery Waever Jr[2]; 2. 20M-Vivian Jones[1]; 3. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[3]; 4. 25G-Nolan Groves[8]; 5. 01-Timmy Bittner[6]; 6. 4W-Kasey Weaver[7]; 7. 72-Mike Mathieson[5]; 8. 34M-Aaron Marano[10]; 9. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[9]; 10. 82M-Rod Jones[4]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 20M-Vivian Jones[1]; 2. 82M-Rod Jones[3]; 3. 72-Mike Mathieson[2]; 4. 4W-Kasey Weaver[4]; 5. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[5]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[1]; 2. 52-Jeffery Waever Jr[3]; 3. 01-Timmy Bittner[4]; 4. 25G-Nolan Groves[2]; 5. 34M-Aaron Marano[5]

Top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman 14 Entries

A Feature 1 20 Laps

1. 318-Eric Gabany[11]; 2. 71-Gage Priester[2]; 3. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[1]; 4. 717-Bill Adams[4]; 5. 7P-Caden Petry[7]; 6. 404-Michael Kristyak[3]; 7. 12L-Patrick Lane[8]; 8. 41-Brian Schaffer[6]; 9. 404S-Gary R Smoker[10]; 10. 10-Jerry Schaffer[14]; 11. 1X-Ryan Riffe[9]; 12. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[12]; 13. 02-Jeremy Beichner[5]; 14. (DNS) 77-Tommy Kristyak

Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:22.485

1. 71-Gage Priester[1]; 2. 717-Bill Adams[5]; 3. 02-Jeremy Beichner[2]; 4. 7P-Caden Petry[3]; 5. 1X-Ryan Riffe[4]; 6. 318-Eric Gabany[6]; 7. 77-Tommy Kristyak[7]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 41-Brian Schaffer[4]; 2. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[5]; 3. 404-Michael Kristyak[1]; 4. 12L-Patrick Lane[6]; 5. 404S-Gary R Smoker[3]; 6. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[2]; 7. (DNS) 10-Jerry Schaffer

King’s Forestry Mini Stocks 17 Entries

A Feature 1 15 Laps

1. 38-Randy Ealy[2]; 2. 5-Andy Thompson[5]; 3. 40C-Joe Campbell[11]; 4. 45-Andrew Thompson[9]; 5. 55-Josh Eakman[1]; 6. 60-Dillon Thorne[15]; 7. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[4]; 8. 29-Mike McCool[12]; 9. 6-Mike Kelley[13]; 10. 84S-Brayden Seippel[14]; 11. 54-Tim Callahan[3]; 12. 9T-Ben Aley[10]; 13. 0-Carl Ealy[8]; 14. 13S-Chaz Smith[7]; 15. (DNS) 10-Corey Bice; 16. (DNS) 10JOK-Bill Fuchs; 17. (DNS) 2-Devin Haley

Heat 1 6 Laps

1. 0-Carl Ealy[1]; 2. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[2]; 3. 38-Randy Ealy[6]; 4. 9T-Ben Aley[4]; 5. 6-Mike Kelley[5]; 6. 10-Corey Bice[3]

Heat 2 6 Laps

1. 54-Tim Callahan[1]; 2. 5-Andy Thompson[2]; 3. 13S-Chaz Smith[6]; 4. 40C-Joe Campbell[4]; 5. 84S-Brayden Seippel[3]; 6. 2-Devin Haley[5]

Heat 3 6 Laps

1. 10JOK-Bill Fuchs[2]; 2. 45-Andrew Thompson[4]; 3. 55-Josh Eakman[1]; 4. 29-Mike McCool[5]; 5. (DNS) 60-Dillon Thorne