In 30 years of racing Bobby Jones has amassed 53 overall career wins and rightfully ranks among the best of the rank and file of eastern Pennsylvania asphalt stars. But, of all those victories Jones may have very well authored one of his most dominant drives to Victory Lane yet. After taking the lead nine laps into the 35-lap contest he then pulled firmly ahead and easily cruised to his third win of the season.
“It was a good night. I knew we were very good and I just drove my own lane and gave everything I had to stay at a good speed and not overdrive the car,” said Jones.
“We did a lot of extra work today to be really good for tonight and it paid off.”
En route to this win a few factors played into his hands, mainly on lap three as the only caution of the race occurred when Carl Altemose spun while running second and collected several cars. Jones, though, just missed getting gathered up in the melee.
“I saw that starting to happen and it was quick but I was in the right lane and just missed everything,” he explained.
He would then restart in second and had to bide his time against a very notable effort by leader Cody Kohler. Jones would eventually make the race winning move on the outside of Kohler as they completed lap eight and thanks to the nonstop action from then on he continued to stretch his lead on each passing lap until hitting the finish line.
“Cody (Kohler) gave me a good run and he and all these young kids have a good background so it’s good to see them making it here in the Modifieds,” offered Jones.
Jones was indeed the class of the field but not be overshadowed by his dominating run was Kyle Strohl. Strohl was caught up in the lap three incident but able to continue on and did so in a hurry. When Kohler dropped to second Strohl was zeroing in on him and subsequently the pair engaged in some thrilling two-wide racing for a number of laps.
Strohl finally got past Kohler on lap 20 but by that juncture Jones had long been checking out. Over the closing laps he was doing his best to cut into the lead but there just wasn’t enough time or perhaps a needed caution to help his efforts.
“A caution may or may not have helped us. Our car was getting tighter as the race went on although it would have been nice to see if that would have changed things up a bit,” noted Strohl.
“He (Jones) definitely had the upper hand and all I could do is keep hitting my marks every lap and hope that he would possibly mess up but you don’t really get that from a guy like Bobby.”
Kohler, in his rookie season as a Modified wheelman, scored a career best third while Nick Baer and Rod Snyder Jr., rounded out the top five.
In the Late Models it was once again Nick Ross taking the checkers. Ross went into the lead on the opening circuit and would remain solid the rest of the way, turning in another rousing performance in what has become a breakout year.
This was his fifth win at Mahoning and eighth of the year as he is currently undefeated at Evergreen Raceway and point leader at both tracks.
Seth VanFossen would come home in second for a career best effort while Long Island invader Brandon Turbush was third.
In the Street Stocks young Tobie Behler proved himself a very worthy opponent as he held off and beat a number of top notch seasoned veterans and in doing so took a well-earned first win with the class.
Although Behler would lead every lap he was constantly being confronted by such notables as his brother, Lonnie Behler Jr., Todd Ahner, Jillian Snyder, TJ Gursky and Jon Moser.
Yet despite the persistent onslaught by them all Behler held his ground – in this case the bottom lane – and drove to a gratifying victory over Moser with Snyder closely there in third.
For the second week in a row Corey Edelman parked his Hobby Stock in Victory lane, although unlike the previous week when he only led the final few feet, this time would be completely uncontested from start to finish.
No sooner did the race get underway Edelman blasted out front and was setting a torrid pace. In doing so and thanks in part to no cautions, he was able to pull away to a commanding distance and make it a race for second. Edelman’s win was his class leading 20th and 28th overall.
Travis Solomon made a late pass on Devin Schmidt to take third.
Hallie Muffley hasn’t been able to race much this season but for good reason as she was finishing up her studies at DeSales University. However, when she does get behind the wheel she has been fast and showed it again by scoring her third win of the year in the Futures/Rookie Hobby Stocks.
Greyson Ahner was second and earned the Rookie Hobby Stock laurels for eighth time this season.
The touring East Coast TQ Midgets where on hand and it was Stephen Nederostek getting the victory over Tyler Wagner. For Nederostek it was a return to his roots at Mahoning and wining here for the first time in 22 years.
Modified feature finish (35-laps): 1. Bobby Jones, 2. Kyle Strohl, 3. Cody Kohler, 4. Nick Baer, 5. Rod Snyder Jr., 6. Terry Markovic, 7. John Markovic, 8. Johnny Bennett, 9. Carl Altemose, 10. Mia Guy, 11. Brian DeFebo, 12. Lou Strohl
Late Model feature finish (20-laps): 1. Nick Ross, 2. Seth VanFossen, 3. Brandon Turbush, 4. James Yons, 5. Brooks Smith
Street Stock feature finish (30-laps): 1. Tobie Behler, 2. Jon Moser, 3. Jillian Snyder, 4. TJ Gursky, 5. Mark Deysher, 6. Todd Ahner, 7. Tucker Muffley, 8. Matt VanSyckle, 9. Lonnie Behler, 10. Jamie Smith, 11. Mark Martini, 12. Brandon Christman, 13. Eric Kocher, 14. Dennis Buss, 15. Thomas Flanagan DQ: Rich Moser, Randy Ahner Jr.
Hobby Stock feature finish (25-laps): 1. Corey Edelman, 2. Travis Solomon, 3. Devin Schmidt, 4. Tad Snyder, 5. Taylor Schmidt, 6. Trisha Connolly, 7. Cody Boehm, 8. Jacob Boehm, 9. BJ Wambold, 10. James Tout, 11. Justin Merkel, 12. Nick Schaeffer, 13. Jake Oswald, 14. Nicholas Kerstetter, 15. Terry Peters, 16. Mallory Kutz, 17. Ralph Boger Jr, 18. Dave Imler, 19. Cody Geist
Futures/Rookie Hobby Stock feature finish (12-laps): 1. Hallie Muffley, 2. Greyson Ahner, 3. Brody George, 4. Adam Steigerwalt, 5. Gabrielle Steigerwalt, 6. Bryce Dodig, 7. Deegen Underwood, 8. Maggie Yeakel, 9. Makayla Kohler, 10. Lexus Kutz, 11. Arland Moyer Jr., 12. Zoe Kuchera, 13. Reid Levengood DNS: Zoey Moyer
ECTQ feature finish (20-laps): 1. Steven Nederostek, 2. Tyler Wagner, 3. Bob Wagner, 4. Ozzie Carlino, 5. Adam Huff, 6. Vinny Testmaro, 7 Bill DiMatteo
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