AJ Flick has had some pretty good years behind the wheel of his sprint car at Lernerville Speedway.

The Apollo native has won six track championships, with five of those coming in the last six years.

But this might be his best season yet.

Flick won four features in a row through June and July and nearly made it five after starting in last place Friday and finishing third.

It’s good momentum heading into the 32nd Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup on Tuesday at Lernerville. The race pays $25,000 to win and is sanctioned by the All Star Circuit of Champions.

“We were pretty good last year, but we lucked into more wins than I thought we deserved,” Flick said. “This year, we seem to be taking advantage of situations better than we ever have, and it’s putting us in positions to win.

“What I’m really happy with is that our car does seem to race better than it ever has before. There’s quite a few things we’ve focused on this year depending on where we are in the pack of cars that has made us better overall. We’ve been more maneuverable this year than we ever have been before, and I think that’s why we’ve had success.”

The wins have helped Flick open up a 70-point lead on the field in the standings.

Flick has found victory lane regularly in 2023, and he has mastered the last-lap pass, doing it twice this season. The first came May 26 when he wheeled around Darin Gallagher to victory, and the second was July 7 when he moved past Mark Smith in the final circuit.

The July 7 win came in a nonstop feature in which he started 10th. It was his third Fab 4 win in a row, which, by rule, forced him to start at the tail last Friday night.

“This track is so weird sometimes where you can have some nights where there’s a 20-car field and eight cautions and catch all the breaks to catch the guys in front of you or nights like last week where you go nonstop 25 laps straight through,” Flick said. “We came from 10th and got the lead on the last lap. You just have to get up on the wheel and hope your car has enough speed to get to the front as quick as possible.”

Flick and the rest of the Lernerville regulars will be up against some stout invaders Tuesday.

NASCAR Cup Series champ Kyle Larson is the defending Silver Cup winner. It’s unknown if he will be in attendance to defend his title, but he has won the race twice.

It is certain that current All Stars points leader Tyler Courtney will not race Tuesday. He injured his back in an accident Friday at Eldora Speedway in Ohio and is out indefinitely. Central Pennsylvania ace Anthony Macri will fill in for Courtney in the Clauson Motorsports 7BC on Tuesday. Macri made a surprise departure from his family-owned 39m team last week prior to the Eldora Million/Kings Royal weekend.

Chris Windom, Zeb Wise and Aliquippa native Tim Shaffer are second through fourth in the All Stars standings. Apollo native Sye Lynch is a rookie on the All Stars tour and is eighth in the standings, piloting the McCandless Motorsports 29.

Outside of the increased competition, one of the biggest changes to Tuesday’s program compared to a Fab 4 program is qualifying, as opposed to a pill draw format to set heat race lineups.

Flick said the team uses hot lap sessions on regular Friday nights to practice qualifying, but it is an inexact science because of other cars being on the track and early night track conditions in general.

He qualified fastest two times in the five-night Western PA Speedweek in early June, and one of those was at Lernerville.

It will be important to be fast out of the gate again Tuesday.

“Very rarely do you see someone qualify badly and still find a way to win the Silver Cup,” Flick said. “That’s step one, is figuring out how to qualify top of whatever group we have for a $25,000-to-win show. If we can do that, then I think we can race and at least stay up front.”

Flick finished 12th in the Silver Cup last year. He will look to challenge for a top 10 or better Tuesday night.

“I always want more, but if we can replicate that result, I’d probably be happy with that if I knew that was the guaranteed outcome,” Flick said. “Everyone is going to be more aggressive in that race, so we’ll try to do well and not tear a race car up.”

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