pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

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]

PASS ready to kick off 2024 season at Path Valley March 30

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (March 19, 2024) – With more than 200 events Path Valley is the longevity leader! The River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series kicks off its 26th season of economy Sprint Car competition in appropriate fashion on Saturday, March 30, racing at the active track where it has competed more often than anywhere else, the quarter-mile, high-banked “bullring” that is Path Valley Speedway. Located near Spring Run in far northern Franklin County, Path Valley was built and opened in 1987 to take advantage of the blossoming popularity of micro sprint racing but in 2000, then-new promoters Jack and Vicki Flowers and John Winsett decided to try out a new division of full-sized economy sprint cars that also were running at nearby Hesston Speedway. On Aug. 4, 2000, the Pennsylvania Sprint Series made its first Path Valley appearance, with Roger Fickett taking the checkered flag over a 17-car field. Since that night, more than 200 PASS races have been run at Path Valley, by far the most at any track. At [Read More]

Heffner bags PASS ‘Hunting Season’ checkers

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (Sept. 16, 2023) – If you want somebody else to win, it’s probably not a good idea to let Kenny Heffner start up front. The Watsontown racer drew the outside front-row starting position Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway, raced out ahead of fellow front-row starter Nick Sweigart, fought off an early challenge (and another one later on) from Ken Duke, and led all 20 laps to win one of the biggest River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series races of the season, the Race to Hunting Season sponsored by the Pennsylvania Game Commission as part of the 25th FANiversary Tour, marking a quarter century of PASS/IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car competition in Central Pennsylvania. A six-year veteran of RaceSaver competition, Heffner collected his fifth career victory, his second of 2023 and his career second at Selinsgrove. He won by 1.090 seconds over Kruz Kepner, whose late charge through the top five earned him the runner-up spot. Hometown veteran Duke, who leads active PASS racers with five career wins at Selinsgrove, held on for third, [Read More]

Melair steers to Selinsgrove PASS win

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (Aug. 26, 2023) – Whether fighting for the early lead, flying on a clear track, or cutting through traffic, Mike Melair had the edge Saturday night, taking home the victory in an exciting, non-stop River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series 20-lap feature at Selinsgrove Speedway. The Warrington driver took the no. 36 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car across the finish line .466 seconds ahead of Nick Sweigart to score his first win since June of 2021 at Hagerstown. He appeared to win a race later that year at Lincoln, but in his excitement forgot to go straight to the scales after the race and was disqualified. This year he was leading at the white flag at Path Valley Speedway but came home second, and he had another runner-up finish at Port Royal Speedway. Unfortunately, he also had an unwelcome amount of bad luck and bad pill draws for starting position. Saturday, the feature start re-draw was kind, giving Melair the pole position after a runner-up finish in his heat. From there [Read More]

PASS to joins All Stars Sunday at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (Aug. 18, 2023) – The River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series joins Tony Stewart’s Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions this Sunday at Selinsgrove Speedway to honor the memory of one of the region’s legendary sprint car drivers, Kramer Williamson, with the running of the Kramer Cup. The IMCA RaceSaver sprinters will run qualifying events and a 20-lap feature in support of the All Star’s $10,000-to-win feature. Coming off a super successful weekend that saw 41-car fields at both Lincoln and Bedford Fairgrounds Speedways, PASS will be looking for another strong turnout to turn heads among those on hand for the traveling All Stars. Leading the group will be point leader Logan Spahr, who has won nine of the first 20 PASS features run this year and is looking at the possibility of setting a single-season victory record, set by Logan Wagner in 2013 and tied by Garrett Bard last season, with 12 wins each. Spahr scored a dominating victory Sunday in the Junior Ritchey Tribute at Bedford, but he [Read More]

Lincoln, Bedford this Saturday and Sunday for PASS

By Frank Buhrman ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. (Aug. 11, 2023) – Two tracks with long but very different histories of River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series competition make their only 2023 appearances on the schedule this weekend. Lincoln Speedway will be the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car teams’ destination Saturday night, and on Sunday night the action moves west to Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway, for a co-sanctioned event with the Laurel Highlands Sprint Series. Both tracks hosted their first PASS race 20 years ago. Lincoln will run exactly 20 years and five weeks after its first appearance, and Bedford will host the sprinters two days shy of exactly 20 years since the first show. It needs to be noted, however, that Lincoln hosted the Virginia Sprint Series, the oldest of all RaceSaver regional groups, before its first PASS race. In the years since, Lincoln has been a regular on the PASS schedule, typically with either one or two races. Overall, this will be the 30th PASS race at the Pidgeon Hills track, and the victories have been well spread [Read More]

Young is fastest at Selinsgrove for second PASS win

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (July 29, 2023) – Drew Young’s breakout season kicked up another notch Saturday night when the Beaver Springs driver took his second career victory in the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature at Selinsgrove Speedway. Young drew the pole position, traded the lead with Doug Dodson and led the last half of the 20-lap race, followed throughout by Dodson, who finished 2.068 seconds behind. Friday night’s Big Diamond winner Zach Rhodes started and finished third, followed by Kenny Heffner and Austin Reed. Young had started on the pole and led the field into turn one on the opening lap, only to have Dodson use the high side to assume the lead coming off turn two. Dodson led nine laps before Young slipped past him on the inside and grabbed the lead for good. It was the second career win for Young, who had no prior racing experience and is in his third full season with PASS. The breakthrough IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car victory came less than two months ago, on [Read More]

Winning felt so good, Rhodes does it again

By Frank Buhrman MINERSVILLE, Pa. (July 28, 2023) – A week after his first career victory in the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series, Zach Rhodes showed it was no fluke and collected win number two Friday night at Big Diamond Speedway in his first-ever event at the track. The McVeytown racer put his IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car out front from the get-go and held off a charging Kruz Kepner, who also won in last weekend’s racing at Path Valley, to win by .445 seconds in the 20-lap feature. Kepner had started seventh. Ken Duke came home third, followed by Erin Statler, who ran second in the early laps of the race, and Owen Dimm, who continues to post impressive finishes. John Walp, back with PASS after a run in 410 sprints, teamed up with friend and fellow driver Frank Rusnock and advanced from 19th starting position to 11th to win the W.C. Eshenaur & Son Hard Charger Award.

PA Game Commission kicks off PASS 25th FANiversary

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (July 19, 2023) – The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Race to Hunting Season with the River Valley Builders PA Sprint Series has grown into the “FANiversary” celebrating PASS’s 25th season and acknowledging the fans who have supported IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car racing for that period and it all starts this weekend at Path Valley Speedway. The PASS sprinters will be joined by the Laurel Highlands sprints for all five events on the expanded Race to Hunting Season FANiversary tour. Because Laurel Highland officials were among the founders of PASS, Laurel Highland sprints will join the PASS sprinters at all five events on the expanded Race to Hunting Season FANiversary tour. The expanded format will include the July 21 and 22 races at Path Valley, also two events at Port Royal and the biggest event, the “Race to Hunting Season” at Selinsgrove. Friday night’s Path Valley program is the annual Dr. Crouse’s Night of Power, sponsored by Dr. Zachery Crouse, Path Valley co-promoter and veterinarian in Mercersburg and St. Thomas. Dr. Crouse has [Read More]

Heffner joins list of 2023 PASS winners

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (July 15, 2023) – Kenny Heffner came out on top of a fierce, three-way battle for the lead Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway, re-taking the top spot from Zach Rhodes with two laps to go to win the 20-lap feature for the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series. Veteran Roger Irvine, who led early in the race and was the other racer in the fight for victory, came home third. The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car barnburner had a story for each of the drivers seeking the win. For Heffner, the victory was his career fourth and third at Port Royal, but his first since joining with former PASS regular Cale Reigle as car owner. Rhodes was seeking his first-ever PASS victory, although he won a Virginia Sprint Series feature earlier this year at Winchester, Va. Irvine has been a PASS racer since 2004, skipping a couple of years along the way and driving only once or twice in others, and has four career wins, but the last was [Read More]