By Kasey Kreider
Electric. Exhilarating. Unbelievable. Unimaginable. All of the previous words and many more could have been used to describe Saturday night’s Dirt2Media Finale of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics. The Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway was the setting for wild thrills, crazy spills (which, thankfully, everyone walked away from), and simply put, insane racing. At the end of Saturday night’s 50-lap A-Main, it was one of Lanco’s biggest and brightest young stars who bested a field of 96 entrants for a $10,000 payday, while the son of an “Icon” continued to make a name all for himself, wheeling a car with much Lanco success in its history to a Speedweek championship.
Dirt2Media Finale of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics
The final night of Speedweek saw the second-largest car count of the six-race series, as 96 drivers began their quest for glory with time trials, while three also prepared to conclude their fight for the “Big Belt” that would go to the week-long champion.
Christian Bruno laid down the fastest time amongst all entrants in warmups and backed it up by scoring the Groff Trucking Quick Time Award with a blistering 10.923-second voyage around the speedway. Bruno’s lap was fastest overall and among Flight A cars, but in Flight B it was Speedweek points leader Alex Ruppert who turned in a 10.940-second lap time to score maximum time trial points entering the heats.
10 heat races started off with a bang, literally, as Michael Nolf and Michael Hubert’s big crash into the turn 2 catchfence put an early halt to the action. Both drivers were okay, but a roughly 25-minute red flag was necessitated to repair the fence back into safe condition.
Bruno kept his perfect night going with a 6-to-1 run in that heat. P. J. Williams, Dylan Kontra, and Alec Quiggle all won their heat races from the pole, while Dallas Damask came from third to win the final heat race among Flight A cars.
In recent years, championship drama has become the norm for Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek’s finale, and Saturday night was no different. Ruppert went on an early tear through the field in the night’s sixth heat race as he looked to put himself comfortably toward the top of the passing point chart entering qualifiers. But Ruppert had a coming together with Colin White while battling for the lead, breaking the No. 15 machine’s left front and forcing Ruppert to retire from the race, sending him straight into a B-Main.
Jason Swavely went on to win that heat race from the fifth position, while Brian Kramer, Hayden Wise, Neal Allison, and Ruppert’s closest championship challenger Tommy Kunsman – who entered the night just five points behind the Lewisberry native – all picked up Flight B heat race wins.
Zack Bealer, who entered the night 16 points behind Ruppert as the third and final championship combatant, comfortably transferred to the qualifiers with a 5-to-3 run in his heat race.
The four qualifiers would be the final piece to the passing points puzzle to help lock in the top 18 starting spots for the 50-lap A-Main. Wise, Kontra, and Williams all doubled up and swept both their heat and their qualifier, while Cliff Brian, Jr. followed up a seventh-to-second run in his heat race with a third-to-first run in his qualifier. Those performances made up for the No. 99’s 33rd-place effort in time trials and put him on the front row for the A-Main alongside Bruno, who locked in the pole position.
Of the three championship contenders, Bealer was the only one to lock into the A-Main, as the Lehighton native put up enough points to earn the 15th-starting spot for the feature while Kunsman and Ruppert would each have to run through the soup.
Four B-Mains would set the lineup for a 20-car, 12-lap Last Chance Showdown from which the top eight drivers would qualify into the A-Main. Swavely, Kyle Lick, Billy Koch, and Braden Jones picked up those victories, while both Ruppert and Kunsman got themselves into transfer positions to keep their title hopes alive.
Both Ruppert and Kunsman had to rally through traffic to get themselves into position to challenge Bealer for the title. Kunsman kept his car planted on the bottom and at one time was in a transfer spot, but the No. 21K faded out of the picture as the laps wound down. Ruppert, meanwhile, persevered on the top, and put his car into the eighth and final lock-in spot, as he would join the Showdown winner Swavely, along with Pat Bealer, Jones, Koch, Chase Cabre, Connor Gross, and Aiden Price as drivers to transfer into the main event.
So the stage was set for a 26-driver battle for $10,000 and a two-way fight for the $3,000 Speedweek championship. Bruno got away to the early lead off the green flag, and paced the field around the bottom of the speedway before the first caution flew on lap 4 after Trevor Cline’s tip over in turn 4.
Bruno jumped away over new runner-up Steven Snyder, Jr. on the restart before a pivotal incident occurred on lap 6. Zack Bealer and Chase Cabre got together fighting for the same piece of real estate into turn 1, sending the No. 2s car for a spin and causing him to lose all of his track position in front of Ruppert. After expressing his displeasure with the North Carolina native, Bealer settled in his position at the back of the field and began plotting his charge back through the pack with Ruppert still buried in traffic as well.
It wasn’t long before Bealer made the pass on Ruppert near the back of the field, as the No. 15 didn’t have nearly the same pace as earlier in the night. It soon became apparent why, as Ruppert’s right rear appeared to gradually be going soft as the 50-lap A-Main wore on. Forced to hang out at the back with the issue, Ruppert could only watch as Bealer continued his march back through the pack.
At the front, the race waged between Bruno and Snyder, Jr., but that too came to a dramatic end when a broken wheel center on Snyder, Jr.’s machine led to the right rear wheel coming completely detached on the defending Speedweek champion’s mount. The caution flew and set up a lap 20 restart, with Damon Paul moving into the runner-up spot.
As the race wound beyond the halfway mark, it was fitting that “On the Fence” Kyle Spence was the first one to make hay using the line. The driver with three Speedweek wins at Lanco used that top side momentum to make a dive inside Paul for the runner-up spot, and began to chase down Bruno – whose car was still planted on the bottom – as the laps wound down.
Spence showed his hand with 14 laps to go, making the move to the bottom of turn 3 before Bruno crossed him over to reclaim the lead. The caution then flew after Pat Bealer’s No. 78J went for a tumble in turn 4, setting up what would prove to be the race’s final restart.
The restart was indeed a pivotal one, as Paul slid his Think Fiberglass No. 144 back to the inside of Spence and retook the runner-up spot, while Bruno finally switched lines to the top. But with the race for the win now around the cushion, Paul’s car proved to be quicker, and once he got into slider territory with six laps to go, the packed house of fans at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway were treated to one of the best battles for the win you’ll see anywhere in the country.
It started with Paul’s slider in turns 1 and 2, which Bruno countered. The Deptford, NJ native got back to the wall entering turn 3 and opened the door for Paul to steer under once again. Then, in a moment of pure insanity, the drivers hopped rear wheels coming to the five-to-go signal from head starter Neil Bortz. Remarkably, both drivers kept their rocket ships pointed straight back to turn 1, and Paul was in the preferred line to grab the lead, seemingly for good, as they raced off the exit of turn 2.
But then Bruno turned on the afterburners and, against all odds, re-tracked down the No. 144. Coming to two to go, Bruno got close enough to throw a bomb into turn 3. Paul rubbed the wall through the center of the turn, but still knifed under Bruno off the corner to take the advantage back.
It was same song, second verse as the drivers came back to turn 3, this time approaching the white flag. Paul caught the curb in the center of the corner and upset the car, giving Bruno just the run he needed to stay alongside Paul’s car back to turns 1 and 2. With Bruno on the top side, he was able to blast around the Stony Point, NY hot shoe, and drove away uncontested through the final set of corners to a remarkable triumph.
“I just didn’t lift for the last five laps,” Bruno said in victory lane. “When I got passed I just tried to get as much compression as I could and just pound the top.”
“I knew I wasn’t setting a good pace up there… I was getting all messed up through the center of [turns 3 and 4] and he was able to get around me. So I was like, ‘oh boy, it’s time to kick on the boosters.’ I put the foot to the floor and I knew it was so tough to get off the cushion down [in 3 and 4] because it was so built up. So I knew I had to get him down there, and I was able to stick it.”
Despite the runner-up result, Paul couldn’t help but smile after the race. The driver making his return to Speedweek after barely racing at all in 2022 knew that he had given it all he had.
“Christian ran a great race, ran me super clean, and that’s all I can really ask for,” Paul said. “I was able to catch Christian at one point and pass him, and then he got me back. But that’s all in racing.”
Spence came home on the bottom step of the podium, and while satisfied with the result, was still left wishing that final caution flag hadn’t come out.
“As soon as I got my shot at it, the yellow came out, and with the double-file restarts it’s anybody’s game at that point.” Spence said. “Damon was going for it just like I would’ve and I just got shuffled back there on that restart… I really wasn’t hoping for that yellow, but that’s the way it falls and we’re in one piece, and top three is still pretty good.”
Connor Gross put in a hard charge through the field to drive from 24th to fourth, and Jason Swavely contended for the final spot on the podium from 19th before ultimately winding up fifth.
And as for the championship, Zack Bealer would be the one hoisting the Speedweek belt at the end of a wild 50 laps. After his early skirmish, Bealer kept his nose clean and came home in eighth, while Ruppert could only muster a 20th-place result with his tire issues throughout the race. When the dust settled, the championship was decided by just 14 points.
“Stress, lots and lots of stress,” was how Bealer described the moments before the A-Main while Ruppert and Kunsman’s A-Main chances hung in the balance.
“I was just trying to pass cars [after the early-race spin]. Gary [Spotts] put no pressure on me for points, he just said ‘go win races.’ You can say that, but it was in the back of my mind. I really wanted this.”
Bealer claimed the title driving for Gary and Donna Spotts, car owners that have been no strangers to success at the Clyde, most recently with Mike Rutherford behind the wheel. But it was the 2020 Winged 600 Labor Day Shootout winner who pointed that mount toward a championship all week long. Bealer was one of only four drivers to make all five Speedweek A-Mains, and his win Thursday at Airport helped catapult him into position to take advantage of a solid Finale Night performance and turn it into a title.
A-Main Results (50 Laps):
1. 5-Christian Bruno[1]; 2. 144-Damon Paul[6]; 3. R7-Kyle Spence[8]; 4. 21C-Connor Gross[24]; 5. 14-Jason Swavely[19]; 6. 15N-Neal Allison[9]; 7. 41C-Brian Carber[5]; 8. 2-Zachery Bealer[15]; 9. 12-Dylan Kontra[10]; 10. 49-Aiden Price[25]; 11. 6-Colin White[16]; 12. 19-Sam Johnson[13]; 13. 2D-Cole Dewease[3]; 14. 9C-Hayden Wise[11]; 15. 66-Billy Koch[22]; 16. 29-PJ Williams[7]; 17. 03-Ryan Groff[12]; 18. 11H-Holden Eckman[18]; 19. 16-Marty Brian[17]; 20. 15-Alex Ruppert[26]; 21. 99C-Cliff Brian Jr[2]; 22. 78J-Pat Bealer[20]; 23. 5J-Braden Jones[21]; 24. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[4]; 25. 20S-Chase Cabre[23]; 26. 55-Trevor Cline[14]
FINAL Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics Points (Top 5):
1. 2-Zachery Bealer[426]; 2. 15-Alex Ruppert[-14]; 3. 21K-Tommy Kunsman[-37]; 4. 5-Christian Bruno[-45]; 5. 6-Colin White[-65]
Christian Bruno (middle) held off Kyle Spence (left) and then outdueled Damon Paul (right) for the win of the Dirt2Media Finale of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)
Zack Bealer rebounded from an early spin to finish eighth in the A-Main and claim the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics championship. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)
Wingless Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman
After making its wingless debut last year on 4th of July weekend, the only Wingless Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman race returned as the companion race for Speedweek in 2023. Lititz, PA’s Corey Schmuck, Jr. hung his No. 26 Viper Chassis on the top of the speedway through the duration of the 25-lap A-Main and brought home the victory of an exciting event.
Brandon Heist grabbed the lead from pole sitter Brent Shearer early on and seemed to have the dominant car on the low line for much of the first half of the race. But misfortune struck him on a lap 12 restart, when second-place runner Dylan Pence got into Heist’s No. 99 machine, knocking the pipe off of his car and forcing him to retire from the race.
Pence inherited the lead in search of his first Lanco win, but Schmuck, Jr. was the fastest car on the track running on the high side. The two drivers traded sliders and the top spot for a few laps before Schmuck, Jr. finally completed the pass with seven laps to go. From there, car No. 26 was unchallenged out in the wind, and Schmuck, Jr. pulled away to grab his first win of the season.
“I knew [the top] was gonna be my line ever since warmups, we were just so good up there,” Schmuck, Jr. said. “We just made little adjustments to the car just to get through the turn a little better, and it all paid off. Man, I can’t believe it.”
Pence held on for second, and Dan Lane nipped Shannon Slaughter at the line for the final spot on the podium. Anthony Yerger rounded out the top five.
A-Main Results (25 Laps):
1. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[10]; 2. 4-Dylan Pence[4]; 3. 25X-Dan Lane Jr[8]; 4. 53S-Shannon Slaughter[3]; 5. 5A-Anthony Yerger[7]; 6. 23K-Matt Fernsler[12]; 7. 2T-Doug Pearson[15]; 8. 8-Michael Spadafora[14]; 9. 8S-Mike Skias[5]; 10. 1J-Brent Shearer[1]; 11. 99-Brandon Heist Sr[2]; 12. 21-Tyler Ulrich[6]; 13. 96W-Chase Walker[11]; 14. 53-Jared St John[13]; 15. 14D-Danny Wright[17]; 16. 16P-Patrick Kirn[9]; 17. 31-Kyle Lindsey[16]
Corey Schmuck, Jr. scored the win from 10th of the Wingless Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)
Next Saturday, July 29th will be the granddaddy of them all, the Clyde Martin Memorial. Drivers from all five of our regular divisions will be back in action fighting for the most prestigious win of the season in 35-lap, double points-paying A-Main events. As a reminder, all drivers must be members and must have competed in three points-paying events in order to race. The list of eligible drivers has been posted on the track website. It will also be Throwback Night at the speedway, and additionally, the K.I.D. Night activity will be a coloring contest. Gates will open at 4:30 with warmups and racing slated to start at 6:00. After a thrilling Speedweek Finale, don’t miss another opportunity to come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!