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Mike Leone
HESSTON, Penn. (August 7) - The FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series finished its two-event weekend with the inaugural event at Hesston Speedway on Saturday night. Race #13 on the 20-event slate marked just the second event ever in central Pennsylvania and the furthest event to the east.
One week after scoring the big $5,000 payday at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio and finishing second the night before to Joe Martin at Dog Hollow Speedway, Mike Pegher, Jr. knocked off another big win collecting his fourth FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series win of the season. Pegher's 25-lap $1,200 victory was his seventh career Touring Series win tying him with Max Blair as the all-time Series winner.
Pole-sitter Josh Holtgraver looked strong early on leading the event's first eight laps in search of his second career Touring Series win; however, on lap nine, ninth starting Butch Lambert made his way to the front taking the lead. Pegher, who started 12th, followed Lambert to the front also getting by Holtgraver on the ninth circuit.
After tracking Lambert to the front of the field and following him in second for five laps, Pegher made the winning move on lap 14. Pegher would lead the rest of the way to score his second Hesston win of the season as he also won a $1,000 to-win special three weeks ago in the Lynn Geisler-owned, #1 Cochran Automotive/Triple-S Auto/MonaVie-sponsored #1c.
Pegher continues to slowly cut into Blair's large point lead as he's finished ahead of the point leader the last three races and six of the last nine with four wins to Blair's two; however, four finishes outside the top 15 for Pegher has really hampered his championship run.
Lambert continues to knock on the door for his first Touring Series win of the season as his second place finish was his third runner-up of the season and sixth time in the top four. Blair certainly passed a lot of cars in the two Touring events this weekend coming from 18th to fourth on Friday night and 11th to third on Saturday for his 12th top 10 in 13 races.
What a weekend for Dan Angelicchio, who finished third on Friday and fourth on Saturday to go along with a second place the event before to move up to eighth in points. Dan Karalagas raced home in fifth for his first ever top five finish in a Touring Series event. Holtgraver dropped to sixth at the finish as Roger Laughlin, Gary Knollinger, Martin, and Bud Watson rounded out the top 10. Watson earned an extra $75 for the longest tow award from Conneaut, Ohio.
FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series Race #13 (25 laps, $1,200 to-win): 1. MIKE PEGHER, JR. (Geisler 1c) 2. Butch Lambert (27) 3. Max Blair (111) 4. Dan Angelicchio (14) 5. Dan Karalagas (G1) 6. Josh Holtgraver (00) 7. Roger Laughlin (53) 8. Gary Knollinger (38K) 9. Joe Martin (55) 10. Bud Watson (2) 11. Nico DaBecco (1F) 12. Bryan Force (31).
Lap leaders: Holtgraver (1-8), Lambert (9-13), Pegher (14-25).
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