pathvalleyspeedway Archives

PASS going back to the Bullring

PATH VALLEY, Pa. (Sept. 19, 2024) – Two old sayings: “Good things come in small packages” and “It’s anybody’s ballgame.” That just about sums up the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series’ return to action this Saturday night, Sept. 21 at Path Valley Speedway. The mountainside quarter-mile in northern Franklin County, the site of more IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car events than any track in Pennsylvania, has produced more than 80 different winners in 200-plus races since Roger Ficketttook the first checkered flag on Aug. 4, 2000. This season has had only two races so far (plus a rainout), and nobody has finished in the top five in both. However, as many as 10 or more former winners should be in the field on Saturday, including Zach Rhodes and Kruz Kepner, winners of the two features run so far in 2024. Ken Duke can clinch the 2024 River Valley Builders PASS points championship Saturday, with one points-paying race yet to be run, but there are many tight battles elsewhere in the standings, including Rhodes and Kepner fighting for second spot. A strong field is [Read More]

Kepner goes high for Path Valley win

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (Aug. 17, 2024) – Sometimes you just have to stand out in the crowd. The field for Saturday’s River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature at Path Valley Speedway was hugging the inside of the quarter-mile bullring, so Kruz Kepner went high, made the outside work and earned the checkered flag for the 25-lap IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car event. The six-year veteran worked hard to make his no. 19 ride work near the top of the high-banked oval, but it paid off, enabling him to slip past rookie Kyle Hart on lap 15. Hart was looking for his first PASS win in only his ninth start, but he couldn’t get his car through lapped traffic at the bottom. Nor, for that matter, could anyone else, except the winner, who took the checkered flag by 1.363 seconds. Drew Young passed Hart on the last lap to take second, with Hart finishing a career-best third. Jarrett Cavalet came from ninth starting to finish fourth, with Austin Greenland posting a PASS career-best fifth. The feature ran non-stop, taking [Read More]

Rhodes repeats as PASS ‘Power’ winner

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (July 19, 2024) – Thanks to a couple of rainouts, it took the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series until midseason to make its first appearance at its oldest stop, the quarter-mile Path Valley Speedway bullring, but Zach Rhodes and his fellow IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car competitors made sure the large crowd remembered why PASS keeps coming back. The McVeytown driver fought his way past Mike Alleman to take the lead with five laps remaining in the 25-lap feature and won the PASS portion of the special Dr. Crouse’s Night of Power program for the second consecutive year. The margin of victory was three-quarters of a second. Doug Dodson, who charged from 10th starting, also got past Alleman on the next-to-last lap and finished second, while Alleman, who was oh-so-close to his first feature victory since taking his only career checkered flag at this track 23 years ago, came home third. Jeff Weaver came home fourth and Jerald Harris was fifth. Kenny Heffner claimed the W.C. Eshenaur & Son [Read More]

PASS ready to start season at Path Valley

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (March 28, 2024) – The 26th annual season of IMCA RaceSaver competition with the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series will take the green flag Saturday, March 30 at everybody’s favorite bullring, Path Valley Speedway. The RaceSaver sprints will join 270 and 600 micro sprints, limited late models, 4-cylinder thunder cars, and modifieds. For a cooler-weather date, times are earlier as gates open at 2 p.m. with warm-ups at 4 p.m. The first heat race will start after warm-ups. PASS competitors will run qualifying heats, a consolation race if needed, and a 25-lap feature. Adult general admission is just $10 ($3 for kids 10 and under). Pit admission is $30, plus a $5 membership fee for first-time visitors. 2023 PASS champion Logan Spahr of Lewisberry will be among nine of last season’s top 10 drivers expected to be on hand for a full field. Spahr, points runner-up Zach Rhodes of McVeytown and Kruz Kepner of Kreamer, who finished ninth in the standings, were three of last year’s four winners [Read More]

Last lap pass keeps Spahr PASS perfect in 2023

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (May 13, 2023) – This time it was different: No Eshenaur no. 5 and no up-front starting position, but with some incredible racing in traffic and a bump-and-run on the last lap, Logan Spahr kept his 2023 River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series record perfect with an improbable victory in the 25-lap feature at Path Valley Speedway Saturday night. It was Spahr’s fourth IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win in four tries this year and his fifth straight dating back to last October’s Keystone RaceSaver Challenge. While the other wins came in the Wally Eshenaur’s KR MacDonald/High Tech Metals/RL Snyder Electric sprinter, this one was in the Spahr family’s no. 14 car, which is available when the primary car takes a race off. A little luck didn’t hurt Saturday. After coming all the way from 16th starting position to third, Spahr used a lap 17 restart to take second from fast-improving Croix Beasom. Then, when he and leader Mike Melair hit traffic after only a couple of green flag laps, [Read More]

PASS looks for dry bullring at Path Valley

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (May 12, 2023) – Looking to square the balance sheet at four races run versus four rainouts, the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series returns to Path Valley Speedway on Saturday for its second try at running on the series’ oldest active track, where more than 200 feature races have run since 2000. The 25th Anniversary PASS season has been slowed by rain, including a wet Saturday on April 15, when the series was supposed to have opened its 2023 season at the high-banked bullring that sits up against a mountain near Spring Run in northern Franklin County. This weekend’s IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car event sees gates opening at 4 p.m., with warm-ups starting at 6 p.m. and racing to follow. Six PASS events were run at Path last season with three-time champion Garrett Bard winning half of them. The other three were won by Kruz Kepner, Scott Frack and Doug Dodson. Dodson and Kepner are expected to be in attendance, along with more than two dozen other racers. Of [Read More]

Bard bounces back with Path Valley PASS win

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (July 24) – Garrett Bard put disappointment behind him and scored a convincing victory Saturday in the Pennsylvania Sprint Series 25-lap feature event at Path Valley Speedway. Bard had endured a rare failure-to-qualify Friday at Big Diamond Speedway, but racing life was clearly back in balance 24 hours later. After a sixth-place start in his heat, Bard finished second, then drew the pole position for the feature and led all the way, taking the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win by 1.391 seconds over Austin Reed. The win was Bard’s fifth of 2021 and 20th in a PASS career that now spans just over two years. It was his third career win at Path Valley. In victory lane, Bard said he welcomed the race’s two late cautions, because the handle on his car was going away and the restarts took him out of heavy traffic. Reed, who had started eighth, hung with Bard on the final restarts but couldn’t get around and fell just short of his first win of [Read More]