BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Pa. —There is no question that Matt Hirschman continues to build upon a Hall of Fame career as the Northampton driver added another chapter to his undisputable legacy with his victory on Sunday afternoon at Evergreen Raceway, scoring a decisive win in the 50-lap Tour Type Modified feature.
Hirschman drew the second starting spot and lined up to the outside of pole sitter Roger Coss. When the action got underway Coss took charge but there was heavy pressure coming from Hirschman, including some early laps when both went side-by-side for the race lead.
Coss was then able to settle into the front spot, albeit with Hirschman still hot on his tail. After trying but not succeeding to pass from the outside, Hirschman then changed his strategy to the low lane, making the switch on lap 11 exiting Turn 2 and by the end of the backstraight he had already begun to clear Coss and completed the pass by the outset of the next circuit.
From then on, he was reeling off steady, consistent laps, and not even a few additional cautions hindered his performance with any chance of letting Coss or anyone else, for that matter, take away his stance.
“It’s always good to get a win here that’s close to home. Good work today by my guys too, we had an electrical issue during practice, and they did a great job to get it fixed and today worked out really well for us,” said Hirschman.
“Roger (Coss) has been running real good here and he’s had two pole starts the last two races and that certainly has helped his case,” he continued.
“It’s good that we have a track that we can have the Tour (Type) Modifieds to come and race at and thanks to Jason (Makarewicz/owner) for having them, we had some good support today for the track.”
Of the multitude of wins Hirschman has collected in his 20-plus years of racing, Evergreen can be considered his most successful track. Sunday was the 56th time he has won here.
“I think it just feels like home, it’s where I started my career and I won here before anywhere else and anytime I came back I was always successful,” he said.
“Here at Evergreen, it taught me the right skills to go on and win at a variety of other tracks and on various levels. This track has taught me the right skillsets and there are times I may not have raced here an entire year or maybe once a year but anytime I did come I was immediately always back to where I was and it’s definitely been the best track throughout my entire career.”
For the second time in a row Coss was runner-up to Hirschman and also second place in the last four Tour Type Modified features at Evergreen.
“That’s four (runner-ups) in a row but at least it’s better than third,” said Coss.
“The car was better today although it was the same results, so it doesn’t really look like it was better. We made a bunch of changes that made a difference, but just not quite as good as the 60 (Hirschman),” he continued.
“I told my guys if Matt wasn’t here, we’d look like Matt Hirschman for how good we’ve been here compared to everyone else. We’ll just keep working hard.”
The race for third to fifth was a real fan-pleasing affair in the closing laps between Jake Christman, Paulie Hartwig III and Austin Beers.
Christman was holding down third since the halfway mark. Hartwig moved into fifth after a lap 36 restart, while Beers was sixth and coming on strong.
In the closing laps that trio were under a blanket with Christman fending off Beers who had zipped by Hartwig for fourth. Beers’ drive was even more astounding given the fact that he started from 17th. On the final lap Christman held on for third while Hartwig and Beers crossed the line virtually deadlocked and the nod going to Hartwig.
The Harry’s U-Pull-It Street Stocks had a day that paid homage to Gordon Buchman Sr., who had passed away last year on the same weekend. The “Pap 55B Memorial” was a 55-lap feature held in honor of the patriarch of the Buchman/Sones family, who for years have been mainstays at Evergreen.
With extra laps and bonus money on the line a respectable field was on hand but when all was said in done it was another win for three-time and defending champion Mike Pollack of Freeland who scored the victory.
Pollack needed only five laps to move to the lead, which he overtook from Scott Adams. Afterwards it was no contest as he scorched around the third-mile oval with relative ease and by the time he reached Chris Walk’s waving checkers he was ahead of runner-up Gordie Buchman by half a track.
For Pollack it was his 20th time winning in a Street Stock and ninth consecutive season of winning at least one race in each of those years.
