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I recall a conversation I had with Kevin Schaeffer back in April on the opening night of points. I asked if he was ready to begin his title defense. He answered that he was not concerned with defending his title; he just wanted to go out and have fun and try to win some races. When I reflect on the 2007 season and Kevin’s comments, I can only think back to the familiar Rolling Stones lyric of, “You can’t always get what you want . . . You get what you need!” Kevin probably is not satisfied with winning just one race at Lernerville in 2007, but you could see in Victory Lane August 24 that Kevin, his crew, family and friends were very happy to win another Lernerville Track Championship. But Kevin’s 2007 season did not start out in Championship form. On opening night Kevin flipped in his heat race and did not compete in the feature. Thankfully, for Kevin, there are no points awarded on opening night. In the first two points races of the season, Kevin finished second on April 20 and won the April 27 CTT Sprint Feature. He would go on to record 11 top fives, plus three more top tens. He also recorded four heat race wins on the way to his second consecutive Track Championship.
In 2007, Lernerville Speedway has been the home of one of the winningest drivers in the country; Rod George. The 1986 & 2002 Track Champion collected over 20 wins this season between Lernerville, Mercer and Tri-City. Five of those wins came at the Lernerville Speedway in Commercial Truck & Trailer competition on Fab Four Fridays. George nearly beat the visiting All Star Circuit of Champions series drivers on June 5. George and All Star veteran Danny Smith put on a great show, but in the end it was Smith in Victory Lane not George. George’s win on August 17 was one of the most exciting races of the entire 2007 season. George ran down early race leader Carl Bowser and made a kamikaze move in turns three and four to steal the win. George led all sprint car drivers with 12 top five finishes. He had one other top ten finish and claimed four heat races. The eight point differential between Schaeffer and George represented the closest points race of the season.
After Don Martin, Ed Lynch Jr. is probably the name most synonymous with the Lernerville Speedway. The “Apollo Rocket” instills fear into invading Outlaw and All Star drivers. His resume includes a handful of wins against the All Stars, (including a win at Eldora on June 1 during Ohio Speedweek), and the 2002 Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup. Lynch is a favorite to win the race every time his legendary #2L rolls onto the Action Track. He won six features at Lernerville in 2007, increasing his career feature wins total to 89, tying him for fourth all time with Lou Gentile. His 88 sprint car feature wins is most all-time in the division. Lynch started off the season red hot winning four of the first seven races, and never finishing worst than 6th. He led the Budweiser Point Standings for most of the season until his annual rendezvous in Knoxville, IA dropped him to third place behind Schaeffer and George. In all, Lynch scored 10 top fives, including three second place finishes. He had three other finishes in the top ten and took the checkered flag for a division-leading five heat races.
Despite not winning a race in 2007, Carl Bowser finished fourth in points behind the Big Three due to his consistency. Carl had 10 finishes between second and sixth place, and totaled 13 top ten finishes and won one heat race. Carl came three bittersweet laps short of his second career Lernerville Feature win on August 17. Bowser led the first 22 laps of the 25-lap Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint car feature on Commercial Truck & Trailer Night. He held off a hard charging Rod George for many laps before succumbing to George, who made an amazing move in lapped traffic to take the lead. Bowser battled back and tried to regain the lead, but came up short and finished second. It is easy to see that Carl is on the cusp on greatness and he certainly has the drive and determination to get there. 2008 may be the year Carl joins the CTT sprint elite!
Nobody in the sprint car division had as volatile a season as Scott Priester. Scott did not run a full slate of races, but was fast every time he was on the track. The high point of the season came on July 20 when Priester pulled into Victory Lane for the first time since 1999! Unfortunately the low point of the season came three weeks later on August 10 when Priester flipped twice, once in his heat and again in the feature. All told, Priester had nine top tens, of which seven were top five finishes. In addition to his feature win, Priester recorded three heat race wins.
Just outside the top five in final points, Dan Shetler had a strong campaign, similar to that of Carl Bowser. Dan had 10 finishes between second and eighth place. He also captured two heat race wins. Dan piloted the Chiapelli #98 sprinter this season and due to travel constraints, the team did all their work on the car Saturday morning at the speedway before travelling to their Saturday Night destination. With a full year of experience with the Chiapelli team under his belt, Dan should be a regular contender every Friday night and could very likely finish in the top five of points in 2008.
The drivers in seventh and ninth places had very similar seasons. Neither driver is a regular threat to win, but each driver runs a full slate of races and each had a season-best finish of third place. Charlie Holben finished seventh in points by virtue of his nine top tens, including five ninth place finishes. His season best third place finish came on August 10. Brent Matus finished ninth in the points thanks to his eight top ten finishes, including four ninth place finishes, and one heat race win. He had his best run of the season on May 10 with a third place finish.
Between Holben and Matus in points is Mike Lutz. This statistic is misleading however, because Lutz technically did not finish in eighth, the Dionise #15 did. Lutz took over the Dionise ride mid season after Arnie Kent and Martha Dionise parted company. Lutz was fast right away in the 15 and nearly won the feature on August 3rd, but settled for third behind Lynch and Shaeffer. But the following week, with Lynch racing in Knoxville and on a tricky surface, Lutz finished what he started a week earlier and pulled the Dionise #15 into Lernerville Victory Lane for the first time since Jerry Matus won in the car in 1988. In all, Lutz ended the season with three top fives and two heat race wins.
Longtime Lernerville Sprint Car pilot Racin’ Ralphie Spithaler finished the season in 10th place while running a limited schedule. Ralph’s familiar #56 earned six top tens, including a season-best fourth place finish on July 27. He also claimed two heat race wins during the 2007 season.
Two bright spots in the future of the Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car division are Danny Holtgraver and Dan Kuriger. Holtgraver is a high school student by day, but on weekend evenings, he’s one of the brightest young stars on the local 410 sprint car scene. He started the season by winning the Best in Show Award voted on by track officials and local media at the Annual Lernerville Car Show at Clearview Mall. Danny had an up and down season at Lernerville but won the C-main on Silver Cup XVI night and earned five top ten finishes during the Fab Four season. Danny has had more success at the nearby Mercer Raceway Park where he won an A-main feature event this season. With more seat time, Danny will be a front runner in the very near future.
Dan Kuriger burst onto the scene this season and continued to get faster as the season progressed. As part of the Lernerville learning curve, Kuriger has had more success in heat race action than during the feature. He was third in heat race wins in the division with three victories, but only finished in the top ten of the feature twice. His best finish came on July 20 with a third place finish behind Scott Priester and Ed Lynch Jr.
Two other drivers won CTT Sprint Features in 2007, but neither runs a full slate of races at the Action Track. 1995 Track Champion Bob Felmlee won the opening night feature, but ran only a handful of selected events after that. Felmlee finished in the top five of the first three events of the season and was in the top five of time trial results against both the World of Outlaws on May 15 and All Stars on August 31. Speaking of the All Stars, Brian Ellenberger runs with the All Star Circuit of Champions but ran a handful of events at Lernerville on “off weekends” and during special events. While Felmlee won the first Fab Four Race of the season, Ellenberger won the last Fab Four Race of 2007 on August 24. In limited action both Felmlee and Ellenberger recorded three top five finishes.
Listed below are the final 2007 Lernerville/Budweiser Point Standings for the Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Cars:
CAR# DRIVER POINTS
9 Kevin Schaeffer 500
4 Rod George 492
2L Ed Lynch Jr. 473
10 Carl Bowser 398
11 Scott Priester 368
98 Dan Shetler 359
42G Charlie Holben 345
15 Mike Lutz 338
33 Brent Matus 322
56 Ralph Spithaler 284 |
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