Brandon Heist Sweeps the Night in 270 Micro Sprint Time Trial Series Opener at Linda’s Speedway
Column By: Kasey Kreider / LINDA SPEEDWAY – JONESTOWN, PA – After a good – but not great – opening night of 270 Micro Sprint competition for Jonestown native Brandon Heist, the three-time defending track champion looked back in dominant form on Friday night at the Linda’s Speedway. After timing quickest of the 30 entries and winning his heat race, Heist made the race-winning pass in lapped traffic with six laps to go to score his first win of the season aboard the Dave Walter-powered No. 4R.
Heist was part of a dramatic, three-car donnybrook that unfolded throughout much of the 25-lap Mt. Gretna Roller Rink 270 Micro Sprint A-Main. Heist led the opening few laps before last week’s winner Cory Myers slipped into the lead on a restart.
As the field caught lapped traffic in the race’s second half, Heist briefly faded back into the third position, as Billy Logeman caught the front duo and made a bid of his own for the top spot. But Heist took advantage of the low groove – skirting right next to the infield yuke tires – to squeeze past both Logeman and Myers as the leaders remained in a heap of traffic.
A caution with five laps to go put the frontrunners back in clean track, but Heist sprinted off to a lead of nearly three seconds over the final spurt to the finish, capping off his perfect night in fine style with a championship-level performance.
Friday’s Winged 600 Micro Sprint feature also belonged to a familiar face, as defending National Open champion Jason Swavely parked his “Pink Panther” No. 14 RTS Chassis in the winner’s circle. Swavely started sixth, but quickly moved through traffic on the start and eventually got past Cody West in lapped traffic to chalk up the victory.
Despite being under the weather for most of the week, nothing would keep defending GP
Motorsports Front Wheel Drive Car champion Shane Flaherty out of the driver’s seat and out of victory lane. Flaherty scored the win of Friday night’s 15-lap feature, making it five straight stock car victories at the quarter-mile dating back to the end of the 2025 season.
In All Star Slingshot competition, four-time defending track champion Dave Carraghan got the better of last week’s winner Tyler Ulsh and defending World Slingshot champion Brett Bieber to claim his first feature win of 2026.
The Junior Slingshots put on a thrilling show in their 15-lapper, as “Highflyin’” Hayden
Kimm used the high groove to her advantage and made the winning pass on Colten Berndt with just three laps left to open up 2026 with a checkered flag.
Next Friday, April 24, is the annual running of the Earman Fulk Memorial Race at the Linda’s Speedway. Headlining the action will be the return of the Winged Super Sportsman division, as they will invade the quarter-mile once again after Mother Nature thwarted their event last season. The remainder of the racing card consists of the Hoosier Tire Wingless 600 Micro Sprints, the Xcel 600 Modifieds, and the East Coast Legend Series. Gates open at 5 p.m., with hot laps beginning the on-track action at 7 p.m. General grandstand admission is just $5, and for those unable to attend in person, live streaming coverage will be provided by The Cushion.
Results -4/17/2026
Mt. Gretna Roller Rink 270 Micro Sprints
A-Main 25 Laps
- 4R-Brandon Heist Sr[1]; 2. 20-Cory Myers[2]; 3. 27O-Billy Logeman[5]; 4. 45O-Mike Rutherford[13]; 5. 32-Quinn Roberts[3]; 6. 27T-Tyler Grau[7]; 7. 00-Jason Houtz[10]; 8. 23K-Courtney Kupp[14]; 9. 96W-Chase Walker[8]; 10. 5A-Anthony Yerger[23]; 11. 94-Dallas Sanders[24]; 12. 95-Bennett Skelton[9]; 13. 77B-Bethany Stolz[19]; 14. 08-Jason Paisley[16]; 15. 77-Ben Stolz[22]; 16. 88J-Jason Klinger[11]; 17. 77G-Isaac Graby[18]; 18. 5W-Cayden Forsythe[17]; 19. 28-Kyle Lindsey[21]; 20. 19-Matt Fernsler[15]; 21. 27-Brayden Spencer[12]; 22. 2X-Lake Laughman[4]; 23. 18-Dylan Devault[20]; 24. 2B-Brayden Winters[6]
Winged 600 Micro Sprints 
A-Main 25 Laps
- 14-Jason Swavely[6]; 2. 117-Cody West[1]; 3. 98-Matthew Warner[5]; 4. 71-Brian Kramer[3]; 5. 5J-Jason Sechrist[9]; 6. 31C-Maverick Coffey[12]; 7. 45-Aiden Lutz[11]; 8. 90-Trent Warner[15]; 9. 38-Isabella Landis[2]; 10. 33-Scott Lutz[14]; 11. 13-Ben Freels[8]; 12. 22-Shawn Rumbaugh[13]; 13. 14T-Heath Walton[10]; 14. 14W-Chayce Wolfe[7]; 15. 19S-Chase Schott[4]; 16. (DNS) 11H-Holden Eckman; 17. (DNS) 47-Scott Gesford
All Star Slingshots
A-Main 20 Laps
- 3-David Carraghan[2]; 2. 1T-Tyler Ulsh[5]; 3. 32-Brett Bieber[4]; 4. 77-Daniel Betz[1]; 5. 97Z-Zack Gerber[8]; 6. 55B-Barry Seaman[10]; 7. 28-Dustin Degler[9]; 8. 18S-Brett Spitler[11]; 9. 22S-Ronnie Spitler[3]; 10. 8DS-Darren Shenk[14]; 11. F14-Scott Gray[13]; 12. 83-Tyler Behney[12]; 13. 3S-Dylan Fausey[7]; 14. 1-Lilly Esterly[6]; 15. (DNS) 98-Jeff Shank
Junior Slingshots 
A-Main 15 Laps
- H1-Hayden Kimm[6]; 2. 88-Colten Berndt[7]; 3. 44-Jonathan Severn[2]; 4. 39-Brody Shelton[3]; 5. 00-Anthony Dinatale[4]; 6. 5M-MJ Tralies[8]; 7. 4D-Dallas Peters[1]; 8. 64-Gabe Baker[9]; 9. 10S-Aubrey Romig[5]
Front Wheel Drives
A-Main 15 Laps
- 18-Shane Flaherty[1]; 2. 11-Bill Sherwood[3]; 3. 3-Shjon Dove[6]; 4. 12-Ken Buck[2]; 5. 51K-Andrew Keefer[8]; 6. 41-Bud Hopple[7]; 7. 97X-Justin Riegel[9]; 8. 8-Drew Oberdorf[13]; 9. 13JR-Bubba Sonnon[10]; 10. 13-Richard Sonnon[11]; 11. 24Y-Chris Yob[4]; 12. 81JR-Michael Wambold[5]; 13. (DNS) 77-Daniel Eitnier
