By Kasey Kreider

The greatest racing weekend of the year never fails to provide some of the best racing you’ll see all year – anywhere – in the northeast. The festivities kicked off with Germania Band Club Winged Night of the Labor Day Shootout. A couple of down-to-the-wire finishes highlighted the night’s A-Main events. And when all was said and done, Jason Swavely – who doubled up on wins – along with Pat Bealer and Michael Hoffmaster found themselves in the winner’s circle in one of Lanco’s crown jewels.

Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman

Annually, the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsmans only get one opportunity to shine on Labor Day Weekend, so each competitor knows it’s important to make the most of it. The theme of Lanco outsiders winning the Shootout continued on Saturday night, but Brandon Heist fell just one spot short of a three-peat. Instead, it was “The Icon,” Pat Bealer, who added a Labor Day Shootout triumph to his long and impressive list of racing accomplishments.

Bealer grabbed the lead on the start from the outside pole after the Lehighton native earned the Mike Trout Memorial Quick Time Award earlier in the evening. Bealer led Kyle Lindsey and Patrick Kirn through an early restart before the race settled into a long green-flag run.

It was within the run that Heist started to charge to the front. The Jonestown driver started in seventh and picked through the pack as well as lapped traffic to close in on the No. 16c before the yellow waved with 10 laps to go.

In clean racetrack, Bealer showed on the restart why he had garnered that quick time award earlier in the night. He inched away little-by-little from Heist and the pack behind him, and brought his machine all the way home to the finish line to claim the victory.

“It feels good, I always wanted to win here,” Bealer said. “So hopefully we carry this over to tomorrow with our Wingless 600… I got good equipment so we’ll see what happens.”

Heist finished in the runner-up spot with Josh Stoyer completing the podium. Lindsey and Richie Hartman rounded out the top five.

Results:

1. 16C-Pat Bealer[2]; 2. 5R-Brandon Heist Sr[7]; 3. 15-Josh Stoyer[9]; 4. 28-Kyle Lindsey[4]; 5. 88-Richie Hartman[8]; 6. 16P-Patrick Kirn[1]; 7. 53S-Shannon Slaughter[5]; 8. 1J-Justin Harrington[17]; 9. 30-Ryan Heckman[6]; 10. 21D-Dave Williams[13]; 11. 8-Michael Spadafora[12]; 12. 08-Lavar Scott[14]; 13. 23K-Courtney Kupp[3]; 14. 5-Bret Cronrath[18]; 15. 54-Lisa Warren[21]; 16. 31-Tyler Martin[20]; 17. 77-Michael Kreiser[10]; 18. 23-Billy Gray[16]; 19. 21-Toby Blumenshine[11]; 20. 26P-Dylan Pennypacker[15]; 21. 46R-James Miller[22]; 22. 69-Daniel Visalli[24]; 23. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[23]; 24. 4W-Brandon Worthington[19]

Pat Bealer dominated the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman Labor Day Shootout. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)

Hyper Racing Winged 600

Throughout the course of the 2023 season, the intensity and action of the Hyper Racing Winged 600s has been at an all-time high. The Labor Day Shootout provided yet another enthralling battle and a highlight reel worthy finish, as Jason Swavely and Christian Bruno dueled fiercely for victory, with the soon to be two-time champion coming out on top.

Bruno – last year’s Shootout winner – started on pole for the A-Main and led the first four laps running around the bottom of the track. But Jason Swavely and Randy West banged down the guardrail behind him, and once Swavely rocketed by the leader off of turn 2, Bruno knew it was time to move up as well.

As the leaders got to a hornet’s nest of lapped cars, Bruno was able to throw one slider at Swavely around the mid-way mark of the race. Swavely countered it easily and held onto the lead before the caution flew with 11 laps remaining when West and Robert Pierce got into trouble off of turn 2.

Swavely pulled away to a four car length lead on the restart, but Bruno inched in as the laps wound down. In shades of Speedweek, Bruno got close enough for a slider entering turn 3 coming to the white flag. Swavely countered the move and barely got back to the top in front of Bruno before the two leaders hit turn 1 for the last time.

Things got hairy off of corner number two, as Swavely and Bruno came up quickly on a lapped car. As Swavely tried to turn down the hill, Bruno hooked his bumper and nearly sent both cars spinning off the turn. Somehow, they both saved it, but the contact killed any run Bruno had coming off the corner. Swavely was able to beat the No. 5 to the bottom of turn 3 to guard against a final lunge, and “The Rocketman” powered off the final corner to claim another dramatic win.

“When [Bruno] threw that slider, I thought for sure he was gonna have me,” Swavely said. “I just turned the car and kinda pinched him up in the fence a little bit, but I mean, we’re all going for the win.”

Bruno came home second in front of a charging Steven Snyder, Jr., who ran to third from 11th. Kyle Lick and Brian Carber brought home the rest of the top five.

Results:

1. 14-Jason Swavely[4]; 2. 5-Christian Bruno[1]; 3. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[11]; 4. 11Z-Kyle Lick[7]; 5. 95A-Brian Carber[10]; 6. 3-Jesse Maurer[13]; 7. 99-Briggs Danner[9]; 8. 647-Brent Shearer[6]; 9. 3B-Dallas Damask[14]; 10. 15P-Christopher Panczner[18]; 11. 11H-Holden Eckman[3]; 12. 2S-Zachery Bealer[8]; 13. 03-Ryan Groff[21]; 14. 00-Pat Kelly[12]; 15. 23-Dan Lane Jr[19]; 16. 7B-Mitchell Bard[22]; 17. 1F-James Fries[15]; 18. 53S-Shannon Slaughter[26]; 19. 05-Lavar Scott[25]; 20. 14A-Mike Austin[24]; 21. 97-Billy Logeman[20]; 22. 117X-Randy West[2]; 23. 71-Brian Kramer[5]; 24. 24X-Robert Pierce[16]; 25. 5A-Anthony Yerger[23]; 26. 88-Nick Skias[17]

Jason Swavely held off all challenges from Christian Bruno to claim the Labor Day Shootout win in the Hyper Racing Winged 600s. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)

125/4 Stroke

A last-corner pass gave Michael Hoffmaster his first Lanco win in last year’s Labor Day Shootout event. In the 364 days since then, the Pottstown native had been close on several occasions to breaking through and getting back to the winner’s circle. But Hoffmaster was once again in position to claim victory as the laps wound down on Saturday night. And this time playing defense, Hoffmaster barely kept Chris Dolan at bay to make it back-to-back Winged Labor Day Shootout triumphs.

Veteran and former 4 Stroke Labor Day Shootout winner Mike Coen started on pole and looked fast early with his No. 26c out in clean air. But when Coen got held up in lapped traffic, Hoffmaster was there to pounce, and “The Taco Kid” stormed to the lead on lap 10.

Hoffmaster then showed the way, but Chris Dolan found his way into the fray after coming from the seventh starting spot. Dolan got to second with around 10 laps to go and slowly reeled Hoffmaster in before a caution with four to go set up a sprint for the finish.

Dolan hounded the back bumper of the No. 32, looking to snatch victory away from Hoffmaster in the late laps for the third time this season. But for Hoffmaster, the third time was the charm. He kept his mount firmly planted around the bottom, and never opened the door for Dolan to make a move as he led the No. 7D across the finish line.

“Mike [Coen] messed up passing the one lapped car, washed up a little bit and I got under him there,” Hoffmaster said. “Then towards the end I looked up on the board and I saw Chris behind me and I was scared. I knew he was coming.”

Dolan followed Hoffmaster across the line for second, while Brent Shearer completed the podium. Matt Fernsler and Darren Schott – who picked up the Mike Trout Memorial Quick Time Award – completed the top five.

Results:

1. 32-Michael Hoffmaster[4]; 2. 7D-Chris Dolan[7]; 3. 75-Brent Shearer[10]; 4. 19-Matt Fernsler[11]; 5. 20J-Darren Schott[3]; 6. 14-Seth Gregory[14]; 7. 15H-Don Hess[18]; 8. 78C-Sara Borror[9]; 9. 44-trevor Waegel[8]; 10. 15-Alyssa Holmes[13]; 11. 24T-Austin Miller[19]; 12. 58-Ellan Rae Nardelli[20]; 13. 14J-Charles Chance[16]; 14. 15Q-Quinn Llewellyn[25]; 15. 23B-chase bouchelle[23]; 16. 26C-Michael Coen[1]; 17. 17E-Easton Miller[24]; 18. 112-Dylan Yeingst[2]; 19. 00-Jas Hehnly[15]; 20. 04-Corey Harting[17]; 21. 82-John Maurer[5]; 22. 22J-Charles Hellinger[21]; 23. 76-Brandon Heist Sr[12]; 24. 21S-Samuel Davenport[22]; 25. 16-Dan Lane Jr[6]

Michael Hoffmaster made it back-to-back Labor Day Shootout wins in the Winged 125/4 Stroke event. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)

270

On 4th of July weekend, Jason Swavely pulled off the sweep of the 270 and 600 divisions. So perhaps it was only fitting that on the second big open show of the year, Swavely would do the same tonight. The 270 champion-to-be racked up another big-time win at the helm of Bill Schenck’s No. 92.

Swavely started the A-Main from fourth, and then moved to third when Alex Swift was called for jumping the initial start. By the time the field came around to complete lap one, Swavely found himself at the head of the pack, as he powered past Anthony Yerger and began driving away.

Swift got back into the runner-up spot, but couldn’t challenge Swavely before the caution waved just before the halfway mark of the 30-lapper. On the restart that followed, fourth-place runner Pete Skias pulled off an epic move, as he split between Swift and Pat Kelly to snatch the second spot away from both drivers.

But all that was still behind the No. 92, and nobody had anything for him. Swavely checked out on one final restart with three laps remaining and claimed a fitting 14th total win of the year at the Clyde with his second Labor Day Shootout triumph of the night.

“We had to capitalize tonight,” Swavely said. “We gave one away last year… so felt like we definitely had to win this one to get back what we could’ve had last year.”

And capitalize he did, as Swavely led Pete Skias and Kelly across the finish line to make up the podium. Swift finished fourth, and Mike Skias completed the top five.

Results:

1. 92-Jason Swavely[4]; 2. 3-Pete Skias[8]; 3. 00-Pat Kelly[7]; 4. 15-Alex Swift[2]; 5. 8S-Mike Skias[5]; 6. 9M-Chris Dolan[3]; 7. 11R-Tommy Rinck[10]; 8. 747-Richie Hartman[16]; 9. 21J-Darren Schott[21]; 10. 30-Ryan Heckman[24]; 11. 65H-Mackenzie Hixon[19]; 12. 1L-Dave Labe[17]; 13. 54-William Mohring[23]; 14. 17-Kyle Lindsey[18]; 15. 42-Bob Sawdey[20]; 16. 77-Michael Kreiser[26]; 17. 88D-Andrew Dietrich[12]; 18. 27O-Billy Logeman[9]; 19. 39A-Austin Mieczkowski[11]; 20. 91-Jack Redcay[15]; 21. 5A-Anthony Yerger[1]; 22. 94D-Logan Diehl[6]; 23. 3S-Nick Skias[14]; 24. 12W-Dominic Pomponi[22]; 25. 4-Dylan Pence[13]; 26. (DNS) 14J-Charles Chance III

Jason Swavely swept the open show once again, claiming the Labor Day Shootout victory for the Winged 270s. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Williams/Amy’s Photos)

Sunday, September 3rd will be the Wingless Night of the Labor Day Shootout at the Clyde. The Hyper Racing Wingless 600s will be joined by the only wingless races of the season for the 270 and 125/4 Stroke competitors. Additionally, the Stage 1 Modifieds will join the card for their second-ever Labor Day Shootout event. As was the case Saturday, $50 bonuses will be given out to the quick timer and hard charger in each of the micro sprint divisions in remembrance of Mike Trout. Gates will open at 3:00 with warmups beginning at 5:00. With what is usually the wildest show of the year on tap, you don’t want to miss your opportunity to come LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!