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Nick Ross, Mike Pollack, TJ Kapish, Josh Young and Shane Elliott all pick up wins
By Dino Oberto
(Butler Township, Pa. 7-11-26) Steve Shultz of Drums strengthened his standing as one of Evergreen Raceway’s premier racers Saturday evening, delivering a flawless drive to capture his first 602 Crate Modified feature win on the paved 1/3-mile oval.
Shultz started on the outside front row for the start of the 30-lap main and at the drop of Chris Walk’s race commencing green he made quick work of pole sitter Marty Noll to grab the opening lap lead, a spot he would never relinquish either.
Shultz faced a brief challenge after a lap-two restart, when Jayden Harman, Brian Sones and point leader Micah Adams ran tightly together with him. Within a few laps, however, Shultz broke free from the trio and controlled the race from there, sailing smoothly to the checkered flag.
“We thrashed all week on the car and put in a lot of hours in the shop. After our last race we found a lot of issues but went over everything and today we unloaded and it was fast and it stayed that way and I knew we were going to have a very good car tonight,” said Shultz, who notched his 39th Evergreen victory.
“I can’t thank my crew enough and more people back home too for all the work and time they put into this effort. I have a great team, and this is the result we aim for each time.”
While Shultz was taking care of business at the helm, the battle for second remained hotly contested between Harman, Sones and Adams. All three continued to race under a blanket while trading off second place. By the latter half of the event, Adams secured the runner-up spot, but Shultz had already opened too much of an advantage for Adams to mount a serious challenge.
Sones took third and kept his solid runs of top three finishes intact while Harman and Long Island invader Vinny Delaney rounded out the top five.
White Haven’s Nick Ross continues to have a perfect season with the Late Models as he has now won every heat and feature he’s run.
After a heart stopping three-wide battle for the lead between Brett Peters and Marc Aigeldinger, Ross took control of the race by the start of lap two and there would be no looking back from there as he cruised on an uncontested journey the rest of the way.
Ross has been the clear benchmark in the Late Models, even against a strong field. Mike Sweeney ran second but could not close the gap, while Dennis Wenner battled hard with Marc Aigeldinger and was gaining on Sweeney in the closing laps. Evan Berretta completed the top five.
Each of those drivers, along with the rest of the field, has the capability and equipment capable of winning. For the time being, however, Ross remains the driver everyone is chasing.
“It’s been really unbelievable and it took us three years to get this car to where its at right now, a lot of work and time and it’s paying off,” related Ross.
“It’s amazing we can do what we do because all those other guys are great racers and they race me clean. But we’ll just keep plugging away at this and I can’t thank everyone on my team enough which is a big group effort.”
It was the 36th Late Model win for Ross which puts him fourth overall among the all-time eastern Pennsylvania asphalt class winners.
When Mike Pollack of Freeland took the lead from Tommy Flanagan on lap five in the Harry’s U-Pull-It Street Stocks he gradually began building a decent lead. However, a lap nine caution would bunch up the field and Pollack would then have Gordie Buchman and Scott Adams chasing him down, a scene that seems to play out regularly amongst them.
But try as they may Pollack – who is the division point leader – would again be able to extend himself safely enough ahead and go on to take his first win of the season, that coming after four straight runner-up tallies. Buchman fended off Adams for second place.
The Himmer Graphics Four Cylinders saw another strong performance by Mountain Top’s TJ Kapish who needed only five laps to come from his sixth starting spot and into the lead. From there on he had no trouble in negotiating his way past lapped traffic and staying well enough ahead of runner-up Tony Hilliard.
Kapish’s win, his second in only three starts to date, also elevated his career wins total to 46 overall.
In typical fashion of the unique Rotten-and-Forgotten this fan pleasing class put on another thrilling race that saw Josh Young of Berwick take the top spot on a lap four restart from Sam Jensen and then was able to hold off Dan Jensen who was closing fast and score his third win in four starts.
Shane Elliott of Upper Lehigh picked up victory number two in the McNulty Funeral Homes Novice class. Elliott had his hands full while fending off AJ Frantz for a good portion of the race as the pair raced remarkably close lap after lap. But during the wanning tours Elliott was able to break free and maintain a solid car length gap over Frantz en route to securing the verdict.
602 Crate Modified finish (30 laps): 1. Steve Shultz, 2. Micah Adams, 3. Brian Sones, 4. Jayden Harman, 5. Vinny Delaney, 6. Marty Noll, 7. Payton Arthofer, 8. Don Betterly DNS: Mike Alabasini
Late Model finish (30 laps): 1. Nick Ross, 2. Mike Sweeney. 3. Dennis Wenner, 4. Marc Aigeldinger, 5. Evan Berretta, 6. Roger Maynor, 7. Brett Peters, 8. Geno Steigerwalt, 9. Joe Galada, 10. Michael Klotz, 11. Ryan Rochelle
Street Stock finish (25 laps): 1. Mike Pollack, 2. Gordie Buchman, 3. Scott Adams, 4. Paul Frantz, 5. Geary Rinehimer Jr., 6. Tommy Flanagan, 7. Peyton Arthofer, 8. Mallory Kutz
Four Cylinder finish (25 laps): 1. TJ Kapish, 2. Tony Hilliard, 3. Tyler Skordensky, 4. Harry O’Neill, 5. Robert McNulty, 6. Jared Frye, 7. Gavin Higgins, 8. Caitlyn Makarewicz, 9. Jacob Knittle. 10. Jeff Engler, 11. Sam Ryan, 12. Lauren Skupski
Rotten-and-Forgotten finish (25 laps): 1. Josh Young, 2. Dan Jensen, 3. Jordon Young, 4. Sam Jensen, 5. Vince Corter, 6. Cameron Conklin, 7. Brice Jensen
Novice finish (15 laps): 1. Shane Elliott, 2. AJ Frantz, 3. Justin Merkel Jr., 4. Jacob Bartuski, 5. Sabrina Bogert, 6. Joel Kutz
