FLICK FLIES TO 1ST ALL STAR SPRINT WIN IN ILLUSTRIOUS BENIC MEMORIAL WESTERN PA SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP; GALLAGHER WINS 1ST MERCER CRATE MOD FEATURE; MARSHALL ALSO WINS MERCER 1ST IN RUSH SPRINTS.

Mercer, Pa
By Jim Balentine

On a sunny crisp early fall Saturday Michales Mercer raceway presented by Sunbelt rentals and Erme’s distributing was able to complete its historic 75TH year in grand fashion by running the prestigious “Frank and Marilyn Benic memorial Western Pa sprint car championship” for the NAPA All star sprints in their season finale.

It was a night of first as AJ Flick was able to capture his first ever NAPA All-Star sprint feature win in the Benic Memorial Western Pennsylvania Sprint card championship; Darin Gallagher won his first Mercer top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman modified feature; and Trent Marshall captured his 1st Mercer RUSH sprint car feature win. There were 37 NAPA All star sprints; 14 top shelf trucking 602 dirt crate sportsman modifieds and 10 RUSH non-wing sprint cars.

Kalib Henry who would capture his 2nd NAPA All star sprint championship would start on the pole and lead the first 15 laps holding off Cap Henry by no more than 1.5 seconds for the entire time. While this battle was going on Adam Kekich and Zane DeVault would swap 3rd and 4th for multiple laps. A red on lap 4 with a flip by Jeremy Kornbau would halt the race.
On the restart Trey Jacobs would get around Kekich for 4th meanwhile AJ Flick who has 7 career Mercer wins would move methodically through the field from his 9th starting position up to 3rd getting by Jacobs on lap 12 and then by lap 15 catching the top 3 and getting around DeVault on that lap and at the same time Cap Henry would get airborne but not flip in turn 2 but would have to restart on the tail. This would put Flick right behind leader Henry on the restart with Henry using the high groove in one and two and going low and three and four holding off Flick lap after lap. With 12 laps to go Flick would make a daredevil move inside of lap in turn one to take the lead and would use lapped traffic to hold Henry at bay and would open up to a 1.5 second lead until another red on lap 29 for Mike Bauer on the backstretch. On the restart a crash in turn 4 would put Leyton Wagner upside down and Cap Henry with a badly damaged race car .. both were ok. On the restart Flick would take off again and would hold off Kalib Henry by 1.5 seconds to win the Frank and Marilyn Benic Memorial Western Pennsylvania Sprint car championship as well as his first ever NAPA All-Star sprint win. DeVault would finish 3rd, Dale Blaney would move up 7 spots to 4th and Cale Thomas up 2 to finish 5th. A happy Flick would say ,”it was great what we were able to do to come from the 5th row. The format frustrated me but to come from there is pretty cool. Traffic was just way too good in clean air, but it didn’t seem like my car lost any speed at all whenever we got a lot of traffic I could move around top bottom middle wherever I wanted to go just rip some good laps one and two top bottom three top bottom this car was pretty effortless to make it fun. To win this race means a lot!”

The finale of the season in the top shelf trucking DIRT 602 crate sportsman found Troy Pinch driving the race of his life, starting on the pole and leading the 1st 12 laps while Billy Adams and Darin Gallagher would battle for second. Gage Priester: Kole Holden and Karston King would battle behind the top three in an exciting battle for fourth. Gallagher would get around Adams for second on lap 7 and then would go side-by-side with Pinch while Pinch would go high up in turn four losing the lead on lap 13. Priester would then get around Adams for third on lap 15. A late race caution with one lap to go would bunch up the field again and have a one lap shootout to decide it.
Gallagher who had won 12 305 sprint car wins picked up his 1st 602 crate modified feature at Mercer with Holden getting around Pinch at the end to finish 2nd, Doug Rutana would move up 10 spots to finish 4th and Karston King 5th. A happy Gallagher would say. “I didn’t know why the race wasn’t over. (coming down to the finish only one car crossed the line and the rule is leader plus one is needed to complete the lap) I must not been able to hear anything on the raceiver or whatever but on the restart I’m glad it took off. It was a very technical track I was watching it all night and It took me over a year to get here so bad pill draw turned into a good finish so I’ll take that. Thanks for everybody on the car!”

In the RUSH sprint car feature Trent Marshall would lead flag to flag in the 1 caution 8:10 20 lap feature to win his 3rd RUSH sprint car win of the year and his 1st ever Mercer checkered. Rookie of the year contender Brayden Blackshear would get around Devin Deeter on lap 7 to take 2nd and with a caution on lap 18 would have one last chance to get around Marshall but Marshall would hold of Blackshear for the win by .507. Deeter would finish 3rd, Cooper Macormac 4th with Wyatt Long being up in 5th. A happy Marshall would say, “I didn’t have brakes the whole race I didn’t really much time in between the heat and feature so we couldn’t really get them fixed and I got too much of a run on them and I hate racing that way, but I didn’t have any brakes and accidentally spin him but you never do wanna see that caution! If I would’ve lost that I would’ve beat myself even more but yeah it feels nice! It feels good to start doing good this season.”

This will conclude the racing season for the 75th anniversary of michaels Mercer raceway, Earl and Michelle Michaels owners and promoter Mike Mathieson would like to thank everybody who supported the track during a very rainy season. Up next will be fall fest on October 17, which includes a car cruise, a bake sale, basket raffle, vendors, cornhole tournament, and a trunk or treat for the youngsters. All money will go toward the Zane Michaels fund while he recovers from injuries sustained earlier this season in a motorcycle accident.

Media Results for 10/3/2026 at Michaels Mercer Raceway – Mercer, PA
DIRT 602 Crate Sportsman Top Shelf Trucking 14 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps | 00:13:22.899

1. 23-Darin Gallagher[5]; 2. 2-Kole Holden[8]; 3. 12*-Troy Pinch[2]; 4. 46R-Doug Rutana[14]; 5. 165K-Karston King[6]; 6. 71-Gage Priester[3]; 7. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[12]; 8. 717-Bill Adams[1]; 9. 02-Jeremy Beichner[4]; 10. 70B-Nolan Burns[7]; 11. 29A-Anthony Antus[9]; 12. 21X-Ryan Riffe[13]; 13. 1R-Brandon Ritchey[11]; 14. 1G-Frank Guidace[10]
   Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:22.100
2. 165K-Karston King[7]; 2. 71-Gage Priester[1]; 3. 23-Darin Gallagher[5]; 4. 70B-Nolan Burns[3]; 5. 29A-Anthony Antus[4]; 6. 1R-Brandon Ritchey[6]; 7. 21X-Ryan Riffe[2]
   Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:20.365
3. 717-Bill Adams[2]; 2. 02-Jeremy Beichner[4]; 3. 12*-Troy Pinch[3]; 4. 2-Kole Holden[5]; 5. 1G-Frank Guidace[1]; 6. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[6]; 7. 46R-Doug Rutana[7]

Media Results for 10/3/2026 at Michaels Mercer Raceway – Mercer, PA
410 Sprints – Winged 37 Entries
A Feature 35 Laps | 00:46:27.805 | NAPA Auto Parts

1. 2-AJ Flick[9]; 2. 101-Kalib Henry[1]; 3. 14-Zane DeVault[4]; 4. 10-Dale Blaney[11]; 5. 45-Cale Thomas[7]; 6. 3JT-Trey Jacobs[6]; 7. 5K-Adam Kekich[3]; 8. 98-Ricky Peterson[12]; 9. 20B-Cody Bova[8]; 10. 49X-Zeth Sabo[10]; 11. 15K-Creed Kemenah[21]; 12. 47L-Dusty Larson[5]; 13. 12J-Derek Hauck[20]; 14. 22-Brandon Spithaler[16]; 15. 33W-Cap Henry[2]; 16. 29-Brandon Matus[14]; 17. 5E-Bobby Elliott[18]; 18. 47-Todd King[24]; 19. 81-Rayce Jacobs[23]; 20. 38-Leyton Wagner[25]; 21. 46-Michael Bauer[17]; 22. 5T-Travis Philo[13]; 23. 15C-Chris Andrews[15]; 24. 08-Danny Kuriger[19]; 25. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[22]
   B Feature 12 Laps | 00:01:54.077 | Tub O’Towels
2. 15K-Creed Kemenah[1]; 2. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[4]; 3. 81-Rayce Jacobs[2]; 4. 47-Todd King[3]; 5. 19-Tyler Esh[7]; 6. 79W-Will Fleming[9]; 7. 33-Brent Matus[11]; 8. 3J-John Jerich[10]; 9. 3JX-Jacob Begenwald[6]; 10. 38-Leyton Wagner[8]; 11. 8T-Tanner Tecco[12]; 12. 19M-Bodey McClintock[17]; 13. 47B-Brett Brunkenhoefer[14]; 14. (DNS) 27-Zach Morrow; 15. (DNS) 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr; 16. (DNS) 16M-Jim Morris; 17. (DNS) M4-Louie Mattes
   Dash 6 Laps | 00:01:22.676 | Level Utilities
3. 101-Kalib Henry[1]; 2. 33W-Cap Henry[4]; 3. 5K-Adam Kekich[2]; 4. 14-Zane DeVault[3]; 5. 47L-Dusty Larson[5]; 6. 3JT-Trey Jacobs[6]; 7. 45-Cale Thomas[7]; 8. 20B-Cody Bova[8]
   Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:01:50.000 | Premier Planning Services
4. 5K-Adam Kekich[1]; 2. 47L-Dusty Larson[2]; 3. 45-Cale Thomas[3]; 4. 2-AJ Flick[4]; 5. 46-Michael Bauer[5]; 6. 47-Todd King[6]; 7. 19-Tyler Esh[8]; 8. 33-Brent Matus[9]; 9. 3J-John Jerich[7]; 10. 19M-Bodey McClintock[10]
   Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:01:47.000 | All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads
5. 14-Zane DeVault[2]; 2. 98-Ricky Peterson[1]; 3. 49X-Zeth Sabo[3]; 4. 10-Dale Blaney[4]; 5. 08-Danny Kuriger[6]; 6. 81-Rayce Jacobs[5]; 7. 79W-Will Fleming[8]; 8. 47B-Brett Brunkenhoefer[9]; 9. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[7]
   Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:06:15.000 | Adaptive One Calipers
6. 101-Kalib Henry[1]; 2. 3JT-Trey Jacobs[2]; 3. 20B-Cody Bova[3]; 4. 22-Brandon Spithaler[5]; 5. 12J-Derek Hauck[8]; 6. 27-Zach Morrow[7]; 7. 15K-Creed Kemenah[4]; 8. 3JX-Jacob Begenwald[6]; 9. 16M-Jim Morris[9]
   Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:01:49.000 | Bazell Race Fuels
7. 33W-Cap Henry[4]; 2. 5T-Travis Philo[1]; 3. 29-Brandon Matus[2]; 4. 15C-Chris Andrews[3]; 5. 5E-Bobby Elliott[5]; 6. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[6]; 7. 38-Leyton Wagner[7]; 8. 8T-Tanner Tecco[8]; 9. M4-Louie Mattes[9]
   Qualify A 2 Laps | 00:06:47.000 | Capitol Custom Trailers
8. 2-AJ Flick, 13.044[1]; 2. 10-Dale Blaney, 13.055[6]; 3. 45-Cale Thomas, 13.109[8]; 4. 49X-Zeth Sabo, 13.175[19]; 5. 47L-Dusty Larson, 13.213[4]; 6. 14-Zane DeVault, 13.237[3]; 7. 5K-Adam Kekich, 13.263[2]; 8. 98-Ricky Peterson, 13.302[9]; 9. 46-Michael Bauer, 13.336[13]; 10. 81-Rayce Jacobs, 13.353[12]; 11. 47-Todd King, 13.394[14]; 12. 08-Danny Kuriger, 13.489[7]; 13. 3J-John Jerich, 13.566[18]; 14. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr, 13.589[11]; 15. 19-Tyler Esh, 13.711[10]; 16. 79W-Will Fleming, 13.851[16]; 17. 33-Brent Matus, 13.903[5]; 18. 47B-Brett Brunkenhoefer, 14.795[17]; 19. 19M-Bodey McClintock, 14.897[15]
   Qualify B 2 Laps | 00:06:10.000 | Capitol Custom Trailers
9. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 13.280[8]; 2. 33W-Cap Henry, 13.292[15]; 3. 20B-Cody Bova, 13.315[9]; 4. 15C-Chris Andrews, 13.358[14]; 5. 3JT-Trey Jacobs, 13.451[4]; 6. 29-Brandon Matus, 13.458[6]; 7. 101-Kalib Henry, 13.503[17]; 8. 5T-Travis Philo, 13.517[3]; 9. 22-Brandon Spithaler, 13.535[2]; 10. 5E-Bobby Elliott, 13.622[1]; 11. 3JX-Jacob Begenwald, 13.639[12]; 12. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau, 13.689[5]; 13. 27-Zach Morrow, 13.736[16]; 14. 38-Leyton Wagner, 13.835[7]; 15. 12J-Derek Hauck, 14.061[13]; 16. 8T-Tanner Tecco, 14.231[10]; 17. 16M-Jim Morris, 14.279[18]; 18. M4-Louie Mattes, 14.504[11]