Sharon Speedway
Sharon's RUSH event goes to Pegher
HARTFORD, Ohio (May 25) — Mike Pegher, Jr. of Wexford, Pa., charged from the ninth starting spot in Saturday’s RUSH Dirt Late Model Series event at Sharon Speedway on his way to claiming a $1,500 victory on the first-year Crate Late Model tour.
Pegher escaped unscathed from a major accident that took out several of the frontrunners and later overtook Chad Ruhlman of -- on the ensuing restart before leading the remainder of the 25-lap feature.
"I saw it at the last second," Pegher, 27, said of the major pileup. "I was hoping there wasn't going to be anyone below me because I cut the wheel hard to the left.
“The first couple laps I looked up and we were fifth or sixth. I knew we had a good car. I didn't know what was going to happen on that restart with Chad (Ruhlman). I figured he was going to take the outside and my only chance to get him was going to be to drive as hard as I could in turn one. I have to thank all of my sponsors and I just have one crew guy now, and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here."
By virtue of his John Buzzard Memorial K&N Dash victory, Ruhlman earned the pole for the feature and was able to out-drag Josh Holtgraver into turn one for the early lead with Holtgraver, Ryan Montgomery, Chad Wright, and seventh-starting Rick Singleton in tow. Holtgraver pulled even with Ruhlman on lap two, but Ruhlman was able to maintain the lead.
Pegher was on the move as he cracked the top five on lap three getting by Singleton then drove by Wright for fourth on lap five. Twelfth-starting Will Thomas III was another racer making his way forward. Thomas went toe-to-toe with Wright for the fourth position on laps eight and nine and made the pass stick on the ninth circuit.
As the laps ticked off without a caution, the top five of Ruhlman, Holtgraver, Montgomery, Pegher, and Thomas pulled away. Action began to heat up as lapped traffic loomed ahead. Holtgraver ducked under Ruhlman in turn four on lap 16 using traffic to his advantage to lead the lap. The duo continued to race side-by-side as did Pegher and Montgomery right behind them for third.
Ruhlman was able to keep the momentum going on the top side to grab the lead back on lap 17. Holtgraver didn't go away as they kept their side-by-side battle going on lap 18. Holtgraver appeared to have the advantage to retake the lead off the bottom of turn four on lap 18, but Ruhlman and MichaelLake made contact, which sent Lake's car hard into Holtgraver's right rear.
From then on cars scattered everywhere. Montgomery was sideways and Wright and Thomas made hard contact. Wright, Montgomery, and Thomas all received heavy damage and were shaken, but okay. Holtgraver, who nearly missed the accident, suffered a flat tire from the contact with Lake. Holtgraver was awarded The Brake Man's Tough Brake of the Night Award.
When racing resumed, Pegher got a great restart to take charge of the event and lead lap 18. Glenn Elliott, who started 13th, lined up fourth for the restart and passed Singleton. Only two more laps would be completed when the final caution would be displayed for Shane Weaver and Rocky Kugel.
The last six laps went caution-free. Pegher chose the bottom for the restart and never looked back as he drove off for a convincing win by 4.238 seconds in the Lynn Geisler-owned, No. 1 Cochran, Alternative Power Sources, Pegher Painting, Triple-S Auto Outlet, Zero Wraps-sponsored machine. The victory for Pegher was his second of the season at Sharon and division leading eighth of his career.
Ruhlman rode home second for his best finish of the season.
"Congratulations to Mike," Ruhlman said. "I always like to see him win- he's a good clean driver. I got aero tight after that accident. We lost six inches of our nose piece and at that point Mike just left us. I was trying to bend the car too much just to keep it down on the bottom. The race track was awesome tonight."
Elliott, who finished runner-up to Singleton in the opening event at Hagerstown, was able to beat him across the line Saturday night for third to tie him for the point lead.
"I have to thank the track for having us here and RUSH- what a good thing they've got going," expressed the Finksburg, Md., driver. "We got to running pretty hard there and all I wanted to do was get past Rick (Singleton) and it didn't seem like it was going to happen then the caution came out and things just went our way to get ahead of him. I don't know how I pulled that deal off on the frontstretch, but it was fun."
RUSH @ Sharon: (1) Mike Pegher Jr., (2) Chad Ruhlman, (3) Glenn Elliott, (4) Rick Singleton, (5) Dan Angelicchio, (6) Shaun Hooks, (7) Dennis Lunger, Jr., (8) Bobby Whitling, (9) Joe Martin (10) John Over, (11) Lauren Longbrake, (12) Butch Lamber, (13) Jorden Peters, (14) Matt Latta, (15) Shane Weaver, (16) Rocky Kugel, (17) Josh Holtgraver, (18) Clay Ruffo, (19) Bill Cunningham, (20) Ryan Montgomery, (21) Will Thomas III, (22) Chad Wright, (23) Mickey Wright (24) Josh Double (25) Michael Lake, (26) Matt Glanden. Heat winners (among 31 cars): Singleton, Whitling, Longbrake, Wright.
