Spence, Rutherford, & Carraghan Head Winners List in Memorial Day Open Show

Nocera & Manotti Also Win On May 27

by Barry Angstadt

Newmanstown, PA -  One year ago, Austin Quick drove Gary Hunter's No. 7H to victory in the Bud's Spring Service Memorial Day Open Show at Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. Fast forward to Saturday's 2017 edition of the annual event, and this time it was Kyle Spence who steered Hunter's mount to the win in the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint 30-lap headliner.

  Joining Spence in the winner's circle on Saturday were Mike Rutherford (Viper Chassis 270 Sprints and Sportsman); Dave Carraghan (All Star Slingshots), Eddie Nocera (HammerDown Engines 250cc Four-Stroke), and William Manotti (125cc). 

  The first six laps of the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints feature were incredibly entertaining and competitive, as polesitter Zach Light, James Morris, and Spence engaged in a three-car tussle for the top spot. The trio swapped the lead back and forth while slide-jobbing one another and running three-wide at times. Light dropped back, leaving Spence and Morris to duke it out from laps four through six. Spence held a slim lead on laps five and six before clearing Morris and opening up a steadily increasing margin over the runner-up. 

  Spence had huge leads wiped out by cautions on three occasions, but simply throttled away from his pursuers on each restart. Bradley Brown moved to third at the halfway mark, then battled with Morris for the runner-up position. Jarid Kunkle's car came to life in the second half of the race, and Kunkle passed Brown for third on a restart with nine to go. 

  The final restart occurred with seven circuits remaining and provided Morris with one more shot at the leader, but Spence, from Bear, DE, motored away one more time and went on to beat Morris by nearly 1.5-seconds when the checkered flag waved. 

  Morris finished second with Kunkle, Jason Swavely, and Brown making up the top five. 

  Nice field of 38 cars turned out for the Memorial Day Open Show, with heat race victories going to Shaun Brandel, Nash Ely, Jason Swavely, and Ryan Groff. The two consolation race wins were captured by Brent Ely and Brian Carber.

  Billy Logeman led two-thirds of the Viper Chassis 270 main, but Mike Rutherford passed Logeman on the backstretch with ten to go to assume command of the race. Rutherford started eighth and worked his way to third by the time lap eight was scored. He got by Kyle Weiss for second on the 14th trip around the oval. He actually passed Logeman on the back chute with 20 complete, but a yellow flag negated the pass. 

  The second restart with 20 complete saw Rutherford complete the pass for the lead. The driver from Lititz, PA, went on to win over Richie Hartman, who produced a late race charge to finish second. Nick Skias came from the back of the pack to finish third with Tyler Ulrich placing fourth. Jason Swavely, who was also involved in an early race incident, rebounded to finish fifth.

  A nice field of 30 signed in for 270 competition on Saturday. Winning the heat races were Kyle Spence, Toby Blumenshine, and Nick Skias. Alex Funari won the consolation race.

  The All Star Slingshots visited Clyde Martin Speedway on Saturday, and Dave Carraghan, from Emmaus, went home a winner. Carraghan blasted from third to first on the original start, then held off two of the best in the business when it comes to Slingshot racing. He maintained the top spot while fending off the attacks from Brett Bieber, then Dylan Hoch, then Bieber again to record the big win. 

  Hoch spun out of the runner-up spot on the final lap after he attempted to duck under the race leader in turn two. That gave Bieber one last opportunity to get by Carraghan, but the four-time National Slingshot Champion had to settle for second as Carraghan held on for the victory.

  Marc Daniels trailed Bieber at the end, with Seth Spayd and Dakota Kohler rounding out the top five.

  Mike Glass and Seth Spayd won heats for the 16 Slingshots that entered the night's activities. 

  Rutherford led every lap of the Sportsman feature after starting on the pole. Fourth-starting Nick Skias took over the second position on a restart with one lap in the books, but Skias was no match for Rutherford on this night. 

  At the finish of the 30-lap feature, it was Rutherford, Nick Skias, Dan Lane Jr., Richie Hartman, and Josh Stoyer, who was driving Robert Shanaman's Viper Chassis No. 15.

  Sportsman heat winners included Alex Funari, Pete Skias, and Nick Skias. Sami Schenck notched the consolation victory. There were 28 Sportsman cars entered into the Memorial Day Open Show. 

  The HammerDown Engines 250cc Four-Stroke feature turned into the Eddie Nocera show, as the 2015 Four-Stroke point champ too off with the race lead at the drop of the green. Nocera was never headed but Aidan Jones closed in as the laps wound down. Jones came up a bit short, ending up with a fine runner-up posting. 

  Kyle Spence, who won this Four-Stroke race in 2016, finished third with Mike Coen and Tommy Phipps Jr. making up the top five.

  The win was the second in a row for Nocera in Four-Stroke action.

  Coen and Nocera won heats for the Four-Strokes.

  Mike Miller set the pace as the 125cc feature went green. The nine-time champion of this division was no match, however, for the high flying William Manotti, the 2016 champ of the 125cc Class. Manotti, from Lancaster, PA, blew by Miller on a restart with one tour complete and went on to record the triumph, his second of the season. 

  Miller chased Manotti to the checkered, with Mike Glass, Austin Graby, and Brandon Gibble finishing third through fifth. 

  Two heats were run by the 125cc racers, with wins going to Gibble and Manotti.

  Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway will be dark this Saturday, June 3, as the club takes its annual "June break". Racing returns on Saturday, June 10 as the 600, 270, Sportsman, 125cc, and 250cc Four-Strokes get back to business.

  Special note: the time schedule changes a bit for the months of June, July, and August. Gates will open at 4 p.m. with warm-ups beginning at 6:00 and the first heat race goes green at 7:00.

  June 10 also marks the date of the first Cable 11 broadcast of the season. The Blue Ridge Cable 11 crew will be on hand to record the five features, then replay the races on Sunday, June 11. Check your local listings for times that the races will be shown. 

  We're heading into the summer stretch of races, so come on out on June 10 and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!

  RESULTS:

Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, 30 laps: 1.Kyle Spence, 2.James Morris, 3.Jarid Kunkle, 4.Jason Swavely, 5.Bradley Brown, 6.Heath Hehnly, 7.Ryan Groff, 8.Brian Carber, 9.Shaun Brandel, 10.TJ Greve, 11.Brent Ely, 12.Hunter James, 13.Dan Souder, 14.Corry Roth, 15.Kassidy Michael, 16.Jimmy Glenn, 17.Sammy LaMothe, 18.Mike Rutherford, 19.Nash Ely, 20.Kelby Stauffer, 21.Tim Buckwalter, 22.Zach Light, 23.Logan Spahr, 24.Jim Radney.

DNQ: Don Hess, Chris Oraschin, Bret Cronrath, Rebecca LaMothe, Brianne Cronrath-Wittmer, Jeff Stelter, Chris Panczner, Josh Conover, Chris Gerhart, Bruce Ginther Jr., Amber Oraschin, William Manotti, Jack Conover, Brandon Heist, Patrick Ely.

Viper Chassis 270 Sprints, 30 laps: 1.Mike Rutherford, 2.Richie Hartman, 3.Nick Skias, 4.Tyler Ulrich, 5.Jason Swavely, 6.Kyle Weiss, 7.Kyle Spence, 8.Billy Logeman, 9.Devin Adams, 10.Brian Sholley, 11.Toby Blumenshine, 12.Tajae Adams, 13.Christi Sweigart, 14.Dallas Schott, 15.Adam Harnish, 16.Andrew Dietrich, 17.Anthony Yerger, 18.Cameron Bellinger, 19.Justin Harrington, 20.Bradley Brown, 21.Alex Funari, 22.Mike Miller, 23.Dylan Adams, 24.Matthew Hoffman.

DNQ: Zack Hollinger, Dana LaMothe, Jarrett Imler, Walt Wampole, AJ Gerhart, Dan Lane Jr., Josh Stoyer.

All Star Slingshots, 30 laps: 1.Dave Carraghan, 2.Brett Bieber, 3.Marc Daniels, 4.Seth Spayd, 5.Dakota Kohler, 6.Ronnie Spitler, 7.Tyler Ulsh, 8.Blaire Schoenly, 9.Rodney Ulsh, 10.Chuck Whary, 11.Dylan Hoch, 12.Mike Glass, 13.Scott Gray, 14.Matt Miller, 15.Dave Morrell. DNS: AJ Gerhart.

Sportsman Micro-Sprints, 30 laps: 1.Mike Rutherford, 2.Nick Skias, 3.Dan Lane Jr., 4.Richie Hartman, 5.Josh Stoyer, 6.Austin Graby, 7.Brandon Heist, 8.Alex Funari, 9.Kane Rogers, 10.Mike Miller, 11.Patrick Kirn, 12.Devin Adams, 13.Alan Durham, 14.Charles Hellinger, 15.Pete Skias, 16.Justin Harrington, 17.Steve Smith, 18.Ricky Sechrist, 19.Brian Kramer, 20.Jason Swavely, 21.Sami Schenck, 22.Anthony Yerger, 23.Cameron Bellinger, 24.Corey Schmuck Jr.

DNQ: Bobby Johnson, Dennis Adams, Clinton Hauser, Zak Vickers.

HammerDown Engines 250cc Four-Stroke Micro-Sprints, 30 laps: 1.Eddie Nocera, 2.Aidan Jones, 3.Kyle Spence, 4.Mike Coen, 5.Tom Phipps Jr., 6.Riley Simmons, 7.Zachary Young, 8.Ron Zimmerman, 9.Dylan Yeingst, 10.Ron Wechter, 11.Cliff Brian Jr., 12.Zak Vickers.

125cc Micro-Sprints, 30 laps: 1.William Manotti, 2.Mike Miller, 3.Mike Glass, 4.Austin Graby, 5.Brandon Gibble, 6.Corey Schmuck Jr., 7.Richard Stuck, 8.Aidan Svanda, 9.Nate Gibble, 10.Brandon Stuck, 11.Ryan Swavely, 12.Tyler Hershey, 13.Noah Merkey, 14.Matthew Donley, 15.Kody Hibshman, 16.Jimmy Wampole, 17.Kalani Adams. DNS: Holden Eckman.

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