Story By: KASEY KREIDER / CLYDE MARTIN MEMORIAL SPEEDWAY – NEWMANSTOWN, PA – It was a late start and an even later finish to the first on-track event of the annual Labor Day Shootout at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway – the Winged Night presented by Germania Band Club of Manheim.
But despite mother nature’s best efforts, the track crew’s persistence was rewarded as the show was able to be completed. When the checkered flags flew at the end of a long night, Jason Swavely and Bradley Brown picked up the two $1,000 paydays that were on offer, while Brent Shearer and Chris Dolan also put themselves into Labor Day Shootout victory lane.
Offroad Motorsports 125/4 Stroke
Manheim’s Brent Shearer made the race-winning pass on Ella Rae Nardelli with seven laps to go to pick up his first win across any division in the Labor Day Shootout, as “Hotrod” piloted the Harrington Motorsports No. 76 into Brubacher Victory Lane.
For most of the race, Shearer was locked in a tight battle for second, which took place behind Nardelli and included the likes of Alyssa Holmes, Dylan Yeingst, Rilynn Hannula, and two-time defending Shootout winner Michael Hoffmaster.
Shearer finally broke free from that battle after a restart with 11 laps to go, and hunted down Nardelli while waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. Shearer saw his chance going into turn 1 as the leaders started lap 24. Shearer was able to get all the way alongside Nardelli by the time they hit the corner, and that was enough to allow the micro sprint veteran to complete the decisive pass.
Shearer pulled away over the closing laps from Hoffmaster, who got to the runner-up spot but couldn’t make magic happen for the third year in a row. Behind those two, Yeingst completed the podium by finishing third, while Hannula capped off her impressive night with a fourth-place result. Trevor Waegel sliced up from the 22nd starting position to round out the top five.
Results:
1. 76-Brent Shearer[3]; 2. 32-Michael Hoffmaster[8]; 3. 112-Dylan Yeingst[4]; 4. 89-Rilynn Hannula[14]; 5. 44S-Trevor Waegel[22]; 6. 58N-Ella Rae Nardelli[2]; 7. 15-Alyssa Holmes[1]; 8. 81-Dylan Holmes[15]; 9. 3H-Corey Harting[10]; 10. 18D-Dylan Devault[6]; 11. 24K-David Kirkner[19]; 12. 04-Sam Borger[16]; 13. 76K-Larry Kelleher[18]; 14. 78C-Sara Borror[21]; 15. X-Dave Schroeder[7]; 16. 82-John Maurer[12]; 17. 8-Michael Spadafora[20]; 18. 28B-Bobby Bracall[13]; 19. 14-Seth Gregory[11]; 20. 17E-Easton Miller[5]; 21. 11X-Josh Anderson[9]; 22. 76B-Justin Harrington[17]; 23. 96-Blayne Bainbridge[23]
Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman
With two-time Labor Day Shootout winner Brandon Heist breathing down his neck all race long, York’s Chris Dolan was unfazed throughout the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman 30-lapper and picked up his third total win in the Shootout, but first in the Winged portion of the event.
The two-time Wingless 125/4 Stroke Shootout winner led the field to green alongside Austin Graby. Heist started third, though, and was up to the runner-up position in the blink of an eye.
Although the race featured several cautions, the plan of attack for both drivers was pretty much the same throughout the duration of the race. Dolan protected the bottom – which for most drivers was the fast line – while Heist motored around the middle of the speedway and tried to build up enough momentum to pull out and pass.
Heist looked high and low on a number of occasions, but needed a mistake from Dolan to be able to make the move for the win. That mistake never came, and Dolan held on through the final four-lap dash to the checkers to win the race by two car lengths.
Heist held on for second, while Dylan Pennypacker returned to the podium for the second week in row by finishing third. Patrick Kirn and Tyler Martin were the remainder of the top five.
Results:
1. 1J-Chris Dolan[1]; 2. 99-Brandon Heist Sr[3]; 3. 27-Dylan Pennypacker[6]; 4. 16P-Patrick Kirn[5]; 5. 31-Tyler Martin[7]; 6. 14C-Charles Chance III[8]; 7. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[13]; 8. 23K-Courtney Kupp[12]; 9. 21V-David Ravel[25]; 10. 99K-Chad Kreiser[22]; 11. 26X-Austin Mieczkowski[10]; 12. 22J-Jonathan Hellinger[24]; 13. 8-Michael Spadafora[20]; 14. 77-Michael Kreiser[9]; 15. 21D-Dave Williams[23]; 16. 28-Austin Graby[2]; 17. 15-Josh Stoyer[4]; 18. 16-Dan Lane Jr[17]; 19. 88M-Richie Hartman[16]; 20. 23B-Chase Bouchelle[15]; 21. 30-Ryan Heckman[11]; 22. 12W-Quinn Llewellyn[21]; 23. 12A-Matt Andrews[14]; 24. 21-Toby Blumenshine[18]; 25. 17-Masen Stapleton[19]
Border Magic 270
With 43 entries signed in on Saturday night, the Border Magic 270s raced for $1,000 to win in their portion of the Labor Day Shootout. A familiar face went back to the winner’s circle, as Fleetwood’s Jason Swavely made it back-to-back Winged 270 Labor Day Shootout victories.
Swavely started the No. 16P from the pole position, but saw two main challenges over the course of his 30-lap journey to the checkered flag. The first came in the form of last week’s winner Alex Swift, who started fifth but motored into the runner-up spot in just a few laps. As both drivers caught lapped traffic, Swift had a chance to momentarily grab the lead. But Swavely got the top spot back just in time for a lap 9 caution flag, and held onto his advantage at the front.
That would turn out to be Swift’s only significant challenge to “The Rocketman,” as it was then New York’s Pat Kelly who inserted himself into the fight after ripping away second position on a restart. Kelly was making good speed running the same middle lane that Brandon Heist had used in the Sportsman race.
After several laps of heavy pressure from Kelly’s machine, a caution gave the defending track champion a chance to make a line change, and that proved to be the decisive move in the race, as Kelly never got close enough again to make a pass over the closing laps.
Swavely took the win by four car lengths over Kelly, and Swift rounded out the podium. Mike Skias and Heist were the rest of the top five.
Results:
1. 16P-Jason Swavely[1]; 2. 00-Pat Kelly[3]; 3. 15-Alex Swift[5]; 4. 8S-Mike Skias[2]; 5. 5R-Brandon Heist Sr[7]; 6. 16T-Nick Walton[14]; 7. 3S-Nick Skias[17]; 8. 82-John Maurer[13]; 9. 29J-Jacob Neff[20]; 10. 11R-Tommy Rinck[8]; 11. 08-Zach Hollinger[12]; 12. 42-Bob Sawdey[15]; 13. 12-Luke Fogg[24]; 14. 21H-Matt Hoffman[16]; 15. 23K-Courtney Kupp[19]; 16. 24-Dustin Roberts[11]; 17. 54-Darren Schott[6]; 18. 39A-Austin Mieczkowski[23]; 19. 1A-Toby Blumenshine[25]; 20. 77-Michael Kreiser[21]; 21. 48-Jonah Meck[18]; 22. 44-Blake Ludwig[4]; 23. 4-Dylan Pence[9]; 24. 5L-Landon Smith[10]; 25. 14D-Daniel Wright Jr[26]; 26. (DQ) 12Q-Dominic Pomponi[22]
DNQ: 08G-Nate Gibble; 30-Ryan Heckman; 1L-Dave Labe; 21D-Dave Williams; 5A-Anthony Yerger; 34-Christi Sweigart; 46R-James Miller; 31-Paris Hewes; 1J-Jonathan John; 11-Chase Roberts; 41-Mark Landwher; 28S-Brian Sholley; 96D-Dakota Deemer; 71B-Gary Bozowski; 3-Josh Stoyer; 747-Richie Hartman; 7D-Chris Dolan
EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600
35 entries signed in for EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600 competition on Saturday night, and while the lineup featured a strong group of invaders, it was current points leader Bradley Brown who protected his home turf with his first Labor Day Shootout win in Lanco’s biggest Winged 600 race.
On a track surface that had widened out considerably by the time the 600s hit the speedway, Brown hung his No. 23 in a familiar place – on the higher groove – to advance his charge through the field. Although he rolled off in sixth, Brown was up to second by lap 4, and a bold outside pass on Aidan Turner coming off of turn 2 put Brown’s car quickly into clean air.
Christian Bruno and Steven Snyder, Jr. followed Brown up through the pack, and Bruno appeared to be Brown’s top challenger for most of the race. Bruno tried one slide job following a lap 12 restart, but couldn’t make it stick. Things remained as they were, and Snyder, Jr. then eventually got past Bruno and into the runner-up spot.
But Brown was simply too tough to tame on this Saturday night at the Clyde, as he opened up and maintained a steady four car length gap over the final run to the finish.
Snyder, Jr. and Bruno brought home the other podium spots, while Chris Panczner and Jace Marshall were the remainder of the top five.
Results:
1. 23-Bradley Brown[6]; 2. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[5]; 3. 5-Christian Bruno[3]; 4. 15P-Christopher Panczner[4]; 5. 2J-Jace Marshall[13]; 6. 26T-Aidan Turner[1]; 7. 5A-Anthony Yerger[2]; 8. 14-Jason Swavely[20]; 9. 28P-Gunnar Pio[8]; 10. 16T-Trevor Gach[11]; 11. 08-Dominic Schmidt[18]; 12. 8W-Jayden Wagner[12]; 13. 71-Brian Kramer[16]; 14. 10L-Lukas Kostic[10]; 15. 31C-Maverick Coffey[23]; 16. 14A-Mike Austin[17]; 17. 57C-Cooper Fritz[19]; 18. 11Z-Zachary Light[26]; 19. 66A-Marvin Albright[25]; 20. 21-Mason Beinhower[9]; 21. 23R-Rebecca LaMothe[24]; 22. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[21]; 23. 1F-James Fries[14]; 24. 117X-Randy West[22]; 25. 117-Cody West[7]; 26. 16-Marty Brian[15]
DNQ: 11K-RJ Kingdollar; L13-Robert Potter; 22RW-Michael Rankin; 51-Amanda Onimus; 7J-Cyle Johnson; 13F-Ben Freels; 13-Eddie Mort; 05-Donald Bouchelle; 11H-Holden Eckman
The Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway concludes its Labor Day Shootout on Sunday, Sept. 1 with the annual Wingless Night of racing. The Hyper Racing Wingless 600s, Border Magic Wingless 270s, Offroad Motorsports Wingless 125/4 Strokes, and Winged Junior Sprints will make up the racing card for the evening. Gates will open at 3 p.m., with warmups and racing set to begin at 5 p.m. With what is annually one of the most exciting racing events of the year on tap, don’t miss your chance to come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!