by Chris Meyers

Sandusky, Ohio- During the last few years in MSA competition, Dave Shullick Jr. and Charlie Schultz dominated at Sandusky Speedway. After this weekend, another driver accomplished that feat. The first two MSA shows at Sandusky this year saw Timmy Jedrzejek put the Reed’s Salvage machine in victory lane. Jedrzejek continued his dominance by taking his third win at Sandusky this season.

Veteran hot shoes Randy Burch and Rich Reid brought the field of eighteen PPG Vibrance supers to the green flag with Reid taking the early lead. Caution would fall on lap three for Bobby Dawson who spun over the hill in turn one. Dawson was able to do a few 360’s and keep it going but was charged with the caution. By this point, Canadian Mark Sammut worked his way up to second from the sixth starting position. With five laps in the books, it was Reid, Sammut, Tim Jedrzejek, Charlie Schultz, and Burch. Jedrzejek impressively motored and navigated his way to the lead by passing both Sammut and Reid on lap seven. Sammut and Schultz would both maneuver by Reid for second and third respectively on lap ten.

A third of the way into the race it was now Jedrzejek, Sammut, Schultz, Reid, and Burch. On lap fourteen, ACME Racing teammates Burch and Trent Stephens both passed Reid. By this point, Jedrzejek had already stretched his lead into a straightaway as he was clearly the dominant car. However, Jedrzejek’s lead was wiped out as Mike Haury would spin out in turn two prompting a yellow flag to be thrown on lap sixteen. Tim Ice would rejoin the field several laps down after pitting during an earlier caution. Jedrzejek led Sammut, Schultz, Burch, and Stephens to the green flag once again. Schultz had a perfectly timed restart and was able to get around Sammut at the start-finish line. Schultz set his sights on Jedrzejek but wasn’t able to put enough pressure on Jedrzejek to make a late race challenge. Jon Henes picked up a few more spots in the later stages of the race passing Reid and Kyle Edwards. Jedrzejek beat Schultz, Sammut, Burch, and Stephens to the checkered flag.

Timmy Jedrzejek opened up a big lead during the race but didn’t have time to let up. The Independence, Ohio hot shoe explained, “I didn’t know where Schultz, Stephens, and the rest of the guys were at behind me. I thought I had a little bit of time to pace myself but not a whole lot. We really worked hard for thirty laps and I didn’t have time to ease up. I’d like to thank the Reed’s Salvage team and the entire Reed family for giving us this opportunity. The support they all give us makes our job that much easier. We couldn’t do it without them. I also have to thank PPG for all their help with MSA. It’s nice to be teamed up with a class organization like PPG. Hopefully, it leads to more things in the future.”

Charlie Schultz had a good battle with Mark Sammut during the race but encountered a little holdup during race. He stated, “It’s always a battle with either Timmy or I getting out front first. His car went and I got hung up a little bit. It took me a bit longer to get by some guys. We missed on the stagger and the car was pretty tight. I can’t say enough about all these fans that came out here today, PPG Vibrance for supporting MSA, David and Lori May, and all the guys that work on this deal. I can’t thank everybody enough.”

Third Place
finisher Mark Sammut continued his strong and impressive supermodified season after picking up an MSA win earlier in the year at Dunn-Tire Raceway Park. Sammut worked hard on his car throughout the weekend for the feature event. He explained, “We always struggle at Sandusky so we definitely changed things till we thought we were close. We were awefully close but those two had faster cars then we did. Hey, we’ll take a third. The car was pretty good and as good as it was going to be. We are more then glad to finish third.”

On Saturday night, Timmy Jedrzejek took top qualifying honors beating out Charlie Schultz and Mark Sammut. Schultz and Rich Reid took home heat race wins. Schultz also claimed the fifteen lap “Dash for Cash” event. After the race, the members of the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series awarded Gene Lee Gibson the “Dion Parish Perseverance Award”. The award is given to a driver that best carries on the “Never Give Up” that Dion Parish displayed.

The PPG Vibrance Collection Super Series wraps up the season at Lorain County Speedway on Saturday October 3rd, 2009. Defending MSA champion Timmy Jedrzejek looks for his fifth MSA championship next weekend with a twenty point lead over Charlie Schultz. For more information on the MSA, please visit http://www.midwestsupers.com

Qualifying: Jedrzejek (14.426), Schultz(14.468), Sammut (14.727), Stephens (14.738), Edwards (14.793), Ice (14.900), B. Fisher (14.918)

Heat 1: Charlie Schultz, Randy Burch, Trent Stephens, Tim Ice, Bobby Dawson, Matt Palmer, Jim Shirey, Joe Armbruster, Mike Haury, Gene Lee Gibson

Heat 2: Rich Reid, Mark Sammut, Kyle Edwards, Timmy Jedrzejek, Brandon Fisher, Jack Smith, Denny Fisher, Jon Henes, Jimmy Paller, Kyle Reed (DNS)

Dash for Cash (15 laps): Schultz, Sammut, Henes, Reid, Smith, Dawson, Palmer, Gibson, Paller, Ice

Feature-30 laps (8-car inversion): Jedrzejek (8), Schultz (7), Sammut (78), Burch (49), Stephens (19), Henes (36), Dawson (28), Edwards (11), Reid (55), D. Fisher (81), Shirey (2), Smith (09), Armbruster (73), Ice (77), Haury (43), Gibson (0), B. Fisher (12), Reed (08)

Lap Leaders: Reid (1-6), Jedrzejek (7-30)

Comments are closed.