Troutman terrific in $6,000 to win ULMS Liberty classic! Gabany wins 21st $1,000 to win crate mod feature; Jacob Wheeler takes $1,000 mini stock win.

By Jim Balentine
(Mercer,Pa)

After beginning the racing year with a -7° day for an Enduro in January michaels Mercer Raceway presented by Sunbelt rentals and Erme’s distribution raced on the hottest day of the year on Wednesday July 1st with the heat index around 103°.

Leading flag to flag in the jays automotive ULMS late model $6,000 to win liberty classic Drake Troutman took his 1st Mercer checkered; long time veteran driver Eric Gabany from right down the road in Mercer led flag to flag in the $1000 to win Top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman modifieds; and Jacob Wheeler picked up his first SCDRA mini stock feature at Mercer in the $1000 to win 15 lap affair.

A star studded field of 29 ULMS super late models from 6 states including national touring drivers Mike Marlar and Clay Harris would battle for 25 positions in the inaugural 40 lap “Liberty classic”.

After setting fast time with a 15.702 and winning his heat race, the redraw would put Max Blair on the outside pole for the event. Drake Troutman, who was driving a back up Colton Flinner car after timing second quickest and winning his heat the redraw will put him on the pole.

As the green flag waved, Troutman would immediately take control of the race, but behind him would be many torrid battles throughout the field. Third starting Dave Hess Jr. who won the last ULMS race at Mercer back in 2017 and national Late model driver Mike Marlar from his fourth position would put on a show for the fans battling Blair for over half the event running side by side and using both the low, middle and top grooves. While that battle would keep fans on the edge of their seat another exciting race between Colton Flinner, Florida’s Clay Harris, Levi Yetter and Alex Feree would go on behind again using the entire racing surface.

Blair, who had won at Mercer before in a crate late model would follow Troutman through lapped traffic getting as close as .292 but on lap 27 Blair would go high in turn 2 and uncharacteristically spinning out bringing out the caution. On the restart with Marlar and Hess Jr. right behind Troutman, Troutman would again start to pull away as Hess Jr. and Marlar would continue to battle behind the leader. As the race would continue to stay green, the lead would become larger and larger, and at the end, Troutman would be victorious in a car that had no front end earlier in the day by by 2.543 over Marlar and Hess jr.

Colton Flinner from 8th would get 4th and Clay Harris 5th. Levi Yetter would finish 6th, Alex Feree 7th Dylan Lewis moved up 12 positions from 20th to 8th , Jon Lee would come from the b main and 23rd starting spot to finish 9th and Blair would rebound to come back to 10th.

After the event was over before going to the scales, Troutman‘s car broke and had to be towed over the scales and towed to victory Lane to celebrate the $6,000 win. Troutman would say “We had our shifter linkage come off and didn’t think it would take that much to come back out to victory lane! I have to thank the Colton Flinner family and Johnny Johnson for helping me get back on the track earlier than expected! It’s been really up and down the past few weeks..I may have been down but not out…We are full time racers and we love to race everywhere we can and we just keep trucking on to the next one.”

Russ King racing and Shanaggen bar and grill would help sponsor the top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman modified feature by making it $1000 to win and adding money throughout the purse. Mercer veteran Eric Gabany would go from his starting position to lead flag to flag and win the $1000 20 lap event. Behind Gabany would be all the excitement as Kyle Martell would return to Mercer and hold off Logan Lockhart lap after lap to finish 2nd as Pat Lane would fall back to 4th. Last years track champion Caden Petry would finish 5th after passing Gage Priester on lap 17. A smiling Gabany would say ,”it would be nice if we had rear view cameras but I tried to stay low and held my line and stayed smooth ..the track had some character! I can’t believe i am at my home track and Mike Marlar and all these great late model guys are here!

Jacob Wheeler would return to Mercer and pick up his first win since 2021 at Mercer and collected $1000 sponsored by Haley trucking in the King Forest products SCDRA mini stock night capper. Wheeler would never be challenged winning by 1.469 over Devin Haley in the 5:21 non stop event. Former track champion Andy Thompson would finished third, Randy Ealy 4th and Tim Callahan up 8 positions to finish 5th.

Mercer will be dark until Saturday, July 18 when our regular three divisions plus the 410 sprint cars will be on the card along with bike races for the kids.

Mini Stocks King’s Forest Products 15 Entries
A Feature 1 15 Laps | 00:05:04.891

1. 62-Jacob Wheeler[1]; 2. 911-Devin Haley[4]; 3. 5-Andy Thompson[2]; 4. 38-Randy Ealy[7]; 5. 54-Tim Callahan[13]; 6. 67J-Jamie Duncan[14]; 7. 55-Josh Eakman[5]; 8. 9R-Ben Aley[8]; 9. F6-Josh Frantz[10]; 10. 29-Mike McCool[9]; 11. 45-Andrew Thompson[3]; 12. 0-Carl Ealy[11]; 13. (DNS) 17M-Mike Salsgiver; 14. (DNS) 777-David Seibert; 15. (DNS) 44-Jordan Wheeler

Heat 1 6 Laps | 00:02:02.719

1. 62-Jacob Wheeler[2]; 2. 911-Devin Haley[1]; 3. 38-Randy Ealy[4]; 4. F6-Josh Frantz[5]; 5. 54-Tim Callahan[3]

Heat 2 6 Laps | 00:02:06.353

1. 5-Andy Thompson[4]; 2. 45-Andrew Thompson[3]; 3. 9R-Ben Aley[5]; 4. 0-Carl Ealy[2]; 5. 67J-Jamie Duncan[1]

Heat 3 6 Laps | 00:04:07.500

1. 44-Jordan Wheeler[1]; 2. 55-Josh Eakman[5]; 3. 29-Mike McCool[3]; 4. 777-David Seibert[2]; 5. (DNS) 17M-Mike Salsgiver

DIRT 602 Crate Sportsman Top Shelf Trucking 19 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps | 00:27:41.300

1. 3E-Eric Gabany[1]; 2. 58-Logen Lockhart[8]; 3. 12L-Patrick Lane[2]; 4. 7P-Caden Petry[12]; 5. 71-Gage Priester[4]; 6. 165K-Karston King[10]; 7. 21X-Ryan Riffe[9]; 8. 717-Bill Adams[7]; 9. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[11]; 10. 12*-Troy Pinch[13]; 11. 93-Phil Kapcewich[19]; 12. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[17]; 13. 41-Brian Schaffer[6]; 14. 2-Kole Holden[5]; 15. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[16]; 16. 28J-Jacob Jordan[18]; 17. (DQ) 1R-Brandon Ritchey[15]; 18. (DQ) JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[14]; 19. (DQ) 8-Kyle Martell[3]

Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:05:41.365

1. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[3]; 2. 21X-Ryan Riffe[2]; 3. 41-Brian Schaffer[7]; 4. 717-Bill Adams[1]; 5. 12*-Troy Pinch[6]; 6. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[4]; 7. 93-Phil Kapcewich[5]

Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:19.875

1. 165K-Karston King[3]; 2. 2-Kole Holden[5]; 3. 7P-Caden Petry[2]; 4. 8-Kyle Martell[4]; 5. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[6]; 6. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[1]

Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:02:18.324

1. 3E-Eric Gabany[2]; 2. 71-Gage Priester[1]; 3. 58-Logen Lockhart[4]; 4. 12L-Patrick Lane[5]; 5. 1R-Brandon Ritchey[3]; 6. 28J-Jacob Jordan[6]

Dirt Super Late Models 29 Entries
Inuagural Liberty Classic 40 Laps | 00:28:24.290

1. 48T-Drake Troutman[2]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 3. 44H-Dave Hess Jr[3]; 4. 48-Colton Flinner[7]; 5. 6-Clay Harris[8]; 6. 10-Levi Yetter[5]; 7. 1-Alex Ferree[10]; 8. 44-Dylan Lewis[20]; 9. 5L-Jon Lee[23]; 10. 111-Max Blair[1]; 11. 217-Eric Wilson[14]; 12. 31-Dan Stone[9]; 13. 97-Kevin Smith[13]; 14. 13X-Ken Schaffer[16]; 15. 91-Chad Homan[17]; 16. (DNF) 36-Paul Kot[11]; 17. (DNF) 10S-Dave Stamm[25]; 18. (DNF) 22-Greg Oakes[24]; 19. (DNF) 01-Matt Glanden[15]; 20. (DNF) 55-Chris Schneider[22]; 21. (DNF) 14R-Clay Ruffo[21]; 22. (DNF) 24-Tyler Wyant[12]; 23. (DNF) 119-Bryan Bernheisel[19]; 24. (DNF) 555-Brock Pinkerous[6]; 25. (DNF) 28D-Del Rougeux[18]

United Late Model B Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:02:43.061

1. 91-Chad Homan[1]; 2. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[2]; 3. 14R-Clay Ruffo[4]; 4. 5L-Jon Lee[7]; 5. 32-Wesley McCray[3]; 6. 10C-Ryan Christoff[5]; 7. 10S-Dave Stamm[6]

United Late Model B Feature 2 10 Laps | 00:03:34.146

1. 28D-Del Rougeux[1]; 2. 44-Dylan Lewis[2]; 3. 55-Chris Schneider[3]; 4. 6M-Matt Martin[4]; 5. 44P-Joe Petyak[6]; 6. (DNS) 22-Greg Oakes

United Late Model Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:03:44.532

1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 555-Brock Pinkerous[3]; 3. 31-Dan Stone[2]; 4. 97-Kevin Smith[6]; 5. 91-Chad Homan[5]; 6. 32-Wesley McCray[8]; 7. 10C-Ryan Christoff[7]; 8. 5L-Jon Lee[4]

United Late Model Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:08.109

1. 48T-Drake Troutman[1]; 2. 6-Clay Harris[3]; 3. 1-Alex Ferree[2]; 4. 217-Eric Wilson[4]; 5. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[5]; 6. 14R-Clay Ruffo[7]; 7. 10S-Dave Stamm[6]

United Late Model Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:03:52.351

1. 111-Max Blair[1]; 2. 10-Levi Yetter[2]; 3. 36-Paul Kot[4]; 4. 01-Matt Glanden[7]; 5. 28D-Del Rougeux[6]; 6. 55-Chris Schneider[5]; 7. 22-Greg Oakes[3]

United Late Model Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:02:09.652

1. 44H-Dave Hess Jr[1]; 2. 48-Colton Flinner[3]; 3. 24-Tyler Wyant[2]; 4. 13X-Ken Schaffer[4]; 5. 44-Dylan Lewis[6]; 6. 6M-Matt Martin[5]; 7. 44P-Joe Petyak[7]

United Late Model Qualifying A 2 Laps | 00:00:53.831

1. 157-Mike Marlar, 15.796[11]; 2. 48T-Drake Troutman, 15.851[12]; 3. 31-Dan Stone, 15.941[1]; 4. 1-Alex Ferree, 16.035[8]; 5. 555-Brock Pinkerous, 16.076[13]; 6. 6-Clay Harris, 16.087[4]; 7. 5L-Jon Lee, 16.130[7]; 8. 217-Eric Wilson, 16.242[2]; 9. 91-Chad Homan, 16.393[14]; 10. 119-Bryan Bernheisel, 16.484[3]; 11. 97-Kevin Smith, 16.567[10]; 12. 10S-Dave Stamm, 16.630[5]; 13. 10C-Ryan Christoff, 16.873[9]; 14. 14R-Clay Ruffo, 16.886[15]; 15. 32-Wesley McCray, 17.036[6]

United Late Model Qualifying B 2 Laps | 00:00:32.486

1. 111-Max Blair, 15.702[6]; 2. 44H-Dave Hess Jr, 15.949[5]; 3. 10-Levi Yetter, 16.053[14]; 4. 24-Tyler Wyant, 16.061[1]; 5. 22-Greg Oakes, 16.325[13]; 6. 48-Colton Flinner, 16.355[10]; 7. 36-Paul Kot, 16.381[9]; 8. 13X-Ken Schaffer, 16.547[11]; 9. 55-Chris Schneider, 16.624[8]; 10. 6M-Matt Martin, 16.678[4]; 11. 28D-Del Rougeux, 16.700[7]; 12. 44-Dylan Lewis, 16.718[3]; 13. 01-Matt Glanden, 16.758[12]; 14. 44P-Joe Petyak, 16.967[2]

ULMS Hot Lap A 2 Laps | 00:00:31.772

1. 48T-Drake Troutman[12]; 2. 31-Dan Stone[1]; 3. 217-Eric Wilson[2]; 4. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[3]; 5. 5L-Jon Lee[7]; 6. 32-Wesley McCray[6]; 7. 10C-Ryan Christoff[9]; 8. 97-Kevin Smith[10]; 9. 10S-Dave Stamm[5]; 10. 1-Alex Ferree[8]; 11. 14R-Clay Ruffo[15]; 12. 555-Brock Pinkerous[13]; 13. 157-Mike Marlar[11]; 14. 6-Clay Harris[4]; 15. 91-Chad Homan[14]

ULMS Hot Laps B 2 Laps | 00:00:33.052

1. 111-Max Blair[6]; 2. 44H-Dave Hess Jr[5]; 3. 6-Clay Harris; 4. 44-Dylan Lewis[3]; 5. 55-Chris Schneider[8]; 6. 01-Matt Glanden[12]; 7. 36-Paul Kot[9]; 8. 13X-Ken Schaffer[11]; 9. 28D-Del Rougeux[7]; 10. 44P-Joe Petyak[2]; 11. 24-Tyler Wyant[1]; 12. 48-Colton Flinner[10]; 13. 22-Greg Oakes[13]; 14. 10-Levi Yetter RX