Josh Scherer realizes a racing goal with Mahoning Modified win; Jeremy Miller picks up 4th Late Model victory; Jon Moser tops in $1000 Street Stock run

Since first strapping into a Modified a year ago it’s safe to say that Josh Scherer has come full circle after his very impressive end to end run to victory Saturday night at Mahoning Valley Speedway.

Just five races into last season, Scherer was involved in a grinding wreck that destroyed his car and abruptly ended his year there. He vowed right then and there to rebuild and return. Steadily things began coming together and four starts back into action Scherer realized a personal dream of winning a Modified feature.

“I can’t even describe the way it feels right now. I always wanted to race a Modified and right now I wouldn’t want to race anything else,” said Scherer, who is a former Pro 4 champion.

Starting on the pole Scherer blasted to the front and soon began to make it a race for second as he was sailing way ahead of the pack with ease during a stretch of 18 nonstop laps. When a caution flew on lap 20 Scherer had to give-up a nearly four second lead.

As the race restarted Bobby Jones and Lou Strohl would be on Scherer’s tail but again he gunned it and would power ahead.

As Scherer was commanding the way, Jones and Strohl had a nice duel going for second spot. Jones would eventually secure the position and then take advantage of a few cautions afterwards to work on overtaking the leader. He actually came close on the final restart of the race with six laps to go.

Jones attempted to crisscross Scherer but the leader was on his toes and over the deciding laps stayed solid on his way to stamping his name among Modified winners. Interesting was the fact the Jones actually set the winning car up.

“The car was prefect,” bottomed-line Scherer. “This is just so unreal and I can’t believe we put it all together tonight. There was so many hours and nights that went into getting this car back together and I can’t thank everyone enough for the amazing help and support especially Bobby Jones who set the car up for tonight.”

Taking third was point leader Brian DeFebo with Austin Kochenash and Strohl completing the top five.

For a second place finisher Jones was just as happy as the winner and showed his delight towards Scherer while congratulating him in Victory Lane.

“Well that will be the last time I set up that car up,” quipped Jones. “But he’s a great guy and I would help him any day of the week. He’s a good friend and he comes over to help us all the time and I’m glad it was me giving him his first Modified win.

“Believe me I didn’t give it easy to him. That last restart I played on a little bit more experience on him but he never got over excited and kept plugging away. He drove me real clean.”

Jeremy Miller came into the 2018 season with a personal objective of challenging for the class title and over the second half of the year he has been making a firm statement towards that goal as for a second consecutive week and fourth time this season he parked his No. 98 in the Winner’s Circle.

It wouldn’t be until the only caution of the race that Miller was thought to have a shot. Prior to that the race was in the hands of pole sitter Dylan Osborn who was maintaining a steady pace ahead of Jacob Kerstetter and Matt Wentz.

However, on lap 17 contact between the later pair shuffled the field as drivers where taking evasive action to avoid the tangle.

When the field was reset Kenny Hien was alongside Osborn with Miller third. No sooner did the first lap back under green take place Miller was sneaking underneath both of them and driving into the lead where he would stay to the checkers.

Frankie Althouse and Mike Sweeney took second and third respectively and although those two are ahead of Miller in the points, the victory assured him as a prime championship contender.

The Street Stocks put on a special 75-lap feature that was fast paced for most of the event thanks to just one caution. That meant hard racing for the lead and Jon Moser was doing that and more.

Moser was dogging Rick Reichenbach for the better part of the first 25 laps, many of them in a near side-by-side battle. With 28 laps in he finally poked his nose ahead and after clearing him for good it was game over.

Neither a restart on lap 41 nor anything else stood in Moser’s way as he went unopposed the rest of the way. The win, his second this season and 33rd of his career, was worth a cool $1000.

Jared Ahner and Randy Schlenker battled together for runner-up honors with Todd Ahner and new point leader Mark Deysher rounding out the top five.

Austin Beers picked up his third Sportsman Modified and in the process unseated Earl Paules for the division point lead with two races to go.

Beers ran side-by-side with Kassidy Altemose for a pair of laps before locking in the lead on lap four of 25. Paules was up to second and did make a run at Beers but he would later slip back and on the final lap watch as Altemose would run underneath him and claim a career best second.

Dirt Mod point leader Mike Stofflet is looking more and more like a repeat champion as he raced a cut above the rest in picking up his sixth victory of 2018.

Stofflet shot to the lead on the opening tour and was never headed the rest of the way. Billy Lowden Jr., was trying to make a run near the end but with no time on his side he would have to settle for second.

Bobby Kibler Sr., broke the hold on winning between Cody Kohler and Jake Kibler in the Pro 4s as he notched his first win of the year in a flag-to-flag effort out front. B. Kibler held off a hard charging J. Kibler for his first win in three years.

For a time during the Hobby Stock feature it was appearing that Lyndsay Buss was poised to win her first main event as she led from the outset and had the upper hand on the field.

However, a restart on lap nine would see her chances dashed as Just Merkel used the outside lane to drive past her. He would then hold the lead the rest of the way while fending off a very determined Peyton Arthofer in-route to his second career verdict.

Modified Feature Finish (35 Laps): 1. Josh Scherer, 2. Bobby Jones, 3. Brian DeFebo, 4. Austin Kochenash, 5. Lou Strohl, 6. John Markovic, 7. Kyle Strohl. 8. Jack Ely, 9. Joey Jarowicz, 10. Nick Bear, 11. Earl Paules, 12. Kristy Arthofer, 13. Ron Haring Jr., 14. DJ Wagner, 15. Gene Bowers, 16. Kevin Rex, 17. Zane Zeiner

Late Model Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. Jeremy Miller, 2. Frankie Althouse, 3. Mike Sweeny, 4. Paul Kohler Jr., 5. Samantha Osborn, 6. Dylan Osborn, 7. Jacob Kerstetter, 8. Matt Wentz, 9. Avery Arthofer, 10. Kenny Hein, 11.Matt Senica, 12. Geno Steigerwalt

Street Stock Feature Finish (75 Laps) 1. Jon Moser, 2. Jared Ahner, 3. Randy Schlenker, 4. Todd Ahner, 5.Mark Deysher, 6. Rich Reichenbach, 7. Mark Martini, 8. Randy Ahner Jr., 9. Jill Long, 10. Matt Schlenker, 11. Corey Edelman, 12. Stacey Brown, 13. Jamie Smith, 14. Cody Geist, 15. John Bennett, 16. Kevin Kromer, 17. Bobby Kibler Jr., 18. Josh Mooney, 19. Wild Bill, 20. Shayne Geist, 21. Ken Erney III

Dirt Modified Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. Mike Stofflet, 2. Billy Lowden Jr., 3. Ricky Yetter, 4. Vince Fegley Jr., 5. Colton Perry, 6. Corey Edelman, 7. Bill Sittler Jr. DNS: Heath Metzger, Paul Martin

Sportsman Modified Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. Austin Beers, 2. Kassidy Altemose, 3. Earl Paules, 4. BJ Wambold, 5. Joseph Popovich, 6. Blair Culhane, 7. Avery Arthofer

Pro 4 Feature Finish (20 Laps): 1. Bobby Kibler Sr., 2. Jake Kibler, 3. Randy Schaffer, 4. Tucker Muffley, 5. Cody Kohler, 6. Josh Kuronya, 7. Matt Clark, 8. Steve McDonough

Hobby Stock Feature Finish (20 Laps): 1. Justin Merkel, 2. Peyton Arthofer, 3. Ryan Berger, 4. Michael Wambold, 5. Lyndsay Buss, 6. Devin Schmidt, 7. Trisha Connolly, 8. Cody Boehm, 9. Shawn Kistler, 10. Al Arthofer, 11. Rich Mutarelli, 12. Travis Solomon, 13. Tad Snyder, 14. Shane Troutman

MVS PR