PEGHER
HOLDS OFF BARTON WITH A GM 602 ENGINE TO BECOME 7TH DIFFERENT WINNER IN
7 RACES ON FASTRAK NORTHEAST LATE MODEL TOUR
By Mike
Leone
July 25, 2008
Conneaut,
OH…The FASTRAK Northeast Late Model
Touring Series made its first second and final appearance of the season
at Ron Nielson’s Raceway 7. A season-high 34 cars from all over western
Pennsylvania, eastern
Ohio, and western
New York turned out for race #7 of 11 on a
spectacular summer evening.
After
coming up just shy in a thrilling duel with Bobby Powell in the last
Touring Series event at Expo Speedway on July 10, Mike Pegher, Jr.
outdid himself holding off Late Model star Dick Barton for his first
career FASTRAK win. Pegher’s 25-lap win with just the $3,000 GM 602
engine was worth $1,200 and became the seventh different Touring Series
winner in as many races this season!
“Lynn (Geisler)
let me bring the car up and if it wasn’t him and all the crew and
sponsors this would not be possible,” explained the Wexford,
Pa. former Stock Car standout about his
first-year car owner racing himself at Lernerville Speedway. “Dick
(Barton) intimated me a little bit and I wasn’t sure how far I was ahead
of him. I really like FASTRAK as it’s a lot of fun and
gives me a chance to race Late Models that otherwise I wouldn’t be able
to.”
Pegher
started on the outside pole and was able to overtake pole-sitter and
Super Late Model racer Bump Hedman for the lead with Bobby Powell and
Steve Hollabaugh moving into third and fourth after one lap. The
event’s first caution came with four laps completed when Bert Blackson
got into the frontstretch wall.
When racing
resumed on lap five, Powell raced past Hedman for runner-up. The two
raced side-by-side on lap six with Powell still able to maintain second.
On lap seven, Hedman slipped high in turn two and got
freight-trained with Hollabaugh, Dennis Lunger, Jr., and Jay Watson
taking third through fifth. Watson, who started 10th, took
fourth from Lunger on lap eight. Powell and Hollabaugh began to run
down Pegher on lap nine and by lap 11 the top three pulled away from the
pack.
Following a
restart for Justin Kann, Watson, seventh starting Dick Barton, and 12th
starting Tom Snyder, Jr. were able to advance to third through fifth
respectively on lap 12. Watson and Barton battled hard for third racing
side-by-side on lap 13 and
14 before two cautions slowed
action with 14 laps completed.
When green
replaced yellow on lap 15, Barton snuck past Watson for third then drove
around Powell off turn four that same lap for second. Defending Series
champion, Alan Dellinger, has his night come to an end while running
sixth with 19 laps in the record books when his mount went up in smoke.
One more caution with 20 laps scored would be the final stoppage
as the last five laps went green-to-checkered.
On the
restart, Barton and Pegher were side-by-side down the frontstretch.
Entering turn one, Barton had the advantage on the bottom and maintained
it racing into turn two, but Pegher got a great run off the topside of
two and blasted by Barton to hold his lead.
Powell and
Barton would battle the remaining laps for runner-up as Pegher took the
checkered flag first by 0.972 seconds in the Lynn Geisler-owned, #1
Cochran Automotive/Triple-A Auto Sales-sponsored #1C. In just three
Touring Series starts this year, Pegher now has a win, a second, and a
fourth. Pegher also has a pair of thirds at Tri-City in
FASTRAK weekly-sanctioned competition plus three wins at Pennsylvania
Motor Speedway and one win at Lernerville Speedway in non-sanctioned
events as he leads the region in Walt Wimer’s prestigious Cavalcade of
Champions points.
Powell
nipped Barton at the start-finish line on lap 21, but Barton came back
to overtake Powell for second on lap 22. Barton edged Powell by 0.245
seconds to finish second. It was Barton’s second runner-up
in Touring Series action and fifth top five in the six races he’s
entered, but has yet to crack victory lane. With John Lacki and Rusty
Moore failing to qualify for the feature, Powell jumped from fourth to
second in points. After not finishing in four straight
events, Lunger came back with his second straight top four finish with a
fourth place effort after passing Watson on the final lap. Watson
completed the top five.
After a
strong run for the first half of the event, Hollabaugh faded to sixth
for his best finish of the year. Snyder was seventh.
After getting collected in an accident on lap 15, Touring Series point
leader Max Blair fought his way back to finish eighth. Dave Osterberg
was ninth his second start- both coming at Raceway 7.
Scott Jones rounded out the top 10 with his first top 10 of the year.
Winning the
heat races were Lunger, Hedman, Hollabaugh, and Watson, while Osterberg
and Bob Diver claimed the B mains. The only newcomer to the Touring
Series was Tony Hyde, who failed to qualify for the feature in just his
second night behind the wheel of a Late Model. Hyde became
the 67th different car to compete in the seven events to date
this season.
FASTRAK
Northeast Late Model Touring Series Race #7 (25 laps $1,200 to-win):
1. MIKE PEGHER, JR. (Geisler 1C) 2. Dick Barton (Nielson 28B)
3. Bobby Powell (Bidwell B1D) 4. Dennis Lunger, Jr. (17L)
5. Jay Watson (7x) 6. Steve Hollabaugh (3H) 7. Tom
Snyder, Jr. (1F) 8. Max Blair (111) 9. Dave Osterberg
(43) 10. Scott Jones (Stanke 44) 11. Bob Vogt, Jr. (30)
12. Brian Booher (Hoover 00H) 13. Dave Lyon (14L) 14.
Bobby Whitling (7w) 15. Dereck Frank (16*) 16. Bob Diver
(23) 17. Bump Hedman (22) 18. Alan Dellinger (Williams 8)
19. Bob Kish (5) 20. Dan Stives (41) 21. Andy
Buckley (Robinson 34R) 22. Justin Kann (Powell 100) 23.
Jim Frank (14*) 24. Bert Blackson (82) DNQ: Rusty Moore
(17M), Jon Law (14), Kevin Meadows (Welsch 49),
Chad Myers (01), Bert Cleer (51), Alex
Anderson (22x), Tony Hyde (12), Roger French (-1), Mike Lesky (5L), John
Lacki (7)
Lap
leaders: Pegher (1-25)
Heat
winners: Dave Lyon, Bump Hedman, Steve Hollabaugh, Jay Watson
B main
winners: Dave Osterberg, Bob Diver
Car
count: 34
Next up for
the FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series will be race #8 of 11 on Sunday,
August 24 at Eriez Speedway just outside of
Erie,
Pa. in Hammett. The event will pay $1,200
to-win, $150 to-start. Racing begins at
6:00 p.m.
2008 FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series associate
sponsors thus far are Race 1, Fame RV Center, Yoder’s Performance
Specialty & PRC, Bullitt Chassis, and Fred Beans Parts.
