Chuck Hossfeld looked to have the Race of Champions Ol’ Boy Cup 60 on lockdown at Lancaster Speedway on Thursday night, but when the checkered flag waved Patrick Emerling was the one celebrating the win and Hossfeld was sitting in the infield wondering how it got away.
Emerling was the only one that had anything for Hossfeld all race long, but Hossfeld was proving to be too strong. However, everything changed for Hossfeld when the yellow flag waved with about 10 laps to go.
Hossfeld got a good jump on Emerling and held him off for the next lap and a half before he pulled down pit road off turn four. Hossfeld suffered a mechanical failure that dashed his hopes of scoring a win.
From there it was Emerling’s race to lose, and he actually almost did.
After the caution flag waved one more time, Emerling had to hold off Daren Scherer. Scherer didn’t appear to be a contender for much of the race, but with five laps remaining, Scherer started to reel in Emerling.
Scherer got as close as Emerling’s back bumper with about two laps to go. They went into the first turn nose to tail, and Scherer gave Emerling a shot. However, the tap actually propelled Emerling forward and caused Scherer to lose ground.
Scherer quickly gained back the few car lengths that he had lost and gave it one last try into turn three on the final lap. Scherer tried to get underneath Emerling, but just couldn’t get enough of a run to make the pass out of the final corner.
Emerling held on to take the win by just four one-hundredths of a second over Scherer.
“Lancaster has been very good to us,” Emerling said in victory lane on the Speed51 TV broadcast. “My guys did an awesome job for me. (Scherer) came on right at the end there. I just had to hold my ground. He gave me that little shot there. He was running me down, but luckily there weren’t any more laps for us.”
While Scherer was happy with a second-place finish, he still wasn’t completely satisfied.
“I had a shot at this one and I let it slip away,” Scherer said. “Maybe next time.”
-By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Southeast Editor – Twitter: @RobBlount
-Photo Credit: Speed51.com/Duane Canfield
RoC Modifieds Ol’ Boy Cup 60
Lancaster National Speedway, Lancaster, New York
Unofficial Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver |
| 1 | 07 | Patrick Emerling |
| 2 | 3 | Daren Scherer |
| 3 | 25 | Mike Leaty |
| 4 | 32 | Tyler Rypkema |
| 5 | 10 | Daryl Lewis |
| 6 | 01 | Cam Barber |
| 7 | 95 | Bryan Sherwood |
| 8 | 71 | Jimmy Zacharias |
| 9 | 34 | Rusty Smith |
| 10 | 13 | Ted Christopher |
| 11 | 64 | Amy Catalano |
| 12 | 71S | T.J. Zacharias |
| 13 | 9 | Jeff Hamman |
| 14 | 8 | Lee Sharpsteen |
| 15 | 27 | Donny Hartzell |
| 16 | 44 | Andy Jankowiak |
| 17 | 22 | Chuck Hossfeld |
| 18 | 40 | Alan Bookmiller |
| 19 | 65 | George Skora |
| 20 | 48 | Sam Fullone |
| 21 | 39 | Calvin Carroll |
| 22 | 1 | Chris Risdale |
| 23 | 45 | Kevin Timmerman |
| 24 | 54 | Tommy Catalano |
| 25 | 59 | Karl Hehr |
| 26 | 24 | Dave Rigan (DNS) |
