pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

Young wins first PASS feature, Spahr streak ends at six

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (June 3, 2023) – Drew Young had been getting closer and closer. The third-year driver broke through Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway, winning the 20-lap River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature and ending Logan Spahr’s 2023 undefeated streak. Young’s third-place finish in the second heat race put him in the feature redraw, where he drew the outside of the front row and then led all the way, masterfully handling traffic in the non-stop race to score a 5.328 second victory over Mike Melair, who registered his second runner-up finish of 2023. It has been an impressive climb for Young, who had never driven a race car before he brought his IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car out for the first in August of 2020. After four races that season, he became a regular in 2021 and earned three top-10 finishes in 20 starts. He added a pair of top-five’s last season and has regularly been more competitive this year, including taking a second at Port Royal on May 6 [Read More]

Spahr streak to six with latest Port Royal PASS checkers

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (May 27, 2023) – The Logan Spahr dream season continued Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway when the Lewisberry driver captured his sixth straight River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature win of 2023 in the 20-lap race that was part of the Bob Weikert Memorial weekend featuring the All Star Circuit of Champions. The race ended up nearly a copy of the previous Saturday’s win (number five) at Selinsgrove Speedway: Spahr drew an advantageous third starting position for the feature, but then had to follow a determined early leader, in this case Jared Zionkowski. Spahr caught Zionkowski in traffic just past the race’s midway point and executed the winning pass on lap 14, going outside a slower car as Zionkowski passed inside. Finally, as with the previous week, a late caution flag gave Spahr’s challenger one last shot, but Spahr was up to the task and pulled away for a three-second final margin of victory. Zionkowski, a former semi-regular with PASS, nearly made his return after a season’s [Read More]

Spahr sets PASS record with fifth straight win

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (May 20, 2023) – Technically, it took two days. Logan Spahr’s quest to become the first River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series driver to win five feature races in a row started late Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway and ended with the checkered flag falling on the Lewisberry driver and his Eshenaur Racing no. 5 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car just seconds after midnight. In a non-stop feature that took barely six-and-a-half minutes to run, Spahr had accomplished what no one else had done in 25 years of PASS competition, and it wasn’t easy. Even with an advantageous third-place starting slot for the 20-lap feature, Spahr was looking at two-time PASS champion, 2019 IMCA RaceSaver national champ and hometown veteran Ken Duke in front of him, along with fast-improving Croix Beasom. Duke got the jump on Beasom to lead into the first turn as the race started with Spahr quickly moving into second. The two then spent the first half of the race two-to-three car-lengths apart, with Duke holding his advantage. [Read More]

PASS record is on the line at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (May 18, 2023) – In 25 years of River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series competition, no driver has ever won five consecutive feature races. Logan Spahr of Lewisberry will go for that record Saturday night, May 20 at Selinsgrove Speedway. Actually, the driver of the Eshenaur Racing no. 5 KR MacDonald/High Tech Metals/RL Snyder Electric Sprint Car has already won five straight, but that streak extends back to the final race of 2022, the Keystone RaceSaver Challenge. It’s the 2023 streak that sets the record. Last week at Path Valley Speedway, Spahr won his fourth in a row this year, a feat accomplished by only one other driver in PASS history: Logan Wagner in 2011. Several accomplished PASS competitors have won three straight, including Garrett Bard, Tyler Reeser, Mark Watkins, Craig Robinson, Ritchie Fitz, Judi Bates, Vince Snyder and Joe Davis. Only Spahr and Wagner have won four straight. A strong field of IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car challengers will do their best to deny Spahr the record Saturday, including Seth [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]

Spahr continues PASS streak at Port Royal

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (May 6, 2023) – The more things change, the more they stay the same. The change was a River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature race run Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway without a rain cancellation for the first time since the middle of last month. The consistency was Logan Spahr, who remained undefeated on the season by taking his third straight IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win, with a victory margin of 2.595 seconds over runner-up Drew Young. It was actually win number four in a row for Spahr, who won 2022’s season-ending Keystone RaceSaver Challenge, and five of PASS’s last six races. It was his second 2023 win at the Port and third of a three-year career in the KR MacDonald/High Tech Metals/RL Snyder Electric no. 5 owned by Wally Eshenaur. He made it look easy, taking advantage of drawing the pole starting slot and leading all 20 feature laps. Young, who started alongside Spahr on the front row, dogged him all the way but had to [Read More]

Eshenaur to sponsor PASS hard charger award

HARRISBURG, Pa. (April 18, 2023) – W.C. Eshenaur & Son, Central Pennsylvania’s family-owned leader in providing fuel and HVAC energy services since 1928, has come on board as sponsor of the “Hard Charger Award” for the majority of this season’s River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series races. Eshenaurs will award $50 to the hard charger at all PASS races except for Port Royal Speedway, where Penns Valley Meat Market sponsors the award. The company also sponsors the front-running no. 5 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car Logan Spahr ride, which is owned by Wally Eshenaur. “It’s great to have W.C. Eshenaur & Son as our Hard Charger sponsor,” said PASS Director Rod Ort. “This is a company that not only has a great business reputation throughout the area, but it’s also heavily involved in racing and has had family members and others doing just about everything in the sport.” “I can’t imagine a better match for PASS.” Eshenaurs’ first hard charger award will be given this Saturday at Selinsgrove Speedway.

Spahr dominates for PASS win no. 2

By Frank Buhrman MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (April 14, 2023) – It’s too early to crown Logan Spahr as king of the 2023 River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series season, but it might not be too early to start thinking about it. The Lewisberry racer turned in a dominating performance Friday at Williams Grove Speedway for his second straight IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win of the new season – and a three-in-a-row record dating back to last October’s Keystone RaceSaver Challenge. Spahr showed what his car could do when he recovered from an early spin in his heat race to come from the rear and finish second in a very competitive group. Then, starting fourth in the feature, he overtook Timmy Bittner in the third and fourth turns of the first lap for the lead. He never gave it up. The race was slowed by four cautions, none for major incidents. After the first three, Bittner attempted unsuccessfully to overtake the leader, and after the final yellow, Seth Schnoke gave it a try, with the same result. Schnoke had [Read More]

Williams Grove, Path Valley highlight first PASS doubleheader of 2023

By Frank Buhrman WILLIAMS GROVE, Pa. (April 14, 2023) – The River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series heads into its first two-race weekend of its Silver Anniversary Season tonight (Friday) and Saturday with dates at one of its largest tracks, Williams Grove Speedway, and its smallest, Path Valley Speedway. It’s the ultimate test of IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car driver versatility. On Friday, PASS sprinters tackle the historic and lightning-fast Williams Grove oval as part of the track’s Spring Sprint Special and it will be a victory of sorts if the race is run. PASS’ early-season Grove race hasn’t happened since 2018, with rain cancelling activities last year and in 2019, cold weather prevailing in 2020, and the stoppage of public events due to the COVID outbreak wiping 2020 off the schedule. Those cancellations, plus departures of some past winners from the PASS ranks, mean that Austin Reed, last year’s points runner-up, is the only current driver to have won at the Grove in the last six years. He took the feature on Sept. 17 of [Read More]