LEHIGHTON, Pa. – Junk Car racing made its annual visit to Mahoning Valley Speedway and in typical fashion of the gut-n-go class and its drivers the action was wild and wooly from start to finish.
Emerging victorious as a first time winner was Michael Klotz who amazingly in the final few laps withstood a bombardment of obstacles stemming from a very slick track to lapped traffic and one pesky driver that was persistent in an attempt to unseat the subsequent victor who at one point was turned sideways but recovered and never wavered from the lead.
It was a drive that is worthy of bench racing for years to come as Klotz exhibited seasoned veteran like reflexes in a gripping race that at any moment could have muddled.
Ironically a year ago in this same event Klotz crashed to a halt at the start/finish line as the checkered flag waved and this year he again parked at the finish line, only this time as the winner.
Travis Solomon did a fine job of also avoiding much of the chaos and took a solid second while Marco Drago was third which was a career best effort.         Â
Run under the direction of Old School Promotions, a strong field of 42 cars took part in the Saturday afternoon program.
To make things challenging for drivers the heats were split in direction from counter clockwise to clockwise by virtue of a coin toss before each prelim. The 30-lap feature was raced going in the opposite route. Additionally large Euclid tires where placed around the perimeter of the track and water was then spewed onto corner two/three.   Â
Three 15-laps heats were won by Kevin Behler, James Tout and Travis Solomon. Conner Drakely won the 10-lap consi.