News Director 
Story By: MIKE FELTENBERGER / SHELLHAMMER DIRT TRACK – LEESPORT, PA – With a badly forecasted weather day, Dave Cordier,Jr. did his usual mastery on the speedway and as the night progressed so did a 3 wide,sometime 4 wide speedway racing surface. During hotlaps there was no LF tire touching the speedway during the 600 micro hotlaps and it just progressed from there.
The Junior Slingshots were the 1st class to take the A Main green and Aubrey Romig was dialed in for the first 16 laps with Gavin Wolfe, Cheyenne Snodderly,Lily Barrett and Hailey Eroh putting on a quite a show behind her.The only yellow of the night for the Juniors was not what Aubrey needed and on lap 18 Eroh took to the lowside of turn 3 and had a slight advantage heading off of turn 4 to take the 20 lap main.Romig battled on for 2nd with Wolfe getting a podium finish by holding off a fast closing Snodderely. Barrett held firm for 5th.It was Eroh’s 7th Wingless Weds. win in 2024.
Onto the speedway came the 125 micros and there wasn’t anything that was going to stop Chris Dolan from taking the checker as he had the 16 on rails leading from start to finish.Swapping 2nd and 3rd throughout the 20 laps was Easton Miller and AJ Gerhart with Gerhart finally getting the nod on lap 10.Behind these 3 was the scramble for 4th and 5th with Corey Harting besting Shane Davis by a scant .1 seconds for 4th.Hard luck went to Sam Borger who could not keep his 04 fired and pulled off on lap 2.
There are close races and then there are really close races and the All Star Slingshots put on one helluva show for the fans.The top 5 runners were separated by less than a second when the checker was thrown and Wyatt Taschler withstood every challenge thrown to him by Colton Williams,Lindsey Garl and Tess Horvath to get his 1st win of the year.Horvath got by Williams on lap 3 with Garl and Jason Dunkelberger following right behind putting Colton back to 5th. Quickly getting into the fray was Terry Noll piloting the #12 on the night.Lap 18 Horvath got to the left rear of Taschler but didn’t have enough to make the pass settling for 2nd with Garl just a car length behind. Dunkelberger got 4th place money with Williams just nosing out Noll for 5th.
The 270 micro drag race to turn 1 was won by Dustin Roberts over Chase Zeigenfuss and he would not relinquish the top spot for the remaining 19 laps. Doing his best to shake the bad luck he has endured all season was Sleeveless Mike Kalman who slotted in at 3rd on lap 4 and tried a high side turn 3 pass on Zeigenfuss that fell a little short,but kept him in the top 3 fray.Mark Kemp was an early race top 5 runner but was overtaken by a high flying Matt Hoffman and Jacob Neff.Roberts got his 1st 2024 win with Zeigenfuss a solid 2nd. Kalman got a much needed 3rd followed by an 8th starting Matt Hoffman with Neff rounding out the top 5.Matt Bangs garnered a respectable 6th after an early night tumble.3 time 2024 winner Dylan Kuronya was 7th and 5 time winner Matt McAnally was 9th after mechanical issues beset the 45 in qualifying and he started 16th in the A Main.The 20 lap main went green to checker in 3:41.
The Stage 1 Modified main went right down to the checker with Johnny Fugelo and AJ Gerhart slugging it out on the wide and smooth racing surface for the final 16 laps.Gerhart needed a Fugelo mistake,of which, there wasn’t going to be one and Fugelo put his 5Teen under the checker 1st for his 2nd win of the year.Gerhart rewarded car owner Richie Smith with the 2nd place payout.Behind this pair anything and everything was happening with Brett Smith,Owen Cassel,Fabian Cushman and Mark Mohr all wanting that 3rd spot with Smith finding some late race speed on the high side to distance himself for 3rd. Owen Cassel had his #57 under the checker for 4th with Mark Mohr taking on the Cushman challenge to get 5th Fabian had the 99 working the lowside to get 6th.
The McAnally / Buchel Show moved from the 270s to the 600 micro A Main and they did not disappoint the fans. An original start caution took out last race winner Trevor Kobylarz and from there the show began.The widened racing surface produced some midpack 3 wide racing that thrilled everyone. As McAnally and Buchel were having their own personal battle behind them Luke Hess,Brandon Fidler and Dan Lane,Jr. had a spirited threesome that went to the finish.Lane,Jr. got by Hess on lap 5 with Fidler working the high side in an attempt to get by Hess.Buchel made a bold move off of turn 4 but slower traffic impeded his run and he had to settle for the runnerup spot behind a strong running McAnally.McAnally claimed win #2 for the season,Buchel was 2nd.Lane,Jr. held on for 3rd with Hess besting Fidler for 4th.The close battles continued back through the field with Adam O’Brien,Geezer Fanelli and Joe Plunkett wheeling and dealing for 6th,7th and 8th.
Final checker was at 9:26.
With Aubrey Romig having electrical issues prior to the Junior Slingshot start,Dave gave the team some additional time to get the 35 under power resulting in her making the main and getting a 2nd place finish.
Quite a few new faces on the grandstand side with many of them thanking us for keeping the show moving and putting on a great racing program.
Even with a power outage that lasted 8 minutes we were still done by 9:30.
A big thanks to the race teams and drivers for your efforts on and off the speedway and again keeping the cautions down to a minimum.
