Ed Makes His First Visit to Mercer and Comes
Away With 2nd Place on Saturday - 4/28/07 

    When other tracks cancelled because of rain, Vicki Emig, owner of Mercer Raceway Park, thought the weather might clear and said she was racing.  Ed and the crew loaded up in a drizzle and headed north Saturday to make one of their infrequent appearances at Mercer and signed in to be part of the 18 Sprint cars on hand. 

    The need for three yellows and two red flags in just the first five laps of the feature had a lot to do with the way the race played out for Ed.  What could have been a short and sweet night at the races with the Sprints second on the docket and getting a green flag for their 20-lap feature at 9:10PM, turned out to be 50 minutes long. 

    Line up for the field had been determined by Mercer's handicap system, setting the front row with Joe Butera and Mike Dehner followed in row two by Arnie Kent and Rod George.  Last week's feature winner Danny Holtgraver and Scott Bonnell made up row three while Ed started seventh inside Brian Ellenberger.  The original start was a good one for Ed as he passed three cars in turn two and passed Bonnell in turn four coming to the flag stand.  But, Rodney Duncan's young son Cole who had started 14th, got caught up in the outside rail and fence in turn two and the red flag came out requiring a complete restart.   

    It took 15 minutes to get Duncan's car unhooked from its upright position imbedded in the fence.  Just one lap was completed before Scott Rogers spun on the front stretch and Dehner now took charge of the single-file restart.  Only two more laps were completed when Dennis Wagner lost power causing another single file start with three laps scored.  Now, George was the leader followed by Dehner, Kent, Ellenberger, Bonnell and Ed.  However, on the restart, Holtgraver took a nasty flip on the high side of turn three and it was a red flag condition, still with only three laps complete. 

    On lap four, Ed was able to pass Bonnell outside on the back stretch, moving him into fourth.  The final yellow followed on lap five for Rogers again.  Finally, the green came out to stay on lap six with Ed passing Kent in turn three and by lap nine, Ed was closing in on Ellenberger.  In turn two, Ed moved into past Ellenberger with an inside pass on lap 10.  By this time, George had a commanding lead and Ed spent the remaining laps narrowing the gap with each lap.  On lap 18, Ed was inside George, but a lapped car running low prevented the pass and George pulled ahead again. 

    With two laps remaining, Ed closed on George once again, but fell short by a car length at the checkered with Kent, Dehner and Ellenberger rounding out the top five.  The two heats were won from the front row with Bonnell taking the first heat from the pole and Ed winning the second heat from outside pole.    

 

Most fans know a "blanket finish" when they see one and that's the way the 25-lap Sprint Feature ended Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.   The top three cars were separated by less than one second on the AMB automatic timing/scoring sheet with front-row starter Kevin Schaeffer in first, Brian Ellenberger in second and Ed in third.

 Despite having to start 12th in the 21 car field, because of his win here last week, Ed set out to methodically make his way forward. Arnie Kent and Schaeffer brought the field to the green flag with Bob Felmlee and Scott Priester in row two.  By lap four, Ed was up to ninth just behind Scott Bonnell.  Two laps later, Ed had picked up two more spots and was seventh.  But, leader Schaeffer was making good time as the laps clicked off, lapping seven cars before the first yellow came out for Terry Bowser on lap 11. 

The running order now showed, Schaeffer, Felmlee, Kent, Ellenberger, Dan Shetler and Ed in sixth with several lapped cars spaced inbetween the front-runners.  By the time Bowser slipped off turn two causing another yellow on lap 19, Ed was up to fifth.  The last six laps went very fast as Ed used an inside move to get by Shetler for fourth by lap 21.  He passed Felmlee on lap 22 and closed in on the front two, Schaeffer and Ellenberger. 

As the front three circled the track, they were practically bumper to bumper.....thus the blanket finish with less than one second, the margin from first to third.  Schaeffer claimed his first win of the year, with Ellenberger second and Ed third at the checkered flag.  Felmlee and Shetler rounded out the top five, followed by Kent, Rod George, Carl Bowser, Danny Holtgraver and Scott Bonnell in the top 10.  The first heat was won by Ed and Felmlee took the second heat.

 Plans are to run Sharon on Saturday..
 

The fans were on their feet as the opening night Sprint Car feature at Sharon Speedway went non-stop and had a down -to-the-wire finish as Ed closed in on leader Bob Felmlee who had a straight-away advantage at one time..  Although Ed turned the fastest lap time in the 25-lap event, he missed getting the win he wanted by the narrow margin of .064 seconds.  

"Sometimes, it's all in how the lapped traffic plays out in a deal like this when we go non-stop," but, Ed admitted further, "with the way our night started, I'm really glad to get a good finish."  He was referring to his heat race where he started, but lost power on the first lap and was forced to pull to the infield giving him a 7th place finish.  However, he soon got word that Russ Sansosti, who finished third behind Jody Keegan and Kevin Schaeffer, failed to cross the scales and was disqualified, thus moving Ed up and eligible for the random feature draw.   Felmlee won the second heat over Bob Lime and Dan Shetler. 

The track conditions (Ed did not do hot laps) were choppy, rough and dusty for the heats, but the track crew set out to fix that and they did.  To everyone's surprise the track was smooth and had multiple grooves for the 16-car Sprint feature.....thus, the fans were treated to the green-to-checkered event. 

Keith Taylor and Shawn Minor made up the front row of the feature which took to the track at 8:25PM.  Bob Lime and Dan Shetler were in row two followed by Mike Kekich and Scott Bonnell.  Row four had Kevin Schaeffer and Felmlee while Ed and Keegan started in row five  It was Minor, however, that led the first four laps before Schaeffer passed by to lead the next two laps before Felmlee found his way from the outside row to take charge on lap seven with Ed now in third.  It took Ed until lap 14 to run down Schaeffer and claim second. 

With Felmlee seemingly in command with a straight-away lead,  Ed had the fans' attention as he methodically cut into that lead.  It was clear as the laps were winding down, that it would be a close finish and the transponders that each car carries to record their lap times that it was going to be a fraction of a second that decided the outcome.  Following Flemlee and Ed, it was Keegan Schaeffer and Kekich, the only cars on the lead lap.   Jarod Larson and Bonnell were next, but down one lap.  Rounding outt the top ten, but two laps down were Minor, Tail Hilbert and Lime. 

For anyone interested in viewing the lap times, go to Sharon Speedway's web site www.sharonspeedway.com or www.mylaps.com where information is posted immediately following races.. 

 

Coming from eighth spot in the 25-lap feature Friday night at Lernerville Speedway on their first point night of the 2007 season, Ed lapped up to the eighth place car in the 25 car field on his way to win number 83 here.

It was a late night with the Sprints running last in the four-division rotation with the field getting the green  flag at 12:10AM.  But, the die-hard Sprint fans that were around for the checkered flag at 12:33AM all were quick to comment, "It was worth the wait!" 

After winning his heat race from the outside pole position,  the redraw for the feature line-up put Ed outside row four.  The first heat winner, '06 Champion Kevin Schaeffer, was on the pole with Charlie Holben outside.  Row two showed Rod George and Gary Rankin with Danny Holtgraver and Dan Shetler in row three.  Carl Bowser, winner of heat three was inside Ed in the next row.  Through all three heats, Ed had turned the fastest lap of 13.017, which was understandably a full second slower than opening night when the Sprints had the track first.

 Schaeffer was fast out of the blocks and pulled away from Holben, but George was quick to move into second, dropping Holben to third.  Schaeffer had caught the back of the field by lap three and had put two lapped cars between himself and second place George when Scott Bonnell spun on the front stretch, bringing out the first yellow.  Ed was up to third at that point followed by Carl Bowser and Shetler.  Just two laps later, Brent Covell spun to bring out another yellow on lap six.  However, now there were no lapped cars separating the top three. 

When the green replaced the yellow,  Ed was able to close the gap on second place George and as the race continued all green, Ed showed his nose inside George on laps nine and ten.  When George adjusted to the threat and moved down to the inside groove, Ed went by him on the outside on the back stretch and came across the scoring line officially second on lap 11.

 
By now, lapped traffic played into the picture and Schaeffer, who had set the fastest lap of the feature on lap seven, started to turn slower laps as Ed's set-up kicked in and his laps got faster,  as he took the lead on the inside of turn three coming to complete lap 12.   With the remainder of the race going non-stop, Ed took the fans for an exciting ride, weaving, dodging and splitting lapped cars as he built his lead to a straightaway over Schaeffer at the finish. Bob Felmlee came from eleventh to rank third ahead of George and Bowser.  Rounding out the top ten, it was Rankin, Shetler, Holtgraver, Arnie Kent and Mike Shearer.

 From Monday night when Ed hosted a local troup of Cub Scouts in the garage, letting them sit in the cars and answering their many questions, the rest of his week was full of challenges from his construction work.  The crew thought everything was ready for racing, but just two hours before they were ready to load up, they found they had to make repairs on the hauler's exhaust system.  When they finally had that fixed and towed to Lernerville, the line for the pits was out to the highway and Ed pulled beside the line into the parking area.  From all the rain last week, the ground was soft and the truck sunk down so far, they had to get one of the track's farm tractors to pull the rig up to the pit entrance.  With the way things were going,  the perfect ending....a feature win couldn't have come at a better time!

 

    Plans are to race at Sharon Speedway's Opener on Saturday.