Three in a row for “Cool” Kevin Schaeffer!

Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car Season Review

A model of consistency, Schaeffer (#9 of Kittanning) collected 11 top fives and 15 top tens during the 16 week Fab Four season.  He also took the checkered flag on two heat races and two CTT Sprint Features.  His first win came on June 20.  Starting 10^th, Schaeffer patiently made his way through the field and slid underneath leader Rob Eyler with six laps to go.  Once in the lead, Schaeffer pulled away for a decisive victory.  Checkered flag number two would be much harder to come by.  On July 18, Schaeffer followed Mike Lutz for 24 and ¾ of a lap, through lapped traffic, past early leader Bob Felmlee and apparently to the flagstand.  However, on the final lap, Schaeffer laid it all on the line around the top cushion of turns three & four and thrilled the crowd by nipping Lutz at the checkered flag in one of the narrowest and most thrilling victories of the 41 year history of sprint car racing at Lernerville Speedway.

Running a full schedule of Fab Four Racing for the first time in over a decade, 1995 Track Champion Bob Felmlee was the Budweiser Points Leader for most of the 40^th Anniversary Season.  A nearly tragic fire on August 8 prevented Felmlee (#6 of Seneca) from competing in two of the final three CTT Sprint features and ultimately cost him a chance at his second career Lernerville Track Championship.

Throughout the season, Felmlee amassed 10 top fives and finished in the top ten in each of the 14 features he started.  Felmlee’s sole Lernerville victory of 2008 came back on June 6, yes the sixth day of the sixth month in car number six.  The win also came exactly eight years to the day of his near career ending accident.  It was only fitting that Felmlee found Sheetz Victory Lane on that night!  The victory was Lernerville win #29 for Felmlee, tying him for seventh all time with Jimmy Hawley (albeit only temporarily).  Despite only taking the checkered flag once in feature action, Felmlee led all drivers (along with Brian Swartzlander in the Modifieds) in heat race wins with eight.  Felmlee also led all drivers in all divisions with six second place finishes!

Rod George’s 2008 season started in most impressive fashion as he led the opening laps of the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint feature in April 25, (which due to early rainouts, was the first Lernerville show of the season!), and when the checkered flag flew, George (#4 of Kittanning) crossed the finish line in third, behind only Kenny Jacobs and Paul McMahan.  Three seemed to be his lucky number all season despite driving the familiar #4 sprinter.  He went on to checker three CTT Sprint features and finished third in Budweiser points. 

George’s three wins were second best in the division behind only Ed Lynch Jr.’s five wins.  George also scored the second most heat race wins in the division with six!  All told, he amassed 10 top five finishes and finished outside the top ten just twice in 16 races!

“The Apollo Rocket” Ed Lynch Jr. continued his assault on the Lernerville record book in 2008.  Throughout the course of the season, and despite running a limited schedule, Lynch visited Sheetz Victory Lane five times, raising his all time CTT Sprint wins total to 93.  His overall Lernerville win total is now 94, with one victory in a Modified. 

Now understand that everything is relative, but despite his final stats, Lynch had a rough start to the 2008 season.  In addition to his lofty win total, Lynch has also been a model of consistency over the years.  The combination of quality equipment, attention to detail and years of experience usually prohibits the “Lynch Mob” from experiencing gremlins, but that was not the case early this season.  But the end result was another Top Five finish in Lernerville/Budweiser Points, (fourth to be exact!), 12 top tens, including 11 top fives, three heat race wins and the aforementioned five CTT Sprint Feature wins.

For the second consecutive season, Scott Priester finished the season fifth in the Budweiser Point Standings.  Unlike 2007, Priester did not make a trip to Sheetz Victory Lane, but he did race home second on two separate occasions.   On August 8, Priester took the lead on lap eight and appeared to have the race in the bag, but Rod George stole the show by flying past Priester at the flag stand for one of the narrowest victories in Lernerville history!  While unable to seal the deal in feature action, Priester did claim five heat race wins, 11 top tens and four top fives.

2008 was something of a revival for long time Lernerville regular Brent Matus.  A new season and a new chassis breathed new life into the veteran driver and in the end, Matus finished sixth in points.  His best finish of the season was a third place run on May 30.  Throughout the season, Matus recorded nine top tens and two top fives.  He also took the checker flag in a heat race.

Charlie Holben is one of the true good guys in the pits at Lernerville Speedway.  Over the years, Charlie has progressed from Pure Stocks, to Big Block Modifieds and finally to the 410 Sprints.  In fact, Charlie has risen to the point where any local driver would love to be in; driving for someone else!  When Martha Dionise began the search for her latest driver this time last year, she sought a driver who was professional, consistent and took care of equipment.  That man was Charlie Holben!  It certainly did not hurt his resume to bring along his longtime sponsor Glassmere Fuel Service. 

The previous pilot of the Legendary Purple Dionise #15, Mike Lutz, took Martha Dionise back to Victory Lane in 2007 after an almost 20 year hiatus.  Unfortunately, Charlie was not able to duplicate Lutz’s feat, but ironically the night in which he came the closest, Lutz was the one in Victory Lane at night’s end!  On May 30, Holben started on the outside pole and led the first ten laps of the feature, but got tangled up with a lapped car, ending his night early and taking away his best chance to win a race!  Holben’s best finish of the season came in the Sonia Bullis Memorial on August 15 when he raced home second behind Jimmy Hawley.  In all, Holben finished the season with nine top tens, three top fives and a heat race win.

Unfortunately, one of the most disappointing finishes in the CTT Sprint/Bud Point Standings came from one of the divisions brightest and most promising young drivers.  Carl Bowser had finished in the top five in Lernerville Speedway’s Budweiser Points each of the last two seasons and many predicted 2008 to be Carl’s breakout season.  However, a combination of circumstances derailed those plans this season as Carl finished eighth in points with just one top five finish.  His lone top five finish came on August 8 when Carl finished third behind Rod George and Scott Priester.  He did, however, record nine top ten finishes out of the 16 race schedule and got better and faster as the season progressed.  In fact, he claimed a feature win at Mercer late in the season.  Look for Carl to return to the top five next season with multiple trips to Sheetz Victory Lane along the way!

Scott Bonnell amassed some pretty impressive statistics this year despite not running a full schedule of events.  Throughout the 40^th Anniversary Season, Bonnell recorded 11 top tens, including two top fives.  Both top fives were fifth place finishes towards the end of the season, including the final night of Budweiser Points.  Scott also checkered three heat races in Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car heat action on his way to finishing ninth in Bud Points.

Just like it was for Brent Matus, 2008 was something of a revival for Ralph Spithaler Jr. as well.  The long time veteran of the Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car division was noticeably faster the last two months of the season and was a contender to win a few races down the stretch.  He did not, however, make his annual pilgrimage to Iowa for the Knoxville Nationals.  But as fate would have it, he had one of his best nights of racing that night winning his heat race and leading the opening laps of the CTT Sprint feature before for settling for a 6^th place finish.  In all, Spithaler won 4 heat races, recorded two top fives and seven top tens resulting in a tenth place finish in Budweiser Points.

In addition the Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car Elite (Schaeffer, Felmlee, George and Lynch), five drivers wheeled their winged warriors into Sheetz Victory Lane this season.  Two of those five wins were extremely emotional but for opposite reasons!

The first emotional CTT Sprint win of the season came back on May 23 when Rob Eyler took his familiar bright red #5 to Sheetz Victory Lane.  It was a bittersweet win for the longtime local sprint pilot as it was his first career Lernerville feature win, but it came just days after the passing his sister.  Throughout the 2008 season, Eyler only ran at Lernerville a handful of times, but was a contender on those nights and recorded three top five finishes.

The other emotional win of the season was a moment of pure joy and elation as Jimmy Hawley made a crowd-pleasing return to Sheetz Victory Lane on August 15 during the Sonia Bullis Memorial.  Jimmy had spent the past several seasons in retirement, but was coaxed back into competition by the Rudziks this season.  The win in the Orange Rudzik Excavating #49 came on just his second visit of the season to Lernerville Speedway, after running several races at both Mercer Raceway Park and Sharon Speedway.

For the second consecutive season Mike Lutz picked up a Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car Feature win.  This season, Lutz’s win came on May 30 behind the wheel of the Black & Yellow Chappel #8.  Lutz’s win was also an emotional one as proud papa and local racing legend Andy Lutz was on hand to celebrate the victory.  With cigar in hand, Andy gave us the Kodak Moment of the season from Sheetz Victory Lane as he planted a big kiss on the cheek of his victorious son.  Mike was fast enough to have won multiple features during the season, but had a run of bad luck, limiting him to just one Lernerville feature win.  But despite his limited schedule, Mike recorded four top five finishes, (including two second place runs), two other top tens and two heat race wins.

Brian Ellenberger has also recorded one feature win each of the last two seasons.  Interestingly enough, both wins came on the final night of Budweiser points.  Ellenberger, like Eyler and Lutz, ran a limited schedule of Fab Four Racing but is a threat to win anytime he is on the Action Track.  His Lernerville schedule is limited due to his full time status on the O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions tour.  In fact, the Lernerville win on August 22, came less than a week after Ellenberger scored his first career All Star feature win at Riverside International Raceway in Arkansas.  In limited action, Brian tallied eight top tens, of which seven were top five finishes.  He also checkered one heat race.

The only other driver to win a Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car Feature in 2008 was Central PA invader Mark Smith.  Smith made the long tow after Williams Grove canceled early on Friday Morning May 9 and took the checkered flag with relative ease in his only Fab Four appearance of the season.

The end of the 40^th Anniversary Season of Lernerville Speedway was highlighted by two young drivers who did not want the season to end at all!  Jack Sodeman Jr. and Andy McKisson were bad fast in the closing weeks, each recording multiple top five finishes in the final weeks of the season.  Sodeman’s best feature finish of the season came on August 1 when he finished fourth.  He also won three heat races in the closing weeks.  McKisson ran the final four races of the Fab Four seasons.  He finished fifth on August 1^st, fourth on August 8 and third on August 15 & 22.

Another young driver who had some brilliant runs early in the season, but suffered a nearly tragic accident during the season was Danny Holtgraver.  Under the guidance of “The Steel City Outlaw” Tim Shaffer, Holtgraver was finally getting the hang of the ins and outs of the Action Track.  On Friday Night, May 9, Holtgraver was leading the CTT Sprint Feature and having the best run of his promising young Lernerville career. During the 25 lap CTT Sprint feature, he lost the lead on lap 12 to eventual winner Mark Smith, but was still bad fast.  Entering turn three, Holtgraver tangled with a lapped car leading to a spectacular series of flips, ultimately resulting in a fractured C-4 vertebrae and a lengthy recovery.  He came back strong at the end of the year, adding a feature win at Sharon Speedway to his rapidly growing racing resume.  Danny, like Carl Bowser, Jack Sodeman Jr. and Andy McKisson, is already looking forward to 2009 being a breakout season at Lernerville Speedway!

Finishing just outstide the top ten in Budweiser Points of the Commercial Truck and Trailer Division was Dan Shetler.  Shetler, behind the wheel of the Chiapelli Motorsports #98, finished just 12 points out of the top ten and won the Sharon Speedway Track Championship during the 2008 season.  However, despite his success and continued growth as a driver, Shetler will no longer be racing the Chiapelli 98.  Neither Danny’s 2009 plans, nor a successor in the 98 have been announced!  Lernerville Speedway would like to wish both parties success in their new ventures, whatever they may be, and hope both parties will be weekly competitors at Lernerville in 2009!

Other weekly, or at least regular, competitors at the Lernerville Speedway in the Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprint Car division (listed in order of 2008 Budweiser Point Standings) include: Gary Rankin, Todd Bauer, Lernerville Rookie of the Year contender Brent Ellenberger, Bill Kiley, Lindsay Enscoe, Joe Butera/Bud Watt, Mike Kaminski, Dan Kuriger and Sheila Rankin.

Throughout the course of the 40^th Anniversary Season, the following drivers competed in CTT Sprint competition during Fab Four Racing: Paul Kish, Jason Pisani, Gale Ruth Jr., Brian Steinman, Terry Bowser, Aaron Shaffer, John Schuyler, Greg Wilson, Walt Tutak Jr., Paul McMahan, Cale Conley, Troy Little, Steven Lines, Broc Martin, Doug Dodson, Lee Stark, Karl Baker, Todd King, Bran Grove, Cory Good, Dale Blaney, Bill Jones, Mark Zimmerman, Mike Dehner, Bob Clark, Chad Wild and Adrian Shaffer.

The Commercial Truck & Trailer Sprints will be back in action in 2009 for more thrilling wheel-to-wheel action.  Will Kevin Schaeffer match Lou Blaney’s feat of four consecutive Track Championships?  Will Rod George or Bob Felmlee stand in the way of history?  Or will one of the young guns of the division have a breakout season and forever stamp their names in the Lernerville Archives?!?!  Only time will tell, but you will definitely want to be there to see all the pulse-pounding excitement!

Contact: Lernerville Speedway                 

Eric J. Westendorf, Public Relations Director

(724) 664-1075 · This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 All photographs courtesy of Stivason Photos.  Thanks for everything Cory!