pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

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]

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]