Jentile, Kunkle & Stiles Light Things Up
At The Firecracker Smacker
By: Dino Oberto

The ‘Firecracker Smacker’ took place Sunday afternoon at Mahoning Valley Speedway and for the second time in as many events it was Joe Jentile scoring top honors.

Running in the top five over the first half of the 100-lapper, Jentile needed nearly 60-laps before moving out front. Once that occurred, though, he was smooth and steady as he meticulously weaved through traffic and made it look like a textbook run en route to yet another win in NEETS 6/8 Cylinder competition.

Howie Bott raced out to the early lead and was a contender throughout the race. He had given up the lead to Richard Petey who relinquished the top spot to Phil Lamonaco.

Lomonaco, who is a teammate to Jentile, fell from the helm when his counterpart slipped underneath him as the field was completing the 56th tour.

Bott and Lamonaco then battled each other the rest of the way for runner-up honors with Bott earning that position at the checkered flag.

Petey and Tim Pauch rounded out the top-5, both of them two laps down.

For the second time in as many NEETS races a pair of Kunkel’s were also in the Winners Circle with a 1-2 finish in somewhat of a carbon copy of the last race only this time Brian Kunkel beat his dad, Neil Kunkel, which was a reversal of the finish from last month.

Don Rogers notched another solid finish as he took third with Ryan Nelson and Dennis Sizemore completing the front five.

The TRUX race may have been light on racers both there was no shortage of action. Terry Stiles earned a thrilling win as he had a race long battle with Frank Katona and Petey, who was pulling double duty.

Stiles lead virtually the entire race while Katona and Petey repeatedly swapped the runner-up spot, all the while tailgating with the leader. Stiles just barely held on for the exciting win.

RESULTS:

6/8 Cylinder (100 Laps) : 1. Joe Jentile 2. Howie Bott 3. Phil Lomonaco 4. Richard Petey 5. Tim Pauch 6. Kory Stevens 7. TJ Stevens 8. Randy Parsons Jr. 9. Cory Student 10. Mark Spencer 11. Mike Counterman 12. Paul Mercante 13. Bob Kulik 14. Lonnie Behler

4 Cylinder (100 Laps) :1. Brian Kunkel 2. Neil Kunkel 3. Don Rogers 4. Ryan Nelson 5. Dennis Sizemore 6. Scooter Graver 7. Mike Ventura 8. Bob Darde 9. Dave Bentley 10. Jared Ahner 11. Kevin Behler 12. John Saccamondi 13. Jon Smith 14. Dwayne Garrison 15. Art Kulik 16. Lou Honeywell 17. Ken Harper 18. Larry Spencer

TRUX (50 Laps) :1. Terry Stiles 2. Frank Katona 3. Richard Petey 4. Josh Oswald 5. Jeff Gregor 6. Erin Bartley