LEHIGHTON, Pa. -- Brian DeFebo has four championships and over 50 career wins at Mountain Speedway. He has been a strong supporter of the Sunoco Race of Champions Tour and even did stints on the NASCAR Modified and Busch North Tours. Yet despite all he’s accomplished, a personal goal was to win a race at Mahoning Valley Speedway.

All season long DeFebo has been doing double duty between Mountain on Friday nights and then Saturday racing at Mahoning. While he has been having a typical winning-at-will year at the St. Johns 1/3-miler, the storyline has been much different when it comes to the ¼-mile Lehighton speed bowl.

Often times DeFebo has been in a position to take a checkered flag at Mahoning, he has even led more laps than any driver, yet being first at the finish was starting to seem unforeseeable.

Saturday afternoon that goal became a reality as the Berwick resident used an outside pass on Kevin Graver, Jr., after a lap five restart and then endured a rash of cautions and unbearable heat in garnering the elusive win.

“We’ve won a lot of races at Mountain (Speedway) but to finally come somewhere else and win a race this really feels good,” an emotionally happy DeFebo said from Victory Lane.

“We struggled here all year and this is just awesome. I don’t often get choked-up but this really is awesome.”

Graver and Jarred Nace shared the front row and at the drop of Dick Brown’s race commencing green it was Graver who charged out front followed by third starting DeFebo.

The beaming sun and high temperatures played havoc on the field as most drivers fought hard to gain grip which resulted in a rash of spins during the afternoon run event.

It was clear to see though that DeFebo’s car was set-up best as he seemingly had no trouble in maneuvering around.

His race winning move occurred after a lap five restart when he jetted past Graver for the lead. From there his prime resistance came from Eric Kocher who made numerous tries at stealing away his position.

Kocher’s fine run ended during a lengthy restart attempt on the 24th circuit when he spun, wound up with a flat and was then towed behind the wall.

Rod Snyder then took up pursuit but he had nothing to show as DeFebo led the way to the checkered flag and became the 14th different Modified feature winner in 17 races thus far.

“The car was really good and I just wanted to run my own line. They had to beat me. One thing about Mahoning is how everybody always runs clean most of the time,” said DeFebo.

“The track was very slick today. I went out in only one practice today and it was a shot in the dark and it paid off.”

Last week’s winner Scott Lesher, John Markovic and Rusty Smith rounded out the top five.

This was also the tune-up race for the upcoming August 20 Sunoco Race of Champions 75-lap event.

Mike Sweeney was able to turn around several bad weeks of racing as he led every lap of the Late Model feature.

Sweeney had little trouble at fending off point leader Paul Koehler, Jr., for his third win of the year and with that remains locked in a very tight championship battle that also includes third place finisher Mike Radocha, Jr.

In Street Stock action Stephen Steigerwalt withstood the division’s top two stars of Lonnie Behler and Alan Schlenker for his second ’05 win of the season.

Bill Rooney took advantage of his pole starting spot and raced to his career first Pro4 Late Model win.

Scott Hauser was also a first time winner in the Factory Stock class as he held off Damon Edwards for the win.

Mike Garris, Jr., easily cruised to his division leading fifth 4-Cylinder feature win of the year and in doing so took over sole possession of first place in the point standings.

In the 50-lap Small Car Enduro Jon Smith lapped everyone en route to his second such verdict.

RESULTS

Modified (30): 1.Brian DeFebo 2.Rob Snyder 3.Scott Letcher 4.John Markovic 5.Rusty Smith 6.Lou Strohl 7.Tom Shupp 8.Don Wagner 9.Brian Labar 10.Kory Rabenold 11.Roger Heffelfinger 12.Glen Correll 13.Eric Kocher 14.Jarred Nace 15.CJ Jones 16.Kevin Graver 17.Dean Ficarro 18.Rick Kirkendall 19.Bup Dreher 20.John Bennett DNQ Matt Clemens, Tom Flanagan

Late Model (25): 1. Mike Sweeney 2.Paul Koehler 3.Mike Radocha 4.Pat Hargan 5.Lorin Arthofer 6.Larry Fisher 7.Joe Kehrli 8.Mike VanFossen 9.Rick Wallace 10.Bill Hunara 11.Mike Schaeffer 12.Jake Gualano 13.TJ Kemmerer 14.Doug Bell 15.Geno Steigerwalt

Street Stock (20): 1.Stephen Steigerwalt 2.Lonnie Behler 3.Alan Schlenker 4.Jay Llewellyn 5.Mike Quinn 6.Bobby Kibler 7.Chip Wanamaker 8.Shawn Sitarchyk 9.Todd Ahner 10.Randy Ahner Jr. 11.Mark Deysher 12.Dave Laubach 13.Joe Mooney 14.Mike Garris, Sr. 15.Todd Geist 16.Jamie Smith 17.Chris Smith 18.Keith Knappenberger 19.Rodney Gruber 20.Carl Jones

Pro4 Late Model (20): 1.Bill Rooney 2.Kevin Rex Jr. 3.John Moser 4.Todd Baer 5.Randy Schlenker 6.Nolan Fry 7.Bob Soldrich 8.Kevin Graver Sr. 9.Frankie Althouse 10.Corey Hill 11.Alan Schlenker 12.Pat McKnight 13.Jeremy Miller

Factory Stock (20): 1.Scott Hauser 2.Damon Edwards 3.Duane Eidem 4.Justin Steigerwalt 5.Jason Kuhn 6.TJ Gursky 7.Mike Bugarewicz 8.Jeff Drofich 9.Randy Ahner, Sr. 10.Matt Lesher 11.Brian Hughes 12.Doug Knauss 13.James Pritchard Jr.

4-Cylinder (20): 1.Mike Garris Jr. 2.Ross Gursky 3.Dave Freundt 4.Jon Smith 5.Josh Scherer 6.Adam Kratzer 7.Lori Laubach 8.Steve Long archer 9.Jason Frey 10.Scooter Graver 11.Brian Neas 12.Brian Kunkle

Small Car Enduro (50): 1.Jon Smith 2.Brian Kunkle 3.Adam Reich 4.Dave Freundt 5.Adam Kratzer

UPCOMING: 8/20, 6:00 pm, RoC 75-lap Mods, + LM, SS, Pro4, FS, 4Cyl

Pit gates open @ 2:00 pm. Warm-ups and grandstands @ 4:00 Heats @ 6:00

8/27, 6:00 pm Mods, LM, SS, Pro4, FS, 4Cyl, All Star Trucks, Small Car Enduro

Brian DeFebo Gets Long Sought Mahoning Modified Win