LEHIGHTON, Pa. — The second annual Modified Spring Zing Tom Wanick Jr. Memorial 150 held Sunday afternoon at Mahoning Valley Speedway brought together a solid field of cars with an impressively solid field of competitors to boot, all of whom could have been able to take home the $7,000 to prize.
But despite the level of talent, none could match up to the one driver who has made winning the high stakes affairs his calling card as Matt Hirschman turned it into a race for second after he won for the second time in the event.
Hirschman took the lead for good on lap 105 and from there made it his to lose by keeping all of his opponents at bay. Even though there would be several cautions that kept the field close over the final 40 laps, there was no denying the superiority of Hirschman who was perfect on each restart and then stayed just enough ahead of the rest to secure the win.
Even on a pair of restarts with two laps remaining and Anthony Sesely lined up next to him, it was still Hirschman in control. Matter of fact Sesely wound up battling with Zane Zeiner on the final lap and gave up the runner-up spot at the line.
“It was a stout performance. We were here in April for the RoC opener and we were no good and that doesn’t really happen often especially close to home and I feel we’ve had as many hits as we’ve had misses this year,” said Hirschman. “We got wins but we also got, at least by my standards, some poor performances so it’s good to get a big win and close to home.”
In the Street Stocks it was Jacob Boehm picking up his career first class win in a hard fought tussle the whole way.
Boehm took the lead from Cody Geist on lap two and then battled the rest of the way with point leader Jillian Snyder. But although Snyder was very tenacious, Boehm was not ready to give in and held on to claim the victory and $1,000 for his efforts.
Parker Ahner proved to be in the right place at the right time en route to becoming a first-time winner with the Harry’s-U-Pull-It Hobby Stocks.
Michael Klotz passed Adam Heckman with four laps to go and drive on to his second Futures victory of the season.
The finish:
Feature (150 laps): 1. Matt Hirschman, 2. Zane Zeiner, 3. Anthony Sesely, 4. Brian DeFebo, 5. Earl Paules, 6. Don Wagner, 7. Stephen Kopcik, 8. Nick Baer, 9. Blake Barney, 10. Paulie Hartwig III, 11. Jacob Kerstetter, 12. Cody Kohler, 13. Andrew Krause, 14. Rod Snyder Jr., 15. Johnny Bennett, 16. Bobby Jones, 17. Kyle Strohl, 18. Terry Markovic, 19. Chris Risdale, 20. Lou Strohl, 21. Nevin George, 22. Jaden Brown DNQ: Carsten DiGiantomasso, Tommy Rought, Vinny Morone DQ: Austin Kochenash, Jimmy Blewett