By Kasey Kreider
Summer Sizzler Night at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway saw humid and overcast conditions as race teams and fans descended upon Newmanstown on the final Saturday of August. The weather was warm, but the on-track action would be what was sizzling on this evening. Excellent racing throughout the night culminated with four fantastic features that saw multi-groove racing and wheel-to-wheel action at every turn. When all was said and done, Mike Coen picked up his second 125/4 Stroke victory in three weekends with a wire-to-wire performance. Jason Swavely was nearly as dominant en route to his third 270 win of the season, and the victory drew him right back to within striking distance of Nick Skias in the championship fight. A four-car battle for the win in the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature saw Bret Cronrath come out on top for the fourth time in 2021, making the points battle a near dead heat with two races remaining. In the final feature, T. J. Greve and Jesse Maurer waged an epic battle for victory in the Hyper Racing 600 main event, with Greve coming out on top by just 0.064 seconds.
The 125/4 Strokes would contest the night’s first feature, and an inversion pill of 1 kept the three heat race winners, Mike Coen, Kenny Bushey, and Mike Miller, at the front for the 25-lapper. Rookie John Maurer was the quickest timer in warmups and would roll off sixth, and points leader Justin Harrington would go off from seventh, with his closest championship rival Matt Fernsler back in 12th.
Coen would break away to an early lead from the pole position, but the drivers to watch in the early laps were Maurer, Harrington, and Bradley Brown, who was competing in all four classes of racing on the docket. Brown would jump from fifth to second on the first two-lap green flag run, with Harrington and Maurer following through into the top five. The next restart would see Maurer begin making a charge toward the front, though, as he was able to make the most speed of anybody on the top side. Maurer would carve his way through to second, but had a gap of nearly two seconds to erase once he got there. The rookie would chip away at the veteran, cutting in to the gap by a few tenths each lap. But as the race approached halfway, Maurer would jump the proverbial cushion in turn 2. scrubbing up against the outside wall. Maurer would recover and hold onto second, but would now be nearly three seconds behind the No. 26c out front.
Coen would catch lapped traffic, but methodically and steadily work his way through. As Maurer began to fade slightly over the race’s closing laps, it became clear that no challenge would be imminent for Coen. And with no caution over the race’s final 23 laps, the Shamokin, PA driver would cruise to win number two of the season, coming home 1.815 seconds over Maurer. Maurer would hold on for a career-best runner-up result, and in the process ran the race’s fastest lap of 11.654 seconds. Harrington would round out the podium and take a big step toward locking up his first Lanco track championship, while Miller and Holden Eckman would complete the top five. With Fernsler finishing 11th, Harrington would open up a 154-point lead in the standings with just two races remaining. Assuming that Harrington collects the 50 “show up” points for competing in the Labor Day Shootout, all it will take is a finish of 14th or better for Harrington to clinch the 125/4 Stroke championship in the next points-paying race on September 11th.
Mike Coen led all 25 laps from the pole to pick up his second 125/4 Stroke win of the month at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
As was the case in the 125/4 Strokes, the inversion pill for the 270 feature would be 1. That would put heat race winners Toby Blumenshine and Jason Swavely on the front row, while Andrew Deitrich, winner of the other heat, would start 11th as a result of the handicap rule. Swavely would come into the race 58 points behind Nick Skias in the championship battle, but Skias would be forced to start back in tenth. Meanwhile, last week’s winner and the fastest driver in warmups, Brent Shearer, would go off from 12th.
Blumenshine would put the No. 45o into the wind for the race’s first two laps, but lap 3 is when Swavely would make the pass to take over top spot. As Swavely would move to the front, Alex Swift would move into the second spot, and try to keep the pressure on Swavely during the early laps. But Swavely would be hooked up on this evening, and it wouldn’t take long for the Rocketman from Fleetwood to rocket away from the rest of the field. The race would stay green in the early laps despite several cars dropping out, and as fate would have it, the green flag would stay out during the entirety of the 25-lap race. With Swavely comfortably out in front, the story would become his success versus the lack of progress for Nick Skias, who couldn’t make any ground from his tenth starting position. In fact, Swavely would begin to pull up to Skias’ tail tank in the closing laps, nearly putting him a lap down before the finish. It was a representation of the torrid pace that Swavely had been on throughout the race, and it was something that no other driver would be able to contend with.
Swavely would take his third 270 win of the season by more than three seconds, 3.059, to be exact, and in the process would close the points gap down from 58 to 18, as Skias would hang on for the last spot in the top ten. Swift would come home second after a night that started with a flip onto his side in the heat race, and Mike Skias would bounce back from a rough outing the week before to complete the podium. Andrew Dietrich and T. J. Greve would finish the top five, but the race’s fastest lap would be turned by seventh-place finisher Corey Schmuck, Jr., who ran a quick lap of 11.111 seconds in the race’s late stages.
Jason Swavely took the No. 92 back to victory lane for the third time this season by winning the 270 feature. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
Dave Williams and Clinton Hauser would be on the front row for the night’s Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature. Jamie Flickinger, Brandon Heist, and Bret Cronrath would be the night’s heat race winners, but while Flickinger and Heist would start fourth and fifth, respectively, Cronrath would have to start 11th due to the handicap rule. That would put Cronrath right next to his championship rival, last week’s winner, and the fastest driver in warmups, as Toby Blumenshine would go off from 12th. With only six points separating the two entering the feature, it would be crucial for both drivers to try and knife their way through the pack.
And knife through the pack is exactly what they would have to do, as every lane on the track would be occupied as the field fanned out through the corners on the start. Williams would lead early, but his fiercest challenges would come in the form of Charles Hellinger. Hellinger would take the lead on lap 3, but have to give it back as a caution came out before the lap could be completed. Hellinger would then take it over for good on lap 5, and in the process would bring Anthony Yerger with him, as the No. 5a would rip the wall, like usual, into the runner-up spot. Alex Lukacs’ turn 3 tumble would slow the field again on lap 11, and would set the stage for an all-out battle, as Cronrath, Blumenshine, and Josh Stoyer had all driven up to the top five.
Hellinger and Yerger would race for the lead on the restart, but then Cronrath would make his move. With a great run off turn 4, Cronrath would dive to bottom in turn 1, bypassing both cars and sliding up to take over the lead. Cronrath would see more challenges, particularly from Yerger, but would withstand them prior to the race’s final caution with ten laps to go. With a win and a shot to take back the points lead right there for the taking, Cronrath would keep battling on the restart, but Yerger would not go away quietly either. The two drivers would trade sliders for the lead, allowing Blumenshine and Heist to re-enter the picture in the closing laps. Blumenshine would take a few swings of his own at the top spot, while Heist would get as high as battling for second. The top four spots would change hands in every set of corners. But ultimately, Cronrath was finally able to calm the storm, breaking away with a few laps remaining and leaving the other three drivers to battle for the scraps.
Anthony Yerger (No. 5a), Toby Blumenshine (No. 21), and Bret Cronrath (No. 5) raced three-wide down the frontstretch while battling for the lead in the closing stages of the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The Blandon, PA driver would come out on top and take win number four of the 2021 season by 1.483 seconds at the checkered flag. He would also run the race’s fastest lap with a time of 11.294 seconds. It would be significant for Blumenshine to win the battle for second, and he would do just that, allowing him to hold onto a one-point lead with two races to go. Heist would beat Yerger back to the line for third, and Hellinger would follow closely behind in the fifth spot.
Bret Cronrath would take his fourth Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman win of the year and close Toby Blumenshine’s points lead down to just one with two races remaining in the season. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The Hyper Racing 600s would contest the night’s final feature, and an inversion pill of 8 put Jesse Maurer and Aaron Espenshade at the front of the pack. T. J. Greve and Bradley Brown won the heats and would start on row 3 together, and the fastest driver in warmups, Nick Skias, would start 13th after being caught up in an incident in his heat race. As for the two championship contenders, Heath Hehnly and Jason Swavely would roll off tenth and 11th, respectively, as a result of the handicap rule.
The Clyde Martin Memorial winner would bust away to the early lead, ripping the lip up top. But it wouldn’t take long for the No. 3 to have company at the front in the form of Greve, who was making excellent time rolling the bottom line, a stark contrast from where the No. 24t would usually be found running. The two would run side-by-side off of each corner for multiple laps, with each driver trying to get power down at opposite sides of the racetrack. On lap 11, Greve would finally prevail for good, clearing Maurer before moving back up to the top. As Greve would begin to pull away slightly and the leaders caught the tail of the field, Maurer would begin searching around on the bottom, trying to find the same grip that Greve had utilized to take over the top spot. Lapped traffic would allow Maurer to close in a few times, but as the laps wound down, it seemed as if Greve had his fourth Hyper Racing 600 victory of the season well in hand.
T. J. Greve (No. 24t) would run the bottom trying to chase down race leader Jesse Maurer (No. 3) on the top side during the early laps of the Hyper Racing 600 feature. (Photo Courtesy of Brandon Worthington/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
But with two laps to go, everything changed when the race’s first caution was thrown for a muffler that had been lost and laid onto the racetrack in turn 4. The caution would set up a single-file, good old-fashioned green-white-checkered finish to decide the race. Greve and Maurer would be one-two, with Skias working his way from 13th to third, Holden Eckman running fourth, and Brown completing the top five.
In the battle between the Hartly Hurricane and the Mount Joy Outlaw, the latter knew that he would have to make something happen right away on the restart to have a chance, and the opportunity presented itself as Greve’s car stumbled slightly through the corner with Maurer peeking inside. The stumble gave Maurer the chance to stick his car all the way inside, and the two drivers banged wheels in turn 4 with Maurer getting away to the lead. Maurer would lead at the white flag lap, but the battle wasn’t finished. As Maurer went to the inside through turns 1 and 2, Greve got a full head of steam around the top side, and shot to the bottom of Maurer as the leaders raced to the final corner. Seeing Greve blow by, Maurer would back up the entry to turn 3, with the goal of getting a bite off the bottom to drag race Greve as they raced off of turn 4 and to the checkers. The move almost worked, as Maurer was able to pull alongside with momentum coming off the corner. But it was too little, too late, and by just 0.064 seconds, Greve would nip Maurer to checkered flag to conclude the epic battle.
Greve would take his fourth Hyper Racing 600 win and eighth total Lanco win of the 2021 season and set the fastest lap of the race in doing so, with a time of 10.358 seconds. Despite the valiant effort, Maurer would have to settle for a disappointing second, just in front of his teammate Skias, with Eckman and Brown completing the top five. In the meantime, championship contenders Hehnly and Swavely were rare non-factors in the main event, as both drivers struggled to make their way through the field. On the final lap, Hehnly was involved in an incident, which would relegate him to finishing as the last car on the lead lap in tenth. However, Swavely could only manage one spot better, leaving Hehnly’s points lead at 15 with two races remaining.
A last lap pass gave T. J. Greve his fourth Hyper Racing 600 victory of the season at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. (Photo Courtesy of Keegan Simmons/Mike Knappenberger Photos)
Next weekend at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway is the biggest and best racing weekend of the year, the Labor Day Shootout. Following the cornhole tournament on Friday, September 3rd, the racing begins on Saturday, September 4th, with the winged portion of the Labor Day Shootout. The 125/4 Strokes, Skeet Craft Collision Sportsmans, 270s, and Hyper Racing 600s will all have the wings on and compete for the first four checkered flags of the racing weekend. Then, on Sunday, September 5th, the wings come off as the wingless 125/4 Strokes, wingless 270s, and wingless Hyper Racing 600s will be joined by the All Star Slingshots for their final 2021 appearance at the Clyde. If necessary, the rain date for either event will be on Monday, September 6th. On both days, gates will open at 3:00, with warmups and racing slated to begin at 5:00. It’s the final holiday weekend of the summer, and there’s no better way to spend it than by coming out to LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
Results:
125/4 Stroke A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 26c-Mike Coen
2. 82-John Maurer
3. 76-Justin Harrington
4. 3-Mike Miller
5. 11h-Holden Eckman
6. 44x-Alex Lukacs
7. 44-Riley Simmons
8. 1st-Steve Simmons
9. 78c-Charles Hellinger
10. 7d-Chris Dolan
11. 19-Matt Fernsler
12. 7L-Chase Layser
13. 26-Tyler Martin
14. 3x-Kenny Bushey (-1L)
15. 16c-Don Hess (-1L)
16. 15-Alyssa Holmes (-1L)
17. 78-Jarrid Hellinger (-1L)
18. 81-Dylan Holmes (-1L)
19. 7a-Noah Martin (DNF)
20. 57k-Blaire Schoenly (DNF)
21. 75-Billy Logeman (DNF)
22. 04-Bradley Brown (DNF)
23. 17-Masen Stapleton (DNF)
270 A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 92-Jason Swavely
2. 15-Alex Swift
3. 8s-Mike Skias
4. 88d-Andrew Dietrich
5. 52T-T. J. Greve
6. 3-Pete Skias
7. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr.
8. 76b-Brent Shearer
9. 5a-Anthony Yerger
10. 3s-Nick Skias
11. 2-Mike Miller
12. 27-Darren Schott (-1L)
13. 48-Jonah Meck (-1L)
14. 21d-Dave Williams (-1L)
15. 34-Christi Sweigart (-1L)
16. 45o-Toby Blumenshine (DNF)
17. 82-Heath Hehnly (DNF)
18. 53n-Ben Newmaster (DNF)
19. 23-Bradley Brown (DNF)
20. 96w-Chase Walker (DNF)
21. 39-Austin Mieczkowski (DNF)
22. 99-Dallas Sanders (DNF)
23. 91-Jack Redcay (DNF)
Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 5-Bret Cronrath
2. 21-Toby Blumenshine
3. 12r-Brandon Heist
4. 5a-Anthony Yerger
5. 13s-Charles Hellinger
6. 3s-Josh Stoyer
7. 22-Clinton Hauser
8. N8-Nate Gibble
9. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr.
10. 16-Brianne Cronrath-Wittmer
11. 26b-Bradley Brown
12. 21d-Dave Williams
13. 20-Max Fasnacht
14. 23k-Courtney Kupp
15. 77-Mike Kreiser
16. 28-Kyle Lindsey
17. 8-Michael Spadafora
18. 30-Ryan Heckman
19. 99k-Chad Kreiser (DNF)
20. 53-Jared St. John (DNF)
21. 53s-Alex Lukacs (DNF)
22. 9g-Jamie Flickinger (DNF)
23. 15-Robert Shanaman (DNF)
Hyper Racing 600 A-Main (25 Laps):
1. 24t-T. J. Greve
2. 3-Jesse Maurer
3. 7-Nick Skias
4. 11h-Holden Eckman
5. 23-Bradley Brown
6. 42u-Tyler Ulrich
7. 1e-Aaron Espenshade
8. 17-Brent Ely
9. 14-Jason Swavely
10. 5-Heath Hehnly
11. 15p-Chris Panczner (-1L)
12. 11z-Zach Light (-1L)
13. 44h-Olivia Haworth (-1L)
14. 49-Patrick Chilmonik (DNF)
DNS: 1-Will Urkuski
Point Standings (UNOFFICIAL):
125/4 Stroke Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 76-Justin Harrington (1,314)
2. 19-Matt Fernsler (-154)
3. 7L-Chase Layser (-185)
4. 44x-Alex Lukacs (-241)
5. 26c-Mike Coen (-343)
6. 11h-Holden Eckman (-410)
7. 7d-Chris Dolan (-500)
8. 26-Tyler Martin (-534)
9. 44-Riley Simmons (-538)
10. 82-John Maurer (-623)
270 Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 3s-Nick Skias (1,221)
2. 92-Jason Swavely (-18)
3. 8s-Mike Skias (-190)
4. 3-Pete Skias (-259)
5. 82-Heath Hehnly (-274)
6. 23-Bradley Brown (-313)
7. 5a-Anthony Yerger (-374)
8. 88d-Andrew Dietrich (-378)
9. 34-Christi Sweigart (-413)
10. 21d-Dave Williams (-418)
Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 21-Toby Blumenshine (1,252)
2. 5-Bret Cronrath (-1)
3. 3s-Josh Stoyer (-195)
4. 22-Clinton Hauser (-267)
5. 26-Corey Schmuck, Jr. (-306)
6. 77-Mike Kreiser (-336)
7. 9g-Jamie Flickinger (-356)
8. 21d-Dave Williams (-357)
9. 15-Robert Shanaman (-454)
10. 16-Brianne Cronrath-Wittmer (-494)
Hyper Racing 600 Point Standings (Top 10):
1. 5-Heath Hehnly (1,156)
2. 14-Jason Swavely (-15)
3. 23-Bradley Brown (-87)
4. 7-Nick Skias (-129)
5. 15p-Chris Panczner (-198)
6. 3-Jesse Maurer (-267)
7. 17-Brent Ely (-271)
8. 75k-Jarid Kunkle (-278)
9. 11z-Zach Light (-317)
10. 11h-Holden Eckman (-364)