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By DINO OBERTO
(Butler Township, PA 11-9-24) Evergreen Raceway brought down the curtain on the 2024 season with a varied afternoon program of stock car racing.
For Northampton’s Corey Edelman, winning is nothing new when it comes to Four Cylinder Stock racing – after all he is the career wins leader at Mahoning Valley Speedway with 35. And this year he also took his talents out on the road, venturing to Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. He even did some Sports Car racing in Pittsburg.
But is seemed that whenever he competed at Evergreen Raceway Edelman has always been snake bitten, until today, however, as he was able to race to the front early on and stick to it all the way to the checkers.
Edelman passed Scott Adams on lap five and remained in control the rest of the way. And, despite a last lap restart in which he fended off runner-up Robert McNulty, it was all Edelman who notched his 45th overall victory, and finally a first here at Evergreen.
Interestingly Edelman’s day almost ended before even getting started. After the first round of warm-ups the crew found and issue with the transmission. Making haste they actually got it changed and ready to roll by the time the second round of practice started.
A scuffle on the last lap also shook up the final running order of the top-5 as CJ Zukowski took third followed by Jay Skupski and Harry O’Neill.
In the Rotten-and-Forgotten feature Danny Jensen of Wapwollowpen held off his brother Sam Jensen in a very close battle that came right down to the wire.
D. Jensen started second and took the lead from the outset but not long after began a torrid battle for the front spot that included Tommy Dawson and then late in the going Noah Jensen.
With three laps to go S. Jensen snagged the lead away but keeping virtually alongside was D. Jensen who would then eke back to the front on the final corner of the final lap and take his first win of the season.
In the INEX Legends Riely O’Keefe of Manorville, NY made his first start of the year at Evergreen a worthwhile one as the former track and King of the Green champion parlayed his pole starting spot into a victory, albeit a very close one over second place finisher Chris Sinatro.
O’Keefe took the lead at the initial green and then had a race-lone battle in keeping at bay the likes of Jeffery Farrugia and then Sinatro, who grabbed second spot with six laps to go, as well as King of the Green winner Devin Thornton.
In the closing laps Sinatro did pull right up behind leader O’Keefe but there was no denying his focus on taking the checkers and winning here for the first time since 2022.
The Factory Stocks where included on the racing bill and making a triumph return to the Winners Circle was York Haven’s Scott Sipe.
Sipe, although starting from the pole, proved to be the best of the bunch as he effortlessly cruised through each lap with relative ease. Sipe won by over a straightaway ahead of Brandon Hubbard and Dale Kerr.
The day concluded with a 100 lap Enduro that saw a 42 car field take the green. Although the race was filled with plenty of typical Enduro action, none of the 41 one others could match up to winner Michael Klotz of Easton, who affixed himself into the lead prior to 30 laps being completed.
Afterwards he sliced and diced his way through a slew of heavy traffic and would go on to collect his first time winning in an Enduro feature.
Steven Brooks was second, Paul Mercante third and Scott Adams fourth. All of those aforementioned competing the 100-lap distance. Kevin Coyle rounded out the top five one lap down.
Four Cylinder feature finish (25 laps): 1. Corey Edelman, 2. Robert McNulty, 3. CJ Zukowoski, 4. Jay Skupski, 5. Harry O’Neill, 6. Mark Spencer, 7. Scott Adams, 8. Eric Dengler, 9. Joey Warren, 10. Brooklyn Peters, 11. Larry Spencer III, 12. Shayne Geist
Rotten-and-Forgotten feature finish (25 laps): 1. Dan Jensen, 2. Sam Jensen, 3. Tommy Dawson, 4. Nosh Jensen, 5. Tom Jensen, 6. Vince Corter, 7. Hunter Sterner, 8. Jon Jensen
INEX Legends feature finish (25 laps): 1. Riley O’Keefe, 2. Chris Sinatro, 3. Jeffery Farrugia, 4. Devin Thornton, 5. Jayden Glennerster, 6. Anthony Marsh, 7. Landen Herring, 8. Darren Lucas, 9. Charlie Hodge, 10. Michael Collier, 11. Nick Hodge, 12. Chris Piasecki
Factory Stock feature finish (25 laps): 1. Scott Sipe, 2. Brandon Hubbard, 3. Dale Kerr, 4. Luke Nichols, 5. Mike Bailey, 6. Mike Kinter, 7. Luke Foster DNS: Bob Wink
Enduro feature finish (100 laps): 1. Michael Klotz, 2. Steve Brooks, 3. Paul Mercante, 4. Scott Adams, 5. Kevin Coyle, 6. Peter Verwys, 7. Mark Rittenhouse Jr., 8. Robert Longo Jr., 9. Clay Chilson, 10. Dylan Sheeler, 11. Ray Kennedy, 12. Tony Rispin, 13. Alan Such, 14. Mike Mujsce Jr., 15. Mike Musjce III, 16. Robert McNulty, 17. Caitlyn Makarewicz, 18. Will Kennedy, 19. Justin Sander, 20. Thomas Coyle, 21. Jereme Spanburg, 22. Tom Robinson, 23. John O’Rourke, 24. Kevin Brown, 25. Joe Barbush III, 26. AJ Light, 27. Steve Tito, 28. Alan Grula, 29. Jake Dagastino, 30. Danny Cascioli, 31. Mike Kowalski, 32. Dan Baker, 33. Leah Hendershot, 34. Ray Kochin, 35. Mitch Sharp, 36. Johnny Bennett, 37. Mark Spencer, 38. Philip Levering, 39. Aiden Sickels, 40. Brian Kohut, 41. John Gilroy DNS: Larry Spencer III
