pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

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]

Reed repeats PASS win at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (July 8, 2023) – Austin Reed squeezed past Zach Rhodes on the outside after a brief but furious battle for the lead and went on to win the 20-lap River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway. It was the second straight win at the Snyder County oval for the veteran from Etters, who finished second in PASS points last season, and it came on a night that saw misfortune strike several front-runners, while those with better luck entertained the fans with some great on-track action. Reed claimed a victory margin of 1.77 seconds at the checkers. Rhodes, who drew the pole position after winning his heat race, led the first 17 laps and nearly scored his first career PASS win – he won an IMCA RaceSaver feature earlier this year with the Virginia Sprint Series at Winchester, Va. He hung on for second place ahead of a hard-charging Doug Dodson, who took third from Kruz Kepner on the final lap after starting ninth. Thirteenth starting [Read More]

Kepner sprints to top at Bloomsburg

By Frank Buhrman BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (June 29, 2023) – The Kruz Missile is back in victory lane. Kruz Kepner parlayed a fourth-place starting position with a long green-flag run to capture his second career River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series victory Thursday night at Bloomsburg Fair Raceway. The fifth-year PASS driver from Kreamer, a small community just west of Selinsgrove, put his no. 19 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car in victory lane for the first time since last April, when he won at Path Valley Speedway. An earlier win at his home track in Selinsgrove was lost when the car weighed light after the race. The victory came in Kepner’s 92nd career PASS start. Veteran New Jersey invader Larry McVay finished second, 1.66 seconds back. The Bordentown resident, a regular with the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series, equaled his career-best PASS finish. The youth brigade filled out the top five, with Timmy Bittner taking third, ahead of Seth Schnoke and Tyler Snook of Beavertown. The 20-lap feature nearly went nonstop, but a Paul Moyer incident in turns one and two [Read More]

PASS preps for rare Thursday race at Bloomsburg

By Frank Buhrman BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (June 27, 2023) – The River Valley Builders PA Sprint Series returns to Bloomsburg Fair Raceway Thursday, June 29 for a rare weeknight racing program. The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars will join the sprint-like All-Pro SpeedSTRs, front-wheel drive 4-cylinders, and Slingshot scale cars. Racing is schedule to begin at 7 p.m. PASS has only run three times on the new Bloomsburg track, located inside the horse track where auto racing was held in decades past. Last season, Austin Reed visited victory lane for both the tour’s appearances (a third scheduled stop was canceled). Only one other driver, Scott Frack, finished in the top five in both 2023 races and he plans a welcomed return to PASS competition Thursday after a prolonged absence. Kruz Kepner has a fifth and a sixth, with Jeffrey Weaver, Timmy Bittner and Ken Duke each posting a pair of top 10s. Bittner has a runner-up finish. Runaway PASS points leader Logan Spahr of Lewisberry will be seeking his eighth win of the season at a track [Read More]

Spahr sprints to Hagerstown win

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (June 17, 2023) – Already a six-time winner in Pennsylvania Sprint Series action this season, Logan Spahr became a first-time winner in two other IMCA RaceSaver series Saturday night. Spahr collected the checkers at Hagerstown Speedway in the event co-sanctioned by the Virginia Sprint Series, Laurel Highlands Sprint Series and PASS. The annual meeting of the three series was another great event with 43 cars checking in. Michael Alleman and Ken Duke paced the field to green with Alleman out first and right away joined by Austin Reed. Duke and the front group swapped the lead every lap. Alleman was fast on the bottom while Reed stayed to the top. Spahr showed up and moved to second as Reed started to fade with mechanical problems but Duke was right there to take up the charge. Spahr found a new line and moved to the front, leaving Alleman and Duke to fight it out for second. After a quick caution for a spinner it was back at it but nobody would catch Spahr as [Read More]

Co-sanctioned Hagerstown show next for PASS

By Frank Buhrman HAGERSTOWN, Md. (June 15, 2023) – The River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series will make its only 2023 appearance at Maryland’s Hagerstown Speedway this Saturday, joining a co-sanctioned program hosted by the Virginia Sprint Series and also involving the Laurel Highlands Sprint Series. It’s a Dad’s Night Out special program for Father’s Day weekend, with the IMC RaceSaver Sprint Cars racing, along with the wingless super sportsman cars that normally run at Path Valley Speedway, and the track’s regular late model sportsman division. PASS has only run in seven races at Hagerstown (although some teams have run more when VSS was racing there without the PASS co-sanction) and no driver has won more than once, which creates an opportunity for those drivers with single wins who plan on racing: Ken Duke, Jerald Harris, a VSS regular, Stevie Kenawell and Mike Melair. One could end the evening as the first two-time winner for a PASS race. To do that, though, they’ll have to overcome Logan Spahr, who won the first six PASS races [Read More]

Reed scores first PASS win of 2023

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (June 10, 2023) – Austin Reed probably hasn’t had the 2023 River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series season that his team had hoped for, but a hard-fought win at Selinsgrove Speedway Saturday night just might prove the turning point. The Etters driver took advantage of an outside front row starting spot to out-drag Kenny Heffner for the early lead, then held off the most determined of charges by fellow veteran Doug Dodson to earn the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car victory. Dodson, who had finished ahead of Reed in their heat race, finished 0.613 seconds back at the checkered flag, after trying every move available to get by. Starting fourth, he had moved into the runner-up position on the first lap. The two drivers waged their most heated battle after a lap nine caution when Dustin Young and Colton Hoover tangled in turn four. The race went non-stop from that point, allowing the two racers to put on a hard-racing exhibition. Six-time winner Logan Spahr took third from Heffner late, completing [Read More]

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]