BUFFALO TWP — It was a night of successful returns Friday at Lernerville Speedway.

Saxonburg's Alex Ferree and Leechburg's Brian Swartzlander clinched their second consecutive Late Model and Modified points championships, respectively.

Jimmy Hawley — a former three-time Sprint champion at the Sarver track — returned to Lernerville for only the second time all season and won the Sonia Bullis Memorial Sprint feature.

Hawley, who won the points title here in 1998, 1999 and 2001, had not raced a Sprint car in five years since capturing his last Lernerville feature in 2002.

"I never thought I'd be racing again, honestly,"Hawley said. "But (car owner) Jeff Rudzik was looking for a driver and is good friends with Dale Blaney.

"Dale recommended my name, Jeff called ... It all worked out."

Hawley has been behind the wheel of Rudzik's No. 49 approximately 15 times this season. He won a feature at Sharon Speedway a few weeks ago.

He was only too happy to pick up the $1,800 winner's check Friday night.

Hawley started from the sixth position and got around Cabot's Charlie Holben for thelead on the 13th lap.

Holben finished second while Andy McKisson claimed third.

"The track was slick tonight and I've been having trouble on slick tracks,"said Holben, who started in the first row Friday. "Ed Lynch Jr. has been working with me on how to handle a slick track and I'm pretty happy with second tonight.

"Once Jimmy got around me, I knew I had nothing for him."

Hawley's victory was his 30th career feature win at Lernerville, seventh on the track's all-time Sprint list.

"I feel so blessed to be standing here right now,"Hawley said. "I'm speechless. We're already talking about next year. We'll see what happens."

Sprint points leader Kevin Schaeffer — trying to clinch consecutive titles like Ferree and Swartzlander — wasn't as fortunate. A torqued collar caused the No. 9 car to lose its drive shaft on the fourth lap of the feature, ending Schaeffer's evening prematurely.

Schaeffer began the night with an 18-point lead over Bob Felmlee, who is finished for the year after suffering burns last week, and a 43-point lead over Rod George.

George finished ninth in the feature to remain alive in the points race.

"It's never a good time for this to happen,"Schaeffer said of losing the drive shaft. "I don't know how much damage was done to the motor or to the rear end, which we just put on this week.

"Hopefully, we have enough parts left to get it back together and run next week."

Next Friday marks the final points race of the season.

Jared Miley of South Park led the Late Model feature from start to finish — posting his fourth win of the year — while Ferree clinched the points title with a third-place finish.

Ferree has three feature wins, 12 top-five finishes and six heat race victories at Lernerville this season. He won nine features here last year.

"Everything broke my way and I was lucky last year,"Ferree said. "This year, this division became even more competitive than last year.

"A lot of guys ... Jared Miley, Gregg Satterlee, Ken Schaltenbrand, you can go on and on, have stepped up their programs."

Now that he's clinched the Late Model title, Ferree said he may let his father or crew chief Fred Bratchie race the No. 4 car next week.

Miley missed a couple of Lernerville shows this season. He may have challenged Ferree for points otherwise.

"We improved the set-up this year and I've become a better driver,"Miley said. "I believe I could challenge for points here, but we're planning on doing a little more traveling next year."

Miley is on his way to successfully defending his points title at Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway this summer as well.

Del Rougeux Jr. won his second Modified feature at the Sarver track Friday night, coming from the eighth starting spot to get the lead by the 11th lap.

Swartzlander won his seventh heat race of the year to go with six feature victories. He clinched the Modified points crown — his second in a row and sixth overall at Lernerville — by finishing third in the feature, two spots ahead of points runner-up Kevin Bolland.

It's always good to get that wrapped up early,"Swartzlander said. "You could blow a tire, wreck an engine ... You never know what might happen."

Bob Lipinski won his second consecutive Pure Stock feature, but the points title remains up for grabs among Bob Egley, Wayne Carbo and Jason Fosnaught.

Notes:There were 90 cars in the pits. ... Bolland lost valuable ground in the Modified points race when his No./ 777 broke during his heat race. ... Longtime Modified driver Russell King had a career-best second-place finish in the Late Model feature.