Matt Hirschman races to another Evergreen Raceway Tour Type Modified Win
Column By: Dino Oberto / EVERGREEN RACEWAY – BUTLER TOWNSHIP,PA – There is no question that Matt Hirschman continues to build upon a Hall of Fame career as the Northampton driver added another chapter to his undisputable legacy with his victory on Sunday afternoon at Evergreen Raceway, scoring a decisive win in the 50-lap Tour Type Modified feature.
Hirschman drew the second starting spot and lined up to the outside of pole sitter Roger Coss. When the action got underway Coss took charge but there was heavy pressure coming from Hirschman, including some early laps when both went side-by-side for the race lead.
Coss was then able to settle into the front spot, albeit with Hirschman still hot on his tail. After trying but not succeeding to pass from the outside, Hirschman then changed his strategy to the low lane, making the switch on lap 11 exiting Turn 2 and by the end of the backstraight he had already begun to clear Coss and completed the pass by the outset of the next circuit.
From then on, he was reeling off steady, consistent laps, and not even a few additional cautions hindered his performance with any chance of letting Coss or anyone else, for that matter, take away his stance.
“It’s always good to get a win here that’s close to home. Good work today by my guys too, we had an electrical issue during practice, and they did a great job to get it fixed and today worked out really well for us,” said Hirschman.
“Roger (Coss) has been running real good here and he’s had two pole starts the last two races and that certainly has helped his case,” he continued.
“It’s good that we have a track that we can have the Tour (Type) Modifieds to come and race at and thanks to Jason (Makarewicz/owner) for having them, we had some good support today for the track.”
Of the multitude of wins Hirschman has collected in his 20-plus years of racing, Evergreen can be considered his most successful track. Sunday was the 56th time he has won here.
“I think it just feels like home, it’s where I started my career and I won here before anywhere else and anytime I came back I was always successful,” he said.
“Here at Evergreen, it taught me the right skills to go on and win at a variety of other tracks and on various levels. This track has taught me the right skillsets and there are times I may not have raced here an entire year or maybe once a year but anytime I did come I was immediately always back to where I was and it’s definitely been the best track throughout my entire career.”
For the second time in a row Coss was runner-up to Hirschman and also second place in the last four Tour Type Modified features at Evergreen.
“That’s four (runner-ups) in a row but at least it’s better than third,” said Coss.
“The car was better today although it was the same results, so it doesn’t really look like it was better. We made a bunch of changes that made a difference, but just not quite as good as the 60 (Hirschman),” he continued.
“I told my guys if Matt wasn’t here, we’d look like Matt Hirschman for how good we’ve been here compared to everyone else. We’ll just keep working hard.”
The race for third to fifth was a real fan-pleasing affair in the closing laps between Jake Christman, Paulie Hartwig III and Austin Beers.
Christman was holding down third since the halfway mark. Hartwig moved into fifth after a lap 36 restart, while Beers was sixth and coming on strong.
In the closing laps that trio were under a blanket with Christman fending off Beers who had zipped by Hartwig for fourth. Beers’ drive was even more astounding given the fact that he started from 17th. On the final lap Christman held on for third while Hartwig and Beers crossed the line virtually deadlocked and the nod going to Hartwig.
The Harry’s U-Pull-It Street Stocks had a day that paid homage to Gordon Buchman Sr., who had passed away last year on the same weekend. The “Pap 55B Memorial” was a 55-lap feature held in honor of the patriarch of the Buchman/Sones family, who for years have been mainstays at Evergreen.
With extra laps and bonus money on the line a respectable field was on hand but when all was said in done it was another win for three-time and defending champion Mike Pollack of Freeland who scored the victory.
Pollack needed only five laps to move to the lead, which he overtook from Scott Adams. Afterwards it was no contest as he scorched around the 1/3-mile oval with relative ease and by the time he reached Chris Walk’s waving checkers he was ahead of runner-up Gordie Buchman by half a track.
For Pollack it was his 20th time winning in a Street Stock and ninth consecutive season of winning at least one race in each of those years.
Adams was making his first appearance in the Street Stocks in several years and never fell further back then third. Paul Frantz attained another solid top five with his fourth place tally while Cody Boehm rounded out the top five.
Mountain Top’s TJ Kapish had another race-winning day in the Himmer Graphics Four Cylinders, picking up his third win in six starts to date. Kapish got the lead after a lap three restart and once there never wavered en-route to his division record extending 23rd victory.
BJ Wambold had a race-long duel with Tyler Skordensky for second spot. Over much of the distance Skordensky was holding the spot but a relentless Wambold continued to pressure him, finally getting by with two laps to go.
The McNulty Funeral Home Novice feature came down to a last lap barnburner between reigning champion Sarabeth Mesko and Jeremey Henry.
Henry was all over Mesko for much of the race and several times pulled near even with her but never did she falter. Then a caution waved with one lap to go setting up what would be a thrilling showdown.
As the race resumed Henry again tried to get by and both cars were essentially side-by-side on the back straight. In the final two corners and with each driver focused on the checkers, they nearly lost control but thanks to some heads-up maneuvering, Mesko was able to come out of the turn ahead and the Allentown ace scored her first career Evergreen win.
Tour Type Modified feature finish (50 laps): 1. Matt Hirschman, 2. Roger Coss, 3. Jacob Christman, 4. Paule Hartwig III, 5. Austin Beers, 6. Jayden Harman, 7. Brian DeFebo, 8. Ricky Ross Jr., 9. Lou Strohl, 10. Jacob Kerstetter, 11. Steve Shultz, 13. Ricky Collins, 14. Chris Risdale, 15. Brian Romig Sr., 16. Brian Romig Jr., 17. Brian Sones, 18. Mike Benevides, 19. Don Wagner
Street Stock feature finish (55 laps): 1. Mike Pollack, 2. Gordie Buchman, 3. Scott Adams, 4. Paul Frantz, 5. Cody Boehm, 6. Abe Romanik, 7. Dennis Buss, 8. Mallory Kutz, 9. Bobby Hunsicker Jr., 10. Eric Kosher, 11. Thomas Flanagan IV
Four Cylinder feature finish (25 laps): 1. TJ Kapish, 2. BJ Wambold, 3. Tyler Skordensky, 4. Robert McNulty, 5. Sam Ryan, 6. Caitlyn Makarewicz, 7. Lauren Skupski, 8. Michael Wambold, 9. Harry O’Neill
Novice feature finish (12 laps): 1. Sarabeth Mesko, 2. Jeremy Henry, 3. Jeff Engler, 4. Joey Torchia, 5. Gavin Higgins
