LEHIGHTON, Pa. — As the all-time wins leader at Mahoning Valley Speedway, Earl Paules showed his mastery of the paved quarter-mile oval yet again as the “Hurricane” cruised to his 66th overall victory, taking the checkers in the first Sportsman Modified feature of the season.
This was Paules’ first start of the year at Mahoning and he began it the same way he ended last season, in victory lane.
Paules started third and within three laps passed Troy Bollinger for the lead. From there, he was on cruise control as he steadily pulled away from the pack and also negotiated his way through traffic perfectly in a race that went caution-free over the 25-lap distance.
“It went pretty good out there and I firstly want to thank my wife Danielle for all her support and of course all the fans for coming out tonight and supporting Mahoning Valley Speedway,” said Paules.
Nick Baer was a solid second all the while Paules led, but all Baer could do was watch as there was no catching the steady-paced No. 8.
Bollinger took third with 2021 champion Jaden Brown and Paulie Hartwig III rounding out the top five.
“I couldn’t catch Troy in the heat race so we made a lot of changes after that,” Paules said. “And having him and Nick (Baer) in front of us for the start of the feature, those are two guys haven’t won in a while and they were going to be hungry and I knew I needed to unload then quick.
“There’s also some good young talent coming in this year and they all ran well,” Paules continued. “This is a very affordable Modified division and you can learn a lot to move up to the next level.”
The Late Model division has been competing at Mahoning Valley since 1970 and for Nick Ross, his win was one for the record books as the reigning champion collected his sixth consecutive feature dating back to last season.
Jillian Snyder proved to be the best among the Street Stocks as the driver of the Long Motorsports No. 97 ran a strong race en route to winning her seventh career feature.
In the Hobby Stocks it was Corey Edelman holding off Shayne Geist in a close verdict. Edelman grabbed the lead from his outside front row starting spot and soon after was able to distance himself from the field.
Parker Ahner pulled off a daring last lap move on Adam Steigerwalt and came out as the winner of the Futures main event.
The Finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. Earl Paules, 2. Nick Baer, 3. Troy Bollinger, 4. Jayden Brown, 5. Paulie Hartwig III, 6. Don Wagner, 7. Al Arthofer, 8. Brody George, 9. Terry Markovic, 10. Greyson Ahner, 11. Deegen Underwood