Tucker Muffley wins Mahoning Valley Speedway Street Stock thriller; Travis Solomon picks up Hobby Stock victory; Timed dashes earn quick timers pole heat spots for Saturday Paul Bauscher Tribute

Mahoning Valley Speedway kicked off the Hall of Fame Classic Weekend on Friday evening with the Unfortunate 25s for Street Stocks and Hobby Stocks along with timed dashes for Saturday’s Mahoning Valley Speedway Hall of Fame Series Paul Bauscher Tribute with the Modifieds, Street Stocks and Hobby Stocks.

The Unfortunate 25s were open to any non-2021 feature winner no matter the class or track a driver raced at.

The Street Stock race was exhilarating from start to finish as a first time winner emerged with Tucker Muffley taking a spine-tingling victory that came down to the last lap – the last few feet matter of fact.

The majority of the race was run in intense side-by-side action as no less than eight lead changes took place. Paul Morgan Jr., and Matt VanSyckle got the action going with a lead-swapping duel over the first 10 laps.

VanSyckle then took control of the front spot by lap 11 while Morgan was second and knotted in a tight battle with Jamie Smith and Muffley. On a lap 17 restart Muffley, who had taken third the previous lap, leaped up to second and set his sights on VanSyckle and with five tours to go the lead would change hands yet again.

Muffley may have been heading the pack but it was far from over despite the few laps remaining. Not only was VanSyckle leaning on him but so too was fast charging Mark Martini.

On a restart with two laps to go it was white-knuckle racing with Muffley protecting the inside lane while VanSyckle and Martini went two-wide. Then as the trio exited Turn 4 on the final lap VanSyckle made an all or nothing run at Muffley. Contact was made and Muffley got sideways but was crossing the finish line at that moment.

Martini settled for third while Smith and Jacob Christman completed the top five.

Travis Solomon parlayed his pole starting spot into a feature win in the Hobby Stock portion of the Unfortunate 25s.

Holding tightly to the bottom lane Solomon was able to fend off the blitz of John Petro who likewise had to withstand the relentless offensive of Ryan Berger.

Nevertheless Solomon detained them for his first win of the season and in doing so was able to continue a streak of winning at least one feature in each of the past five years.

Kip George and Dave Imler Jr., rounded out the front five which were career bests for both drivers.

In the timed dashes which took the fastest cars from three separate group sessions and awarded each the pole starting spot for Saturday’s heats it was Nick Baer, Jaden Brown and Earl Paules in the Modifieds.

Randy Ahner Jr., Jon Moser and Eric Kocher where the fastest among the Street Stockers while 2021 champ Trisha Connolly along with Ryan Berger and John Petro were quickest in the Hobby Stocks.

 

Street Stock feature finish (25-laps): 1. Tucker Muffley, 2. Matt VanSyckle, 3. Mark Martini, 4. Jamie Smith, 5. Jacob Christman, 6. Randy Green, 7. Bobby Kibler Sr., 8. Tommy Flanagan, 9. Matt Kocher, 10. Logan Boyer, 11. Jason Gould, 12. Paul Morgan, Jr.

 

Hobby Stock feature finish (25-laps): 1. Travis Solomon, 2. John Petro, 3. Ryan Berger, 4. Kip George, 5. Dave Imler Jr., 6. Mallory Kutz, 7. Ralph Borger Jr., 8. Ed Steglick, 9. Nick Schaeffer, 10. Michael Wambold, 11. Shayne Geist, 12. James Tout, 13. Nicholas Kerstetter

MVS PR