In a matter of a week’s time Don Wagner went from worst to first, as he bounced back from a last place finish to number one, taking his second Mahoning Valley Speedway Modified victory of 2016.
Wagner was lined in behind Jack Ely by lap 11 and then was a constant pressure to the upstart Modified rookie. Bidding his time and waiting for just the right opportunity to make his move, Wagner rode to the outside of Ely on lap 27 and then kept his focus onward to the checkers.
Kyle Strohl stayed within reach of the front two and was third while last week’s winner Kris Graver registered yet another top five with his fourth place tally. Bobby Jones rounded out the front five in fifth.
It was indeed a very close run race with the lead pack and a bit of a contrast of late from what fans have been seeing which was some rough and tumble action from some of the principal runners that have had quite a bit of flared tempers afterwards.
“That’s what we’re here to do is put on a good show. Jack (Ely) is a great young racer and he’s got a lot of years ahead of him and I just love racing with the kid,” said Wagner, who was actually in Victory Lane for the second straight time as he won the Late Model feature a week earlier.
The race got underway with Nick Baer leading with Ely in tow and Wagner holding down third. By lap three Ely was able to take over as the front man while Baer was busy keeping Wagner at bay.
After a lap 10 restart, Wagner jumped up to second and would then patiently wait for the right moment to grab the lead. Once he did there was no looking back as he drove on to his 37th career Modified win.
“I just had to wait him (Ely) out. I saw he was a just a little tight and he was really free coming off the corners,” said Wagner.
Last week Ely was leading and within feet of the checkers but was pinched from behind and spun. Although he fell short of winning, the run was no doubt a nice bit of redemption.
“The car just got a tick to tight near the end. Donny (Wagner) raced me clean and that’s all I can ask him for, congratulations to him,” said Ely.
“We got robbed last week and I know how it felt. I did get a nose on him a couple times but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pass him clean and wasn’t going to drive down in the corner and risk spinning him out. We’ll take second.”
When you’ve won as many Late Model features as Paul Koehler Jr., it’s safe to say that a few of those victories have come under close conditions but arguably after notching his win on Saturday evening, it may have very well have been one of if not the most exciting first place runs that the seasoned 50-year old veteran has scored.
Koehler had to work his tail off in holding back Mike Sweeney and Frankie Althouse en route to his fourth win of the season and 70th with a Late Model.
Utilizing a lap 12 restart to assume the lead from Kenny Hein, Koehler then fought hard against the non-stop efforts of Sweeney and Althouse who ran two-wide and hovered all over his rear bumper.
Within the final laps the trio put on a breathtaking display of their racing talent, running within inches of each other. Then on the final circuit Sweeney took his fight to the outside of Koehler while Althouse stepped in low to make it a spine-tingling run towards the checkers. At the finish it was Koehler by a whisker over Sweeney while Althouse was right in the thick of things taking a narrow third.
A week ago Cory Edelman lost the Street Stock feature by mere inches. This week, he rallied back and interestingly enough it was also by mere inches.
Dennis Buss was having his best night in years as he led from the outset and was holding off a lap-after-lap offensive by numerous others. In the latter half of the race it became an all-out battle between him and Edelman.
Edelman was working on Buss from the high line but the leader was able to keep his top rank in check for most of that time. Coming up on the final lap Edelman let it all hang out and pushed the limit as best he can. As they crossed the finish line it was so close that officials had to take a few moments to make certain who the winner was as the separation was just .041-seconds.
Ray Deemer has been racing for close to thirty years but in that span he never did what he accomplished in Saturday night’s action, winning for a second straight week.
Deemer was elevated into the lead after Ricky Yetter and Billy Lasko collided on lap 11. From there on Deemer was perfect in turning laps and held off fast charging Lasko en route to winning his first career back-to-back features.
Bobby Kibler Jr., got back to his winning ways as he led every lap of the Pro 4 main and held off point leader Josh Scherer. It was his third in of the season and first since April and also keeps him close in the battle for the class championship.
With his second win of the season, Michael Wambold let it be known that he is very much in the Hobby Stock title hunt as the victory helped keep things tight between him and the Geist brothers, Cody and Shayne, who are first and second respectively in the standings.
For the second straight time Kassidy Altemose raced to an inspiring victory in the Jr. Enduro feature. Taking the lead from Brayden Spencer by lap six, Altemose then ran away from the rest of the pack and was five laps ahead of runner-up Hunter Iatalese when the 30-minute raced ended. Spencer was third.
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