2019 Pennsylvania Super Late Model Power Rankings

Hey there folks, super late model racing in the state of Pennsylvania kicked off, and with that, these here rankings kick off too. This is, if I remember correctly, the fifth year we’ve been doing this.

Over the years, it has morphed. Originally, it was just tracks in the western part of the state were scored, and then, only their weekly shows were scored. As time went on, and tracks in the target area got out of the business of racing supers weekly, I expanded it to include every track in the state. Then I realized that even among the tracks that were still running weekly, there were a ton of specials, and that they should really be scored to. When I first went to that system, I tried to keep it to strictly Pennsylvania drivers, but I quickly realized that made this whole thing much to complicated. Things like this are best kept simple, so now every driver who finishes in the top five of a super race gets the appropriate points for their finish.

For those unfamiliar, let me provide a some insight as to what these rankings are. The top five finishers in any super late model feature contested in the state of Pennsylvania throughout the season are scored, and the points are all tallied up at the end of the year and a champion is declared. The point scale is a sliding scale that’s based on the purse of the race being contested.

The pint scales are as follows…

A regular weekly show is scored on a five points scale, meaning the winner gets five points. Second gets four, and so on down to one point for running fifth.

A show paying less than five thousand is scored on a 7 point scale, meaning winner gets seven points, second gets six, and so on down to 3 points for running fifth.

A show paying more than five thousand, but less than ten thousand is scored on an eight point scale, meaning winner gets eight points, second gets seven on down to four points for running fifth.

A show paying from ten thousand to twenty thousand is scored on a ten point scale, meaning second gets nine points on down to six points for running fifth.

A show paying more than twenty thousand is scored on a twenty point scale. Second gets nineteen points on down to sixteen points for a fifth place finish.

So it’s really pretty simple. I felt that the special shows should be weighted because the fields being beaten at those shows are definitely stronger than the fields at the weekly shows. Sure, chances are those higher paying races tend to have traveling drivers win them, but that should diminish that accomplishment. Yes, it leaves open the possibility that somebody like Brandon Sheppard or Chris Madden could sweep all the 10k+ races in the state and both Firecracker prelims and somehow win this thing, but lets be serious here, the chances of that happening are infinitesimally small.

Now that I’m done rambling about the scoring system, lets get to the actual rankings. The numbers in parenthesis that may appear next to a drivers name is the number of victories on the season.

1. Jason Covert (1), 7 points. Jason picked up the win at Port Royal on Saturday night.

1. Michael Norris (1), 7 points. Michael picked up the win Sunday afternoon at Port Royal.

1. Max Blair, 7 points. Max’s weekend at Port Royal ended up with a fifth on Saturday and a fourth on Sunday.

4. Gregg Satterlee, 6 points. Greg was second at Port Royal Sunday.

4. Dylan Yoder, 6 points. Dylan come home second at Port Royal Saturday.

6. Mason Zigler, 5 points. Mason ran third at Port Royal Sunday.

6. Rick Eckert, 5 points. Rick got a third at Port Royal Saturday.

8. Jeff Rine, 4 points. Jeff ran fourth Saturday at Port Royal.

9. Mike Maresca, 3 points. Mike rounded out the top five Sunday at Port Royal.

And that’s the top of the list this week. I know I usually post the top ten, but with only two shows this week, not even ten drivers scored. That’ll change here in the near future. Check back next Monday for the updated results after this coming weekend’s action.