pennsylvaniasprintseries Archives

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]

Spahr picks up where he left off with win at Port Royal

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (April 8, 2023) – After hitting his stride at the end of the 2022 River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series season, Logan Spahr picked up right where he left off Saturday night. Spahr wired the field to capture the 20-lap 2023 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car main event at Port Royal Speedway, where the series is sponsored by Penns Valley Meat Market. The race kicked off the Silver Anniversary season for PASS, one of the oldest IMCA RaceSaver regional groups in the nation. Spahr led a youth movement that also included runner-up Seth Schnoke (3.07 seconds back), fourth-place Dylan Shatzer and fifth-place Zach Rhodes. Another member of the youth contingent, Owen Dimm, came home sixth. That left it up to third-finishing Ken Duke Jr. of Selinsgrove to uphold the honor of the veterans, and his run did so nicely. Duke is hardly ancient, but he has more PASS starts (238) and victories (22) than the other top-five finishers combined (131 and three, respectively). Spahr, who moved from micro-sprints into full-sized [Read More]

Trying again, PASS heads to Port Royal this Saturday

By Frank Buhrman PORT ROYAL, Pa. (April 4, 2023) – The anticipation was already sky high. Now it’s much higher. Foiled by Mother Nature in its effort to get the season started last weekend, the River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series re-charges and heads to Port Royal Speedway this Saturday for its Silver Anniversary inaugural race. The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car portion of the program will include qualifying events and a 20-lap feature. Nearly a week before the race, 35 drivers had already indicated their intentions of racing, including nine of the top 10 from 2022 points. They include runner-up Austin Reed, third-finishing Doug Dodson, fourth-finishing and two-time former champ Ken Duke and fifth-finishing Kruz Kepner. Dodson was a Port winner in last season’s PASS opener at the track, and Duke scored the first of his two Port wins four years ago this weekend. Reed and Kepner have both posted runner-up finishes and are ready to move up a spot. Logan Spahr is the most recent Port winner in a RaceSaver car, having claimed last [Read More]

Clock ticking down on PASS opener

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (March 24, 2023) – In less than two weeks, the roar of IMCA Sprint Car RaceSaver engines will light up a Pennsylvania race track – Selinsgrove Speedway, to be precise – for the first time in 162 days, since the last motor shut off following the Keystone RaceSaver Challenge in October. It’s time to roll again, and it’s extra-special in 2023 because this is the 25th anniversary season for the nation’s premier grassroots Sprint Car series in the Keystone State. River Valley Builders PA Sprint Series IMCA RaceSaver sprinters will join the limited late models and roadrunner stocks on the big Selinsgrove half-mile on Saturday, April 1, to kick off a 35-race 2023 series that will take the tour to nine different race tracks. Selinsgrove leads the parade with 11 planned stops and Port Royal Speedway follows closely behind with 10 dates. Path Valley Speedway, which ran its first PASS event in 2000, has five races scheduled for this year. Other tracks set to run are Williams Grove Speedway, Bloomsburg [Read More]

PASS celebrates 25th anniversary starting at Racing Xtravaganza

By Frank Buhrman YORK, Pa. (Jan. 30, 2023) – The River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series will celebrate 25 years of the best economy Sprint Car racing, beginning with a booth at the annual Racing Xtravaganza show Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3-4 in York. The season’s first race is scheduled for Saturday, April 1, at Selinsgrove Speedway. Thirty-five races are scheduled for the anniversary season, with the possibility of more being added. Once again, the series will be characterized by close racing with youngsters and veterans matching wits and talent in sprint cars powered by RaceSaver rules sealed engines. That national rules package is shared by regional series and tracks throughout the country, with an estimated 700-plus cars competing nationally. IMCA, the nation’s oldest sanctioning body, sanctions the series nationally. Last season, 13 different drivers took the feature checkered flag in PASS races despite a dominating performance by Garrett Bard of Wells Tannery, who won 12 races, tying the best single-season performance in series history. Bard also captured his unprecedented third straight championship. He is [Read More]