Frankie Althouse was able to beat out Mike Sweeney for his third Late Model win of the season and no sooner did he claim the checkered flag than rain swept across the area and ended any further racing for the evening at Mahoning Valley Speedway which included the Modified and Hobby Stock features.
For Althouse it was a redemption from the previous outing when he was crashed out and listed in last place.
“We needed to win tonight to recoup some funds from the last race. It was a costly hit that knocked us out and now we can look forward to the 50-lapper coming up next week,” said Althouse, who scored his 21st Late Model victory.
“The car was pretty decent after we made some changes. We don’t really have anything to loose now with points because Sweeney has a good handle on that so we just need to concentrate on winning each week.”
When the race commenced it was 13-year old Dylan Osborn controlling the lead. The rookie was taking advantage of starting on the pole for the first time after electing to begin from the rear through all of the season. Tonight he felt confident that the time was right to take his earned starting spot and was right on with the decision.
Osborn led the opening circuit over Eric Kocher before Althouse assumed the runner-up spot on lap three. Although his car was tight Osborn still put up a great fight but the bottom lane opened enough for a lead change on lap five.
“He (Osborn) was a little loose but all in all he did a really good job. That had to feel like a win to him tonight finishing third. For a young kid to be able to drive the way he did tonight I give him a lot of credit,” said Althouse.
Once in the front Althouse was able to distance himself from the pack, however, Osborn had all eyes on him as he maintained second with steadiness over seasoned veterans Jeremy Miller and then Sweeney, who got to third after a dozen laps.
It would have been expected that Sweeney would be able to make quick work of the up-and-comer but Osborn made the top 2017 winner work hard to get around him.
With nine laps remaining Sweeney finally made the pass but at that point Althouse was far gone and cruised to win number three by four car lengths.
“We were reeling him (Althouse) in but we just ran out of laps. He was just too far out on me,” said Sweeney.
“Dylan (Osborn) did a respectable job tonight and he can hold his head high. He needs to hold his line a little better but he was definitely quick enough to back the field and his improvement is showing.”
Osborn held on for his career first top five with third at the finish while Broc Brown and Miller notched fourth and fifth respectively.
Cody Geist scored his career first Street Stock win in just four 2017 starts and did so in a thrilling race over Stacey Brown.
Geist, who entered the division fold last month after two back-to-back championship seasons with the Hobby Stocks, had a back and forth tussle with Rick Reichenbach over the first five laps. Afterwards he was able to check out on the pack until the waning laps at which time Brown was coming on strong.
“I could see him show me the nose of his car with two laps to go and I wasn’t about to let a win slip away,” said Geist.
“At that point I just let my back end swing out enough to keep him at bay and that helped us get the victory.”
Brown fell short by a mere thousandth of a second. Point leader Jon Moser, Jillian Long and Mark Deysher rounded out the top five.
Johnny Bennett drove out front for all 20-laps of the Pro 4 feature and claimed his second win of the season over Jake Kibler.
The track will be releasing the make-up dates for the Modified and Hobby Stock races as soon as an applicable date can be determined.
MVS PR
