By Kasey Kreider
Independence Day Weekend at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway has grown a reputation for providing some of the most thrilling racing you’ll see all year within the tight confines of the 1/8th-mile Newmanstown bullring. Not even Mother Nature could put a damper on the action, despite the 90-minute delay that the heavy rain shower put on the start of the night. But one driver rose above the rest of an extremely competitive field of stars and cars. After charging from 11th to win Friday night at Linda’s Speedway, Jason Swavely came from outside the top 10 not once, but twice to sweep the micro sprint features in dramatic fashion on Sunday night.
270
After winning two weeks prior, Mike Skias was looking to continue his mid-season turnaround by scoring back-to-back victories in the 270 class. The Sinking Spring native started from the pole and seemed to have the dominant car in the early going, pulling away from the fellow Viper Chassis cars piloted by Richie Hartman and Nick Skias.
Jason Swavely officially started 17th after being unable to make up ground in a loaded heat race earlier in the night. But after some adjustments and a more widened out track to work with, Swavely began his methodical march through the field.
In the span of roughly seven laps, Swavely picked off cars seemingly one lap at a time, moving from eighth into second before the caution waved with 14 laps to go. Swavely flew past the No. 8s on the restart and was virtually untouched for the rest of the race.
“We tweaked on it a little bit [after the heat race],” Swavely said. “The thing was on point, they had this thing tuned… we kept our nose clean and once we got up front in that clean air, we just set sail.”
The win was Swavely’s fourth total in 270 competition at the Clyde in 2023. Skias came home in the runner-up spot and Chris Dolan had his best 270 run in another voyage aboard Noah Martin’s No. 9M, finishing third. Josh Stoyer and Hartman rounded out the top five.
Results:
1. 92-Jason Swavely[17]; 2. 8S-Mike Skias[1]; 3. 9M-Chris Dolan[5]; 4. 3-Josh Stoyer[12]; 5. 88-Richie Hartman[2]; 6. 19-Matt Fernsler[6]; 7. 15-Alex Swift[14]; 8. 74F-Cody West[11]; 9. 02-Josh Patterson[18]; 10. 31-Tyler Martin[24]; 11. 22-Clinton Hauser[7]; 12. 93-Brayden Mickley[9]; 13. 21J-Josh Weiant[16]; 14. 21D-Dave Williams[21]; 15. 14-Bret Cronrath[22]; 16. 91-Jack Redcay[19]; 17. 3S-Nick Skias[4]; 18. 4-Dylan Pence[8]; 19. 27S-Ryan Wickham[13]; 20. 17-Austin Graby[15]; 21. 21-Tyler Ulrich[10]; 22. 39-Austin Mieczkowski[20]; 23. 14C-Darren Schott[23]; 24. 32-Alex Lukacs[3]
Jason Swavely (No. 92) passed Mike Skias (No. 8s) to complete his drive from 17th to the win of the 270 A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)
Hyper Racing Wingless 600
With the $10,000-to-win Dirt2Media Finale of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics just 20 days away, 45 drivers signed in to compete in Sunday night’s event, with many hoping to get a tune up for the big race.
The night featured time trials to kick off the action, and Rockaway, NJ’s Danny Buccafusca circled the speedway in 11.018 seconds to lay down the fastest time of the night. Buccafusca was fastest in Flight A, while Connor Gross made it a Garden State sweep of the fast times as he went quickest in Flight B.
But it was Briggs Danner and Dylan Kontra who put together the best performances in the heat races, as those two drivers raced from sixth to first to score maximum passing points and put themselves on the front row for the 30-lap A-Main. Jason Swavely won his heat race as well, but a run from second to first coupled with the 14th-fastest time in Flight A meant that Swavely would only roll off from the 12th position come feature time.
Danner and Kontra controlled much of the feature at the front of the field. Despite a few early pileups, the race then ran green for 20 straight laps. While most other drivers ran the bottom, Swavely committed to the top, making several passes on the high side and climbing all the way up to fourth while a fierce and thrilling battle ensued from fifth on back.
Mitchell Bard’s spin with seven laps to go regrouped the field for a final run to the finish. From the outside of the second row, Swavely quickly got to the runner-up spot, and with Danner keeping his Dave Bodine Orange Crush No. 99 RTS Chassis plugged on the bottom, Swavely rocketed past on the high side of turn 2 for the race-winning move with four laps to go.
“Starting 12th, you can’t follow everybody… and honestly after that first restart when I drove around everybody, I figured somebody was gonna go up there, but nobody did.”
“I got to fourth or whatever when I got down [to turns 3 and 4] and I bicycled… everybody was telling me to go back to the top so I just kinda changed my entrance, got the car down on the left side a little bit, and just went for it.”
Swavely picked up his second win of the night and third win of the weekend with the remarkable drive, while Danner suffered heartbreak in his second-ever venture to the speedway, as a mechanical woe forced his car out of the race just after he had lost the lead.
Kontra capped off a career night with a second-place effort, while two-time 4th of July winner Christian Bruno made a furious charge over the final laps for the third-straight year to finish third. Alex Ruppert finished fourth and Kyle Lick rallied from two early incidents to round out the top five.
Results:
1. 14-Jason Swavely[12]; 2. 12-Dylan Kontra[2]; 3. 5-Christian Bruno[16]; 4. 15-Alex Ruppert[10]; 5. 11Z-Kyle Lick[13]; 6. 23-Bradley Brown[4]; 7. 14G-Connor Gross[6]; 8. 647-Brent Shearer[21]; 9. 3-Danny Buccafusca[3]; 10. 2S-Garyt Smith[5]; 11. 11H-Holden Eckman[22]; 12. Z71-Michael Nolf[9]; 13. 24-Robert Pierce[8]; 14. 7L-Chase Layser[26]; 15. Z29-Evan Nolf[19]; 16. 99-Briggs Danner[1]; 17. 7B-Mitchell Bard[15]; 18. 21-Mason Beinhower[7]; 19. 96-Zach Jurcik[11]; 20. 80-Anthony Tramontana[20]; 21. 54-Dakota Bartlet[18]; 22. $30-Dominic Foster[17]; 23. 10-Mason Peters[24]; 24. 3B-Dallas Damask[25]; 25. 75K-Jarid Kunkle[23]; 26. 9X-Nate Freed[14]
Jason Swavely posed with both cars in victory lane after triumphing in the 270 and Hyper Racing Wingless 600 A-Mains. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)
Stage 1 Modifieds
The Stage 1 Modifieds made their first of three appearances at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway in 2023. The division’s fifth race at the track since the debut in 2021 saw the first repeat winner, as Gavyn Krupp followed up his win last September with a 4th of July triumph.
Krupp started on pole following the redraw, and appeared that he was going to comfortably cruise to a wire-to-wire win despite heat race winner Colin Cox’s best efforts to catch him in the closing laps.
But when A. J. Gerhart’s car slowed to a stop on the backstretch, the yellow flag flew with Krupp three-quarters of a lap away from taking the checkers.
Despite the late-race drama, Krupp hunkered down for the restart and was able to keep Cox from getting anywhere close enough to peek to the inside.
“I was like, ‘Really? Come on, I was so close,’” Krupp said of the last-lap yellow after the race. “But I knew I had a good car, I just had to fight till the end.”
Krupp claimed the victory with Cox, last year’s champion of the three-race series, coming home in second. Jake Moyer finished third, with Johnny Fugelo fourth and Stephen Smith finishing off the top five.
Results:
1. 5K-Gavyn Krupp[1]; 2. 59-Colin Cox[4]; 3. 1-Jake Moyer[2]; 4. 5TEEN-Johnny Fugelo[3]; 5. 88-Stephen Smith[5]; 6. 57-Owen Cassel[7]; 7. 00-Peyton Knecht[9]; 8. S1-AJ Gerhart[6]; 9. 03-Brett Smith[8]; 10. 12-Lawson Szerencits[11]; 11. (DNS) 12K-Dylan Kontra
Gavyn Krupp led all 20 laps to pick up the win in the first Stage 1 Modified race of the season. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)
This Saturday, July 8th will be the first-ever appearance for the Mason Dixon 270 Racing Series. Those competitors will face off with the stars of the Clyde for what promises to be an entertaining event. It will be a regular points-paying night for all five weekly divisions, including the 270s. The K.I.D. Night activity will be Bubble Night. Gates open at 4:30, with warmups and racing beginning at 6:00. As we continue with the month (plus) of big races and big money, this Saturday is the perfect time to come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!