Harvey Claims His First Lake Erie Speedway Win

By Adam Mackey

 

            The Main Event Racing Series traveled to the beautiful confines of Lake Erie (PA) Speedway this past Saturday, June 28.  Despite a terrible weather forecast, a strong field of cars and a nice group of Carter Lumber guests showed up for a great night of racing entertainment.

            In qualifying, Brookpark, Ohio driver Jimmy Carter blistered the track for the fastest lap.  Moments later, Carter pulled the number “8” pill, locking himself into the eighth starting position for the start.

            At the drop of the green, former Lake Erie winner John Crumrine raced into the lead.  His race, though, would end just moments later as mechanical problems eliminated him on lap three.

            When the Akron, Ohio driver pulled into the infield, first time Main Event competitor Jared Allison raced out front.  Driving the Harold Fair Racing #81, Allison went on to lead the next 16 circuits.  Coming to lap 20, Rohrer pulled alongside going into turn three, Allison tried to protect the lead, the duo bumped tires and Rohrer’s car shot into the air and on top of Allison’s ride.  Allison retired from the event, while Rohrer returned after fixing some cosmetic damage.

            Back to green, the new leader was Don Harvey, Jr.  Harvey and Harold Fair, Jr. pulled into a sizable lead, while cars shuffled back in the field.  Working their ways forward were Gary Whipkey, who started eleventh, and Rohrer, who was picking off cars on his way back to the front.  Just past the halfway mark, though, Rohrer’s night came to an end when his car suffered a broken rear end.

            On lap 61, Fair worked by in the outside lane and continued to lead comfortably until lap 81 when a broken motor caused him to spin.  For the second time in the race, Harvey was out front and on his way to victory #4 in his MERS career.

            Following the R&D Auto Repair/Rittzman Muffler #12 were Whipkey, Carter, Glenn Gault, Jr., and Doug Sommers.  The rest of the top ten were Johnny Jenkins, John Flynn, John Sandquist, Joel McKnight, and Dennis Strickland.