pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

Hershey tribute this Saturday at Port Royal

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Sprint Series will make its fourth 2020 visit to Port Royal Speedway Saturday night, taking part in a program honoring the memory of a widely respected member of the Central Pennsylvania racing community. The Tribute to Curt Hershey honors one of the area’s leading engine builders, who passed away earlier this year. More than a few Hershey motors will be racing this weekend at Port Royal. For PASS teams, the tribute also means a purse increase and special awards. CG Racing Engines has added to the race purse to make the winner’s share $444 (Hershey’s son Joey ran car no. 44 with PASS), with comparable increases throughout the field; last place will pay $222. Additionally, CG Racing Engines has matched the $100 awarded by Penns Valley Meat Market for the Hard Charger Award, making that $200 total. Newlin Bar Service also has joined the tribute and will award a torsion bar cleaning tool to the highest finishing PASS car racing a Hershey engine. If that car wins, Newlin [Read More]

Weaver prevails for first PASS win at Path Valley

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (July 25) – Jeffrey Weaver brought a modest Pennsylvania Sprint Series resume into Saturday’s racing at Path Valley Speedway Park, but his track record took a huge leap when the former micro sprint racer earned his first IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win in one of the most hotly contested feature races of 2020. Weaver, who had a pair of fourths as his best previous PASS finishes, started the feature on the outside pole and stood up this season’s hottest PASS driver, Garrett Bard, and 2020 winners John Walp and Christian Rumsey on a night when there wasn’t a lap without a two-, three-, or even four-car battle for the lead. On every lap, Weaver looked fully at home among the giants. With Walp, who led 20 laps, and Bard fighting furiously for the lead, running lap after lap side-by-side in the middle grooves, Weaver hung onto third, maintaining a consistent ultra-low line. Just before a lap 17 caution, Weaver slipped past Bard, who was running high, and on lap [Read More]

Port Royal checkers are PASS fourth of season for Bard

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (July 18) – Garrett Bard notched Pennsylvania Sprint Series win number four of the season at Port Royal Speedway Saturday, coming from seventh starting spot – the biggest advance to a win since the season opener May 30 – and holding off a determined veteran Nathan Gramley at the end. With defending IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car national and PASS champion Ken Duke Jr. and Gramley, both former Port Royal champions, on the front row, it might have seemed that things would be settled there, but Bard and several other challengers had other ideas. Gramley built a nice little lead in the early laps, but a caution bunched the field again, looking to improve on three straight runner-up finishes. Of the group behind the pair, it was Bard who made the move, passing both Duke and Gramley over the next five laps. The veteran Gramley kept Bard in his sights, though, and when a close brush with the outside wall caused the leader to drop to a lower line, Gramley [Read More]

Frye scores PASS first feature win at Trail-Way

By Frank Buhrman & Stephanie Dodson HANOVER, Pa. (July 17) – Jake Frye might wish the Pennsylvania Sprint Series ran at Trail-Way Speedway more often. A year ago to the weekend, the Lewisberry racer, still one of PASS’ youngest, equaled his best career finish – second place – when the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car series stopped at the Hanover oval. Friday night, he topped that. Frye scored win number one in the 25-lap feature, in his 42nd career PASS start. He’d taken the top spot when early race-leader Larry McVay and third-place Johnny Scarborough were penalized for clipping the restart cone following a lap eight caution, putting Frye in the lead over Doug Dodson. That’s how they stayed, as Frye handled lapped traffic with ease, while Dodson blew a brake line on lap 13, handicapping his effort. He was still able to hang on for his third straight runner-up finish. Scarborough came home in third, with front-row starters Jaremi Hanson and McVay taking fourth and fifth. Feature results – 1. Jake Frye; 2. Doug Dodson; 3. [Read More]

Duke is PASS king at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (July 11) – This time a year ago, Ken Duke already had five Pennsylvania Sprint Series wins and 10 top-five finishes, on his way to becoming the PASS and IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car national champion. On Saturday night, the effort to make 2020 memorable for the right reasons took a big step forward when the hometown racer took the 20-lap PASS feature at Selinsgrove Speedway. Duke took advantage of starting on the pole and wired the field for his first win of the year, capping his comeback from a slow start – and two months with COVID-19 restrictions putting a stop to racing. “We blew up an engine the first week (of the season) and took a few weeks to get things sorted out,” Duke explained of his start, adding praise for his hard-working crew. “But two weeks ago we ran at BAPS and here and finished in the top three in both races and finally got things going in the right direction.” As for Saturday’s win, Duke kept it [Read More]

Bard wins PASS Lincoln barnburner

By Frank Buhrman ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. (July 4) – Approaching his first anniversary as a Pennsylvania Sprint Series competitor, Garrett Bard collected his eighth series victory Saturday at Lincoln Speedway. It might have been the toughest, as the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars provided fans with a full July 4 fireworks display on the track. Bard took advantage of a front-row starting spot to lead all the way in the 20-lap feature, but the last half of the event featured perhaps the most torrid challenges to that lead Bard has had to turn back. Third starting Doug Dodson spent most of the race in the runner-up spot but really turned up the heat just past halfway, trying a slide job on lap 12 and several more afterward, one of which briefly put the no. 20 in the lead, only to have Bard execute a cross-over and retake first. Dave Brown had started 12th and was running third by lap 16 in what became a three-way battle for the lead. For the last three laps, it was anybody’s race, [Read More]

Sweigart adds PASS win no. 2 at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (June 28) – Nick Sweigart became a multiple 2020 Pennsylvania Sprint Series winner Sunday when he captured the 20-lap feature run as part of Speedweek at Selinsgrove Speedway. Sweigart, who started fourth and took the lead from Ron Aurand on lap five, was never seriously challenged after that, working lapped traffic perfectly. The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win was his second of the year and his seventh overall with PASS. “I didn’t really know where I needed to be, top or bottom,” Sweigart said in victory lane of the lapped traffic situation, “so I was kind of floating back and forth, and I figured I’d run the top until I felt pressure, and I really didn’t feel any pressure. I guess it was more mental pressure at that point, so I just decided to go to the bottom and commit there.” “I didn’t feel like I wanted to push too hard the last couple of laps with the lapped traffic, I didn’t want to get myself into an incident there,” [Read More]

‘Nitro Nick’ nails Port Royal PASS feature

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (June 20) – ‘Nitro’ Nick Sweigart made up for a couple of early season disappointments with a dominating wire-to-wire win in the 20-lap Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature Saturday at Port Royal Speedway. Sweigart took advantage of his pole start and put his IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car in victory lane for the first time in the late-starting 2020 season. The win was hardly a gimme, though. Last week’s Port Royal winner Garrett Bard, started 10th, got all the way to fourth on the opening lap, then took the runner-up spot on lap 11 and began to pressure Sweigart in lapped traffic during the caution-free race. Sweigart responded, though, and was 1.5 seconds ahead at the checkered flag. Bard’s finish gave him two wins and two seconds in five PASS starts, plus a Laurel Highlands Sprint Series victory. Dave Grube matched Bard’s charge, advancing from 11th starting spot to finish third, ahead of Larry McVay and Derek Hauck. The Penns Valley Meat Market Hard Charger Award went to sixth-finishing Doug Dodson, [Read More]

Path, Port make for first PASS double

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Sprint Series will race at both Path Valley Motor Speedway and Port Royal Speedway this weekend, its first “double” in the corona virus-delayed 2020 season. The 1/4-mile mountainside Path Valley track at Spring Run will see IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars in an action-packed Saturday, June 13 program. Gates open at 4 p.m. with warm-ups beginning at 6 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $3 for students 10 and under. COVID-19 waiver forms will be required Saturday and may be printed out from the track website and completed in advance. Social distancing standards will be observed with masks optional. This will be the first of five Path Valley races on the 2020 PASS schedule; early registration showed 26 teams already planning to attend. Port Royal Speedway will be hosting its first races this weekend at the historic Juniata County Fairgrounds in Port Royal. Gates open Sunday, June 14 at 3 p.m. with racing set to start at 6 p.m. Admission is $20 for adults and $10 [Read More]

51 entries for PASS opener as Rumsey rules at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (May 30) – Christian Rumsey removed “almost” from his resume Saturday night, winning the two-month-delayed 2020 season opener for the Pennsylvania Sprint Series at Selinsgrove Speedway. Rumsey led the final two laps after advancing from 14th starting and collected the winner’s trophy for the 20-lap PASS victory on a night when 51 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars battled on the historic Snyder County half-mile track. It was the first Sprint Car feature win for the 21-year-old from Middletown, N.Y. Last year in PASS competition, Rumsey was almost always near the front, with eight top-five finishes, including a pair of seconds, in just 11 starts. “We started out pretty good tonight,” he said. “My crew chief Ryan, he made a lot of great changes and kept us on track all night. We’ve been working hard here for two long years. We had a good year last year, super close to winning, but we finally pulled it off.” Rumsey was the third leader in a race that saw contender after contender fall by [Read More]