pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

Bard bounces back with Path Valley PASS win

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (July 24) – Garrett Bard put disappointment behind him and scored a convincing victory Saturday in the Pennsylvania Sprint Series 25-lap feature event at Path Valley Speedway. Bard had endured a rare failure-to-qualify Friday at Big Diamond Speedway, but racing life was clearly back in balance 24 hours later. After a sixth-place start in his heat, Bard finished second, then drew the pole position for the feature and led all the way, taking the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win by 1.391 seconds over Austin Reed. The win was Bard’s fifth of 2021 and 20th in a PASS career that now spans just over two years. It was his third career win at Path Valley. In victory lane, Bard said he welcomed the race’s two late cautions, because the handle on his car was going away and the restarts took him out of heavy traffic. Reed, who had started eighth, hung with Bard on the final restarts but couldn’t get around and fell just short of his first win of [Read More]

Rare weekend tripleheader on tap for PASS

By Frank Buhrman POTTSVILLE, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Sprint Series will run a rare tripleheader this weekend, with three races on the schedule, including stops at the series’ oldest track and its newest. On Friday night, PASS will join the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series for a co-sanctioned event at Big Diamond Speedway. On Saturday, the IMCA RaceSaver Sprinters will visit the quarter-mile Path Valley Speedway bullring, now in its 22nd season of hosting PASS racing. Then on Sunday, the new Bloomsburg Fair Raceway will host the PASS and MASS sprinters for the first time ever. At Big Diamond, pit gates will open at 5 p.m. and grandstands at 5:30, with warm-ups starting at 7:15 and racing at 7:45. Adult admission is $22 ($20 for seniors; kids under 16 and active duty military with ID free). Pit admission is $40 ($30 for PASS and MASS members). This is the first PASS race at Big Diamond since 2015 and it will produce a new winner for the series, since no previous PASS winner is still active in RaceSaver [Read More]

Bard is bullish in PASS win at Path Valley

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (June 26) – It’s not that Garrett Bard doesn’t race well at Path Valley Speedway. In his last seven starts there, he had finished second four times, third once and fourth once. But his only previous win in a full-sized sprint car had come in September of 2019, and since then he had won 14 Pennsylvania Sprint Series features, plus non-PASS victories, at other tracks. That picture got brighter Saturday night when Bard emerged from a furious three-way battle to win the 25-lap IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature at the quarter-mile Spring Run bullring. Bard was swapping the lead in traffic with hard-luck Kenny Heffner, with Jared Zionkowski looking for an opening, when Heffner dove to the inside on lap 23 and spun. Freed of traffic after the ensuing caution, Bard held off Zionkowski for the win, his second of the season. Zionkowski held on for the runner-up finish, .895 seconds behind Bard but ahead of Steve Kenawell, prior Path Valley winner Mikell McGee and John Walp. The PASS [Read More]

Melair dominates IMCA RaceSaver Sprints at Hagerstown

By Jim Haines HAGERSTOWN, Md. (June 19) – Nobody watching Mike Melair would ever have known this would become his first win in an IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car victory Saturday at Hagerstown Speedway. Thirty cars vied in the event co-sanctioned by the Virginia Sprint Series, Pennsylvania Sprint Series and Laurel Highland Sprint Series and Melair tuned up for the main event with a dominating heat win. Melair and Jason Roush then paced the feature field to green with Melair out front up top and Mikell McGee falling in behind before a car got a little too sideways causing a few cars to get together. Once back to green, Melair was off again followed by McGee and soon Ryan Lynn was chasing them down in third. Lap after lap, Melair stayed smooth, never putting a wheel wrong even as traffic came up. Melair’s brother Domenic came through the field and was soon on Lynn for third and using the brother’s high line to do it. With laps winding down, Mike Melair and McGee were still staying [Read More]

Three RaceSaver series run Saturday at Hagerstown

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – The Pennsylvania Sprint Series will join two other IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car series this Saturday night for a Father’s Day Weekend special program at Hagerstown Speedway. PASS, the host Virginia Sprint Series and the Laurel Highlands Sprint Series will vie for supremacy June 19 on the half-mile track alongside Conococheague Creek in Washington County, Md. Four weeks ago, PASS regular Dave Grube invaded a VSS/LHSS co-sanctioned race at Hagerstown and came away with the victory. An earlier RaceSaver date was rained out. In 2019, VSS stalwart Jerald Harris was a winner, along with former PASS drivers Zach Newlin and Scott Ellerman. A large field of cars is expected Saturday, including Grube and the last two IMCA RaceSaver national champions, Ken Duke and Garrett Bard. Local entries are expected to include Donnie Hendershot, a PASS winner earlier this season, and Dylan Shatzer, a former LHSS winner at Hagerstown and a winner this season at Hesston Speedway. It will be Kids’ Hot Dog Night at the speedway, plus Dads will get $5 off general [Read More]

PASS returns to Port Royal for Memorial Weekend show

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. – The storyline basket is overflowing as the Pennsylvania Sprint Series heads to Port Royal Speedway Saturday to join the program for Night One of the Bob Weikert Memorial. For starters, the May 29 show is set to be the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car series’ 10th race of 2021 and so far there have been no repeat winners. Five of those previous winners are expected to be at the Port, including Garrett Bard, who presents another choice story. The 2020 national and PASS champion, Bard earned his first 2021 win last weekend at Selinsgrove Speedway, and a win at Port Royal would move him into sole possession of second place among PASS winners there. The win would be his seventh, breaking a tie with Tyler Bear behind all-time wins leader Jeff Miller, who has a dozen PASS wins at the Juniata County oval. Overall, half a dozen teams planning to be on hand Saturday are past Port Royal winners. Those 2021 and past Port winners are an impressive group, [Read More]

Defending champ scores first 2021 PASS win at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman and Stephanie Dodson SELINSGROVE, Pa. (May 22) – If the story of 2020 in the Pennsylvania Sprint Series was the dominance of Garrett Bard, the story in early 2021 has been the lack of that dominance. But Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway, the current story line may have changed. Bard, who won IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car national and PASS championships last year, grabbed the lead from Kenny Heffner on the feature’s final restart and collected his first PASS win of 2021 (he has won in other RaceSaver series). Heffner, looking for his first career PASS win, led most of the race for the second time this season and settled for a career-best second place finish. He battled Bard for nearly a full circuit after the lap 18 restart and was still fighting for the lead at the checkered flag. Hometown favorite Ken Duke, the 2019 national and PASS champion, charged from 10th starting to finish third, followed by Austin Reed and George Riden. Heffner took the early lead after he and polesitter [Read More]

PASS heads back to Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Foiled by rain on their last scheduled visit, Pennsylvania Sprint Series competitors return to Selinsgrove Speedway Saturday night to run their second 2021 feature at the big Snyder County oval. PASS IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars will run qualifying events and a 20-lap feature. The first IMCA RaceSaver event of 2021 at Selinsgrove was won by New Yorker Justin Mills on April 10. Mills is expected to return Saturday, along with Garrett Bard and Ken Duke Jr., the last two PASS and IMCA RaceSaver national champions. Duke also is the hometown favorite. Gates will open at 5 p.m. for Saturday’s program, with racing scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Adult general admission is $15 and on Family Night, students 17 and under will be admitted free. Pit admission is $30.

Hendershot gets first PASS win in 71st career start

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (May 15) – Donnie Hendershot made Pennsylvania Sprint Series career race number 71 extra special Saturday night, earning victory number one in the 25-lap feature at Path Valley Speedway. Hendershot, who began racing with PASS in 2013, had a pair of runner-up finishes on his resume but had only run four times in each of the past two seasons and hadn’t scored a top five IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car finish since late 2018. Still, when the opportunity presented, he knew exactly what to do. After finishing second in his heat race, Hendershot drew the outside second row for the feature. Outside front row starter John Walp darted into the lead but spun in the first turn. That moved Hendershot up to the front row. The red flag had come out for the double mishap of Walp’s spin and a collision between Alyssa Rowe and Tyler Cochran as the field came to a halt. When the race finally got underway for the second start, Hendershot outpaced Austin Reed and grabbed [Read More]

Selinsgrove hosts second PASS show of season on Saturday

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The historic and challenging Selinsgrove Speedway will hosts its second Pennsylvania Sprint Series appearance of 2021 this Saturday night, May 8. New Yorker Justin Mills topped a field of 40 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars on April 10 when PASS made the first of eight scheduled stops at Selinsgrove this year. Mills is set to return Saturday, along with defending national, series and track champion Garrett Bard. Bard was a three-time winner at the Snyder County oval in 2020. Hometown favorite Ken Duke Jr., who finished second in Selinsgrove points last year but was the national, PASS and Selinsgrove champ in 2019, also is expected. Duke has a win and a second in the last two PASS races. Dave Grube II, who won last Saturday’s PASS feature at Port Royal Speedway, also is preregistered for the race, as is Kassidy Kreitz, who was third in Selinsgrove’s 2020 points and finished second to Duke two weeks ago at Port Royal, barely missing her first career RaceSaver win. With another large field [Read More]