LEHIGHTON, Pa. — In a matter of a lap’s time Kyle Strohl was able to come out on top of an intense three-wide battle among himself, Austin Beers and John Markovic that put him in place to collect his second modified win of the season Saturday evening at Mahoning Valley Speedway.
It was on lap 17 of the 35-lapper that the race winning outcome took place.
The scene began two laps prior when a restart saw Markovic at the point with Beers second and Strohl third. When the race had resumed Markovic was on the inside of Beers and left enough of an opening for Strohl to take the inside lane. As the trio were about to conclude lap 16 Markovic squeezed Beers that caused him to smack the wall. At the same moment Strohl had a clear lane to drive into the lead.
From then on he was smooth and strong allowing him to score a one car length win over runner-up Austin Kochenash.
“These last couple of weeks we had been struggling and this week we really hit on the button and I felt we were going to be in good contention,” said Strohl, now an 18-time modified winner.
Kochenash, who was making his first Mahoning start of the season, was part of the lap 15 melee and had to pit. He drove his way up to second only to run out of time as he was honing in on Strohl. J. Markovic held on for third with Bobby Jones and new point leader Brian DeFebo rounding out the top five.
Jared Ahner and Payton Arthofer won sportsman modified features, while Rich Moser topped the street stock main event.
Other winners were Josh Kuronya (Pro 4), Tad Snyder (hobby stock) and Hallie Muffley (rookie hobby stock).