06/07/2026
McCandless muscles to $4000 in Bob McClay memorial 410 sprint car win; Bittner captures 1st Mercer 305 win; Holden takes 2nd 602 crate mod win; Eakman takes 2nd mini stock main.
By Jim Balentine
(Mercer, Pa)
It was a night of firsts for the 1st regular show of the 75TH season of Michaels Mercer raceway park presented by Sunbelt rentals and Erme’s Inc. as the track was able to beat Mother Nature to complete the first Saturday show; Logan McCandless won the $4000 Bob McClay memorial in the 410 sprints; and 3 new first time winners with Timmy Bittner nothing his first Mercer Mercantile, IMCA racesaver sprint car feature; Kole Holden finally won his 2nd career Mercer top shelf trucking dirt 602 crate sportsman modified feature; and Josh Eakman won his 2nd Mercer king Forest products SCDRA mini stock feature. The entire program was completed by 10:20 with not one raindrop in sight.
After traveling 4 hours to Lincoln speedway near Gettysburg Pa, and having the event canceled, Logan McCandless drove all the way back home and picked up the $4000 Bob McClay memorial just a mere 10 minutes from home.
After setting quick time and winning his heat race local Mercer driver Logan McCandless would be on the pole for the 25 lap $4000 to win event and would lead every lap to take his 2nd career Mercer 410 win in 10 minutesafter driving 4 hours from rained out Lincoln speedway. “I can’t thank the McClay family for putting up the money for tonight! we actually drove the speed limit from Lincoln! We had something for Lincoln and we knew what we liked here so we had our guys hop into the back of the trailer while I was driving around Cranberry and did some set up changes. The car was starting to fade at the end and I knew I had to be aggressive in lapped traffic. My parents spend a lot of money for us to drive all over the country , the track was great from top to bottom. “
Adam Kekich finished where he started in 2nd 1.8 seconds behind McCandless, Brandon Spithaler would finish third; AJ Flick who would recover from a broken car at Lenerville finished fourth and Mike Bauer from seventh would finish fifth.
Timmy Bittner would drive 160 miles west from Beech Creek Pa to finally nab his first Mercer Mercantile IMCA racesaver 305 sprint win at Mercer. This was his fifth win in a row after winning at Hagerstown , Selinsgrove and at Clinton County the previous night and has 6 wins on the calendar year. A good battle behind would be between Brent Brunkenhofer and Jarrett Rosencrance, as both would fight for second position throughout the race. Brunkenhofer would finish 2nd, Rosencrance 3rd , Tommy Jasen , who would return to racing after a couple years off would finish fourth and recent graduate from high school Jazlyn Boyles in fifth. Timmy would say, “We’ve been on a roll and I am grateful to have a family and a team like I have !! These smaller tracks are elbows up racing and a little more exciting than the big tracks. It’s been two long nights I didn’t even get to bed until 6 am this morning after Clinton county last night.”
The top shelf trucking dirt 602 crate sportsman modified feature would again be ultra competitive and another different winner in Kole Holden, who was finally able to pick up his first win at Mercer since Sept 30 2022 leading from the pole. Kole would say, “the team had the car handling good all night! we love our Troyer car and we were able to get the lead and able to drive away. I’ve just run 1 race so far and I wish we had more racing so it’s just disappointing we haven’t been able to race more.”
Darrin Gallagher would finish in second, Karston King third, Eric Gabany last weeks winner would finish fourth, and Todd English 5th.
The King Forest products SCDRA mini stock feature would go down to the last lap as Josh Eakman would pick up his second career win after a wild last lap as the lead two cars of Randy Ealy and Andrew Thompson would collide in turn four sending them both to the high side, and Eakman would power his car through to the checkered flag beating Ealy by .917 of a second. Mike Kelly would finish in third Thompson relegated to fourth, and Ben Alex 5th.
Michaels Mercer Raceway will be dark next week but will be back in action on Saturday, June 20 with first responder night.
Media Results for 6/6/2026 at Michaels Mercer Raceway - Mercer, PA
Mercer mercantile IMCA Racesaver 305 Sprints 11 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps | 00:13:06.678
1. 01-Timmy Bittner[1]; 2. 47-Brett Brunkenhoefer[3]; 3. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[5]; 4. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[6]; 5. 21N-Samantha Priest[8]; 6. 82M-Roman Jones[2]; 7. 34M-Aaron Marano[4]; 8. 17S-Mike Schellhaas[9]; 9. 20M-Vivian Jones[11]; 10. (DNS) 72-Mike Mathieson; 11. (DQ) 12G-Thomas Jasen Jr[7]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:10:03.000
1. 01-Timmy Bittner[3]; 2. 47-Brett Brunkenhoefer[1]; 3. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[4]; 4. 12G-Thomas Jasen Jr[5]; 5. 17S-Mike Schellhaas[6]; 6. 20M-Vivian Jones[2]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:04:45.000
1. 82M-Roman Jones[1]; 2. 34M-Aaron Marano[2]; 3. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[5]; 4. 21N-Samantha Priest[4]; 5. 72-Mike Mathieson[3]
Mini Stocks King's Forest Products 11 Entries
A Feature 1 15 Laps
1. 55-Josh Eakman; 2. 38-Randy Ealy; 3. 6-Mike Kelly 4. 45- Andrew Thompson: 5. 9R-Ben Aley[7]; 6. 0-Carl Ealy[5]; 7. 67J-Jamie Duncan[6]; 8. 54-Tim Callahan[11]; 9. 5-Andy Thompson[8]; 10. 325Z-Zack Swartz[10]; 11. (DNS) 17M-Mike Salsgiver;
Heat 1 6 Laps | 00:02:04.896
1. 38-Randy Ealy[1]; 2. 6-Mike Kelley[2]; 3. 0-Carl Ealy[3]; 4. 9R-Ben Aley[4]; 5. 17M-Mike Salsgiver[5]; 6. 54-Tim Callahan[6]
Heat 2 6 Laps | 00:02:08.771
1. 45-Andrew Thompson[4]; 2. 55-Josh Eakman[3]; 3. 67J-Jamie Duncan[5]; 4. 5-Andy Thompson[2]; 5. 325Z-Zack Swartz[1]
DIRT 602 Crate Sportsman Top Shelf Trucking 16 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps | 00:13:25.856
1. 2-Kole Holden[1]; 2. 23-Darin Gallagher[2]; 3. 165K-Karston King[3]; 4. 3E-Eric Gabany[5]; 5. 7 11-Todd English[10]; 6. 7P-Caden Petry[9]; 7. 717-Bill Adams[8]; 8. 71-Gage Priester[11]; 9. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[4]; 10. 41-Brian Schaffer[15]; 11. 12*-Troy Pinch[13]; 12. 21X-Ryan Riffe[12]; 13. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[14]; 14. 28J-Jacob Jordan[6]; 15. 58-Logen Lockhart[7]; 16. 12L-Patrick Lane[16]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:04:08.499
1. 2-Kole Holden[1]; 2. 3E-Eric Gabany[4]; 3. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[2]; 4. 58-Logen Lockhart[8]; 5. 7P-Caden Petry[3]; 6. 71-Gage Priester[5]; 7. 12*-Troy Pinch[7]; 8. 41-Brian Schaffer[6]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:22.196
1. 23-Darin Gallagher[1]; 2. 165K-Karston King[3]; 3. 717-Bill Adams[2]; 4. 28J-Jacob Jordan[7]; 5. 7 11-Todd English[8]; 6. 21X-Ryan Riffe[5]; 7. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[4]; 8. 12L-Patrick Lane[6]
410 Sprints - Winged 14 Entries
A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:09:57.557
1. 29-Logan McCandless[1]; 2. 5K-Adam Kekich[2]; 3. 22-Brandon Spithaler[3]; 4. 2-AJ Flick[5]; 5. 46-Michael Bauer[8]; 6. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[6]; 7. 6-Bob Felmlee[4]; 8. 13-Brandon Matus[9]; 9. 20B-Cody Bova[7]; 10. 08-Danny Kuriger[11]; 11. 38-Leyton Wagner[10]; 12. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[12]; 13. 47-Dusty Larson[13]; 14. 33-Brent Matus[14]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:13.811
1. 29-Logan McCandless[1]; 2. 22-Brandon Spithaler[3]; 3. 2-AJ Flick[2]; 4. 20B-Cody Bova[6]; 5. 13-Brandon Matus[4]; 6. 08-Danny Kuriger[5]; 7. 47-Dusty Larson[7]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:18.207
1. 5K-Adam Kekich[1]; 2. 6-Bob Felmlee[2]; 3. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau[4]; 4. 46-Michael Bauer[3]; 5. 38-Leyton Wagner[5]; 6. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[6]; 7. 33-Brent Matus[7]
Qualifying 1 | 00:15:38.000
1. 29-Logan McCandless, 14.196[7]; 2. 5K-Adam Kekich, 14.242[9]; 3. 2-AJ Flick, 14.250[1]; 4. 6-Bob Felmlee, 14.257[3]; 5. 22-Brandon Spithaler, 14.384[8]; 6. 46-Michael Bauer, 14.400[2]; 7. 13-Brandon Matus, 14.522[5]; 8. 32B-Jeremy Kornbau, 14.582[4]; 9. 08-Danny Kuriger, 14.589[11]; 10. 38-Leyton Wagner, 14.720[10]; 11. 47-Dusty Larson, 14.947[6]; 12. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr, 14.966[14]; 13. 20B-Cody Bova, 15.075[13]; 14. 33-Brent Matus, 15.075[
