Well the 25th anniversary season grows a little longer for McKean County Raceway in East Smethport. With last Saturday’s washout of the 4th Annual Priority Care RaceFAN 50 for the Northern Tier Inc. ULMS Late Models, forcing the officials of MCR to move the 4th Annual MCR Fall Classic back a week to this Saturday, October 3rd.
Last week, two of the three nights were able to get events in. Mike Knight of Ripley, New York and Rick “Boom” Briggs of Bear Lake, PA were the top winners in the United Late Model Series events. Knight won the $1000 ULMS King of Hill Challenge on Thursday night over national dirt late model star, Chub Frank. Boom Briggs won the $2000 Fall Classic Preliminary event of Friday night with a last lap pass of Dan Stone. Briggs won over $15,000 last year including the Fall Classic sweep.
Fifty different dirt late model teams were registered last weekend with the Northern Tier Inc. ULMS Late Models with racers from Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio on hand. Knight is expected to be return along with Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, PA and current World of Outlaw Rookie of Year contender, Russ King of Bristolville, Ohio. They will be joined by current ULMS point leader, Bob Close of Eldred, Brent Rhebergen, Dave Hess Jr, Jason Dupont, Chad Valone, Greg Oakes, Dick Barton and many other dirt late model racers from throughout the area will all battle for the $12,000 prize money.
The Kinzua Water Service United Emod Series will host their final point event of the year and Olean New York driver, Randy Hall seems to be heading for his second straight UEMS point title. Hall has four wins on the year with the series and is coming off an impressive series win at Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. The #10 machine of Hall has sixteen wins all together but event with that many wins, he still has to hold off the challenges of Brent Rhebergen, of Clymer, Greg Johnson of Ashville, Russ Dunn of Fenelton, Dave Hess Jr of Waterford, PA, who won last Friday nights UEMS event at MCR. Hess has three straight second place finishes until last week’s win. Another driver fans can see in the front is late model driver, Al Brewer, who has picked up five wins this season and just recently came back from his devastating crash in late July. Mike Knight and Rich Gardner are also expected on hand in the Clinger Race Cars that they are normally seen racing. Last Friday night, thirty-nine entries were on hand and this Saturday night a larger field is expected as this will be the only Emod event in the state of Pennsylvania and New York region.
The FASTRAK Late Models will also be on the card for a $750 to win prize. John Lacki of Sinclairville showed the regional racers last Friday night why he was the track champion by defeating a quality field of racers. He no doubt will be looking to pick up another win but will have to look over his shoulder as John Haggerty of Olean, Derek Frank, Jim Frank, Tim Schram, Ron Baker, Bob Kish and others will be looking to grab the final win of the tracks 25th anniversary season.
The most competitive class at MCR for the past few years has been the street stock division. Last Friday night, Adam Sixt picked up the win. Point champion, Andy Michael, Rich Wojotowicz, Justin Baxter, Chris Austin, Rich Hemphill, Adam Ashcroft, Jason Dobson, and Jeff Hellwig will all be in the battle for a win. Five points separated the top four point cars of Michael, Wojotowicz, Baxter and Hemphill. That there tells the story of how competitive this division is. This may be the race to watch!
Gates open at 2PM on Saturday with the races starting at 5pm. The Northern Tier Inc ULMS Late Models will have single car group time trials to determine the qualifying heat positions for the Priority Care RaceFAN 50. Grandstand admission tickets are as follow: Adults (16-61) $20; Sr Citizen (62+) $18; Youth (11-15) $10; Children under age of 11 are admitted Free. Pit Passes for Saturday are $35. Fans who bought passes for last Saturday’s event are reminded to bring your rain checks.
For more information, log onto the tracks website at www.mckeancountyraceway.com
