Friday Night 600 Sprint Wing Thing Goes to Snyder; R. Hartman Wins 270 Main at Action Track USA

Story By: BARRY ANGSTADT / ACTION TRACK USA – KUTZTOWN, PA – Rising Sun, MD throttle-jockey Steven Snyder Jr. captured his second winged 600 Sprint victory on Friday night at Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds. Snyder also won the first winged 600 race two years ago, also held during the Kutztown Fair. This year’s Winged Fair Nationals drew 62 entries in the winged 600 division and once again, Snyder was the class of the field—although he had to work hard to achieve this win.

Shoemakersville Micro Sprint veteran Richie Hartman held off Ross “the Boss” Perchak to win the companion 270 feature for his fifth career triumph at the Kutztown Fairgrounds. Tyler Ulsh powered his way to the All Star Slingshots victory, while EJ Hatch remains undefeated this season at Action Track USA, winning his third Junior Slingshot main (and second of the week).

North Carolina’s Aidan Turner set the pace in the early stages of the winged 600 Sprint feature. Seventh-starting Steven Snyder Jr. dueled with Brian Carber for fourth spot as Cole Dewease and Cole Cabre battled for the runner up position. The first 18 tours went non-stop before the yellow flag slowed the pace. Another stoppage, this one a red flag, occurred with 19 laps scored and only six left to run.

On the restart, Cabre, also from the Tarheel state, blasted by Turner as the latter missed a shift. Snyder now moved up to fight with Turner for second as the duo kept leader Cabre in their sights.

One final caution period with four to go permitted Snyder to restart on Cabre’s tail tank. Snyder got a big run on the high side when the race went back to green, driving around Cabre off turn two and into the lead with three trips remaining.

At the finish, it was Snyder beating Cabre to the line, with Turner, Alec Quiggle, and Cody West making up the top five.

The beautiful No. 747 of Richie Hartman (and owned by Dennis & Dawn McKeon) started on the pole of the 270 main. That was the good news for Hartman; the bad news was that Ross Perchak was rolling off right beside him on the front row. Hartman and McKeon had the car dialed in to perfection, beating Perchak to furn one as the green flag waved and Richie never looked back as he flew to the 25 lap triumph. Perchak finished several car lengths behind Hartman for second place cash.

Austin Mieczkowski started and finished third, falling back into the field a bit during the first half of the race, but he rallied to come back through the pack and into the third position. The winner of this race in 2023 (2024 was rained out), Brandon Heist, climbed into the top five and put some pressure on Mieczkowski, but settled for fourth place money at the end. Mike Skias finished a strong fifth.

A yellow flag with four revolutions in the books gave Tyler Ulsh the opportunity he was looking for in the All Star Slingshots Speedweek event. Ulsh restarted on the outside of early leader Brett Bieber, then powered by the Slingers all-time win leader off turn two to snatch the top spot. From there, Ulsh throttled away to a dominating win over Bieber, Tuesday winner Amanda Angstadt, Chase Schott, and Charlie Moore.

Aubrey Romig led (almost) all the way in the Junior Slingshot 20 lap feature, until EJ Hatch drew close and began to harass the race leader. Hatch muscled under the No. 35A in three and four with three laps remaining. There was contact between the two as they battled for the same piece of real estate, leaving Aubrey in the infield with a broken drive chain. Hatch took over at that point, beating Hannah Kormann to the stripe by about one-quarter of a second. Hatch has made three starts at Action Track USA this summer, and he’s won all three features. Mason Noll wound up with another third place finish, with Hailey Burnatowski finishing fourth. Frank Fritzinger crossed the line in fifth.

Wednesday, August 13, will be a very special night at Action Track USA, as Berks County’s Baddest Bullring honors the memory of Flemington Speedway. Several drivers who competed at “the Square” will be in attendance on Wednesday, including Billy Pauch Sr., Kenny Brightbill, Jimmy Horton, Stan Ploski, and Sammy Beavers. On the menu this Wednesday will be the All Pro SpeedSTRs, Hyper Racing non-wing 600 Sprints, along with the All Star and Junior Slingshots.
Race cars will be on track by 6:15 pm, with qualifying activity immediately following the hot lap sessions.

RESULTS FROM FRIDAY, AUGUST 8:

270 Winged Sprints (25 Laps) 1.Richie Hartman; 2. Ross Perchak; 3. Austin Mieczkoski; 4. Brandon Heist; 5. Mike Skias; 6. Cory Myers; 7. Isaac Graby; 8. Chase Walker; 9. Brayden Spencer; 10. Matt Hoffman; 11. Tyler Puterbaugh; 12. Jason Hauck; 13. Anthony Yerger; 14. Jonah Meck; 15. Matt Hauser; 16. Jeff Furlong; 17. Bennett Skelton; 18. Ben Stolz; 19. Dominic Pompon; 20. Dan Souder; 21. Matt Fernsler; 22. Brandon Zook; 23. Dallas Sanders; 24. Cayden Forsythe DNQ – Marshall Laboda, Clinton Hauser,, John Roberts, Patrick Kirn.

600 Winged Sprints (25 Laps) 1.Stephen Snyder Jr; 2. Cole Cabre; 3. Aidan Turner; 4. Alec Quiggle; 5. Cody West; 6. Tyler Lupton; 7. Cole Dewease; 8. James Hendricks; 9. Gunnar Pio; 10. James Roselli; 11. Lukas Kostic; 12. Brody Snyder; 13. Zach Curtis; 14. Hayden Miller; 15. Parker Hendricks; 16. Tyler Lindsay; 17. James Fries; 18. Ashen Glazier; 19. Brian Carber; 20. Shannon Slaughter; 21. Brianna Snyder; 22. Chris Gerhart; 23. Connor Mirabelli; 24. Amanda Onimus; 25. Brody Miller; 26. Randy West; 27. Jarid Kunkle; 28. Larry Kelleher; 29. Shelby McLaughlin. DNQ – Mason Peters, Dylan Kontra, Caleb Scarbough, Dan Souder, Justin Yohn, Brent Ely, Matt McAnally, Faith Turnbaugh, Rodney Westhafer, Andrew Rothermel, Brian Kramer, Kris McKeon, Richard Hartman, Dylan Hahn, Mike Shurman, Jacob Fisher, Brevan Rothermel, Aiden Myers, Pat Bealer, Brad Brown, Jason Swavely, Chris Panczer, Jared Lilly, Heath Walton, Izzy Landis.

All Star Slingshots (25 Laps) 1.Tyler Ulsh; 2. Brett Bieber; 3. Amanda Angstadt; 4. Chase Schott; 5. Charlie Moore; 6. Matthew Laubach; 7. Brett Putnam; 8. Daniel Betz; 9. Mason Lineman; 10. Hailey Eroh; 11. Patrick Weiss; 12. Tyler Lilek; 13. Isaac Graby; 14. Darien Danyluk; 15. Shawn Dengler; 16. Colton Lineman; 17. Mackenzie Henn; 18. Brayden Ketchum; 19. Dave Carraghan.

Junior Slingshots (20 Lap) 1.EJ Hatch; 2. Hannah Korman; 3. Mason Noll; 4. Hailey Burnatowski; 5. Frank Fritzinger; 6. Barry Seaman; 7. Miles Zehner; 8. Lily Esterly; 9. Landon McNichol; 10. Bayleigh Ross; 11. Jon Severn; 12. Billy Pauch III; 13. Carl Taylor; 14. MJ Tralies; 15. Gavin Wolfe; 16. Kaleb Stofflet; 17. Kendall Crossley; 18. TJ Crone; 19. Aubrey Romig; 20. Jack Bougher; 21. Aiden Buckwalter; 22. Blaine Card; 23. Emma Snedder.