Bauer best In FASTonDIRT $4K feature at Mercer; Hutira(pro stocks); Groves (305s); Eakman(minis); Hill (mod lites) win 1st at Mercer; Bryce repeats in crate mods).

By Jim Balentine
(Mercer,Pa)

On a special Friday night lights edition, Michaels Mercer raceway presented by Sunbelt rentals was able to complete its seventh race of the season and third in a row in front of a large crowd. In the featured event, Mike Bauer collected his first win at Mercer since 2017 in grand fashion leading flag to flag in the FASTonDIRT 410 sprint car feature collecting $4000; Brett Hutira won his first career Mercer checkered in the Penn Ohio pro stock series; Nolan Groves picked up his first career win in the racesaver 305 sprints; Hadyn Hill won the first mod lite race at Mercer since 2020; Josh Eakman won his first career feature in the mini stocks; and Jim Bryce picked up his second crate modified feature win.

Also, capturing track championships were Vivian Jones in the racesaver 305 sprints, her second in a row; Caden Petry held off the field to win his first career top shelf trucking dirt crate sportsman championship; and Andy Thompson survived to pick up another Kings Forest products mini stock title.

In the FASTonDIRT 30 lap event 4 time winner Mike Bauer and John Jerich would lead the field to green however before a lap could be completed Matt Farnham and Chris Verda come together on the front stretch. Both would be able to continue. On the next restart Tyler Gunn would spin in turn 2
Halting the action again. Another caution on Lap 6 for Chris Verda would end his night early. Jerich would keep up with Bauer until he spun on lap 11 while in 2nd ending his great run. Australia’s Ryan Newton, Jordan Ryan, and Logan McCandless would have a fantastic battle swapping positions lap after lap putting on a show for the fans. But while that was going on B-main winner AJ Flick who started 18th had moved through the pack to catch the trio with minimal laps left. Newton would move into 2nd at the end while Flick was able to get around both McCandless and Ryan in heavy lapped traffic to finish an amazing 3rd while Ryan and McCandless with round out the top 5. Flick would set quick time of 13.595 with the heat race winners being Ryan Newton, Jordan Ryan and Logan McCandless. AJ Flick won the bmain. A happy Bauer would say, “it has been a while thanks for coming out. Really appreciate all of you!! It’s good to be back!!! toward the end It got a little hairy out there, I think I could hear them coming .I wasn’t sure who was behind me there. I was actually a little relieved cause I felt like I was fade in a little bit, but then he couldn’t pass me if I’m passing the lapped car so that worked out just want to give a shout out to my family. They’re watching at home. Unfortunately ,my grandpa passed away this morning so this is for him. I have Shannon Shannon is my wife. She’s a crew chief on this thing I mean she determines what bar is what shocks ,wing angle ,tires everything to put on that she made the tune up she told me just you know stay calm and drive it so definitely her first and foremost!!that my crew who comes every weekend every race, Kyle does the tires…he had them really good there to get us out to the initial lead and then I hope I wasn’t too abusive on them and then I gotta thank my mom and dad who has been there since go karting when I was young and getting the race cars now it’s a dream come true. I got my sponsors.. it wouldn’t be possible without without everyone.. a lot goes into this. I also got to thank shaver racing engines got shaver under the hood tonight and finally was able to get that in victory Lane so that’s great! Thanks again to all the fans coming out. Hope to be back at Mercer again soon!”

The $1000 to win Penn/Ohio pro stock touring race brought 17 cars to do battle with veteran Bobby Whitling and Brett Hutira leading the field. 11 time Mercer winner Whitling looked like the man to beat but Hutira would get around him on lap number 6 and proceed to go on for his first Mercer win pocketing $1000 after winning at Latrobe, Hummingbird and Marion Center. Tim Bish would come from 5th to pass Whitling for 2nd. Jackson Humanic from 7th finished 4th and Curt J. Bish from 9th would finish 5th. Brett would say, “ Bobby (Whitling) is a class act. He’s one of the best there is in the stock cars. He’s probably been racing cars more than I’ve been alive so he’s got like 4000 wins or something in them so he’s a class act.. I don’t know him that well but you know every time we’re in a race if you beat Bobby Whitling you know you’re doing something right. The tracks just keep getting smaller and smaller is awesome. I was worried It was gonna get really really slick but man I found some moisture down there on the bottom. I gotta give a hat off to AJ flick a real good friend of mine. He’s kind of from our area and he gave me a couple pointers there before the feature and it really really helped I was I was a little out to lunch here early in the night, the first time trying to find some landmarks and he really help me there between the heat and the feature so found the moisture in it. It’s pretty quick so I really like it!”

In the IMCA racesaver 305 sprint finale Nolan Groves would finally get his 1st career win after 4 years of trying leading flag to flag in the 15 lap feature. Timmy Bittner would finish 2nd and track champion Vivian Jones would move up 5 spots to earn her 2nd title in a row.. only the 2nd time since 2011 when the class was introduced a champion won 2 in a row. Nolan would say,”I’m from late model country (in Sugar Grove, Pa) but I’ve always loved the sprints and so does my family. We had a great car tonight..we took 2 months off and got our motor back and it’s great to be back.”

The top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman would go down to the final lap to decide a champion. Jim Bryce who was running 3rd in pints coming into the night did all he could to win by leading the 20 lap affair flag to flag. Or would note easy as veteran Bill Adams would hound Bryce all race long bit could not get around him. Cole Edwards had his best ever finish with 3rd, Pat Lane 4th and Logan Lockhart 5th. Amazingly the top 2 drivers in points Caden Petry and Jordan Ehrenberg could not advance their positions in the race finishing where they started in 6th and 7th. Petry was just enough in the points lead to win by 18 over Bryce who moved into 2nd after the win placing Ehrenberg 3rd in points. Lane would say “track was perfect tonight beautiful job thank you everybody I thank Jerry Schaffer and Brian Schaffer and I could hear people back there. I just didn’t know how close they were..I’m just trying to hit my marks and do the same thing every single time I know Billy (Adams) runs a top there so I tried to stay up top you know maybe a little guard on that but it was good!”

The mod lites made their first visit to Mercer since 2020 and ended up with a green to checkered finish with Haydn Hill from the Hilltop/Midway scoring his first career victory at the historic speedway. Early leader Tyler Turner would keep Hill at bay until lap 3 when Hill would get around and go on to win his 1st ever in the non stop feature. Logan Lewis would finish 2nd, Jake Eakin 3rd, Lewis would fall back to 4th and Blake Robbins 5th. A jubilant Hill would say “that’s my first win ever im so happy to be here!!! I couldn’t do this without my family. I started at Hilltop and then at Midway then we started traveling. We went down to Florida this year and raced down at Hendrick County, had a good time and met a lot of good people and just happy to be here! This is a fun experience except the 2.5 hour drive here”!

Josh Eakman would survive several yellows and a last lap crash to collect his first ever feature win. Joe Campbell would finish second but would lose by just 10 points to 4th place finisher and 2025 track champion Andy Thompson. Andrew Thompson would be 3rd and Randy Ealy 5th. Walkman would say ,” there’s a lot of beating and banging and I guess it is what it is like that but Its great to finally win. I have to thank Andy Thompson, Andrew his nephew is everybody and anybody that helps the car and come here I couldn’t do without them.”

IMCA Racesaver 305 Sprints 11 Entries
A Feature 1 15 Laps

1. 25G-Nolan Groves[1]; 2. 01-Timmy Bittner[3]; 3. 20M-Vivian Jones[8]; 4. 34M-Aaron Marano[2]; 5. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[4]; 6. 82M-Roman Jones[5]; 7. 47-Brett Brunkenhoefer[7]; 8. 72-Mike Mathieson[10]; 9. 77D-Dustin Demattin[9]; 10. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[6]; 11. 14A-Alex Clute[11]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[1]; 2. 34M-Aaron Marano[4]; 3. 25G-Nolan Groves[5]; 4. 47-Brett Brunkenhoefer[3]; 5. 77D-Dustin Demattin[2]; 6. 14A-Alex Clute[6]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 01-Timmy Bittner[1]; 2. 82M-Roman Jones[3]; 3. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[5]; 4. 20M-Vivian Jones[4]; 5. 72-Mike Mathieson[2]

Mini Stocks King’s Forest Products 7 Entries
A Feature 1 15 Laps

1. 55-Josh Eakman[1]; 2. 40C-Joe Campbell[5]; 3. 45-Andrew Thompson[7]; 4. 5-Andy Thompson[3]; 5. 38-Randy Ealy[4]; 6. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[6]; 7. 0-Carl Ealy[2]

Heat 1 6 Laps

1. 0-Carl Ealy[2]; 2. 5-Andy Thompson[1]; 3. 55-Josh Eakman[3]; 4. 38-Randy Ealy[4]; 5. 40C-Joe Campbell[5]; 6. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[6]; 7. 45-Andrew Thompson[7]

DIRT 602 Crate Sportsman Top Shelf Trucking 17 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps

1. 1-Jim Bryce[1]; 2. 717-Bill Adams[3]; 3. 29-Cole Edwards[4]; 4. 12L-Patrick Lane[5]; 5. 58-Logen Lockhart[11]; 6. 7P-Caden Petry[6]; 7. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[7]; 8. 404-Michael Kristyak[2]; 9. 71-Gage Priester[17]; 10. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[12]; 11. 93-Phill Kapcewich[16]; 12. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[8]; 13. 119-Joe Gibson[15]; 14. 404S-Gary R Smoker[9]; 15. 1X-Ryan Riffe[14]; 16. 56M-Jacob McElravy[13]; 17. (DNS) 77-Tommy Kristyak

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 12L-Patrick Lane[2]; 2. 7P-Caden Petry[5]; 3. 1-Jim Bryce[1]; 4. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[3]; 5. 404S-Gary R Smoker[7]; 6. 58-Logen Lockhart[8]; 7. 56M-Jacob McElravy[6]; 8. 119-Joe Gibson[9]; 9. 71-Gage Priester[4]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 717-Bill Adams[1]; 2. 29-Cole Edwards[6]; 3. 404-Michael Kristyak[2]; 4. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[4]; 5. 77-Tommy Kristyak[3]; 6. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[5]; 7. 1X-Ryan Riffe[7]; 8. 93-Phill Kapcewich[8]

FASTonDIRT 410 Sprints – Winged 27 Entries
A Feature 1 30 Laps

1. 46-Michael Bauer[1]; 2. 66-Ryan Newton[3]; 3. 2-AJ Flick[16]; 4. 25R-Jordan Ryan[5]; 5. 29-Logan McCandless[4]; 6. 13-Brandon Matus[6]; 7. 08-Danny Kuriger[8]; 8. 5-Jeremy Weaver[7]; 9. 6-Bob Felmlee[10]; 10. 98-Ricky Peterson[13]; 11. 5K-Adam Kekich[11]; 12. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[19]; 13. 68G-Tyler Gunn[14]; 14. 16-Jim Morris[15]; 15. 7NY-Matt Farnham[9]; 16. 4-Danny Smith[18]; 17. 3-John Jerich[2]; 18. 9-Lance Heinberger[17]; 19. 7T-Chris Verda[12]; 20. 33-Brent Matus[20]

B Feature 1 10 Laps

1. 2-AJ Flick[1]; 2. 9-Lance Heinberger[2]; 3. 4-Danny Smith[9]; 4. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[3]; 5. 33-Brent Matus[4]; 6. 47X-Dusty Larson[7]; 7. 18-Arnie Kent[5]; 8. M4-Louie Mattes[11]; 9. 00-Anthony Gaskins[6]; 10. 76-Davey Jones[10]; 11. 76B-Todd Burgurd[12]; 12. 86-Michael Lutz Jr[8]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 66-Ryan Newton[1]; 2. 5-Jeremy Weaver[2]; 3. 46-Michael Bauer[4]; 4. 5K-Adam Kekich[3]; 5. 68G-Tyler Gunn[5]; 6. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[6]; 7. 18-Arnie Kent[7]; 8. 47X-Dusty Larson[8]; 9. 76-Davey Jones[9]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 25R-Jordan Ryan[2]; 2. 08-Danny Kuriger[1]; 3. 3-John Jerich[4]; 4. 7T-Chris Verda[3]; 5. 16-Jim Morris[5]; 6. 33-Brent Matus[6]; 7. 00-Anthony Gaskins[8]; 8. 86-Michael Lutz Jr[7]; 9. M4-Louie Mattes[9]

Heat 3 8 Laps

1. 29-Logan McCandless[1]; 2. 7NY-Matt Farnham[5]; 3. 6-Bob Felmlee[3]; 4. 98-Ricky Peterson[7]; 5. 13-Brandon Matus[2]; 6. 2-AJ Flick[4]; 7. 9-Lance Heinberger[6]; 8. 76B-Todd Burgurd[9]; 9. 4-Danny Smith[8]

Penn/Ohio Pro stocks 17 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps

1. 4-Brett Hutira[2]; 2. 11B-Tim Bish[5]; 3. 7W-Bobby Whitling[1]; 4. 17-Jackson Humanic[7]; 5. 29-Curt J Bish[9]; 6. 55C-Brandon Connor[6]; 7. 84S-Josh Seippel[4]; 8. 299-Kyle Couchenour[8]; 9. 61M-Charlie McMillen[11]; 10. 81-Mike Miller[3]; 11. 8C-Russ Coyne[15]; 12. 44-Jacob Wheeler[16]; 13. 23-Dave Collier[17]; 14. 20J-Hayden Fosnaught[14]; 15. 965-Andy Buckley[13]; 16. 11R-Lane Reinwald[10]; 17. 64-Logan Koteles[12]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 55C-Brandon Connor[2]; 2. 84S-Josh Seippel[3]; 3. 17-Jackson Humanic[4]; 4. 11R-Lane Reinwald[1]; 5. 965-Andy Buckley[5]; 6. 44-Jacob Wheeler[6]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 7W-Bobby Whitling[1]; 2. 81-Mike Miller[3]; 3. 299-Kyle Couchenour[4]; 4. 61M-Charlie McMillen[6]; 5. 20J-Hayden Fosnaught[5]; 6. 23-Dave Collier[2]

Heat 3 8 Laps

1. 11B-Tim Bish[1]; 2. 4-Brett Hutira[2]; 3. 29-Curt J Bish[3]; 4. 64-Logan Koteles[4]; 5. 8C-Russ Coyne[5]

Mod lites 14 Entries
A Feature 1 15 Laps

1. 31H-Hayden Hill[4]; 2. 22-Logan Lewis[3]; 3. 14-Jacob Eakin[1]; 4. 82-Tyler Turner[2]; 5. 18S-Blake Robbins[6]; 6. 267-Shane Webb[5]; 7. 808-Drew Hannay[13]; 8. 319J-Chris Jones[14]; 9. 99B-Michael Heverly[10]; 10. 31-DJ Nakutis[12]; 11. 41D-Ken Downey[8]; 12. 8H-Jacob Isenhart[7]; 13. 26-Wyatt Glass[9]; 14. 18-David Innes[11]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 82-Tyler Turner[2]; 2. 267-Shane Webb[5]; 3. 14-Jacob Eakin[7]; 4. 18S-Blake Robbins[6]; 5. 41D-Ken Downey[4]; 6. 99B-Michael Heverly[3]; 7. 31-DJ Nakutis[1]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 31H-Hayden Hill[1]; 2. 22-Logan Lewis[3]; 3. 319J-Chris Jones[5]; 4. 8H-Jacob Isenhart[2]; 5. 26-Wyatt Glass[4]; 6. 18-David Innes[6]; 7. 808-Drew Hannay[7]