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DENNIS LUNGER, JR. SCORES CAREER 1ST FASTRAK NORTHEAST LATE MODEL TOURING SERIES WIN FRIDAY AT RACEWAY 7By Mike Leone Last season, Dennis Lunger, Jr. competed on the entire FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series trail along with the season-ending Grand Nationals. Lunger wound up seventh in Touring Series points with four top 5s including a season best runner-up on Dog Hollow Speedway on September 5. Due to sponsor obligations on his Super Late Model team, Lunger has been forced to primarily compete in FASTRAK events on Friday night at Raceway 7. Last Friday, June 26, Lunger scored the win in weekly series competition at Raceway 7 and on Friday night, Lunger made it two in a row at Raceway 7 scoring his career first Northeast Touring Series win! Lunger would lead all 25 laps of the feature holding off defending Series champion Max Blair for the $1,200 win. “Finally,” exclaimed the Albion, Pa. driver after jumping off his roof celebrating his win in victory lane. “I had to hold my line the whole race. The track was so heavy. I really wanted to get into lapped traffic that first run because I knew Max (Blair) was back there.” Lunger started the event from the outside pole and immediately shot into the lead past pole-sitter Garrett Mott. Fourth starting Steve Hollabaugh and sixth starting Carl McKinney were able to get past Mott for second and third after the completion of lap one. Hollabaugh’s strong run ended when he slipped high in turn one allowing McKinney, Mott, Blair, and John Watson by for positions two through five respectively. The event’s first caution was displayed with six laps completed for a spin by Shane Bambarger. Two more cautions for Alex Anderson and Bill Thomas on the ensuing restarts slowed actions. The last 19 laps would go green-to-checkered. When racing resumed, Blair overtook Mott for third. Blair, who started ninth, continued his way to the front as he drove under McKinney in turn four for second on lap eight. Blair inched closer to Lunger on lap 10, but Lunger was able to maintain a fairly comfortable lead until lap 16 when Blair closed the gap. Lapped traffic came into play on lap 18, but Lunger did an excellent job clearing the cars as he built up another comfortable lead- one that he would never relinquish taking the checkered flag by 1.791 seconds over Blair. The victory was Lunger’s third of his career in FASTRAK-sanctioned competition as they have ironically all come at Raceway 7 for Conneaut, Ohio owner Rueben Schwartz in the Schwartz Construction/North East Heating & Cooling/JR Lumber/Penn-Ohio-sponsored #17L. Lunger became the 12th different FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series winner in the 24 events held all-time. Blair was second for the second time this year in Touring Series action and the defending champion leaped from fourth in points to the point lead for the first time this season. Blair’s runner-up finish also added to his FASTRAK National Weekly Series point lead as he looks to capture both titles for the second straight season. It was a heartbreaker for Carl McKinney, who pretty much a had a third place finish locked up, which would have moved him to runner-up in points, but on lap 23 slid high in turn one running out of room trying to lap Anderson. McKinney would rebound for 12th at the finish and currently sits sixth in points. While Lunger grabbed the headlines for his first career Touring Series win, the second story of the night would be rookie Garrett Mott. The 20-year-old Smethport, Pa. racer moved up from Enduro competition to the Late Models this year and thus far has qualified for all four of the Touring Series races he has competed in. Friday night, Mott turned a lot of heads staying in the top five all night long and came home a career best third in just his 12th career Late Model race! In a familiar number, Dick Barton drove Ryan Seekings #28s from the 10th starting spot a fourth place finish in his first Touring Series start of the season. Ohio’s John Watson had a good run coming from 11th to finish fifth for the second time this season. Completing the top 10 were Jim Frank, 15th starting David Scott, 19th starting Butch Lambert, Bobby Powell, and 21st starting Mike Pegher, Jr., who remains in second in points. It was a tough night for Dan Angelicchio, who entered the night as the point leader. Angelicchio never recovered after drawing the second worst pill as he struggled to advance positions in both his heat and B main failing to qualify for the feature after four top seven finishes to start the year. It was an uneventful night with just five cautions all night long. Only one caution slowed action in the four heat races won by Blair, Lunger, Salisbury, and Frank, only one caution in the two B mains won by Lambert and Bud Watson, and just the three cautions all on the same lap in the feature for minor spins, which took 15:45.612 minutes to complete. FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series Race #5 (25 laps $1,200 to-win): 1. DENNIS LUNGER, JR. (Schwartz 17L) 2. Max Blair (111) 3. Garrett Mott (43x) 4. Dick Barton (Seekings 28s) 5. John Watson (Horton 48) 6. Jim Frank (14*) 7. David Scott (Powell 100) 8. Butch Lambert (27) 9. Bobby Powell (Bidwell B1D) 10. Mike Pegher, Jr. (Geisler 1c) 11. Keith Zimmerman (z17) 12. Carl McKinney (6M) 13. Bud Watson (2) 14. Bob Kish (5) 15. Gary Knollinger (38K) 16. Bill Thomas (22) 17. Roger French (-1) 18. Jason Stanke (44) 19. Jon Law (14) 20. Alex Anderson (22x) 21. Dereck Frank (14*) 22. Steve Hollabaugh (3H) 23. Shane Bambarger (68B) 24. Josh Double (38) 25. Bryan Salisbury (26)-DNS 26. Tom Copeland (98)-DNS DNQ: Jim Long, Dan Angelicchio, Jamie Brown, Jay Watson, Les Lyon, Dan Stives. Lap leaders: Lunger (1-25) Heat winners: Max Blair, Dennis Lunger, Jr., Bryan Salisbury, Jim Frank B main winners: Butch Lambert, Bud Watson To join our mailing list, simply send an e-mail to fastrakpr-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Mike Leone and Vicki Emig can be reached at 724-964-9300. E-mail to info@fastraknortheast.com and snail mail to 4368 Route 422, Pulaski, PA 16143. For more information, check out www.fastraknortheast.com.
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