Story By: DINO OBERTO / EVERGREEN RACEWAY – BUTLER TOWNSHIP, PA – Evergreen Raceway played host to the INEX Legends on Sunday afternoon and with national points on the line along with an incentive of additional lap money, a solid field of cars signed in for the 25-lap feature.
Yet, despite a great line-up of competitors, none could match up to that of winner Tanner Jones of Glen Gardner, NJ, who was able to lead from start to finish.
Tanner, who drew the pole, wasted no time in grabbing the lead once the race commenced and would leave his counterparts to fight for second on back.
And, indeed it was a great ongoing battle for the runner-up spot throughout the event. Rodney Dowless Jr., held the position early on but by mid-race was battling back and forth with the likes of Brad Lowmaster, Jeffery Farrugia and Kevin Nowak.
Nowak, who was the most recent Evergreen Legends winner on June 9, hustled his way to second after a late, hard-fought duel with Dowless. However, once he secured that spot there was no advancing at the leader as Jones was not to be denied and held solid in attaining his first ever victory at Evergreen.
After Nowak and Dowless it was Farruggia and Lowmaster rounding out the top five.
For Noah “Chub” Jensen of Hobby, it was no contest in his winning for the second time this season with the Rotten-and-Forgotten as he blistered the field in a positively dominating run, besting the pack by better than a half track at the checkers.
Starting fourth, Jensen raced to the front after getting by his brother, Jon Jensen, after brief side-by-side battle that concluded with the lead changing hands at the start of lap seven.
The rest of the way N. Jensen stretched out his advantage and he cruised to his division leading seventh win. The Jensen clan would fill out the top five also with Sam, Tom, Dan and Jon rounding out the top five.
In the Novice class Riley Titus of Berwick unveiled a brand new race car and its first time in competition also produced his first time in Victory Lane.
Titus inherited the top spot after early leader Sarabeth Mesko and Lexus Kutz tangled on lap four. Titus was close behind but able to avoid the incident and was then elevated to the lead afterwards.
From there on he remained on point with consistent and steady laps en route to his memorable career first win. Caitlyn Makarewicz was keeping a close pace and scored the runner-up spot for the second time in the past three races.
The day concluded with a 100-lap Enduro and amazingly the race went nonstop and just as amazing was the run turned in by Mark Spencer of Berwick who stayed out front the entire time and claimed his second Enduro win of the year.
Spencer was very precise in his navigation of getting by traffic lap after lap and by the time he reached the checkers, he was the only car that competed the distance, besting runner-up Dan Cascioli by one lap.
Cascioli, despite being one lap down at the finish, did a great job of keeping Spencer in his sights for the majority of the race and did not fall off the lead lap until a few circuits to go.
Steven Brooks was third and did a good job of running in the top five over the entire second half. Jimmy Ayre was fourth and also a front runner the entire time while Adam Kratzer ran a steady race to compete the top five.
Legends feature finish (25 laps): 1. Tanner Jones, 2. Kevin Nowak, 3. Rodney Dowless Jr., 4. Jeffery Farruggia, 5. Brad Lowmaster, 6. Charlie Hodge, 7. Philip Alaimo V, 8. Joey Przybylinski, 9. Jack Gerzabek, 10. Chevy Rommeney, 11. Michael Metcalf, 12. Kevin Ohrnberger, 13. Ed Stadtlander, 14. Justin Teresak, 15. Nick Hodge, 16. Cliff Shaw Jr., 17. Michael Simagra
Rotten-and-Forgotten feature finish (25 laps): 1. Noah Jensen, 2. Sam Jensen, 3. Tom Jensen, 4. Dan Jensen, 5. Jon Jensen, 6. Larry Spencer, 7. Vince Corter, 8. Hunter Sterner
Novice feature finish (12 laps): 1. Riley Titus, 2. Caitlyn Makarewicz, 3. Connor Shotwell, 4. Sarabeth Mesko, 5. Savannah Romig, 6, Lexus Kutz, 7. Abby McNulty
Bandolero feature finish (12 laps): 1. Easton Houghtaling, 2. John Alaimo, 3. Jordan Smith, 4. Alyson Smith, 5. Kamden Wheeler, 6. Tori Miller, 7. Aria Ligon, 8. Brooke Meyer
Enduro feature finish (100 laps): 1. Mark Spencer, 2. Danny Cascioli, 3. Steven Brooks, 4. Jimmy Ayre, 5. Adam Kratzer, 6. Peter Verwys, 7. Ron Hendershot, 8. Micah Adams, 9. Steve Tito, 10. Kyle Troch, 11. Mark Rittenhouse Jr., 12. Jason Koch, 13. Billy Both, 14. Paul Mercante, 15. Tony Rispin, 16. Kevin Behler, 17. Dan Shrimp, 18. David Baker Sr., 19. Michael Fragola 20. Dan Baker, 21. TJ Kapish DNS: Harry O’Neill