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Mercer
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SODEMAN SIZZLES IN 1ST 410 WIN AT MERCER SINCE 2016 ENDING KEKICH STREAK; A PAIR OF KINGS TAKE VICTORIES REX KING JR (BIG BLOCK MODS) AND PHIL KING 1ST EVER IN MINI STOCKS; PRESTON COPE WINS 1ST EVER IN FASTRAK MODS; JAKE GOMOLA WINS 305 SPRINTS.

By Jim Balentine Mercer, Pa August 15, 2020 SODEMAN SIZZLES IN 1ST 410 WIN AT MERCER SINCE 2016 ENDING KEKICH STREAK; A PAIR OF KINGS TAKE VICTORIES REX KING JR (BIG BLOCK MODS) AND PHIL KING 1ST EVER IN MINI STOCKS; PRESTON COPE WINS 1ST EVER IN FASTRAK MODS; JAKE GOMOLA WINS 305 SPRINTS. On a beautiful Saturday night in mid August Michaels Mercer Raceway completed its fourth program of the season with four out of the five feature winners taking the money home to the buckeye state of Ohio right across the border . Jack Sodeman Jr (North Jackson,Oh) ended Adam Kekich ‘s win streak by winning his first 410 sprint feature at Mercer since August 22 of 2016; in the big block modified Rex King Jr (Bristolville,Oh) won his first Mercer feature since May 11 of 2019 Jake Gomola (Seneca,Pa) picked up his second 305 sprint feature of 2020. And Preston cope (Champion, Oh) in the fast track modified and Phil King (Windham,Oh) in the mini stocks picked up their first career wins as well. For Jack Sodeman Jr coming back to Mercer is always a special place as he has picked up 4 track championships out of the last five years that Mercer ran weekly and after being shut out of victory Lane since August 22 2016 to dominate the event and defeat two time winner Adam Kekich to win his first 410 win at Mercer and 2nd overall in 2020. Sodeman immediately gained control from the start from the outside pole and aside from a few minor cautions dominated the event. Kekich ended up finishing second Jeremy Kornbau who started on the pole has been improving greatly in the past few weeks picking up his highest ever finish at Mercer with third. Dan Kuriger was fourth and Gary Kreiss jr was 5th. Rex King Jr, who won the previous night at Lernerville , led flag to flag to win his first Mercer big block modified feature since May 11 2019 and his 6th overall at Mercer. He did so by holding off his father Rex Sr to take the 10 car 25 lapper. Dave Murdick finished 3rd, JR McGinley 4th and Brad Rapp 5th. Last years 305 sprint track champion Jake Gomola picked up his 2nd Mercer feature of the season and the first repeat winner in 4 races. Gomola was easily in the lead until the end when he lost a cylinder and allows 6 time Mercer winner Greg Dobrosky to catch up and mount a charge at the white flag lap but was to no avail as Gomola held him off . 10 time winner Jim Morris was 3rd, rookie Tom Jasen 4th and Steve Cousins 5th. The Jerry Schaffer cars in the FASTRAK Modifieds have now won 3 of 4 features as youngster Preston Cope driving the Schaffer #24P pulled the upset and won his 1st career feature over 2 time winner Eric Gabany. Cope starting on the front row held off numerous restarts and challenges by the veteran Gabany but at the end Cope picked up his 1st career win at Mercer. The mighty Mercer mini stocks once again ended in a nail biter as Phil King held off 2 time winner Mike Porterfield at the line by .530 of a second to win his 1st career feature at Mercer. Porterfield by virtue of his back to back wins came from 10th started to challenge King in the latter stages of the race. Andy Thompson and Mike Kelley led the field to green but King coming from 3rd took the lead on lap 2 as Will Aley was then challenging King for the top spot. Lap after lap Porterfield was reeling in King and as they came out of Turn 4 they were side by side as King scraped the outside wall as they came across in almost a dead heat !!Thompson and Kelley fell back to 6th and 7th while Aley finished 3rd , Leonard Baker Jr was 4th and DJ McCrea moves up 11 spots to finish 5th. 410 Sprints Feature
  1. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[2]; 2. 5K-Adam Kekich[4]; 3. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[1]; 4. 08-Danny Kuriger[5]; 5. 55-Gary Kriess Jr[8]; 6. 11X-George Englert[6]; 7. 250- Jared McFarland[10]; 8. 66-Ken Rossey[9]; 9. 38-Leyton Wagner[3]; 10. 22- Brandon Spithaler[12]; 11. 34M-Mike Marano[11]; 12. 4J-Jacob Gamola[7]; 13. 76-Davey Jones[13]; 14. 1L-Ivan Johnson[15]; 15. 23G-Justin Gurdack[14]
Heat winners 27K-Jeremy Kornbau; 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr Big Block Modifieds Feature
  1. 165-Rex King Jr[1]; 2. 65-Rex King Sr[2]; 3. 61-Dave Murdick[5]; 4. 66-JR McGinley[3]; 5. 11R-Brad Rapp[4]; 6. 3K-shawn kozar[6]; 7. 55-Scott Kay[9]; 8. 74-Kevin Green[10]; 9. 717-Billy Adams[7]
Heat winner: 165-Rex King Jr 305 Sprints Feature
  1. 4J-Jacob Gamola[1]; 2. 88-Greg Dobrosky[3]; 3. 16-Jim Morris[6]; 4. 12G- Tommy Jasen[2]; 5. 56-Steve Cousins[7]; 6. X7-Andy Cavanagh[4]; 7. 22-George Fredrick[8]; 8. 347-Nevan O’Donnell[9]; 9. 27H-Kyle Colwell[5]
Heat winner: 4J-Jacob Gamola Mini Stock feature
  1. 12-Phil King[3]; 2. 23MP-Michael Porterfield[9]; 3. 9-William Aley[7]; 4. 0B- Leonard Baker Jr[6]; 5. 36PACK-DJ McCrae[16]; 6. 5-Andy Thompson[1]; 7. 6-Mike Kelley[2]; 8. 1-James Tasker[10]; 9. 53Z-Larry Blake[12]; 10. 999-Adam Aley[8]; 11. 77H-Cameron Hutchins[5]; 12. 31-Greg Marks[19]; 13. 16R-Jordan Reges[17]; 14. 27-Tim Zuschlag[22]; 15. 64-Summer Pitts[14]; 16. 15B-Shane Shook[11]; 17. 325Z-Zack Swartz[24]; 18. 8BALL-Ed Haylett[4]; 19. 77-Pete Blaczak[23]; 20. 47S-Steven Fedokovitz[21]; 21. 54-Tim Callahan[20]; 22. 10S- trevn schaffer[15]; 23. 17J-Mike Salsgiver[13]; 24. 7-Brad Gamble[18]
Heat winners: 9-William Aley; 23MP-Michael Porterfield; 0B-Leonard Baker Jr FASTRAK Modifieds Feature
  1. 24-Preston Cope[2]; 2. 4S-Eric Gabany[1]; 3. 86-Shayne Izzo[10]; 4. 17- Brandon Ritchey[4]; 5. 41-Brian Schaffer[6]; 6. 5-Brian Sadler[5]; 7. 44-JIm Bryce[11]; 8. 404-Michael Kristyak[8]; 9. 28J-Jacob Jordan[12]; 10. 2-Cole Holden[3]; 11. 11G-Nathen McDowell[14]; 12. 27-ryan covelli[16]; 13. 33G- Dalton Gabriel[17]; 14. 71-Gage Priester[7]; 15. 14-Jeff Schaffer Jr[9]; 16. 7P- Caden Petry[13]; 17. 113-Don Cornelius[15]
Heat winners: 41-Brian Schaffer; 5-Brian Sadler