Steve Buckwalter Scores All-Pro SpeedSTR Bloomsburg Fair Opener Win; Carter Crooker Takes 602 Mod Checkers
News Director 
Story By: DINO OBERTO / BLOOMSBURG FAIR RACEWAY – BLOOMSBURG, PA – Bloomsburg Fair Raceway kicked off its 2023 season on Thursday evening with picture perfect weather, a well-groomed race surface prepared by new promoter Rich Tobias and a visit by local racing star and Grand Marshall Jimmy Spencer of nearby Berwick and the result was a smoothly run and competitive program that was in the books in just under two-and-a-half hours.
Afterwards the drivers where very complimentary of the track and Tobias for his great effort put in and giving them a racy surface for which to compete on.
Steve Buckwalter of Royersford claimed the headline All-Pro SpeedSTR win, Carter Crooker of Savona, NY picked up the verdict with the 602 Crate Modifieds, Adam Campbell from Danville won in the FWD 4-Cylinder Stocks and Andrew Turpin of Saylorsburg took the win with the Slingshots.
In the 25-lap SpeedSTR main pole sitter Buckwalter jumped into the opening lap lead over Mark Manieri and Briggs Danner. By the third tour Danner moved up to second and continued to keep close tabs on Buckwalter the rest of the way.
However, try as Danner may, Buckwalter showed good muscle each time a challenge was mounted, most noticeably on restarts and was able to maintain the lead to the finish for his first win at Bloomsburg.
“This feels great, we tried this here twice before, the first time we blew up in hot laps and the second race we came to it was pretty much the same deal so this was very rewarding to win the opener here at Bloomsburg,” said Buckwalter.
“The track was really good and I’m probably one of the biggest critics there is and I have to give Richie (Tobias) credit. He put the effort into it and gave us a really good track.”
Although Buckwalter had the ability to stay a few car lengths ahead of Danner, he still knew he had to keep his guard up nonetheless against the three-time Bloomsburg winner.
“I knew he (Danner) was back there and I didn’t want to just give it to him. I just ran it as hard as I could on the top and as hard as the car could take it,” Buckwalter noted.
Towards the end of the race Buckwalter was solid and not only crossed the finish line first but also set a new track record for SpeedSTRs during the event with a fast lap of 17.574-seconds.
Danner was not only doing what he could to catch Buckwalter but near the end had to fend off hard charging Eddie Strada who was right in his tire tracks.
“I knew he (Buckwalter) and I were so even and I tried on the restarts and I probably could have forced the issue a little bit more but it wasn’t really worth it. If I was going to pass him I was going to pass him under green,” said Danner.
“I was kind of hoping that lapped traffic would play into it a little bit and then the curb started building up there in (turn) one so I kind of backed off that bit more and settled into second.
Strada’s teammate, Doug Snyder and TJ Mayberry competed the top five.
In the 602 Crate Modified main it was a hard-fought family affair between Carter and Kreg Crooker.
C. Crooker took to the early lead with K. Crooker quickly on his tail and every lap from there through to the finish was a torrid battle as lap after lap the pair raced hard with neither backing down.
Holding a very defensive line C. Crooker was able to stand his ground and take his first ever win here. Despite the unrelenting effort of K. Crooker, he did run the fastest lap of the race and in doing so set a new track record for the class at 17.188-seconds.
Local favorite Matt Yoder, Mike Schane and Paulie Hartwig III completed the top five.
Adam Campbell parlayed his front row starting spot into a win with the FWD 4-Cylinder Stocks as he led flag to flag while fending off Tim Campbell for the victory.
In the Slingshot feature proved to be no match as he not only led every lap in the feature but did so in his heat. Turpin is also the first driver win at Bloomsburg with the class.
SpeedSTR feature finish (25 laps): 1. Steve Buckwalter, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Eddie Strada, 4. Doug Snyder, 5. TJ Mayberry, 6. Jason Muldowney, 7. Scott Houdeshell, 8. Charles Bellinger, 9. Mark Manieri, 10. Randy Mausteller, 11. Justin Thompson, 12. Louden Reimert, 13. Tim Buckwalter, 14. Cale Zangli
602 Crate Modified feature finish (20 laps): 1. Carter Crooker, 2. Kreg Crooker, 3. Matt Yoder, 4. Mike Schane, 5. Paulie Hartwig III, 6. Ben Feldman, 7. Greg Crooker, 8. Tyler Peet, 9. Mia Guy, 10. Joe Wilgus, 11. Ralph Mele, 13. Mike Loney DNS: Logan Starr
FWD 4-Cylinder Stock feature finish (15 laps): 1. Adam Campbell, 2. Tim Campbell, 3. Kevin Doud, 4. AJ Hoffner, 5. Tim Raup, 6. 14D, 7. Larry Spencer
Slingshots feature finish (8 laps): 1. Andrew Turpin, 2. Austin Kroboth, 3. Dylan Starr
