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Mike Leone
FRANKLIN, Penn. (August 31) - For the first time ever, the FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series paid a visit to Mike Graham and Roger Crick's Tri-City Speedway with heat races on Saturday and B mains and the feature on Sunday night. With picture perfect weather all weekend for the Oil Region Classic, 34 cars from all over western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and western New York turned out for race #9 of 12.
Prior to Sunday night, Carl McKinney had never finished in the top five of a FASTRAK Touring Series event and in fact had never won a Late Model feature of any kind in his career. McKinney erased that distinction as he ran a flawless race to score the biggest upset victory in the two-year history of the FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series. McKinney became the eighth different winner in nine races this season with his wire-to-wire victory in the 30-lap affair worth $2,000 plus an additional $100 from Tri-City's divisional sponsor 4 Your Car Connection.
"This is just awesome," exclaimed the soft-spoken Mars, Pa racer, who is the Tri-City Speedway E-Mod Champion the past two seasons. "This is my first one ever and I really wanted to get to victory lane bad. The car was on a rail and I just wanted to protect the bottom. I have to thank my sponsors and the crew behind. A big thanks goes out to Lynn Geisler for getting this car squared away on Wednesday- he still knows what he's doing."
McKinney drew the pole position and raced to the lead. It was three-wide for second on lap two with Dick Barton advancing to second past Chad Myers. Touring Series and National Weekly Series point leader, Max Blair, entered the picture when he went three-wide with Myers and Aaron Ridley for third on lap five. Blair grabbed the spot with Ridley to fourth.
Barton began to track down McKinney on lap six, while Blair closed on the front two on lap 10. By lap 12, Blair was all over the veteran Barton. While the battle was on for second, McKinney continued to lead and opened up some ground by the halfway point. Blair made a nice move in turn two to duck under and past Barton for second on the 16th circuit.
Blair now set his sights on McKinney and began to reel in the leader. Last Sunday night at Eriez Speedway, Blair took a first win away from Tom Snyder, Jr. with four to go and hoped to do the same with McKinney as he was right on the leader with 10 laps to go. McKinney though was able to clear the lapped car of Chris Haines, while Blair got caught behind Haines allowing McKinney some breathing room.
Barton closed in on Blair on lap 22 and then two laps later Blair again erased McKinney's advantage. On lap 26 though, Blair again had trouble clearing a lapped car. This time it was Myers, and the two made contact, which allowed McKinney to get away. And that was all she wrote as McKinney's Mikan Motors/Hufnagel-Majors Trailer Sales/Results Chiropractic-sponsored #6M beat Blair to the finish by 1.827 seconds in an event timed in 10:59.067 that saw all 24 starters complete the 30-lap event. McKinney also has four E-Mod wins this season and 10 for his career at Tri-City.
Blair extended his Touring Series point lead to 39 and his National Weekly Series to five over Bobby Powell with his runner-up finish. Barton, who is still searching for his first Touring Series win of the season, was third. Chatsworth, Georgia's Aaron Ridley, a third cousin of former NASCAR racer and one-time Winston Cup winner Jody Ridley, finished fourth after starting seventh in his debut in the Bob Williams #8, which was driven to last year's championship by Alan Dellinger. Tom Snyder, Jr. passed Butch Lambert on lap 17 to finish fifth and trails Barton by one point for third and Powell two points for second.
Completing the top 10 were Lambert, Powell, 17th starter Dennis Lunger, Jr., Jim Frank, and John Lacki. After getting in the feature with a last lap pass in the first B main, Raceway 7 champion Jay Watson passed the most cars in the non-stop feature coming from 24th to finish 11th. On Saturday, Ridley, Barton, McKinney, and Blair won the heat races and John Haggerty and Steve Hollabaugh opened Sunday with victories in the two B mains.
FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series Race #9 (30 laps $2,100 to-win): 1. CARL MCKINNEY (6M) 2. Max Blair (111) 3. Dick Barton (Nielson 28B) 4. Aaron Ridley (Williams 8) 5. Tom Snyder, Jr. (1F) 6. Butch Lambert (27) 7. Bobby Powell (Bidwell B1D) 8. Dennis Lunger, Jr. (Schwartz 17L) 9. Jim Frank (14*) 10. John Lacki (7) 11. Jay Watson (7x) 12. Kyle Zimmerman (17) 13. Roger French (-1) 14. Steve Hollabaugh (3H) 15. Dereck Frank (16*) 16. Justin Kann (Powell 100) 17. Rusty Moore (17M) 18. Chad Myers (01) 19. Steve D'Apolito (84) 20. Chris Haines (35H) 21. Bob Kish (5) 22. Bob Diver (23) 23. John Haggerty (49) 24. Tony Hyde (12) DNQ: Andy Buckley (Robinson 34R), Bobby Whitling (7w), Tyler Dietz (10), Bryan Salisbury (26), Tom Copeland (98), Alex Anderson (Woodard 22x), Jason Stanke (44), Bryant Hank (28), Mike Pegher, Jr. (Geisler 1C), Brian Booher (Hoover 00H).
Lap leaders: McKinney (1-30)
Heat winners: Aaron Ridley, Dick Barton, Carl McKinney, Max Blair
B main winners: John Haggerty & Steve Hollabaugh
Car count: 34
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