June 18, 2016 by Lou Long

(Mercer, PA June 18, 2016): Russell King had a $3,000 payday in the United Late Model Series event at Mercer Raceway Park. Although King and his racing family have scored many victories at the tricky track, it was his first with all of the fenders attached. Speaking of his Late Model performances, King said “it seems like every time we come here, we run good or we crash. Tonight it was checkers, no wreckers.”

Dave Hess, Jr. jumped out to an early lead in the ULMS go, but King kept Hess in his sights over the first five laps. What was shaping up to be a classic confrontation between the two hard chargers came to an early and disappointing end when Hess’ car suddenly stopped between turns three and four, ending his night. “He was struggling through the center,” King said of Hess before the leader came to a halt. King explained why he was content to follow Hess. “I lost too many by being too stupid too early, so I just tried to be patient.”

That gave the lead to King, and he wasted no time in stretching out his advantage. At one point, King had what appeared to be an insurmountable lead, more than a full straightaway in length. But, as he patiently worked around lapped traffic, Max Blair began to close in.

King had positioned himself to pick his way through the traffic, with the hopes of pinning Blair behind some of the slower cars. “I lost last night, we were leading and I got stuck behind lapped traffic, and I had it in my head that I was going to roll over every lapped car if I had to, ’cause I didn’t want to lose again like that,” King said. However, a caution with just five laps remaining cleared the traffic. The question on everybody’s mind then was whether King was just being patient in traffic, or whether Blair was just that much faster.

When the green light flashed on again, everybody got their answer. King blasted out to a three or four car length advantage, which he maintained the rest of the way to the checkers. Indeed, Jared Miley took a run on Blair for second on the outside of turns one and two, but Blair shot off the inside of turn two to keep him at bay.

King took the win, with Blair, and Miley crossing before John Volpe and Brent Rhebergen. Greg Oakes also nudged ahead of Keith Barbara, who was shuffled out of the top five in the final few rounds. Charlie Powell rebounded from a flat tire to take eighth. Breyton Santee and Scott Alveto rounded out the top ten.

Miley, Hess, and Blair prevailed in their respective preliminaries. The evening’s fastest qualifier for the ULMS Late Models was Blair, a former track champion back in the days of the Crate Late Model division.

ULMS Late Models: Russell King, Max Blair, Jared Miley, John Volpe, Brent Rhebergen, Greg Oakes, Keith Barbara, Charlie Powell, Breyton Santee, Scott Alveto, Chad Wright, Levi Sikora, Matt Latta, Ken Schaffer, Dave Hess, Jr., Bobby Rohrer, Tim Burns, Michael Oakes, Clay Ruffo.