August 24, 2024- By RJ Feicht – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dale F
rancis of LeRoy, Ohio captured first place at the Crawford County Fair with his “Maximus Prime II” Big Rigs Semi. This truck was built at Francis Engineering in Lake County, Ohio and features a Mack V-8 (E-9) engine with a huge single turbo charger. The runner-up was Francis’ team-mate Joe Bonner with the twin “Maximus Prime I” from Mantua, Ohio. That Mack Big Rig is owned by Bonner Farms of Garrettsville, Ohio. Only one foot separated the pair.
Jerry Ray Hairhoger emerged a long hiatus to capture third place with “Jerry Atricks”, a 1973 Kenworth with CAT C-15 power from New Galilee, Pennsylvania. The engine on that truck had to be fully rebuilt after a disastrous explosion at the Bunker Hill Shoot-Out.
The ever-improving “Bad Intentions” Kenworth of Bud Kronauer from Rock Creek, Ohio was fourth as the KT-600 Cummins powered machine continues to perform well.
Making the haul from the Empire State was “Bad Dog”, a CAT-powered Mack from the Chris Jeffries team out of New York. As well as their other Big Rig “Temperamental” (88 Mack Cat 3406) and had those trucks placing Fifth & Sixth.
Despite his seventh place at Meadville Jeff Lautenan’s “Moody Blue” (Pete/CAT) continues to cling to an ever-decreasing lead in the 2024 Big Rigs Series point race. This is the only truck that has competed in all previous seven events in this year’s season.
Fred Sanders “Silver Bullet I” (Mack/V8 Mack) under the new ownership of Francis Engineering made it’s 2024 Big Rig debut at Crawford Co. Fair with young Albert Francis dong the driving duties and a had a super run until the turbo let go.
Bob Lautenan’s “Grape Ape” with a C15 CAT suffered some serious engine issues in the last few weeks and had some major engine work performed this week but the “Grape Ape” is still getting dialed in.
The Next Big Rig Points Events will be held next week at the Canfield Fair in Canfield, Ohio on Saturday and again on Sunday at the Great Geauga County Fair in Burton, Ohio.
