By Kasey Kreider
When life gives you lemons, sometimes the best thing you can do is make lemonade. You might even be surprised with how good the lemonade turns out to be. This metaphor may be the perfect way to summarize the sequence of events that unfolded at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway throughout the weekend. The decision came early Saturday morning to cancel the previously planned night of racing slated to take place that evening due to inclement weather. However, with a long Memorial Day weekend, an off weekend next Saturday, and almost all other local tracks also cancelling their events, officials made the decision to hold a special, non-points event on Memorial Day, dubbed as Memorial Day Monday Mayhem.
The wings would come off the Hyper Racing 600s for the event, while the 270s, 125/4 Strokes, and Skeet Craft Collision Sportsmans would keep the wings on for the evening’s festivities. Although the event drew plenty of “outsiders” from other racetracks, four Lanco regulars would take home the checkered flags. Nick Skias would take his third victory of the season in the 270s. Chase Layser held off Billy Logeman to get his second win of the year in the 125/4 Stroke division. Mike Rutherford would best a diverse field of drivers to get his first Hyper Racing 600 victory of the year at Lanco. Lastly, Bret Cronrath dominated the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature to get his second win of the season.
Following heat races and redraws for top starting positions, the 270s would be first on track for their feature action. Bradley Brown, Jason Swavely, and Alex Swift would take victories in the heat races. However, with this being a special event, the top four finishers from each heat race would redraw for the top 12 starting positions. Anthony Yerger would draw pill number 1 and start from pole position, with Swavely alongside. Nick Skias would start from the fourth position, while heat race winners Brown and Swift would go off sixth and seventh, respectively. Mike Skias, quickest in warmups earlier in the evening, would start from the ninth position.
After a race which featured 12 cautions one weekend ago, the first 13 laps of this 270 feature would be run caution-free, with Yerger breaking away to the lead. However, it wouldn’t take long for Nick Skias and Swift to work their way toward the front of the field. Skias would bypass Yerger for the race lead on lap 8, and Swift would follow through to second prior to the first caution of the race.
Swift would hound Skias for the lead over the ensuing restarts, but they would have company over the race’s latter stages. Mike Rutherford and T. J. Greve, who had started 10th and 11th, respectively, would methodically move their way up to third and fourth positions prior to a restart with six laps to go. It was on this restart where the battle between Swift and his two closest challengers would become physical. First, Swift and Rutherford would make contact on the restart, sending Rutherford back several positions as he tried to regain momentum. Then, Greve and Swift would make contact off of turn 2 as Greve tried to take hold of the runner-up spot. The contact appeared to break something on Greve’s car, as he would slow to a stop in turn 3 and bring out the caution. Rutherford would take the opportunity to show his displeasure with Swift under the caution period before falling back into his running position.
However, despite three restarts in the final three laps, neither Swift nor anyone else would have the opportunity to pounce on Skias, the Wernersville, PA native, out in front. Swift would have one last opportunity on a one-lap dash to the finish, but Skias would scamper away by a few car lengths, closing the door on any opportunity to challenge. Skias led the final 17 circuits en route to his 0.538-second margin of victory over Swift, while also turning the race’s fastest lap at 11.185 seconds. Swift would have to settle for another podium finish, this time in the runner-up position, while Rutherford would rally back to finish in third. Toby Blumenshine and Swavely would complete the top five, while Chase Walker, Shea Wills, and Brittany Zeller would be the only other drivers left running at the conclusion of the race.
Nick Skias took the lead on lap 8 and led the rest of the way to win the 270 feature on Memorial Day. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The 125/4 Stroke feature would be next on the docket, with heat race winner Chase Layser drawing the pole for the feature. John Maurer would join him on the front row, with Riley Simmons and Holden Eckman, winner of the other heat race, completing the first two rows. Brent Shearer, in the car usually piloted by Justin Harrington, was fastest in warmups but would start seventh, alongside teammate and last week’s winner Billy Logeman.
Layser would break away over the first few laps, in pursuit of his second win of the season. Maurer would hold down the second position, but it was on a lap 4 restart where Logeman would make a monster move from fifth to take over the runner-up spot. As Layser hit lapped traffic on the ensuing run, Logeman began to eat into the sizeable gap that the pilot of the No. 7L machine had built up. Layser would get some relief, however, when the caution waved on lap 12 after an issue for Kyle Lindsey. The ensuing restart saw Logeman first have to worry about battling his teammate Shearer, who had worked up to third. They would battle side-by-side for a few laps before Logeman would hold the advantage. However, the scrap for second allowed Layser to open up more than a one-second lead on Logeman, which he would have to try to claw into with less than ten laps to go.
Logeman would close little-by-little on Layser until the leaders once again got to the back of the field. Fewer cars in the race meant that Layser would have less lapped traffic to negotiate with, but Logeman closed to within striking distance as the leaders took the white flag. Layser would hold a pretty wheel through turns 1 and 2, and although he would bobble ever so slightly through turns 3 and 4, Logeman could get no closer than a car length behind his back bumper as he would hang on for the victory by 0.349 seconds. Logeman turned the race’s fastest lap with a time of 11.693 seconds, but it was Layser who had the clean air and was able to keep it all the way to the checkered flag. Brent Shearer would finish third, with Eckman and Brandon Shearer completing the top five.
Chase Layser held off Billy Logeman to take his second 125/4 Stroke victory of the season at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
It would be the second wingless event of the season for the Hyper Racing 600s, and as such, the race would feature a mixture of track regulars and “outsiders,” who would have raced elsewhere if not for the special circumstances. The outsiders would take home victories in all four heat races, with James Morris, Tim Buckwalter, Bobby Butler, and Eddie Strada seeing the checkers first in their respective events. One of the intriguing stories would also be Alex Bright, who was back at the Clyde for the first time since his win last September in the Labor Day Shootout. Bright was fastest in warmups, but would suffer a flat left rear tire during his heat race, sending him to the consi. Although he would win the last chance qualifier, he would have to start 21st on the grid for the 25-lap A-Main.
The redraw for the top 12 starting positions would see Jeremy Harshman pick the pole, with Buckwalter alongside on row 1. Mike Rutherford would be the highest-starting track regular in third, with Morris, Butler, and Nick Skias completing the first three rows. With high school graduation season in full bloom, perhaps it was only fitting for Rutherford to take the field to school on the initial start of the race. The veteran would hop to the inside of Harshman on the start, and after racing side-by-side for a few laps, he would take over the top spot from the bottom lane. Butler would follow Rutherford through to the second spot in the race’s opening laps, and set the stage for an epic battle that would take place over the course of the race. Jayden Wolf looked to once again be a player in the early stages of the event, but Wolf overcooked it just a tad in turn 2 while trying to battle Buckwalter for third, spinning out and essentially falling out of contention. Strada would be the main beneficiary from the early cautions, working his way from 12th starting position up to fourth.
The wingless Hyper Racing 600s made their return to the Clyde on Monday evening as part of the Memorial Day Monday Mayhem. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
With the high line serving as the dominant one, slide job city would make its return to the Clyde. Butler would make his first slide job attempt following a lap 12 restart, but Rutherford was able to cross back over to retain the lead. Butler and Buckwalter would also throw sliders on each other throughout the course of the event in the battle for second. One of those slide jobs wound up hurting Buckwalter, as he would lose positions to Strada and Jason Swavely, winner of the most recent wingless 600 race at the Clyde, prior to a caution flag with ten laps to go. That yellow also gave Butler another opportunity to make a move on Rutherford for the win. Butler, who seemed to be able to close in after the first few laps of a run, would have one more legitimate go at Rutherford in turn 2 with just a few laps remaining, but Rutherford resisted the challenge and held on to the point. A green-white-checkered restart would be the last gasp for Butler and Buckwalter, who had worked back up to third, but an excellent restart for Rutherford sealed the deal for the No. 2s.
Rutherford took the win by 0.719 seconds over Butler, who held off the challenges by Buckwalter to come home second. Strada and Swavely completed the top five, while Bright, who had gotten as high as fifth in his rally from 21st, would have to settle for sixth. It was Wolf who would turn the fastest lap of the race at 11.349 seconds, but he would suffer an additional spin following his first one, and could only rally back to finish 18th.
Mike Rutherford took the lead from third on the start and led all 25 laps to win the wingless Hyper Racing 600 feature. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman division would be the final class to run their feature event on the evening. Anthony Yerger and Corey Schmuck, Jr. would take victories in the two heat races, but the redraw for the top 8 starting positions put Charles Hellinger on pole position, with Schmuck, Jr., Yerger, and Bret Cronrath completing the top four. Toby Blumenshine would go for win number five from the outside of row 3, with Jamie Flickinger inside. Patrick Kirn was fastest in warmups, but issues for the second straight week in his heat race meant that he would have to start 14th.
Hellinger would lead the race’s early laps, but it didn’t take long to establish who the dominant car on the evening would be. Cronrath would work through quickly to second, and by lap 4, would make the pass on Hellinger for the lead. He would get out to nearly a 2.5-second advantage before the first caution of the race on lap 13. A few quick cautions would follow, including two separate flips, one for Michael Spadafora and one for Jamie Flickinger. However, it only seemed to delay the inevitable outcome. Cronrath built up a two-second lead prior to a caution with eight laps to go, and pulled away to what would be a 3.358-second margin of victory to pick up his second win of the season in dominating fashion.
The Blandon, PA driver also set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 11.125 seconds, and came home ahead of Yerger, who withstood some restart challenges from Blumenshine to take the runner-up spot. Blumenshine, Schmuck, Jr., and Nate Gibble would complete the top five, while Hellinger would drop to come across the line in sixth. Matt Yoh, II came home in seventh, and was the final lead lap finisher.
Bret Cronrath turned in a dominating performance to cap off Memorial Day Monday Mayhem in the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman division. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
This Saturday, June 5th will be the lone off week of the season at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. Racing will return to the Clyde on Saturday, June 12th, with Flag Day and Veterans/Armed Services Night. All veterans and active members of any branch of the Armed Services will receive free general admission with the proper identification. The event will be a points race once again for all four classes, and the start time will return to usual, with gates opening at 4:30 and warmups and racing starting at 6:00. As we honor our military and armed services members and return from the off week, be sure to come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
Results:
270 A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 3s-Nick Skias
2. 15-Alex Swift
3. 27o-Mike Rutherford
4. 21-Toby Blumenshine
5. 14-Jason Swavely
6. 96w-Chase Walker
7. 07-Shea Wills
8. B8-Brittany Zeller (-1L)
9. 5a-Anthony Yerger (DNF)
10. 23-Bradley Brown (DNF)
11. 4k-Trent Eberhart (DNF)
12. 48-Jonah Meck (DNF)
13. 52T-T. J. Greve (DNF)
14. 88d-Andrew Dietrich (DNF)
15. 17j-Jarrett Imler (DNF)
16. 27-Darren Schott (DNF)
17. 3-Pete Skais (DNF)
18. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr. (DNF)
19. 91-Jack Redcay (DNF)
20. 53n-Ben Newmaster (DNF)
21. 0z-Austin Bower (DNF)
22. 8s-Mike Skias (DNF)
DNS: 29-Brandon Shearer
125/4 Stroke A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 7L-Chase Layser
2. 76b-Billy Logeman
3. 76-Brent Shearer
4. 11h-Holden Eckman
5. 78-Brandon Shearer
6. 1st-Steve Simmons
7. 32-Michael Hoffmaster
8. 7d-Chris Dolan
9. 82-John Maurer
10. 26-Tyler Martin
11. 78c-Jarrid Hellinger
12. 112-Dylan Yeingst
13. 04-Sam Borger (-1L)
14. 57k-Blaire Schoenly (-2L)
15. 28-Kyle Lindsey (DNF)
16. 44-Riley Simmons (DNF)
Hyper Racing Wingless 600 A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 2s-Mike Rutherford
2. 4b-Bobby Butler
3. 71-Tim Buckwalter
4. 1ex-Eddie Strada
5. 14-Jason Swavely
6. 20a-Alex Bright
7. 20-James Morris
8. 23-Bradley Brown
9. 24t-T. J. Greve
10. 25x-Dan Lane, Jr.
11. 42u-Tyler Ulrich
12. 5-Alex Ruppert
13. 7-Nick Skias
14. 39-Olivia Thayer
15. 79-Tyler Bowman
16. 56-Tyler Henry
17. 11h-Holden Eckman
18. 7w-Jayden Wolf
19. 49-Patrick Chilmonik
20. 12-Jacob Homnick
21. 3-Danny Buccafusca
22. 22h-Fred Heinly (DNF)
23. 99-Briggs Danner (DNF)
24. 7x-Teddy Reed (DNF)
25. 1e-Aaron Espenshade (DNF)
26. 163-Jeremy Harshman (DNF)
Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 5-Bret Cronrath
2. 5a-Anthony Yerger
3. 21-Toby Blumenshine
4. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr.
5. 11g-Nate Gibble
6. 13s-Charles Hellinger
7. 13b-Matt Yoh, II
8. 23k-Courtney Kupp (-1L)
9. 53-Jared St. John (-1L)
10. 20-Max Fasnacht (-1L)
11. 9g-Jamie Flickinger (DNF)
12. 15-Pete Skias (DNF)
13. 16p-Patrick Kirn (DNF)
14. 8-Michael Spadafora (DNF)
15. 30-Ryan Heckman (DNF)
DNS: 36-Steve Smith, Sr.