It was the annual 4th of July open wheel extravaganza at PA Speedway that drew many Vintage Modified competitors as well as a large number of race fans away from home on the holiday weekend. There was also the promise of cold beer, hotdogs and a dandy fireworks show after the races.

Some of the regulars were missing from the Modifieds for various reasons, but there is always someone new to take their place. New to the group for this race was Steve Lundquist, a 2-time Lightning Truck champion from Evergreen Speedway and racer of anything with wheels for the past 17 years. Steve took a couple years off to do a makeover on a former championship car from the club’s past. It looked real nice and the Mopar mill ran real good too.

Ike Hoskinson became the first casualty of the evening, blowing a head gasket in Leonard Schmidt’s car. He had to sit out the night. The track staff used a new time trial method for this event. Five cars on the track at a time made 8 laps using the best time as the basis for starting positions. This change didn’t affect point leader Jim Jones who went out and set a new track record, 15:82 seconds.

The B dash was lead of by Robert Rux who held off Bobby Wheeler Jr. to take the first trophy of the night. The A dash saw the return of John Mustered who battled with Charley West Jr. from the front row for all four laps. Mustered was able to stay ahead of West and added some hardware to his collection.

In the B heat Rux once again started on the pole and once again held off Wheeler for the win. Wheeler was getting a bit tired of being “held off” but remained the sportsman and accepted 2nd place followed by Lundquist and Chuck Peterson.

Henry Weichel started on the pole for the A heat with Mustered on the outside. Charley West and Mike Clother made up the second row with Jones bringing up the rear. The inside row took off on the start and Mustered ended up in the weeds off turn 3 after he got a bit off the pavement on the back straightaway. The yellow flag flew and the cars were aligned for a complete restart. The results were the same, Mustered slipped again, this time staying on the track but allowing everyone to get by him. Weichel held the lead until lap six when he made a slight judgment error that turned out to be just enough to allow West and Jones to sneak by. West took the victory with Jones just behind, followed by Weichel, Clother and Mustered.

Everyone was excited to start the 40-lap main. This track has a few rough spots and is very challenging to the drivers especially when the sun goes down and the light gets dim. It is real easy to fall behind in the steering and end up off the racing surface. Once again Robert Rux started on the pole and was looking to win for the third time of the night. He had Peterson on the outside and Wheeler and Lundquist behind him in the second row. Mustered opted to give up his third row starting position for mechanical reasons, allowing Clother to move up next to West. Jones and Weichel brought up the rear. Rux and Wheeler took off at the start leaving the outside row lagging. Jones moved into 3rd place just ahead of Clother in the second lap. Clother stuck to Jones and the two passed both Wheeler and then Rux. Wheeler followed them with West right behind. Mustered limped his injured racer to the pits while leader Jones put some distance between himself and Clother who did the same to the with the rest of the field. On lap 20 Peterson put a big bump on first timer Lundquist sending both sliding off turn 4, resulting in Peterson stalled on the track and a yellow flag at the halfway point of the race. That erased all the space between the top 4 cars. On the single file restart Jones pulled away from the pack and Clother got some space over Wheeler, Jr. and West Jr. as they battled for third. Weichel left the track when his car became hard to handle due to both rear shock mounts being broken. Peterson spun again a few laps later causing another yellow that once again closed up the field. For this restart the lapped car of Lundquist, who was driving with an oil soaked windshield, was placed between Jones and Clother. Wheeler saw that as an opportunity to get a good restart and take 2nd from Clother. Unfortunately he drove below the restart cone on the front straightaway and was penalized one lap for that infraction. Neither Wheeler nor West knew that they were no longer racing for position so they continued their battle of the juniors for 3rd. Meanwhile Clother drove away from them as Jones drove away from him to take the feature win. Clother finished a distant 2nd with West inheriting 3rd followed by Rux, Lundquist and Peterson.

The next stop for the Vintage Modifieds is a return to Ephrata on July 18th. It should be a hot show.