News Director 
Story By: ALEX GREENZWEIG / SNYDERVILLE RACEWAY – SNYDERVILLE, PA – The sound of engines and the smell of race fuel and oil filled the atmosphere for the first time of 2017 at Snydersville Raceway.
An assortment of new faces and familiar faces joined in the race action on Friday with racing that was action packed with excitement, thrills, and spills. Sixty-seven entries of karts with a packed grandstand made for a great night of racing in the Poconos.
The first race of the season came with the first money race. $250 was up for grabs in the Briggs Stock Heavy division as seven highly competitive racers battled it out on the 1/8 mile to claim the grand prize. Jason Wolfe had his kart on point, qualifying pole for the twenty-five lap feature, and holding off his father John Wolfe to take home the cash and pocket his first of many victories in 2017.
John Wolfe and Ron Ehrhardt battled it out early on with John taking shotgun to his son. Also hungry for the cash, he worked on getting past his son (Jason) but didn’t have enough to end up finishing second in his first race of the season. After battle with John for the runner up spot, Ron Ehrhardt held his position finish in third place.
Brandon Winne had a successful night, finishing fourth after starting last due to an issue earlier in the night. Randy Ehrhardt struggled a bit on setup for the 25 lap race to finish in fifth. Brandon Tackas finished in sixth and Joe Henry Makowski finished in seventh.
Four of our youngest racers took to the track for the first time in the Kid Kart division. Craig Sprague Jr. made his first start in the Kid Karts and rallied to gain his first career win. Brianna Snyder had a great battle with Sprague but fell short to finish second. Howard Hager struggled with the starts as the motor would shut off but managed a third place finish. Rounding out the field for the Kid Karts, also making his racing debut is Wyatt Yetter.
Gunnar Zeiner took the win in a wire to wire Jr. Sportsman Champ feature over Cadence Freeman who sported a new Jr. Sportsman Champ chassis for the 2017 racing season. Justin Teresak had a great run to finish in third with Xavier Sprague making his champ division debut rounding out in the fourth position.
Zach Evans won the race of lifetime in the Briggs Stock Light division. Even with four cars, the racing between all four drivers was very close. Matthew Rodenbach, the reining Jr. Restricted Champion, won his heat for his first senior race of his career. He took the lead early for the feature but a late race caution regrouped the already close field, giving the chance for runner up, Zach Evans, to take the lead.
The restart was intense as Evan’s found the grove to take over the top spot but Rodenbach didn’t give up. Coming for the checkered flag Rodenbach dived to bottom off of turn four to try to get win in a photo finish but lost to Evans by a margin of 0.016 seconds. Brandon Winne tried to capitalize as well but finished with a close third place finish to Evans and Rodenbach. Chris Hendershot joined in the mix as well and finished fourth in the competitive field.
Paul Demott picked up the Jr. Restricted Champ win for the first race of the season.
Jr. Sportsman saw four familiar racers duke it out for the win with Gunnar Zeiner being victorious but not without a fight from Cadence Freeman who pressure Zeiner the whole race to finish in a close second. Griffin Hendershot stepped up the program this year and pulled a top 3 finish for the first night. Brooklyn Peters also showed improvement from 2016 finishing fourth.
After a loss in the Briggs Light division Matthew Rodenbach didn’t go home without some hardware. He would battle with Rich Whitman and Rick Shive in the early running of the feature until Rick Shive spun it around in turn 1 at half way. Rodenbach perfected the restart and took the lead from Whitman and never looked back to pick up his first senior kart division win. Rich Whitman kept the pressure on the young driver but finished second. Brandon Tackas showed major improvement with a better kart to finish in third. Rick Shive rallied back in the final half to finish fourth. Joe Henry Makowski rounded out the Heavy field finishing fifth.
The Searock Lawn Care Microstock 206s came out in droves for the first race of 2017. Intense racing made the feature exciting with drivers working through the tough field. “The Banana Man” Larry Ealey led the twelve car field from green to checkered taking the win in the Microstocks. Defending Point Champion of the division Steven Frindt raced his #99 Microstock forward after falling back early on to finish in a close second to Ealey.
James Counterman made his return to Snydersville after being off for over half a season, found the setup to make his car work and pull off a third place finish. Pappy Curnell struggled on the track to catch the top three but managed to finish in fourth. A new look and restoration to Matt Gyurkovics Microstock was all that was needed as he picked up a fifth place finish in the Microstock division. 6th- Bob Wilson, 7th- Dillon Emmons, 8th- Michael Kratzer, 9th- Tom Arntz, 10th- Timothy Flyte, 11th- Chad Weaver, 12th- Matt Ackerman.
Dillon Emmons found victory lane once again in the AllStar Slingshots taking the win. Shawn Hoffman, a former Pro 4 cyclinder racer at Mahoning Valley Speedway, finished second in the slingshots for his first dirt race. Gavin Danner, son of Roy Danner, and brother of up-and-coming 358 Modified racer Briggs Danner, showed he has that racing DNA, finishing in third in the slingshots with tremendous improvments as he logged more laps around the 1/8 mile dirt oval.
There was never a dull moment in the Jr. Restricted division. Blaze Croop and Alex Kolonics put on a fierce and competitive race with Croop beating out Kolonics for the win. Alex Kolonics rallied hard and gave it all he had but finished runner up to Croop. Dylan Labar struggled to dial in the new kart and find the speed placing him third in Jr. Restricted. Chris Grbac Jr. struggled with gearing and handling issues rounded out the field in fourth.
John Wagner took the checkered flag in the Briggs Super Heavy over Defending Champion Eddie Geiger Jr.
Buddy Lord held off hard charging Bob Wilson to take the win in the Sr. Animal Champ. Bob Wilson tried to move Lord but fell short to finish in second. Returning driver from the 2006 season, Joe Yakarino took home a third place finish in Animal Champ.
Defending Sr. Clone Champion Eric Freeman kept his rein going on Friday by taking the win in the Sr. Clone division. Scott Neary also had speed but not enough to beat Freeman, finishing in second. Scott Zimmerman took home a third place finish for his first race at Snydersville. Emily Oswald struggled to get the setup down, finished fourth in the feature.
Jason Kraycirik wheeled his Jr. Slingshot to another victory at Snydersville over Wyatt Hager, finishing in second to Kraycirik. Ryan Conrad moved up from the Jr. Champs to a Jr. Slingshot and finished third for his first slingshot race at Snyderville. Colton Yetter, a rookie in the Jr. Slingshots, finished in fourth.
Joshua Reeder took the win in the Sr. Flathead Champ.
Cole Stangle picked up his first Snydersville win in the Beginner 1/4 Midgets over Isabella McKenna finishing in second.
Jacob Bierman jumped into the Honda 120 1/4 Midget class to race his way to another photo finish over Xavier Sprague finishing in second. Colton Yetter had a decent run to finish in third.
The racing was exciting for the first week at Snydersville. With all the new and familiar faces at Snydersville, it is looking to be another great season of racing! We want to thank everyone for attending our season opener and hope you return this Friday for more exciting dirt track racing in the Poconos.
