By Kasey Kreider
Every year, the Clyde Martin Memorial serves as one of the most prestigious and biggest races of the season, while also serving as one of the most crucial in the championship battle. The 2021 edition of the Clyde Martin Memorial Presented by Gold Rush Trailer Sales would be no different. Four 35-lap features for each of the weekly racing divisions would see a combination of thrills, spills, and championship implications in races which paid double points. But when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Chase Layser, Pete Skias, Toby Blumenshine, and Jesse Maurer were the ones standing in victory lane with trophies in hand, earning the right to be referred to as winners of the Clyde Martin Memorial.
After an exhibition during intermission which featured a few classic race cars from years past, the attention would shift to the stars and cars of the present, beginning with the Clyde Martin Memorial for the 125/4 Strokes. Kenny Bushey, Mike Miller, and Riley Simmons took victories in the three heat races, but an inversion pill of 12 would mean that they would have to start at the back of the top dozen, while Terry Ellex would be on the pole. Chase Layser would complete the front row while points leader and defending Clyde Martin Memorial winner Justin Harrington, who had the fastest time in warmups, would go off from third. He would start four positions in front of his closest championship rival in Alex Lukacs, as Lukacs would try to use tonight as an opportunity to get himself right back into the points battle.
Although Ellex would take the green flag as the polesitter, Layser, twice a winner already in 2021, would beat him off into turn number 1. The early laps of the race would see Layser pull away to a comfortable advantage, while Matt Fernsler would follow Layser through on the outside to second, and Harrington would fall in line in third. A few early cautions would regroup the field, but the top three runners would stay in those positions over the first half of the race, as Layser established his dominance out in front. The battle to watch would be the one brewing for fourth, as young guns Chris Dolan and Lukacs would begin to scrap for that position. On lap 17, however, the battle would come to an ugly end, as the two drivers got together while racing wheel-to-wheel in turn 2. The contact would shoot Lukacs’ car hard into the outside wall, causing it to tip over on its side. The incident would knock Lukacs out of the race and serve as a massive blow to his championship hopes. Dolan would later take the blame for the contact, but would keep his position inside the top four as he would look to continue his best run of the season.
The caution for Lukacs’ crash would erase what had been a lead of more than 3.5-seconds for Layser, as he would be forced to regroup with Fernsler back on his outside. The restart would be no challenge for Layser though, as he would break away to another comfortable advantage while the fight for second would rage on. A little bit of contact while battling for the runner-up spot would see Harrington get through, while Fernsler would fall back to sixth. But even as Layser would catch lapped traffic in the race’s closing laps, it was clear that nobody would be able to challenge the driver of the No. 7L on this evening. And after losing the 4th-of-July wingless race in the final set of corners, no such misfortune would fall upon Layser tonight.
Layser would bring home a dominating victory in the Clyde Martin Memorial 1.960 seconds in front of second-place finisher Harrington, while turning the race’s fastest lap of 11.775 seconds. Behind Harrington would come Dolan, who would finally turn weeks of increasing speed into a well-earned podium result. Mike Coen and Miller would round out the top five finishers. Meanwhile, Harrington would see his point lead balloon even more, unofficially 154 points over Layser, who moved up to second. Lukacs would lose 110 points to Harrington on the evening, knocking him all the way back to fourth in the standings with six points races remaining.
Chase Layser (left) started from the outside pole but led all 35 laps en route to winning the Clyde Martin Memorial Presented by Gold Rush Trailer Sales in the 125/4 Stroke division. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The second Clyde Martin Memorial of the evening would be for the 270s. Corey Schmuck, Jr. and Pete Skias would be on the front row for the feature, while heat race winners Nick Skias and Heath Hehnly would start behind them on row 2. Points leader Jason Swavely would complete the top five starters, while T. J. Greve, who had the fastest lap in warmups, would have to come from eighth.
Schmuck, Jr. would get to the lead early, but the race would only run green for a lap before Mike Miller, the defending winner of the Clyde Martin Memorial in the 270s, would come to a stop in turn 1. The restart would give Pete Skias an opportunity to pounce, and he would dive to the bottom and take the lead away in turn 3. Skias would hold the lead and begin to pull away, even following another early caution, but the racing to watch would be from second on back, as a wild seven-car battle would ensue over the next ten or so laps. Hehnly, Swavely, and Greve would all trade passes on each other while trying to set up moves on Schmuck, Jr. and Nick Skias, who would fight wheel-to-wheel for second directly in front of those three. On lap 16, the battle would come to a head between the two drivers at the back of that group, as Andrew Dietrich and Bradley Brown would get together on the backstretch, forcing Brown’s car up into the wall and out of the race as he stopped in turn 3.
The restart would see father and son start on the front row, but Hehnly, who was slated to resume in third, would come to a stop under caution, signaling the end of his night. That would put Schmuck, Jr. and Swavely on the second row, with Dietrich and Greve making up row 3. Pete Skias would hold onto the lead on the bottom for the first few laps, but son Nick would blast his way past on lap 19, with Swavely and Greve following him through to the top three. From there, those three drivers would wage perhaps the wildest and most gripping battle of the season so far, as the three drivers would trade the lead nearly every set of corners, often without touching so much as a wheel. The battle would continue for nearly ten laps before the bubble finally burst with seven laps to go. Greve and Swavely would make contact while racing wheel-to-wheel down the frontstretch, sending Greve’s car sideways and leaving nowhere for Nick Skias to go, as he piled in. Swavely would somehow escape the incident and inherit the lead, while Skias would have to continue at the tail, and Greve would be done for the race.
Jason Swavely (No. 92), Nick Skias (No. 3s), and T. J. Greve (No. 52T) waged an epic battle for the lead in the closing stages of the 270 feature before the three cars tangled with seven laps remaining. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
But for the winner of last year’s Clyde Martin Memorial in the Sportsman division to hang onto the victory tonight, he would have to hold off the elder Skias and Schmuck, Jr., who had hung around and now found themselves second and third. A caution on the restart would give Swavely a chance to pull away on a single-file attempt, and he would scamper away by roughly two car lengths over Skias as the laps wound down. However, as Swavely worked into turns 3 and 4 coming to see the white flag, disaster struck, as his car broke and lost power, allowing Skias to flash by and take the white flag. Swavely would not be able to get off the racetrack, bringing out the caution and setting up a one-lap dash to the checkers. Schmuck, Jr. and Dietrich would try to hang with Skias on the restart, but to no avail, as Pistol Pete was shot out of a cannon and held on to take the wild victory. A year of bad luck at Lanco would finally turn around, as the Wernersville, PA driver would take the win by 0.652 seconds, while turning the race’s fastest lap of 11.233 seconds. Schmuck, Jr. and Dietrich would see a turn of their fortunes too, as they would complete the podium. Nick Skias would rally to finish fourth and unofficially take the points lead in the process, while Mike Skias rounded out the top five. Swavely, meanwhile, would be credited with a tenth-place finish and see him fall just three points behind Skias in the championship race.
Pete Skias (left) took advantage of late misfortune for Jason Swavely to take home the victory in the Clyde Martin Memorial Presented by Gold Rush Trailer Sales for the 270 division. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The Clyde Martin Memorial for the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsmans would feature Brianne Cronrath-Wittmer and Jamie Flickinger on the front row for the 35-lapper. Points leader and the fastest driver in warmups, Bret Cronrath, would start the race from sixth, just in front of the three heat race winners, Patrick Kirn, Max Fasnacht, and Toby Blumenshine.
However, it wouldn’t be Cronrath-Wittmer or Flickinger to lead lap 1. Instead, it would be fourth-place starter Josh Stoyer, who rocketed to the lead on the high side after a fantastic initial start. It would be Stoyer in control early, as Cronrath and Blumenshine, rivals in the points battle, would move into the picture in second and fourth, respectively. The first caution on lap 11 for Jamie Flickinger’s incident in turn 3 would erase Stoyer’s lead and set up a restart in which Stoyer would choose the outside lane, putting Cronrath on the bottom. Cronrath-Wittmer and Blumenshine would start on row 2, but the driver of the No. 21 wouldn’t stay there long. He would rocket around both Cronrath-Wittmer and Cronrath and move into the runner-up spot before going to work on Stoyer for the race lead. On lap 15, Blumenshine would dive under Stoyer into turns 1 and 2 before holding the advantage through turns 3 and 4 to make the pass for the lead stick.
From there, Blumenshine would begin to drive away, while Cronrath and Anthony Yerger would begin battling with Stoyer for the runner-up spot. After a restart on lap 20, Yerger would move past both drivers and into the second position, rallying greatly from his tenth-starting spot. The final run to the checkers would see Yerger and Cronrath left to battle for second, as neither driver would be able to get close enough to challenge Blumenshine for the win. After four early wins, it had been a rough past few races for the Reinholds, PA driver. It was a stretch that had seen his points lead, once over 100, go away entirely. But it would be Blumenshine’s time to return to victory lane on this night, as he would take the checkers to win the Clyde Martin Memorial by 1.233 seconds, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process at 11.434 seconds. Yerger would hold off Cronrath for the runner-up spot, and the third-place finish for Cronrath would cut his points lead unofficially to just one point over Blumenshine entering the season’s stretch run. Stoyer would come home in fourth after leading the race’s early laps, while Charles Hellinger would drive from 11th to complete the top five.
Toby Blumenshine led the final 21 laps to take home the trophy in the Clyde Martin Memorial Presented by Gold Rush Trailer Sales for the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman division. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The final Clyde Martin Memorial of the night would be for the Hyper Racing 600s, and it would feature the defending winner of the race, Jesse Maurer, starting on pole position. Brent Ely and his new motor would complete the front row, with Marty Brian starting third and heat race winners Bradley Brown and Nick Skias completing the top five. The top two in points, Jason Swavely and Heath Hehnly, would start 12th and 11th, respectively, due to the handicap rule. Fast-timer in warmups T. J. Greve would start 13th due to a handicap after winning his most recent race.
Maurer would bust away to the point early as Skias and Chris Panczner would make contact on the first lap, eventually causing the caution to be brought out when Panczner came to a stop on the backstretch. The restart would then see Will Urkuski go for a wild ride down the backstretch, as his car pirouetted through the air before landing on all fours. Urkuski would climb out unharmed, but his night would come to an end. The restart of the race would see Maurer once again break away to the lead, but contact further back would shuffle the points leader Swavely back near the tail of the field with a few other cars. Those drivers would be forced to recover the hard way as the race ran green, with Maurer out in front by multiple seconds over second-place runner Brown. Maurer would catch the tail of the field around the race’s midway point, and that would give Brown an opportunity to close the gap slightly. But unless there was a caution, he wouldn’t be able to get within striking distance of the No. 3
That caution would never come though, and Maurer would hold his advantage and lead wire-to-wire to go back-to-back in Clyde Martin Memorials for the Hyper Racing 600s. The Mount Joy, PA driver would bring it home 1.961 seconds in front of Brown, while setting the race’s fastest lap of 10.566 seconds out in the wind. Ely would hang on to complete the podium in his return to the lineup, while Hehnly and Zach Light would take the final spots in the top five. Greve would be the final lead-lap finisher in sixth, while Swavely, the first car one lap down, would finish seventh. As a result, Swavely would see his points lead unofficially cut from 60 to 34 over Hehnly, with Brown closing back to double digits in third, 95 points out of the lead with five points races remaining.
Jesse Maurer dominated after starting from pole position to win his second straight Clyde Martin Memorial Presented by Gold Rush Trailer Sales in the Hyper Racing 600 division. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
Next Saturday, August 7th, the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Tour will make their annual stop to the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, while also being joined by the Hyper Racing Wingless 600s in a $1,500-to-win race. Advanced general admission tickets will be on sale at the pit shack from noon until 3:00 on race day. The advance tickets are $25.00 for adults and $7.00 for children ages 6-12. Advance ticket holders will be able to enter at 4:00 and will be allowed to put down blankets, seat cushions, or other items to save their seats. Advance ticket holders will then have the opportunity to walk down to the pit area from 4:00 to 6:00 in order to see the cars and meet the drivers. The gates will open at 5:00 for all other general admission tickets, which will be $20.00 for adults and $5.00 for children ages 6-12. Children under the age of 6 will get in for free. Pit admission will be $30,00 for those with a Lanco or USAC membership and $35.00 for all others. The on-track action will begin with Hyper Racing Wingless 600 warmups at 6:15. Don’t miss your opportunity to see the stars and cars of USAC, and come out to LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
Results:
125/4 Stroke A-Main (35 Laps):
1. 7L-Chase Layser
2. 76-Justin Harrington
3. 7d-Chris Dolan
4. 26c-Mike Coen
5. 3-Mike Miller
6. 19-Matt Fernsler
7. 44-Riley Simmons
8. 26-Tyler Martin
9. 5-Terry Ellex
10. 32-Michael Hoffmaster
11. 3x-Kenny Bushey (-1L)
12. 11h-Holden Eckman (-1L)
13. 28-Kyle Lindsey (-2L)
14. 17-Masen Stapleton (-2L)
15. 04-Sam Borger (-2L)
16. 16c-Don Hess (DNF)
17. 44x-Alex Lukacs (DNF)
18. 78c-Jarrid Hellinger (DNF)
19. 82-John Maurer (DNF)
20. 81-Dylan Holmes (DNF)
21. 78-Brandon Shearer (DNF)
22. 112-Dylan Yeingst (DNF)
23. 15-Alyssa Holmes (DNF)
270 A-Main (35 Laps):
1. 3-Pete Skias
2. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr.
3. 88d-Andrew Dietrich
4. 3s-Nick Skias
5. 8s-Mike Skias
6. 5a-Anthony Yerger
7. 1L-Dave Labe
8. 34-Christi Sweigart
9. 29-Brandon Shearer
10. 92-Jason Swavely (DNF)
11. 52T-T. J. Greve (DNF)
12. 82-Heath Hehnly (DNF)
13. 23-Bradley Brown (DNF)
14. 91-Jack Redcay (DNF)
15. 21d-Dave Williams (DNF)
16. 96w-Chase Walker (DNF)
17. 2-Mike Miller (DNF)
DNS: 59j-Walt Wampole, Jr.
Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman A-Main (35 Laps):
1. 21-Toby Blumenshine
2. 5a-Anthony Yerger
3. 5-Bret Cronrath
4. 3s-Josh Stoyer
5. 13s-Charles Hellinger
6. 16-Brianne Cronrath-Wittmer
7. 16p-Patrick Kirn
8. 21d-Dave Williams
9. 8-Michael Spadafora
10. 53s-Shannon Slaughter
11. 22-Clinton Hauser
12. 20-Max Fasnacht (-1L)
13. 21v-David Ravel (DNF)
14. 77-Mike Kreiser (DNF)
15. 13b-Matt Yoh, II (DNF)
16. 4-Broc Emery (DNF)
17. 15-Robert Shanaman (DNF)
18. 23k-Courtney Kupp (DNF)
19. 14m-Chelsey Moore (DNF)
20. 99k-Chad Kreiser (DNF)
21. 9g-Jamie Flickinger (DNF)
22. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr. (DNF)
23. 53-Jared St. John (DNF)
24. 30-Ryan Heckman (DNF)
Hyper Racing 600 A-Main (35 Laps):
1. 3-Jesse Maurer
2. 23-Bradley Brown
3. 17-Brent Ely
4. 5-Heath Hehnly
5. 11z-Zach Light
6. 24t-T. J. Greve
7. 14-Jason Swavely (-1L)
8. 15-Marty Brian (-1L)
9. 75k-Jarid Kunkle (-1L)
10. 7-Nick Skias (-2L)
11. 15p-Chris Panczner (DNF)
12. 11h-Holden Eckman (DNF)
13. 1e-Aaron Espenshade (DNF)
14. 1-Will Urkuski (DNF)
15. 41-Logan Rumsey (DNF)
Point Standings (UNOFFICIAL):
125/4 Stroke Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 76-Justin Harrington (1,001)
2. 7L-Chase Layser (-154)
3. 19-Matt Fernsler (-168)
4. 44x-Alex Lukacs (-199)
5. 11h-Holden Eckman (-369)
6. 26c-Mike Coen (-379)
7. 32-Michael Hoffmaster (-402)
8. 26-Tyler Martin (-404)
9. 7d-Chris Dolan (-412)
10. 28-Kyle Lindsey (-464)
270 Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 3s-Nick Skias (876)
2. 92-Jason Swavely (-3)
3. 8s-Mike Skias (-81)
4. 82-Heath Hehnly (-100)
5. 3-Pete Skias (-160)
6. 5a-Anthony Yerger (-223)
7. 23-Bradley Brown (-224)
8. 52T-T. J. Greve (-226)
9. 27o-Mike Rutherford (-266)
10. 21d-Dave Williams (-290)
Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 5-Bret Cronrath (914)
2. 21-Toby Blumenshine (-1)
3. 3s-Josh Stoyer (-113)
4. 22-Clinton Hauser (-195)
5. 21d-Dave Williams (-234)
6. 77-Mike Kreiser (-271)
7. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr. (-278)
8. 9g-Jamie Flickinger (-281)
9. 15-Robert Shanaman (-291)
10. 16-Brianne Cronrath-Wittmer (-306)
Hyper Racing 600 Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 14-Jason Swavely (940)
2. 5-Heath Hehnly (-34)
3. 23-Bradley Brown (-95)
4. 15p-Chris Panczner (-175)
5. 7-Nick Skias (-188)
6. 3-Jesse Maurer (-203)
7. 75k-Jarid Kunkle (-229)
8. 17-Brent Ely (-251)
9. 11z-Zach Light (-255)
10. 24t-T. J. Greve (-295)