ST. JOHNS, Pa. -- Berwick, PA’s Brian Defebo made it known that he was the man to beat in the Balliet’s Country Corners modified division during the final Friday night show of the season at Mountain Speedway.

Kory Rabenold started at the point for the 30-lap modified feature, but after one circuit was complete, Tim Santee, driving the Prolog #X6, took control of the event. Steven Reed, Donny Hartzell and Ryan Preece motored by Rabenold as well.

Reed applied heavy pressure to Santee and made the pass for the lead stick on lap three. Santee continued in second, but was overtaken by Hartzell a few laps later. When lap six showed on the lap counter, Brian Defebo was shown in the third spot.

A slow Wayne Szerencsits on the front stretch brought out the lap twelve caution and allowed the field to bunch up for the single file restart, something that Defebo was wishing for. When green flag racing resumed, Defebo, driving his #53 Defebo Graphics modified quickly disposed of Hartzell for second and set his sites on Reed. On the following lap, Defebo’s outside pass on Reed put him out front, where to drove off to his eighth feature win of the season. “The car wasn’t too good earlier, but my crew worked on it and brought it to me”, noted Defebo. “I just want a few more of these things (wins), and it should be enough to get me in the Area Auto Racing News top 10 win list”.

Heat winners were Donny Hartzell and Steven Reed

Bob Ankner led the late model drivers to the drop of the green flag, but total mayhem broke loose when Ankner’s machined snapped around entering turn one. Three quarters of the field collected in the melee, including the current division point leader, Larry Fisher. Others involved were Joe Hoffman, Mike Rodriguez, Jr. and Barry Callavini. Only Callavini and Fisher were able to make repairs and continue.

The call was made by track officials to shorten the event from twenty-five laps to fifteen because of the lack of running cars on the speedway. With no laps complete, it was Jason Makarewicz with the lead in his lap over Jackie Ziegler.

When the green flag flew Makarewicz shot out front over Ziegler, Callavini and Fisher. Callavini soon took second from Ziegler and set out for Makarewicz.

Fisher, after taking a few circuits to settle in, worked around Ziegler and Callavini, and on the seventh lap, took control of the feature. Plagued with a slow right rear tire leak, Makarewicz surrendered second to Callavini.

The final caution of the shootout came with one lap to go, when Ziegler’s engine expired in a big way as she headed down the front stretch. Ziegler immediately pulled to the infield and hurried out of her machine gasping for fresh air. She was uninjured.

Fisher (Fern Glen), driving the Gary Fisher owned, Plum-Air sponsored machine climbed from his badly damaged mount with a huge smile in victory lane. “I owe all of this to the crew” noted Fisher. “When that happened on the start, I thought we were done. Man, just take a look at this thing”.

The win was Fisher’s fifth of the season.

Mike Rodriguez, Jr. was the heat winner.

Leighton’s Scott Meckes wasted no time grabbing the lead after starting from the pole in the 20-lap street stock feature. With Paul Frantz, Bob Hunsicker and Jim Yamelski breathing down his neck, Meckes held the point.

The caution flew on the first lap when Hunsicker ran Frantz up the track in turn four. Displaying a great amount of talent, Frantz nearly spun, but hung on to wait for the caution. Frantz had to restart from the rear of the field.

Hunsicker jumped to the outside of Meckes as the two headed down the backstretch on the second lap. Meckes left an opening underneath, which gave Yamelski an opportunity to try a three-wide move as the trio headed into turn three. Yamelski came out of turn of on top. However, Meckes and Hunsicker were not so lucky, as the two collided. Hunsicker’s day was finished.

Over the remaining laps, Yamelski, driving his LS Bowl-a-Rama sponsored Monte Carlo distanced himself from second place, Brad Kline and the rest of the field enroot to his fourth feature win of the season. “This one’s great! Brad (Kline) is a great driver, and we’ll take all the points we can get. This championship is going to go to the wire for sure,” noted Yamelski.

Jim Yamelski and Brad Kline were heat winners.

From the pole position, Marissa Nelmes led the thriller field to the green in the 20-lap feature. Nelmes quickly leaped out front over Steve Shultz, Richard Petey and Bill Price, Jr. On the second circuit, Price worked his way into the lead and began to drive away from the rest of the field.

The caution flew on lap four when Josh Oswald and Tom Casagrande mad contact in turn four. Both were able to continue.

On the restart Petey had the shot he was looking for to overtake Price. The two staged a serious battle for the top spot, and at times, Petey was able to get his nose under the leader, but couldn’t stick it in far enough for position. That was until the tenth circuit, heading into turn one. Petey got underneath the leader, but the two touched and both went around. The rest of the pack had to get on the binders hard and Nelmes, who had absolutely nowhere to go T-boned Price. Both Price and Nelmes were finished for the evening.

When the field was set Howie Bott, who was third before the restart assumed command. Bott drove off from the field for some time, but Casagrande seemed to come from nowhere and drove up to the rear of Bott.

With two laps remaining, Casagrande drove around the outside of Bott and into the lead. Casagrande looked like he would have his first victory of the season, but after he took the white flag his machine slowed on the backstretch. Bott (Budd Lake, NJ), driving his Joe Suply Custom Car Painter #75 was back in the lead and drove to the checkered flag for his first career thriller feature victory.

Richard Petey won the heat race.

Mechanics race winners were Frank Reakes (street stock) and Bill Verwys, Sr. (thriller).

Mountain Speedway promoter, Joe Callavini set up donation containers to obtain donations from drivers, crews and fans to help the victims of hurricane Katrina. Callavini guaranteed that he would match 100% of the donations collected, which will be given to the Hazleton chapter of the Red Cross.

Mountain Speedway is back to Sunday racing to conclude the ’05 season. Next on the card are all of the speedway’s divisions, which include the modifieds, late models, street stocks, thrillers and four cylinder thrillers. The street stock feature will be 77-lap Cook’s Touch Restaurant Mark Corbisiero memorial in honor of a street stock competitor who lost his life to cancer two years ago. The 77-lapper has a $777 to win prize plus money for being in the top three positions for each sponsored lap. Any driver who ran five or more points events during the season is eligible to participate. Autograph and camera night is also on the card for the Balliet’s Country Corners modifieds. The kid’s big wheel racing will also resume and continue weekly to finish out the season. The big wheel races take place during the drivers meeting. All the action begins with heats on Sunday at 2:00 PM.

RESULTS

Modified (30-laps) 1. BRIAN DEFEBO 2. Steven Reed 3. Donny Hartzell 4. Tim Santee 5. Ryan Preece 6. Ernie Dengler 7. Tommy Flanagan 8. Kory Rabenold 9. Ryan Russo 10. Matt Higgins 11. Alan Decker 12. Wayne Szerencsits

Hard Charger: Brian Defebo, 6 positions

Fast Lap: Brian Defebo, lap 8, 13.745

Late Model (15-laps) 1. LARRY FISHER 2. Barry Callavini 3. Jason Makarewicz 4. Jackie Ziegler 5. Bob Ankner 6. Joe Hoffman 7. Mike Rodriguez, Jr. 8. Jim Brown

Hard Charger: Barry Callavini, 4 positions

Fast Lap: Larry Fisher, lap 9, 14.969

Street Stock (20-laps) 1. JIM YAMELSKI 2. Brad Kline 3. Todd Ahner 4. Brad Barbush 5. Chip Wanamaker 6. Paul Frantz 7. Dan Casicioli 8. Scott Meckes 9. Mike Shadder 10. Frank Katona 11. Bob Hunsicker 12. John Labadia 13. Rich Dimarco

Hard Charger: Brad Kline, 7 positions

Fast Lap: Brad Barbush, lap 8, 15.890

Thriller (20-laps) 1. HOWIE BOTT 2. Richard Petey 3. Josh Oswald 4. Kevin Makarewicz 5. Pat Verwys 6. Mark Paine 7. Tom Cassagrande 8. Steve Shultz 9. Marissa Nelmes DQ: Bill Price

Hard Charger: Josh Oswald, 6 positions

Fast Lap: Tom Casagrande, lap 14, 17.295

Mechanics Races:

Thrillers (10-laps) 1. BILL VERWYS, SR. 2. Billy Bartley 3. Charlie McKeown 4. Mark Moroski 5. Cindy Bott 6. Sue Yamelski DNS: Gene Ostrowski

Street Stock (10-laps) 1. FRANK REAKES 2. William Cascioli 3. David Shrout 4. Ron Babula, Sr.