Hoseheads Sprint Car Photos & News

Racing season is FINALLY underway in western Pennsylvania! After several failed attempts both Lernerville Speedway and Mercer Raceway Park got their seasons underway. Both tracks had good crowds and car counts for their first sprint car races of the season. Ed Lynch Jr bested a field of twenty nine cars at Lernerville, while Brian Ellenberger made a last lap pass of Rod George at Mercer for his first triumph of the season. The much anticipated return of Jimmy Hawley saw the West Middlesex driver win his heat in convincing fashion and ride home eight in the feature at Mercer. Look for Hawley to return to victory lane before long.

This past Friday the O’Reilly All-Star Circuit of Champions rolled into Lernerville Speedway for their first of two visits. It was the second show of the season for the series since returning from Florida. Early day rain gave way to some sun and a nice night for racing with thirty four cars signed in. The feature was a good one that came down to two hungry drivers battling for the win as Kenny Jacobs and Paul McMahan went wheel to wheel for the five thousand dollar win. Despite smacking the wall and a bad vibration Kenny Jacobs would hold off McMahan for his 98th career All-Star win and first victory since August of 2006 when he won the Front Row Challenge at Oskaloosa for Barry Jackson aboard the JEI house car. Kenny’s win at Lernerville came while driving for Tom Leidic. Tom resides in Florida now and used to field cars in Ohio during the 80’s. Kenny’s plans at the beginning of the season were to run around twenty-five shows. Maybe if he keeps winning we will get to see the Mouse race a few more times than that.

It was good to see Paul McMahan battling for the win, giving car owner Rick Ferkel one of his best runs in a long time. It also made for a one-two finish for Goodyear tires, something you don’t see anymore. (Even though they were running right rear Hoosiers) Rod George had another good All-Star run coming home third followed by Ed Lynch Jr, Dale Blaney and point leader Lance DeWease who started 16th and got up to fifth before falling back to 6th. A few cars missing from the field included Dean Jacobs who was suppose to run the whole tour in the Jessup 7k. Local driver Mike Lutz was also MIA. Local mainstays Gary and Sheila Rankin opted not to take a shot at making the All-Star main. Ralph Sptihaler Jr and Andy Mckisson were two more local drivers taking in the action from the stands. All-Star part timer Bill Rose kept his wing off and picked up a win at Gas City Speedway in his home state of Indiana. Attica regulars Phil Gressman and Rob Chaney made the trip over despite Attica being in action. The All-Stars headed to Eldora Saturday night where around ten World of Outlaw teams invaded bringing the car count up to thirty-seven and swept the top four spots as Joey Saldana stole the winner’s purse of five thousand dollars. Ed Lynch Jr was the lone western Pa driver to head out to Eldora. Ed timed 2nd and finished 13th after starting fourth in the feature. Paul May made his first start since Florida and finished 21st. Paul will not be following the full All-Star tour this year for the first time in several seasons.

It doesn’t look like Sportsmans Speedway in Knox, Pa just was meant to be, as once again the Hinkle’s efforts to buy the speedway and operate it on Sunday nights this season fell through. What really happen has become quite a pissing match on internet message boards and it looks like only the parties involved know the real story. One thing’s for sure it’s a shame if the track sits idle again for another season. It’s a neat little track that a lot of racers and fans really like. Hopefully something will change but for now it looks like Sportsmans will be quiet once again this season.

Despite his plans to run the full World of Outlaws tour fell through Danny Smith has been logging plenty of miles and racing often. From week to week nobody has been able to predict what track Danny Smith will show up at. This week was no different as Danny skipped All-Star action at Lernerville over Skyline Speedway where he is now two or two this season, and has won five of his last six starts. Danny would stay in town long enough to win the season opener at K-C Raceway Saturday night for his fourth win of the season. Be sure to check out Danny Smith’s new retro Kenny Rogers racing shirts on his website www.dannysmithracing.com , hopefully more drivers will release retro shirts like this. Very Cool!

It looks like the All-Star race scheduled for May 11th at Bedford Speedway was never planned despite being on the All-Star schedule but some good news for is the All-Star date at Central Pa Speedway in Clearfield on June 11th looks to be a go. There are a lot of fans that have wanted to see this show for years….Pa drivers Rod George and Carl Bowser at www.rodgeorgeracing.com and www.carlbowser.com
webmaster Mike Shick did a great job with both sites…..Be sure to check out Rick Horn and Cale Duncan’s new 08 shirts, until next time pray for some dry weather, and as always drop me a line at www.sprintcarnews.com

Ed Lynch Jr enjoys victory lane after winning the Lernerville season opener

Brian Ellenberger was the winner of the Mercer Raceway Season opener

Tim Shaffer behind the wheel of the Danny Holtgraver team car

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