Mercer Raceway Opens 70th Anniversary Season Saturday March 27th With 12th Chiller Thriller

By Jim Balentine

(Mercer,Pa)

Michael’s Mercer raceway gets ready to kick off their historic 70th anniversary season with the 12th annual running of the chiller thriller which normally opens up the western Pennsylvania racing season. The chiller goes back to the beginning of 2004 and has run every year except 4 times .

The 2021 version will feature the BRP big block modified tour for its inaugural 2021 race. The mod tour has had 4 “chiller races” all won by the King family as family patriarch Rex King Sr won in 2009 and Rex King jr captured the event in ‘16, ‘17, and ‘19.

In an abbreviated 2020 season the New Yorkers dominated the opening races with Phil Vigneri, Chad Brachmann, and Erick Rudolph taking the money back home to the big Apple state before 2005 and 2019 champ Rex King Sr, Rex King Jr, and Dave Murdick who won his first Mercer modified feature in 1989. A large contingent of modified drivers from eastern Ohio/west pa/ and New York are expected including March 13th Georgetown Deleware winner Matt Sheppard.

Also featured will be the Pro stock in an unsanctioned event . The stocks will follow the Penn-Ohio rules and should have some fierce competition battling it out on the 3/8 bent egg oval. In 9 chiller events for the stocks there has only been two repeat winners and that was former raceway 7 champ Rusty Wheeler in ‘07 and ‘08 and Rusty Martz in ‘12 and ‘17. Single race winners were Andy Buckley who won the inaugural in ‘04, Tim Deutsch in ‘09, Dan Lewis in ‘10, Chris Schneider in ‘13 and Brent Johnson in ‘16.

Also appearing will be the regular Mercer divisions of Racesaver 305 sprints , FASTRAK limited modifieds and the mighty Mercer mini stocks.

For the 70th season opener pit gates open at 3 pm, grandstands at 4 pm drivers meeting at 4:30 pm, hot laps at 5 pm and racing to begin at 6 pm sharp.

Admission prices are grandstands are $15

Senior grandstands are $13

Children 13 and under are free

Pit admission will be $35

Senior pit admission is $30.

Mercer is a cash only facility with no ATM on site.

Every driver must have a working raceceiver and a red AMBIT transponder as the yellow ones will not work.

A 1 time registration free is required for every car that competes at Mercer in 2021.

For more information on Mercer please visit our Facebook page or our new website URL at www.michaelsmercerraceway.com. You can also contact the track at 724-662-1310 or on Facebook messenger .