Patrick Emerling Powers to Transitowne 100 Win at Holland

Patrick Emerling scored the 25th Race of Champions Modified Series win of his career on Saturday night in the Transitowne 100 at Holland Speedway.

The Orchard Park, New York driver took the lead with 25 laps to go and held off Jake Lutz for the victory, his first with the RoC Modifieds in 2025.

Emerling finished third with the series at Lancaster Motorplex in the Ol' Boy Cup and second in the Tribute to Tommy Druar and Tony Jankowiak 110 at Spencer Speedway on July 11. On Saturday, he continued the trend and finished on spot better at Holland.

"I'm just super grateful and happy to be here," said Emerling in victory lane. "I've got to thank Jen Chadwick and Brian so much for the opportunity to drive this beautiful race car at places like Holland Speedway, Lancaster, Spencer. It's just absolutely incredible to be able to compete here, and something I was looking forward to all winter long and all season.

"Obviously, we had a really good car tonight. We were playing the track position game a little bit. The 60, the 73, the 14, a bunch of them guys were really, really good tonight. We just played the track position game and I was able to stay out there. We were getting so many unlucky cautions lately, and here we didn't."

Lutz finished second in the 100-lap feature, unable to keep up with Emerling late in the race. Still, that gives Lutz three top-five finishes in as many RoC appearances this year.

"As always, you know, the 14 guys brought a fantastic car," said Lutz. "I appreciate all the hard work at the shop and all day today. I don't know if we got clean air and got that track position if we would have been able to hold on to it or not. He was really good. We were a bit too snug and burned the right-rear off at the end there.

"Second place, not too shabby. Besides Spencer when we had a transmission issue, we could have had a second-place finish there and it would have been three second-places in a row. Not too bad. Just knocking on the door for the win."

Matt Hirschman unofficially moves into the points lead for the RoC Modified Series with a third-place finish. Hirschman drove from ninth to third, but acknowledged he didn't have enough speed to compete with Emerling and Lutz for the win.

"The draw could have been a little kinder to us to maybe help, but, you know, I don't know if that would have made a difference or not," said Hirschman. "I don't think I'd use that as an excuse tonight. Just happy to be back here. I forgot really how much racing at this place is. It's been since 2018. So I think I'm a little behind these guys, considering I think the 14 won last year and Pat's always been local to here.

"I think, more than anything, I'm just a little behind on maybe the notebook for Holland Speedway. I sure have missed not being here, just because of scheduling conflicts, it's been that long. Hopefully, it's not that long again before we're back."

Andy Jankowiak finished fourth, with Austin Beers rounding out the top five.

The next stop for the RoC Modfieds is Chemung Speedrome. The series races at Chemung on August 9 in The Night Before the Glen - Rod Spalding Classic.

-Photo credit: MoJo Photos/Race of Champions

Transitowne 150 Unofficial Results