Matt Hirschman took advantage of a rare weekend off from his usual traveling the region to more high profile events.

Instead, Hirschman returned to his home base of Mahoning Valley Speedway, which proved to be a wise choice as he claimed a second straight win in the process.

Fresh off of a thrilling Opening Day photo finish victory over Austin Beers in the Bill Teel Tribute, Hirschman once again bested his fellow Northampton opponent.

Only this time, he would be the one in control rather than the week before when he had to chase down the leader.

Hirschman drew the pole for the 35-lap contest and would stay out-front the entire distance for his seventh win in 11 starts this season.

“We really only had the option of racing closer to home. It’s been a busy early season, and the plan was to not race at all this weekend and prep for the upcoming races, but we made a last-minute decision and I’m glad we did,” said Hirschman, who picked up his 24th career win at Mahoning Valley and sixth in as many starts. “I think the longer the race went on, we needed to improve a little on the handling. On a shorter run like today we were OK, but I think if the race continued, I feel we were going to struggle a little.

“We’re not used to racing here in daytime conditions, and last week during the opener I don’t think was a true reading on the track and our next show for us planned is the (April 24) RoC here in two weeks, and it’s again a day show. I prefer the night shows, and I think we have it dialed in, but that’s why we’re here today to see if we can get a little bit better because I feel we need to for the 75-lap RoC race.”

The Sportsman Modifieds ran their first race of the season with a mix of seasoned veterans and fresh talent.

To put that into better prospective, 53-year-old journeyman Don Wagner - who was making his first start with the class - held off 10-year-old Paulie Hartwig III, and 17-year-old Kassidy Altemose, to gain his 40th overall career win.

“The young guys are our future, and I’m so happy we got some young talent, and that’s also why we built this car to support this division, and I think it’s going to continue to get better and better and grow into an awesome division,” said Wagner. “Those young kids kept me busy for sure, and it was really nice to park it in Victory Lane today. Myself and the team still try hard to put a lot of effort into all this, and we’ll run this car and the Modified throughout the season.”

TJ Gursky took the lead in the Street Stock feature at the drop of the race commencing green and never looked back.

When Gursky crossed the finish line, it marked his first victory since 2015, and the first time a three-car team took the top three spots in a feature at MVS.

The Hobby Stock feature was a barnburner affair from start to finish, and even though Al Arthofer won for the second week in a row, it took him nearly all 25 laps to do so.

In the Futures/Rookie Hobby Stocks Greyson Ahner, a rookie, led flag to flag for his first-ever stock car win.

Modified Feature Finish (35 laps)

: 1. Matt Hirschman, 2. Austin Beers, 3. Bobby Jones, 4. Brian DeFebo, 5. Nick Baer, 6. Cody Kohler, 7. Terry Markovic, 8. Jesse Strohl, 9. Kyle Strohl, 10. Earl Paules

Sportsman Modified Feature Finish (25 laps)

: 1. Don Wagner, 2. Paul Hartwig III, 3. Kassidy Altemose, 4. Randy Ahner Jr., 5. Carl Altemose, 6. Avery Arthofer, 7. Kevin Kromer, 8. Mia Guy, 9. Troy Bollinger, 10. Payton Arthofer, 11. Jarred Ahner, 12. Danielle Paules

Street Stock Feature Finish (30 laps)

: 1. TJ Gursky, 2. Mark Martini, 3. Randy Ahner Jr., 4. Earl Paules, 5. Brandon Christman, 6. Jill Snyder, 7. Thomas Flanagan, 8. Mark Deysher, 9. Jon Moser, 10. Tucker Muffley, 11. Jacob Christman, 12. Jeremy Scheckler, 13. Todd Ahner, 14. Randy Green, 15. Cody Geist, 16. Jaime Smith, 17. Toby Behler, 18. Logan Boyer, 19. John Bennett

Hobby Stock Feature Finish (25 laps)

: 1. Al Arthofer, 2. Taylor Schmidt, 3. Jacob Boehm, 4. Travis Solomon, 5. Devin Schmidt, 6. Nick Schaeffer, 7. Corey Edelman, 8. Cody Boehm, 9. Trisha Connolly, 10. Justin Merkel, 11. James Tout, 12. Lyndsay Buss, 13. Dave Imler Jr., 14. Jaden Brown, 15. Ed Herman, 16. Jake Oswald, 17. Ralph Borger Jr., 18. Mallory Kutz, 19. Kevin Behler, 20. Nicholas Kerstetter DNQ: Herman Neff, Kip George, Slade Darragh

Futures/Rookie Hobby Stock Feature Finish (12 laps)

: 1. Greyson Ahner, 2. Brody George, 3. Adam Steigerwalt, 4. Deegan Underwood, 5. Makayla Kohler, 6. Maggie Yeakel, 7. Josh Dise, 8. Gary Lerch, 9. Lexus Kutz, 10. Reid Levengood, 11. Gabrielle Steigerwalt, 12. Arland Moyer Jr. DNS: Zoe Kuchera