10/15/2024
Lancaster Speedway
Mendola and Skora III Regin Supreme at Lancaster Motorplex
By: Larry Ott
PHOTOS: Top Photo: Kristen Ruble Bottom Photo: Howard Boundy
After a season of both intense stock car and drag racing competition, George Skora III and T.J. Mendola have emerged as the 2024 champions of their respective classes at Lancaster Motorplex.
For the second time in three years, Eden’s Skora III earned the Sportsman stock car racing class title at Lancaster while Mendola, of Ransomville, claimed the Top ET drag racing category for his first career Lancaster championship.
Mendola overcame not only overcame his competition, but a weather plagued year at Lancaster which interrupted the flow of the season. “I’m extremely excited about my championship,” Mendola said. “I’ve been racing for quite a few years, and this is my first track championship. I started racing in Junior Dragsters in 2002 when I was eight years old. “When I was 16 I jumped into a door car which was my grandfather’s and after a couple years went off to build my own stuff and do my own deal so it’s been quite a while.”
Mendola took some time off from the sport to build his current race car which is a 1974 Pontiac GTO as well as to gather money to fund his team. He has been around the sport all his life and is the son of drag racing veteran Chuck Mendola. After taking 2023 off he returned to active competition this season.
While Mendola is a skilled drag racing competitor he felt the major catalyst that led him to a pair of wins this season at Lancaster as well as propelling him to the championship was the performance and reliability of his car. “I give a really good amount of credit for my championship to the car itself,” Mendola said. “The car is phenomenal. It worked phenomenal. I can’t take anything away from how good of a car it is.
“Obviously I need to put up the driving skill when it’s required but the car can carry me through in certain circumstances.”
He also felt that the high number of rainouts minimized the opportunities that his competitors had trying to catch him in the point standings.
“This season was so weather dependent,” Mendola said. “I had a pretty good points lead over second place, but I feel like without the rainouts it might have been a different story. We missed at least a month or more worth of races so in that amount of time if we hadn’t had all those rainouts, it could have been different story.”
Mendola has had other race wins throughout the years at Lancaster and may have collected a few more if not for the fact that on occasion Lancaster could not complete a particular night of racing before the final rounds due to the track curfew.
“There were a few nights we raced, and we weren’t able to finish,” Mendola said. “A couple of those nights I was still in competition and the time just wouldn’t allow the racing that night to finish. I mean we were down to the semi-finals and the curfew hit. It’s the same for everyone.”
Mendola acknowledged the tremendous support of his family and friends, especially his father, his girlfriend Megan Cochi and veteran drag racer and father of Megan, Paul Cochi.
“I certainly have a whole backing of family, friends and crew,” Mendola said. “To be honest I wouldn’t even be out there without them. That to me is the strongest point in my racing program.
“I took last year off just because of some financial reasons. I just bought a house and sometimes life gets in the way. So, the race car got parked. I was going to take this year off too, but my girlfriend pushed me to put my car back together.
“I didn’t have a motor in the beginning of the season. She kept pushing me and telling me to put something together and go back out there even if we didn’t race all the time. We ended up racing the whole season and obviously it all worked out.”
SKORA III PUTS ON RALLY CAP
Skora III beat out defending Lancaster Sportsman champion Tony Carbone by just 22 points to score his 2024 Sportsman title at Lancaster. Skora also competed in the Modified class this season at Lancaster, winning once.
During the middle of this season Skora III found himself in third place in the Lancaster Sportsman point race but then put on his rally cap and went to work.
A strong late season series of good runs was good enough to leapfrog up into the top of the standings, earning him the championship.
Skora III had a great start to the season inheriting the win when original winner Shawn Nye was disqualified in postrace tech.
“The season started off pretty good,” Skora III said. “Our opening day we got a win by default. But it was a win none the less. That started off our season on the right note. Then we had one stumble where I had a dnf (did not finish).
“Jake Christman and Tony Carbone were leading the points at the time and I was sitting third for most of the season. But we strung together at the end of the year probably four or five good runs in a row with two wins at the end and propelled myself to my second Lancaster track championship in three years.
“We had consistency where we had four races in a row where we didn’t finish worse than third.”
Along with his two Lancaster Sportsman championships Skora III has also emerged in the past as a Sportsman champion at Holland and has a Late Model title at Lake Erie Speedway and the TBRA Series.
Skora III is committed to the race program at Lancaster and has been for the last few seasons. He says a change in track surface preparation this season at Lancaster initially threw his team a curveball that they were eventually able to overcome. “I’m happy to support my home track,” Skora III said. “Other tracks like Holland and Lake Erie don’t race often. So, to be crowned champion in the Western New York area on asphalt feels pretty good. “The track changed this year compared to the last two years. The last two years they were using a lot of traction compound and this year they stopped using it and we kind of got back to the old worn-out Lancaster surface. “So, we had to adjust setups halfway through the season and once we figured it out, we got back to having a pretty consistent car.” Skora III also was victorious during the Race of Champions Weekend event at Lake Erie in September which was a huge triumph. Skora III plans to return to Lancaster in 2025.
Other stock car champions at Lancaster in 2024 were: Mark Hoch, Street Stock (third consecutive title); Kyle Casper, 4-Cylinders.
Other class drag racing 2024 champions at Lancaster were: Mason Fix, Mod ET; Pat Manners, Street and Mike Peters, Bikes/Sleds. It was Peter’s eighth career title in this class.
Article Credit: Larry Ott
Submitted By: Steven Petty