|
2007 Lernerville Rearview Review – Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks
By Eric J. Westendorf
Sarver, PA (September 25, 2007) Who could have known that Opening Night would be a precursor to the entire season? Opening Night came to a close with Mike Pegher Jr. in Victory Lane. He also won his heat that night. He fittingly ended the season in Victory Lane after winning the $2000 Pure Stock Pandemonium A-main feature. In between, he won two other features, eight other heat races and accumulated 13 top five finishes on his way to the 2007 Advance Auto Parts Pure Stock Track Championship. Mike is one of the youngest and brightest stars in the pure stock division and already has his foot in the door of the Late Model world in the crate division. It’s probably just a matter of time before Mike is winning races and championships in the Friedman’s Freshmarkets Late Model division.
Behind Pegher is a list of drivers who were within one night’s worth of points away from the winning the championship. In essence, the point standings reflect what happened on the track all season. On any given night there were 10-12 cars in the field capable of winning the feature. In fact, 10 different drivers won Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks Features in 2007, the most in any of the Fab Four divisions. With so many different winners, it should not be a surprise that no single driver won more than three features, except for Pegher.
The points were so tight entering the final night of Fab Four Racing that Jason Fosnaught entered the evening fourth in points, but ended up second for the season. He was one of the ten drivers with a feature win, taking the checkers on July 6. While he did not win as many races as a couple drivers behind him in points, he finished tied for second in the division with nine top five finishes. He had three other top ten finishes and two heat race wins. Jason, (along with his brother Jim), is one of the drivers at the core of the fraternity of pure stock drivers. His respect and appreciation for the achievement of other drivers has been contagious within the division this season.
Bob Egley finished the season third in points. Had it not been for a late season vacation by the Kittanning veteran driver, he may have given Pegher a stiffer challenge for the championship. Egley is one of only two drivers to win features in two different divisions in 2007. He won the May 4 Advance Auto Parts Pure Stock feature and the July 31 School Bus feature. In addition to his feature win, Egley tied for second with nine top five finishes. He also had the second most top tens with 14, and tied for the second most heat race wins with four.
Butch Lambert entered the 2007 season as defending two-time track champion. Entering the final night of points Lambert was second in points, but Pegher needed just one point to clinch. By night’s end, Lambert was in fourth place, but fourth place is not indicative of the season he had. Only Mike Pegher Jr. had more wins in the division. Lambert’s three wins tied him for second most in the division with Bob Lipinski. He also tied for second in heat race wins with six. In all, Lambert ended the season with seven top fives and 13 top tens.
Despite leading the division in top tens with 15, Greg Beach amazingly did not win a feature all season. He did win six heat races and recorded a total of seven top five finishes. His season-best finish of second place came way back on April 27. Towards the end of the season, Greg’s #33X was sporting a For Sale sign. Then, the last few weeks the sign has been gone. But speaking on behalf of the Lernerville Speedway and fans, we surely hope we have not seen the last of Greg Beach at the Action Track!
Bob Lipinski’s car truly looks like a Pure Stock. The old school Firebird body looks like it was a cast off from the Smokey & the Bandit movies, and the green #55 is as fast as Burt Reynolds was in the movies! Bob won three features during the season, tying for second in the division with Butch Lambert. Unfortunately for Bob, his third win came on the weekend after points wrapped up, or he may have finished inside the top five of the final Budweiser Point Standings. In addition to winning three features, Bob won four heat races, scored eight top fives during the Fab Four season, with four other finishes in the top ten. Word has it Bob has a new engine lined up for next year!
Six-Time Lernerville Pure Stock Champion Joe Kelley had a roller coaster season in 2007. When he was at the speedway and finished the race, he was always fast and usually finished up front. Unfortunately, Joe had a handful of DNFs and did not run a full slate of races. He finished the seasoned tied for second in top fives with Jason Fosnaught and Bob Egley, each recording nine top fives. Two of those top fives were feature wins, both coming early in the season, on April 27 and May 11. He recorded two other top tens, and claimed two heat race wins. With a little better luck, Joe could once again be a title contender in 2008.
Paul Schreckengost had a pretty similar season to Joe Kelley. He also won two features, both coming early in the 2007 campaign on April 20 and May 25. Paul had two less top fives than Joe, (7 to Kelley’s 9), but won two more heats, (4 to Kelley’s 2). The one thing that sets Paul apart from some of the other drivers in the division, is the absolute party that ensues in Victory Lane when Paul rolls in. It seems like the entire town on Crieghton shows up and you can tell that his crew knows how to party!
Other than Mike Pegher Jr., there was probably not another driver who was sadder to see the Bud Points come to a close in the Advance Auto Parts Pure Stock division than Wayne Carbo. Going into the final night of Fab Four Racing, Wayne had finished in every position of the top five except for first. In fact, he had finished in the top five of the three races prior to the final night, including back-to-back third place finishes on August 10 and 17. Then on the last night of the season, August 24, he finally pulled his #54 into Victory Lane for the first time in 2007. In all, Wayne scored twelve top tens, of which seven were top five finishes. He also claimed one heat race win during the season.
Terry Young claimed the final spot in the top ten of Bud Points, ensuring his on-stage appearance at next spring’s Lernerville Banquet. Unfortunately for Terry, he might be called back to the stage to accept the award that no driver wants to accept, the Hard Luck Award. Terry is one of the dozen or so drivers that could win on any given night. But as was the case with Greg Beach, a feature win never came to fruition this season for Terry at Lernerville. Another stat Terry shares with Greg Beach, (and two other drivers), is being tied for second most heat race wins in the division with six. There were many nights that looked early on to be the night Terry made it to Victory Lane, but it just was not meant to be in 2007. Despite his success in heat race action, Terry recorded only four top fives, and a total of 10 top tens. With better luck in 2008 Terry could climb into the top five of points and finally pull in to Victory Lane.
Two drivers finished the season outside the top ten of the final Bud Point Standings, but did manage to win an Advance Auto Parts Pure Stock feature. One of those drivers is “The Road Warrior” Jake Ayers. As you may know, Jake drives the whole way from Elkton, MD on a weekly basis to compete in the Advance Auto Parts Pure Stock division. The win came after five long years of waiting. A mid-season blown engine was a blessing and a curse for the Ayers Racing team. Nobody wants to blow a motor, but the new Ingram Engine was a huge factor in Jake’s first career win on August 10. Very few Pure Stock features are runaway victories, the field of cars is just too evenly matched, but Jake literally ran away with his first career victory. Jake had two other top fives during the season and a total of seven top tens. Due to career and life changes (getting married), Jake’s car is currently for sale. At the very least, Jake will not be back to Lernerville action until school lets out for the summer in 2008.
The other feature winner outside of the final top ten of Bud Points was Shawn Thorn. Thorn seemingly came out of nowhere to win the July 27 feature. His best finish prior to winning was a ninth place finish on June 15. His win was his only top five finish of the Fab Four season, but he did go on to record three more top tens after his win. After the regular season was over, Shawn continued to improve with back-to-back top five finishes at the MACS/All Star Show and the season-ending Pure Stock Pandemonium 30-lap feature. Look for Shawn to only get better in 2008!
Another driver who had a strong finish to the 2008 season was rookie Eric Piotrowski. Eric will be the first to admit that 2007 was a learning process with a steep learning curve, but he saved his best finish for the last race of the season. Eric scored his first career top ten by finishing tenth in the Pure Stock Pandemonium feature after winning the B-main to even get into the race!. Eric has plans to make a big leap forward in 2008.
Two other drivers who had solid seasons are Jim Fosnaught and Pat Hanley. Jim, (the brother of Jason), saved his best finish for the final night of points when he crossed the line fifth. Despite only recording one top five finish, he finished in the top ten an impressive ten times. Pat Hanley did not finish the season as well as Jim and Eric, but did record eight top tens and a heat race win.
Listed below are the final 2007 Lernerville/Budweiser Point Standings for the Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks:
CAR # DRIVER POINTS
09 Mike Pegher Jr. 498
J19 Jason Fosnaught 465
30 Bob Egley 462
27 Butch Lambert 459
33X Greg Beach 450
55L Bob Lipinski 449
66 Joe Kelley 423
3S Paul Schreckengost 406
54 Wayne Carbo 404
28Y Terry Young 374
20J Jim Fosnaught 332
4 Jake Ayers 277
380 Pat Hanley 261
12 Shawn Thorn 259
17 Chuck Gebauer 232
38R Nick Reges 190
2 Dave Baker 189
17R Stan Riggle 187
7 Eric Piotrowski 143
1 Randy Hanovick 137
25 Brett McDonald 125
9R Roger Stivenson 112
74 Paul Petrovich 103
29 Mike Gilliland 96
5 Don McClure 91
77S Bryan Shaffer 89
13M Mark Marshall 77
84R Todd Puz 55
17X Josh Bertolini 54
8C Fred Casagni 53
13X Ryan Moyer 51
9 Mike Cyptix 40
B52 Bill Shipack 33
98 Karl Keller 31
45 Pat Weldon 30
11X Ed Emerick 26
87 Mike Miller 26
35H Chris Haines 22
67X Danny Rich 19
2 Joseph Heinl 19
99 Michael Aley 17
12M John McCann 15
02C Brian Carothers 15
0 Jeff Bastin 14
00 Derek Freedline 12
32 Mark Sanders 9
42 Doug Johnston 6
9X Will Aley 1
|
|
