pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

‘Nitro Nick’ nails Port Royal PASS feature

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (June 20) – ‘Nitro’ Nick Sweigart made up for a couple of early season disappointments with a dominating wire-to-wire win in the 20-lap Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature Saturday at Port Royal Speedway. Sweigart took advantage of his pole start and put his IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car in victory lane for the first time in the late-starting 2020 season. The win was hardly a gimme, though. Last week’s Port Royal winner Garrett Bard, started 10th, got all the way to fourth on the opening lap, then took the runner-up spot on lap 11 and began to pressure Sweigart in lapped traffic during the caution-free race. Sweigart responded, though, and was 1.5 seconds ahead at the checkered flag. Bard’s finish gave him two wins and two seconds in five PASS starts, plus a Laurel Highlands Sprint Series victory. Dave Grube matched Bard’s charge, advancing from 11th starting spot to finish third, ahead of Larry McVay and Derek Hauck. The Penns Valley Meat Market Hard Charger Award went to sixth-finishing Doug Dodson, [Read More]

Path, Port make for first PASS double

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Sprint Series will race at both Path Valley Motor Speedway and Port Royal Speedway this weekend, its first “double” in the corona virus-delayed 2020 season. The 1/4-mile mountainside Path Valley track at Spring Run will see IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars in an action-packed Saturday, June 13 program. Gates open at 4 p.m. with warm-ups beginning at 6 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $3 for students 10 and under. COVID-19 waiver forms will be required Saturday and may be printed out from the track website and completed in advance. Social distancing standards will be observed with masks optional. This will be the first of five Path Valley races on the 2020 PASS schedule; early registration showed 26 teams already planning to attend. Port Royal Speedway will be hosting its first races this weekend at the historic Juniata County Fairgrounds in Port Royal. Gates open Sunday, June 14 at 3 p.m. with racing set to start at 6 p.m. Admission is $20 for adults and $10 [Read More]

51 entries for PASS opener as Rumsey rules at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (May 30) – Christian Rumsey removed “almost” from his resume Saturday night, winning the two-month-delayed 2020 season opener for the Pennsylvania Sprint Series at Selinsgrove Speedway. Rumsey led the final two laps after advancing from 14th starting and collected the winner’s trophy for the 20-lap PASS victory on a night when 51 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars battled on the historic Snyder County half-mile track. It was the first Sprint Car feature win for the 21-year-old from Middletown, N.Y. Last year in PASS competition, Rumsey was almost always near the front, with eight top-five finishes, including a pair of seconds, in just 11 starts. “We started out pretty good tonight,” he said. “My crew chief Ryan, he made a lot of great changes and kept us on track all night. We’ve been working hard here for two long years. We had a good year last year, super close to winning, but we finally pulled it off.” Rumsey was the third leader in a race that saw contender after contender fall by [Read More]

Ritchey sprints to seventh of season at Hagerstown

HAGERSTOWN, M.D. (Sept. 22) – Drew Ritchey won his seventh IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car event of the season on Sunday by leading every lap of the 25-lap feature at Hagerstown Speedway. It was his third win in the Pennsylvania Sprint Series and came in an event co-sanctioned by PASS with the Virginia Sprint Series and the Laurel Highlands Sprint Series Hagerstown joined Bedford, Path Valley, Cumberland and Hesston on Ritchey’s trophy list, with Bedford and Path Valley having fallen twice to the 24-year-old Sprinter.. Ritchey survived an early duel with Ken Duke Jr. and then a wild lap 20 restart, during which eventual runner-up Ryan Lynn and Dave Grube challenged for the top spot. Scott Lutz reclaimed third place in the final laps, with Grube coming home fourth and Jaremi Hanson fifth. Lutz and Hanson had come through from fifth-row starting spots. Duke, who got the nose of his car inside of Ritchey early, tangled with the leader on lap 14 and spun, but recovered and came home 11th. Thirty drivers vied in the finale. [Read More]

Bedford PASS checkers fly for rookie Bard

By Frank Buhrman and Stephanie Stevens Dodson BEDFORD, Pa. (Sept. 21) – Coming into Saturday’s racing at Bedford Speedway, rookie Garrett Bard had three wins in Pennsylvania Sprint Series competition and one with the Laurel Highlands Sprint Series, all in less than three months. Now he can add a win to both lists, after taking the 25-lap feature co-sanctioned by the two IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car groups. Bard led the entire race but hardly had it easy. With leaders entering traffic in about five laps, Bard had to contend with challenges from Drew Ritchey and Doug Dodson until polesitter and rookie Kyle Keen, running fourth, lost his right front tire on lap nine and skidded along the outside guard rail before stopping in turn two, ending an impressive return to racing two weeks after getting married. At the same time as Keen’s misfortune, Randy Sterling and Devon Adams made contact. All three cars were done for the night. With three front-runners out, 10th-place starter Christian Rumsey inherited fourth and Tyler Denochick fifth. The restart saw [Read More]

Grube scores first PASS win of 2019

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (Sept. 13) – Dave Grube alluded to his tough 2019 season (“We tore up a bunch of cars this year”) and his father’s resolve that the team “finish the season strong.” Fortunately, he was able to relate those comments Friday from victory lane at Williams Grove Speedway. Grube made a fourth-lap pass to take the lead from rookie Garrett Bard, and held off challengers including another strong rookie Dylan Proctor and national IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car point leader Ken Duke to claim his first win in more than a year in the 20-lap Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature. The York Haven driver last put his ride in the winner’s circle at BAPS Motor Speedway on Aug. 18, 2018. Proctor matched his career-best finish while Duke drew the 12th starting position, charged to third and fell just a few laps short. Defending PASS champion Zach Newlin came home fourth, followed by Devin Adams, who raced from 16th starting to claim fifth. That finish gave Adams the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Hard Charger Award for advancing 11 [Read More]

PASS visits The Groves this weekend

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – After running for the final time in 2019 on their smallest bullring, Pennsylvania Sprint Series teams move to two of their largest venues Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway and Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway. Features for the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars both nights will be 20 laps. This will be the only PASS feature this season at Williams Grove. Rain washed out an event scheduled in the spring. Veteran Scott Ellerman of Landisburg is the only former PASS winner at Williams Grove pre-entered, but about 30 other drivers will be trying to join him on that winners’ list. Adult admission is $18 with $10 for youth. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. with racing at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, gates will open at 4 p.m. with racing at 7 p.m. This is the final of four appearances for PASS at Selinsgrove. Hometown racer Ken Duke Jr., who leads the national RaceSaver Sprint Car points, won the first two races and Devin Adams took the most recent event. Both are entered for [Read More]

Bard prevails in PASS feature at Path Valley

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (Sept. 7) – Wells Tannery is an unincorporated community in Fulton County, Pa., with a nice community park. It’s also home to race driver Garrett Bard and if Bard’s fortunes continue on their current upward curve, he may become the first thing you’ll know about Wells Tannery. The 23-year-old scored his second victory in a two-month career in the Pennsylvania Sprint Series Saturday night at Path Valley Speedway. It was his third IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car win, with the other having come the previous weekend in a Laurel Highlands Sprint Series race at Bedford Speedway. Bard started on the pole and led all the way for a convincing win but John Walp didn’t make it easy, challenging after a lap 14 caution. On the restart, Walp tried Bard on the inside but to no avail. On lap 20, Scott Lutz slipped into second but couldn’t catch Bard. Following Bard, Lutz and Walp at the finish were New Jersey’s Larry McVay and Rob Felix. Zach Newlin was the hard charger, [Read More]

Duke adds BAPS to dream season

By Frank Buhrman YORK HAVEN, Pa. (Aug. 25) – Ken Duke Jr. is enjoying a season most racers can only dream about, winning races and leading both the Pennsylvania Sprint Series and national IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car point standings, but one track was conspicuously missing from the top tier of his 2019 resume: BAPS Motor Speedway. On Sunday night, Duke took care of that small discrepancy with a convincing victory in the 20-lap PASS feature at the York County speedway. It’s not that you could call Duke’s performance at BAPS poor: he had a 12-race streak of top 10 finishes at BAPS dating to early 2017 but his last victory at the track had come nearly three years ago, on Sept. 3, 2016. With the victories mounting at other regular PASS tracks like Port Royal, Path Valley, Clinton County and Duke’s hometown Selinsgrove Speedway, BAPS stood out. No more. After drawing the outside front row starting position Sunday, Duke out-charged pole sitter and Saturday night Port Royal winner Landon Price for the early lead, then [Read More]

Price is all right in PASS feature win at Port Royal

By Frank Buhrman and Stephanie Stevens Dodson PORT ROYAL, Pa. (Aug. 24) – Seventeen-year-old Landon Price claimed his first IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car victory Saturday in the Pennsylvania Sprint Series main event at Port Royal Speedway. Price, whose previous best finish was fifth at BAPS Motor Speedway (twice) and previous best at Port Royal was 13th, took the lead from Doug Dodson and scored a dominating win. Thirty-eight cars were entered in the Port Royal show. Dodson was 1.5 seconds ahead of Price before a lap seven caution. On the restart, Dodson took the outside line through turns one and two and Price charged through the middle to take the lead. Once the leaders entered traffic, Price’s lower line proved beneficial, as the second through fourth place runners were running high and struggling with a choppy cushion. At the checkered flag, Price led runner-up Dodson by two-plus seconds. Rookie Garrett Bard passed Nick Sweigart for third place on the final lap and Devin Adams finished fifth. Feature results – 1. Landon Price; 2. Doug Dodson; 3. [Read More]