pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

It’s a trifecta weekend for PASS

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Pennsylvania Sprint Series teams have one of their most demanding weekends Aug. 23-25 with three races scheduled across Central Pennsylvania. On Friday night, PASS/IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car drivers join their Laurel Highlands Sprint Series colleagues for a co-sanctioned event at Clinton County Motor Speedway. Then they head to two of their home tracks, racing Saturday at Port Royal Speedway and Sunday at BAPS Motor Speedway. Port Royal’s will be the sixth PASS event at Port Royal this year, with one rainout, and the last before the Keystone RaceSaver Challenge on Oct. 12. PASS veterans claimed the first three features with Ken Duke Jr. taking two and Nick Sweigart the other, but since then, youth has prevailed. Devin Adams claimed the June 8 feature just after graduating from high school, and Garrett Bard won on July 20 in just his fourth outing in the division and first at the Port. Port Royal has averaged the largest car turnout of all PASS tracks this year, so Saturday’s show should be memorable. On Sunday, [Read More]

Sweigart wins on last-lap pass at BAPS

By Frank Buhrman YORK HAVEN, Pa. (Aug. 3) – Nic Sweigart passed Zach Newlin on the final lap to claim the victory in Saturday’s 20-lap IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature at BAPS Motor Speedway. It was Sweigart’s second win of the season and the second of his career at York Haven. The race was co-sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Sprint Series and the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series. A five-time winner at BAPS over the last two seasons, Newlin set sail and built a lead of nearly three seconds before a lap seven caution. Sweigart moved through the field from his ninth starting position. On lap 12, he passed Eddie Wagner for the runner-up spot and set his sights on Newlin, charging around high against the outside wall. The momentum from that high run enabled him to catch the leader in the first set of turns and slip past on the backstretch. Sweigart then swooped low in three and four, denying Newlin his preferred line and preserving the win. Wagner held on for third with John Walp fourth [Read More]

Selinsgrove checkers give Duke PASS weekend sweep

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (July 27) – Ken Duke Jr. capped a perfect racing weekend with a late pass for the lead and his second straight hometown victory in Saturday’s 20-lap Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature at Selinsgrove Speedway. The Selinsgrove IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win followed Duke’s victory Friday at Clinton County Motor Speedway and was his seventh of the year in PASS competition; he also has won with the Laurel Highlands Sprint Series. “The track didn’t slick off quite as much as I thought it would for the feature,” Duke said in victory lane, “so we were a little tight at the beginning, but the longer we ran, the better we got. Those guys started coming back to me a little bit, and my eyes got a little bit bigger, and we went after them, and we were lucky enough to pull it off.” “Those guys” referred to in Duke’s comments were polesitter Tyler Reinhardt, Kruz Kepner and Keith Prutzman, who were all involved in the battle for the lead. Reinhardt, making only [Read More]

Duke wins Clinton County PASS battle

By Frank Buhrman LOCK HAVEN, PA. (July 26) – Ken Duke Jr. emerged from an intense, nearly race-long three-car battle to win the 25-lap IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car event co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Sprint Series and Laurel Highlands Sprint Series Friday at Clinton County Motor Speedway. Duke took his sixth PASS event of the season and third at Lock have. Most of the race was a dogfight between Duke, polesitter John Walp and outside front-row starter Dylan Proctor, with Proctor leading the most laps but all three drivers taking turns at the front. After Duke, who had started third, grabbed the lead for the final time, Walp spun and had to restart in the rear. That enabled sixth starting Jack Frye to move into third but he was unable to challenge for the lead. Scott Ellerman finished fourth and Scott Lutz finished fifth. Feature results – 1. Ken Duke Jr.; 2. Dylan Proctor; 3. Jake Frye; 4. Scott Ellerman; 5. Scott Lutz; 6. Reed Thompson; 7. Dakota Schweikart; 8. Jeffrey Weaver; 9. Dale Schweikart; 10. Tylor [Read More]

Fast start puts Bard in Port Royal victory lane

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (July 20) – Garrett Bard wasted no time in showing his ability in a full-sized Sprint Car, coming from ninth starting spot to second in his heat race and then winning Saturday’s 20-lap Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature at Port Royal Speedway. It was only his fourth time out in a full-sized Sprinter, his second in an IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car and his first at Port Royal. The winner’s 305 career has been so brief that his no. 95 sprinter still has its numbers applied with tape, but fans and fellow competitors certainly will remember them now. Bard had drawn the outside front row start but polesitter Devin Adams, who had picked up his first career win the last time PASS was at Port Royal, grabbed the early lead with last week’s Path Valley winner Drew Ritchey moving into second. Running high in turns one and two and low in three and four, Adams worked his way smoothly through traffic in the feature. Bard caught Ritchey to take second on [Read More]

Walp wins second PASS feature of season

By Frank Buhrman HANOVER, Pa. (July 12) – John Walp became the Pennsylvania Sprint Series’ third multiple feature winner of 2019 on Friday night with a wire-to-wire victory in the 25-lap feature at Trail-Way Speedway. The tour rookie of the year in 2017, Walp took advantage of a single-file start that followed three unsuccessful double-file attempts, and held off a determined charge by Tom Carberry to put his no. 5 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car in victory lane for the second time this year. Jake Frye closed the gap on Walp over the last five laps of the race but settled for second, the second runner-up finish in the last three races for the Lewisberry high school student. Dylan Shatzer finished third, making a successful return to competition following a highway accident earlier this year, and giving the top three positions to drivers under age 21. Jaremi Hanson finished fourth and Tom Carberry was fifth. Walp and Carberry had started ferocious battles for the lead on each start attempt but when the fourth try went single-file, [Read More]

BAPS hosts co-sanctioned IMCA RaceSaver show this Saturday

By Frank Buhrman YORK HAVEN, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Sprint Series will be joined by the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series for co-sanctioned racing at BAPS Motor Speedway in York Haven Saturday, July 6. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. This will be the fifth PASS IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car event at BAPS this season. Zach Newlin has won two of the previous four, with single wins for Cale Reigle and John Walp. This is the first of three co-sanctioned events at the track. Ken Duke currently leads PASS point standings, as well as national standings for the division, with Newlin in second. Doug Dodson, Reigle and Devin Adams round out the top five. The Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series (MASS) races at tracks in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Defending PASS champion holds off rookie challenger for third 2019 win

YORK HAVEN, Pa. (June 22) – Defending champion Zach Newlin held off a determined last-lap effort by rookie Jake Frye and claimed the victory in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature race at BAPS Motor Speedway. The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win was his third this season with PASS, following seven in 2018, and his second at BAPS. Newlin led the caution-free 20-lapper all the way but had to edge fellow front-row starter Dominic Melair to the front before withstanding the efforts of teenager Frye, running the most impressive start of his young PASS career. Frye, who started fourth, passed Melair for second on lap five and then closed on the veteran Newlin in traffic over the last half of the race before trying a slide job going into the third turn on the final lap. Newlin’s high-line momentum carried him out of the fourth turn in front, however, and Frye finished on his bumper. Melair also posted his best finish in a brief PASS career, holding on for third, with Cale Reigle fourth and another [Read More]

Harris hustles to Hagerstown IMCA RaceSaver win

By Jim Haines HAGERSTOWN, Md. (June 15) – His return visit to Hagerstown Speedway ended with Jerald Harris in victory lane. Eighteenth in the main event at last month’s East Coast Nationals, Harris showed he had a good handle on the setup he needed on a super-fast sticky track as he went up high on the start and streaked to the Saturday IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win. David Grube II and Drew Ritchey were second and third, respectively, in the co-sanctioned Laurel Highlands Sprint Series, Pennsylvania Sprint Series and Virginia Sprint Series event. Erin Statler and Harris paced the field to the initial green with Harris staying high and taking the lead with Statler right on his tail and Grube in tow. Ken Duke, Zack Newlin and Ritchey worked their way up as Grube got by Statler, but Harris stayed straight smooth and fast as traffic came into play. After a red for a car getting in to the guardrail it was back at it for a run to the checkers. Harris took off and [Read More]

Adams a graduate and a PASS winner

PORT ROYAL, Pa. (June 8) – Recent graduate Devin Adams worked hard for his high school diploma, then put that work ethic to good use on the race track, earning his first career Pennsylvania Sprint Series victory in Saturday’s 20-lap feature at Port Royal Speedway. Adams, a Northern Lebanon High School graduate, took the lead from Jonathan Jones on the second lap and then held off repeated determined challenges from Jones to score the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win. “I knew he was there the whole race,” Adams said, “and I knew if I could protect the bottom (in turns one and two), then I could hold him off, but I wasn’t sure. It was a little close at the end . . . closer than I’d like.” Jones electrified the crowd when he spun in the fourth turn during one last desperate pass attempt for the lead. His car did a complete 360 and kept going, with Jones still salvaging a top five finish. Christian Rumsey took second, defending PASS champion Zach Newlin, Dave [Read More]