results King of the Mountain To Eric Beers With Last-To-First Run

October 30, 2004
by Brett Deyo - AARN Staff Writer

ST. JOHNS, PA - Before one lap was scored in Sunday night's King of the Mountain Modified special at Mountain Speedway, Eric Beers dropped unceremoniously from outside the front row to dead last.

Just 40 circuits later, Beers reclaimed the lead after storming through the field and dominated the remainder of the 100-lap distance to score the come-from-behind win at his former Saturday night home track.

The $2,000 triumph for Beers at the one-third-mile paved oval came two weeks after he topped the prestigious Race of Champions at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway.

The Northampton, Pa., veteran slowed dramatically on the initial start when the shifter arm on the transmission snapped, forcing the car into neutral. Beers headed pitside where his crew quickly jammed the car into high gear.

He rejoined the field on the lead lap in 24th position.

"I guess it would have been boring if we just won from the outside pole," Beers grinned.

While fast-timer Matt Hirschman blasted off early, all eyes were on the hard-charging Beers, who sliced rapidly through traffic in his Horwith Freightliner No. 9.

By lap 20, the former Mountain track champion broke into the top five.

The 35-year-old grabbed fourth on lap 22, third on lap 23 and secured the runner-up spot with an inside pass of Don Wagner with 26 circuits complete.

At that point, he was nearly a straightaway behind Hirschman.

"I knew we had a fast car," Beers said of his charge. "I could put this thing outside, inside wherever I wanted it and I knew it would stick. That's how I got back to the front so fast.

"When I got up to Matt, I figured I would just ride a little bit. I was trying to keep some tire on it for the end."

A string of lap-39 cautions gave Beers his shot at Hirschman, the talented second-generation driver with seven career wins at the Northeastern Pennsylvania track.

Using the outside groove, Beers, piloting an RPM-powered Troyer he co-owns with Adam Horwith, managed to nose ahead of Hirschman exiting turn four on lap 40.

Simultaneously, Hirschman's car wiggled and sailed to the infield, the victim of broken heim-end on the panhard bar of his No. 52.

"I thought I had a flat tire," noted Hirschman, whose father Tony is a standout on the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour.

"I just spun it into the infield so I wouldn't be sitting across the track. I figured I'd just change the flat come back out and maybe have something for Eric," the 21-year-old continued. "We were good. If we didn't win, I know we were good enough for second."

Beers, who was working the upper groove at the time of Hirschman's misfortune, was able to clear the scene unscathed.

"I was just enough ahead of him that I didn't see what happened," he remarked.

With his chief nemesis on the sidelines, Beers held the lead over Mountain kingpin Brian Defebo, a multi-time winner at the facility in recent seasons.

Defebo closed on Beers in lapped traffic just past the halfway point, even taking a look inside with 63 laps in the books. But the 2003 track champion headed pitside on lap 74 when a broken rear end cover caused his No. 53 to leak fluid on the racing surface.

Defebo's misfortune handed second over to Anthony Sesely.

The 21-year-old from Matawan, N.J., was no match for the experience of Beers, who runs as a NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series regular for George Bierce, aside from his local stops and appearances in RoC events.

"Experience is a help," Beers continued. "I ran here as a regular in the 90s and again around 2000 and 2001. I have a sense of what it takes to run here."

Numerous restarts, including the final wave of the green with seven laps remaining, put his transmission problems to the test. However, Beers easily outdistanced Sesely to record the triumph.

"We run such a tall gear that as long as I could keep my RPMs up, it was alright," Beers explained. "Actually, on the late restarts being in high gear helped me out because I wasn't spinning the tires like I might have otherwise. It was an advantage on the worn tires."

Beers gave special recognition to his Ritter-built engine, which carried him to victories at Tioga (N.Y.) Motorsports Park (on July 23), along with the RoC score at Oswego and Sunday's King of the Mountain.

In his third ever Modified start at the Mountain, Sesely was thrilled with a $1,000 runner-up effort.

"The car kind of fell off," noted Sesely, who started 14th. "I was better on the short runs than the long runs, which was good because it seemed like we had a thousand cautions at the end."

Did Sesely feel he had anything for Beers?

"No way, he was the rocket man!" Sesely surmised. "The guy was awesome."

Thirteenth-starter Mike Adams of Berwick, Pa., finished third. It was Adams's first run with a new Morgantini engine under the hood of his Raceworks No. 68.

"We didn't time trial that well, but we came back today and had a good car," said Adams, a 45-year-old veteran of the region's pavement wars. "The car loosened up on me toward the end; I think it was more the temperature and the dampness setting in than anything with the car itself."

Hampton Bays, N.Y.'s Dan Jivanelli finished fourth in the best effort for the Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway contingent and Lou Strohl of Palmerton, Pa., rounded out the top five.

Eighteen cautions slowed the event. Caution laps did not count.

A red flag was displayed on lap four when a number of drivers complained of limited visibility due to sun glare entering turn three.

26 Modifieds signed into the pit area. Hirschman set fast time on Saturday afternoon with a 13.731 second lap.

A bizarre sequence of events in the late stages of the 75-lap Late Model feature didn't faze Larry Fisher, as the Fern Glen, Pa., native recorded the green-to-checkered win from the pole position.

Piloting a Ford-powered, self-built No. 19 owned by Gary Fisher (no relation), the former Mahoning Valley champion held a comfortable lead for much of the distance before three cautions on lap 73 placed Jim Wismer Jr., who pitted for tires just moments prior, on his heels for a two-lap shootout.

Fisher fended off Wismer to secure the $1,500 payday.

"The restarts were really great until the last one," Fisher, 39, revealed. "They screwed around so long on that last caution that my tires got cold and the car went away.

"I thought he (Wismer) might have been able to get a run."

Though Upper Black Eddy, Pa.'s Wismer crossed the stripe second position, he received a post-race two spot penalty (see related story elsewhere in AARN), handing second to Alan Moyer. Joe Hoffman inherited third, with Wismer with Brian Defebo in tow.

2004 champion Brad Kline of Mountain Top, Pa., emerged victorious in the 75-lap Street Stock headliner.

Kline grabbed the lead from polesitter Jim Yamelski with an outside move following a lap-31 restart, then fended off the challenges of Scott Meckes through lapped traffic to record the $1,000 win. Meckes, Yamelski, Bill Weichert and Chip Wanamaker rounded out the top five.

NOTABLE: 19 Late Models and 20 Street Stocks joined the healthy Modified field in front of the speedway's largest crowd of the 2004 season..

Late Model winner Fisher, a chassis-builder in the division, said he was so busy building cars for other people over the winter he got a late start to his own efforts. His triumphant effort on Sunday was only his fifth outing of the season.

Some difficulty in realigning the Modified field transpired due to a communication breakdown between the scoring tower and the drivers, who had to relay messages through the team spotters..

King of the Mountain Modified Feature Finish: ERIC BEERS, Anthony Sesely, Mike Adams, Dan Jivanelli, Lou Strohl, Chuck Steuer, Dave Sapienza, Tim Santee, Bill Eastman, Ken Heagy, Wes Swartout, Jason Arthofer, Brian Defebo, Wayne Szerenzsits, Dave Koroleski, Tommy Flanagan, Rick Reichenbach, Ken Vogel Jr., Chip Santee, Don Wagner, Matt Hirschman, Eddie Brunhoelzl III, Kevin Graver Jr., Jim Long.

Did Not Start: Amanda Sesely, Tyler Haydt.

Late Model Feature Finish: LARRY FISHER, Alan Moyer, Joe Hoffman, Jim Wismer Jr., Brian Defebo, Barry Callavini, Joe Schneider, Brad Smales, Joe Barretta, Roger Maynor, Carl Altemose, Amber Levendowski, Mike Higgins, Todd Geist, Mike Sweeney, Paul Koehler, Billy Pruitt, Walt DeMorris, Joe Barbush Jr., Jason Arthofer.

Street Stock Feature Finish: BRAD KLINE, Scott Meckes, Jim Yamelski, Bill Weichert, Chip Wanamaker, Dean Kline, Shawn Sitarchyk, Todd Ahner, JR Roth, Mike Garris Sr., Dennis Buss, Mike Rodriquez, Mathias Hoffman, Eric Danyluk, Jay Llewellyn, Jim McGlaughlin, Bob Hunsicker, John LaBadia, Donny Hartzell.

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