Lehighton’s native, Kevin Rex Jr. can rightly call Mahoning Valley Speedway his home away from home. A brand new #47 Xcel Chassis 600 modified made its debut on August 28th with a trip to victory lane. This is Kevin’s 18th career win at the super fast track and has won four out of the last five outings. Kevin talked about the cars during tech, “The 600 mod is a great fit for this track. As you can tell by lap times, their right on the mark and the added bonus is you don’t have to sell your right arm to run every week.”
A record setting 24 cars signed in for the Carl McElroy Memorial night presented by Xcel Chassis and Joe Fanelli. A great tribute was held for a great man. “I want to thank Doug Borger for the help he gave me to honor my friend. Carl would have appreciated the support as much as I do and with so many people to thank, it goes to show the racing family always comes together.” Joe stated as he passed out trophies donated by Dan Lane along with payout.
Aaron Bowes and Kevin Rex Sr. led the field to the green. Bowes would get the jump at the start and keep the lead until lap traffic came into play. Rex jr. had taken second by lap #5 and worked on Aaron for the next 2 laps before the leaders split two lap cars coming into turn four. Kevin would go low with Aaron having to go to the top side hoping to clear them before hitting the front stretch wall. Everybody kept their line and the dicing would begin. Chris Stockham took advantage of the four wide and followed Rex jr. thru the cars coming out of three and stayed on his bumper.
They have been two of the top competitors when the Xcel Chassis mods return to the asphalt and always put a great race on. This would be no different as Chris searched high and low for the line to get by Rex but couldn’t find it in time for Rex to take the win with a close time of +0.787.
Alec Bartholomew, driving the #38 sponsored AJB Plumbing power plant set the record for the fastest one lap time in Xcel Chassis asphalt history. What makes it a great achievement is this would be Alec’s first time at the historic track in a 600 mod.
Added bonuses were announced at the end of the night’s events. The top ten finishers were given a $15.00 bonus provided by Don’s Automotive. BJ Scherff also claimed the 1st non feature winner $25.00 bonus supplied by the #48G team of George Loux. Campbell Hall Supply, sponsors of Loux’s team, also donated to the last car on the lead lap won by Alec Bartholomew. Sentry Warranty picked three random positions to donate and the winners were the #82c of Cory Coons, the 45j of Justin Schraden and the #22 of Joe Fanelli.
This Labor Day weekend will be a busy one for the 600 mods. They start out Friday Sept.3rd with a return trip to Lindas Speedway located in Jonestown, Pa and a quick turnaround to Penn Can Speedway, who is hosting the fist Northeast Small Car Classic, on Sunday August 5th with a great field of cars expected for the day. Check out all the updates on their website at www.xcelchassis.com
FEATURE FINISH
KEVIN REX JR., Chris Stockham, George Loux, BJ Scherff, Richie Hitzler, Aaron Bowes, Kevin Rex Sr., Alec Bartholomew, Joe Fanelli, Cody Coons, Sean Weiss, Justin Schraden, Cory Coons, Mike Kelly, Travis Greth, Jeromy Guistwite, Ryan Suchon, Cody Kohler, Kyle Kocher, Eric Whitby, Tyler Bartik, Kasey Ernst, Nick Mady, Brian Mady
