7/3 Midvale Results Posted on 7/7/2015 at 01:55:04 PM by D
Mazzagatti Claims MERS Win in Spectacular Fashion
By Jarrett Emmerich
On Friday night, July 3rd, the Main Event Racing Series outlaw bodied super late models invaded Midvale Speedway in New Philadelphia, Ohio with spectacular results for the Downtown Ford 100. Two-time feature winner on the season Jeff Ganus set fast qualifying time for the event at a time of 13.362 seconds, just a tenth of a second slower than the track record set one year earlier by Jimmy Carter. Mike Mazzagatti capitalized on a stellar start to the 2015 season, with two top ten finishes to his credit in the first two races, in order to win his first career MERS event at one of its more prestigious events.
On the start of the race, Josh Way in the #25 Mr. Muffler machine battled all time MERS win leader and three time series points champion Rich Rohrer for the top spot. On the drop of the green flag, Rohrer took the lead from the coveted outside line in order to grab the early advantage of leading a healthy field of sixteen of the best outlaw super late models on the planet. Alex Rosenberry, also coming off of two top ten finishes between Sandusky and Dixie, began to make his moves early in the event as well, getting to the third position from fifth by diving underneath and using the shortest distance around the three-tenths mile oval, the inside line. Rosenberry also picked up his first and only MERS win just one year earlier in this event, becoming the youngest Main Event Racing Series winner in the twenty-plus year history of the tour.
Emerson Huffman would bring the field to a slow crawl on lap three by stopping on the front straightaway with a mechanical issue. Once the race returned to green flag conditions, Rosenberry again began to wheel to the front, stealing the second position from Josh Way on the restart and bringing Mike Mazzagatti along for the ride, still utilizing the bottom groove. Dave Stehouwer had right front suspension components give way in turn one, sending him hard into the wall. This caution prior to the completion of the race’s tenth lap would pit Rohrer against Rosenberry in a side-by-side battle for the lead.
Rosenberry would claim the top spot on the restart as Rohrer pulled off a few laps later with a fogged up windshield obstructing his all-important viewpoint from within the ####pit of the #7 machine. This would surrender the second position to Mike Mazzagatti and move the defending series champion Harold Fair Jr. in the Royal Truck and Trailer/Senneker Performance #71 into the third position. Two-time MERS champion Bud Perry would pass Fair on the eighteenth lap, putting him in the third position while Rosenberry and Mazzagatti skated away with the race lead. Jeff Ganus and Billy Roberts would cause a caution by getting together shortly thereafter.
Under this caution, the race leader Alex Rosenberry would pit for brake problems while Harold Fair Jr was forced out of the event and Jeff Ganus also had to pit. This would place Ganus and Rosenberry well outside the top five with little hope for recovery while Mazzagatti inherited the race lead. A fourth caution flag would fly on lap forty-one when the flagman Chuck Barrett was hit by a piece of debris, causing the red flag to be shown in order to check on the veteran flagman. Barrett was OK, however, control over the slimming field of outlaw super late models was handed down to the track flagman, Terry Colletti, for the remainder of the event.
Two more cautions on lap 58, including a little bit of contact between Mazzagatti and Perry on the second caution, would not be enough to keep Mike Mazzagatti out of victory lane as he skated away with the win by nearly a straightaway in the #87 FLF Racecars/Holub Recycling car. Bud Perry, Jeff Ganus, Billy Roberts and Alex Rosenberry rounded out the top five while Tim Ice, Nick Grodi, John Sandquist Jr., Doug Sommers, Josh Way, Virgil Ravenscroft III, John Flynn, Harold Fair Jr., Emerson Huffman, Rich Rohrer and Dave Stehouwer made up the rest of the finishing order.
SERIES POINT STANDINGS
JEFF GANUS 624—MIKE MAZZAGATTI 567—ALEX ROSENBERRY 558—HAROLD FAIR JR 535—NICK GRODI 480—JOHN FLYNN 436—DAVE STEHOUWER 409—BUD PERRY 354—JOHN SANDQUIST JR 298—SCOTT PEMBERTON 119—ERIC LEE 116—SCOTT HANTZ 111—JOHN BELOTT 108—BILLY ROBERTS 108—TREVOR BERRY 107—TIM ICE 99—DENNIS STRICKLAND 96—DAKOTA CARLSON 96—TERRY SENNEKER 89—MIKE ROOT 80—DOUG SOMMERS 77—JOSH WAY 76—RICH ROHRER 69—EMERSON HUFFMAN 69—VIRGIL RAVENSCROFT III 65—BRENTJACK 64—FRANK JIOVANI 61—BRIAN ROSS 61—BRAD REITHMEYER 55—CRAIG EVERAGE 55—JEFF VRSEK 53—JASON LADUKE 51—CLAUDE PLANTE 49—JR KARL 25
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