YankeeRacer.com

Mansfield, OH — Chris Perley said Friday night at Mansfield that he’d run out of luck after a minor wreck on lap six put him out of the 40-lap ISMA-Wirtgen event. But, he added kidding, that he had a new bucket of luck in the trailer, unopened. Saturday night he put that new batch of luck to good use as he stood in victory lane next to a hissing rear tire, which would go flat moments after his post-race interview. A lap or two more and he would not have been there. But, that’s the way things have been going this year – and last, for Perley and the Vic Miller team. Perley’s seventh win of the season puts him two races away from taking over the ISMA all-time feature win list from Pelham, NH’s Russ Wood.

Said Perley, “We just opened that new bucket of good luck because I don’t know if you can hear it, but my tire has a big hole in it. So we pulled this one off tonight. We got lucky. The car was just awesome. Last night was a bit of a disappointment but we just come back and try to do the best we can the next day. And the crew said ‘we’re going to give you a car tonight that will get the job done’ and boy did they because this thing was on a rail.

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Mansfield, OH — Ray Graham Jr. took off from the pole at Mansfield Motorsports Park in Friday night’s ISMA-Wirtgen Super Series 40-lapper and stayed right there to finish in the same spot. It was a career first for the Iowa resident who has been in the hunt on many an occasion. Surviving a red and a couple yellows, Graham looked to be running away with the short sprint, but with ten to go, his 99 car began to falter and Dave Trytek and then young Mike Lichty came on to challenge. Lichty made a last lap, last corner attempt to take what would have been his career first also, but fell short as Graham brought his first win home. Six time winner to date, Chris Perley was out of the action on lap six after a brush, ironically, with Lichty. But it was Graham’s night to shine.

Said Ray in the post race interview; “The car was handling really well in the heat race until the motor started skipping. We thought we had it fixed but in the last ten to twelve laps of the race it started again. I could hear them coming but the motor just wouldn’t go. It kept sputtering. We have something in the fuel system that’s making the motor skip. It plugged up the motor after the heat race. So we’re going to have to find out what that is. If there were another five laps, they probably would have had me. I didn’t know whether it was Mike or Dave at the end there. I just put the car in the middle of the track and if they were going to go around, they were going to work hard for it. The first win feels good. “I feel good for the guys who do all the work. I just show up at the track”

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With just two weeks off since the Sandusky Hy-Miler Nationals, the Wirtgen-ISMA super series group prepares for their second doubleheader weekend with a similar format. At Mansfield Motorsports Park, the only difference is that the Saturday night show is 75 laps, unlike the Hy-Miler 100.

Mansfield has been one place that Chris Perley has almost ruled the past couple years, winning four out of the last five events held at this beautiful Ohio oval. The Rowley driver and defending ISMA champion, has certainly been on a roll coming off a sweep at Sandusky and certainly will be favored to roll into and out of Mansfield with two more wins. But, Lou Cicconi had something to say about a similar circumstance last season as he stole the Friday night show from Perley. And, there are a lot of other drivers, like Perley’s closest opponents of late Dave McKnight and Mike Lichty that could put a crimp in a sweep. Add to the mix one young Ohio driver who has been a tear of his own, Dave Shullick Jr.

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