By Kasey Kreider

Often considered the greatest day in motorsports every year, Memorial Day Sunday wasn’t originally supposed to include racing at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. But after a frustrating month with weather and another rainout on Saturday, track officials made the decision to run a non-points Sunday afternoon show. Gunnar Pio, Michael Hoffmaster, Richie Hartman, Patrick Kirn, and Billy Logeman conquered the hot and slick conditions to pick up victories on a day that also featured Junior Sprint and quarter midget exhibitions for the sport’s future stars.

Hyper Racing Wingless 600

Kunkletown’s Gunnar Pio became the first repeat winner of the young season in the Hyper Racing Wingless 600s, as he started from the pole and kept all challengers at bay for a wire-to-wire win.

Pio led Dylan Kontra, Brent Shearer, and Mason Beinhower through caution-filled early stages of the race. The car making the most progress through the field was that of sixth-place starter Steven Snyder, Jr., who used a strong restart to jump from fourth to second in the pecking order and begin to put pressure on the back bumper of the No. 28P.

Snyder, Jr. was close to making the pass on a couple occasions, and peaked to the inside of Pio trying to make the move happen on lap 12. As the field was wrapping the infield tires on the dry-slick surface, Snyder, Jr.’s No. 21s clipped a few sets of the tires before going upside down, ending his bid for the win.

From that point forward, Pio was unchallenged through the rest of the race, and pulled away from the freight train of cars behind him to secure the win.

“It was tough. Me and Steven were hard racing there… I didn’t mean to get into him if I did,” Pio said. “I’ve never ran the track at Lanco like this, so it was definitely different.”

Kontra finished in second, while Beinhower completed the podium after starting in ninth. Shearer finished fourth, and Jason Swavely rebounded from an early-race incident to round out the top five.

Results:

1. 28-Gunnar Pio[1]; 2. 12-Dylan Kontra[2]; 3. 21-Mason Beinhower[9]; 4. 29-Brent Shearer[4]; 5. 14-Jason Swavely[17]; 6. 71-Brian Kramer[20]; 7. 3L-Nolen Layser[12]; 8. 91-Nate Freed[11]; 9. 22H-Fred Heinly[14]; 10. 90X-Trent Warner[23]; 11. 98W-Matt Warner[13]; 12. 32H-Wayne Scott[8]; 13. 16-Marty Brian[7]; 14. 77-Kimber Tyson[24]; 15. 33-John Barnett Jr[15]; 16. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[6]; 17. 10L-Lukas Kostic[16]; 18. 95B-James Roselli[10]; 19. 08-Dominic Schmidt[22]; 20. 5X-Chase Rodgers[19]; 21. 17-Cole Perez[5]; 22. 1F-James Fries[21]; 23. 11H-Holden Eckman[18]; 24. 23-Bradley Brown[3]

Gunnar Pio made his second trip of the season to Brubacher Victory Lane in the Hyper Racing Wingless 600s. (Photo Courtesy of Dawson Hess Photography)

Offroad Motorsports 125/4 Stroke

Two-time Labor Day Shootout winner Michael Hoffmaster continued his strong success in open shows with his first win of the 2024 season, holding off a furious charge from Dylan Yeingst to make the trip to Brubacher Victory Lane in the Offroad Motorsports 125/4 Stroke division.

Hoffmaster had the field covered early in the race, but John Maurer was the first driver to work his way into striking distance, as the No. 82 looked fast in the early laps after starting the feature in fifth. However, Maurer’s race came undone with a mechanical issue just after he had moved into the runner-up spot.

The car to watch then became Yeingst, as the 11th-place starter looked bound and determined to pick up his first Lanco win, and erased Hoffmaster’s big advantage to move within striking distance over the final few laps.

The cars were nose-to-tail starting the final lap, and Yeingst tried to poke his way inside of Hoffmaster’s No. 32 out of turn 2. The slightest bit of right-front to left-rear contact was enough to tip the No. 112 sideways, taking Yeingst out of contention for the win.

With the race ending in a one-lap shootout, Hoffmaster kept Dave Schroeder and Ella Rae Nardelli behind him to finish off a hard-fought victory.

“I usually do good on dry tracks, but not this dry,” Hoffmaster said. “That one lap Yeingst peaked under me, I saw that… it feels pretty good. I wish I could do this during a points race though.”

Although it may not have been a points race, it was still an impressive win on a technical track for Hoffmaster, who made up the podium along with Schroeder and Nardelli. Andrew Rothermel finished fourth, while Yeingst salvaged a fifth-place result out of the race.

Results:

1. 32-Michael Hoffmaster[1]; 2. X-Dave Schroeder[2]; 3. 58N-Ella Rae Nardelli[7]; 4. 73-Andrew Rothermel[3]; 5. 112-Dylan Yeingst[11]; 6. 89-Rilynn Hannula[6]; 7. 74-Paige Rothermel[8]; 8. 14-Seth Gregory[9]; 9. 82-John Maurer[5]; 10. 76-Justin Harrington[10]; 11. 78-Cole Williams[13]; 12. 9M-Noah Martin[4]; 13. (DNS) 8-Michael Spadafora

Michael Hoffmaster held off a late charge by Dylan Yeingst to pick up the win in the Offroad Motorsports 125/4 Stroke feature. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Border Magic 270

On a track that favored veterans – including those who had experienced racing in Lanco’s Labor Day Shootout back when it was a day race – it was no surprise to see former champions Richie Hartman and Billy Logeman dueling for the win of the Border Magic 270 feature. Ultimately, it was Hartman coming out on top, chalking up the victory in Dawn and Dennis McKeon’s No. 747.

Hartman’s machine looked comfortable on the dry-slick conditions, opening up gaps of roughly one second through each green-flag run. Although Logeman at times would start to chip away at the lead, he would never really get close enough to challenge. An excellent fire-off on the final restart with four laps remaining gave Hartman all the cushion he needed to bring home the win.

“I threw one away last year at Shellie’s, but we got this one,” Hartman said. “Once I saw Billy got to second, it was just a matter of just making him push me out of the lane… we had a lot of changes just to be, hopefully, good enough off the bottom.”

Behind Hartman and Logeman was a fierce battle for third that waged on throughout most of the race. When all was said and done, that fight was won by Dylan Kuronya, who finished in front of Jack Redcay and Brian Sholley to make up the top-five finishers.

Results:

1. 747-Richie Hartman[1]; 2. 27O-Billy Logeman[6]; 3. 53-Dylan Kuronya[9]; 4. 91-Jack Redcay[12]; 5. 28S-Brian Sholley[5]; 6. 1L-Logan Hess[13]; 7. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[4]; 8. 46R-James Miller[11]; 9. 12Q-Dominic Pomponi[14]; 10. 00-Pat Kelly[7]; 11. 82-John Maurer[10]; 12. 5-Bret Cronrath[3]; 13. 30-Ryan Heckman[8]; 14. 21-Toby Blumenshine[2]

Richie Hartman scored a dominant win in Sunday’s Border Magic 270 feature. (Photo Courtesy of Dawson Hess Photography)

Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman

Patrick Kirn made his first trip to Brubacher Victory Lane since July of 2022, as the Mohrsville native prevailed in the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature.

Michael Spadafora and Shannon Slaughter shared the front row for the start of the race, with each driver looking for their first win at Lanco. Spadafora’s car was out in the wind for the first segment of the race, with five cars all nose-to-tail behind him waiting for any sort of slip-up.

Ironically, the first slip-up came from Kirn, as he slid off the bottom through turns 1 and 2 and lost two positions in the process. However, a timely yellow before the lap was completed gave Kirn a second chance, and he took full advantage of it on the ensuing restart.

The No. 16P filled the hole inside of Slaughter off of turn 4 and then got an excellent drive out of turn 2 to poke his nose inside of Spadafora’s machine. Kirn completed the pass a lap later and then set sail, dominating the remainder of the race to claim the checkered flag.

“It took a little bit for the tires to warm up. But once the tires heated up, it just ran like there was no tomorrow.” Kirn said. “I mean, I was screwing up the last couple of laps and my arms were getting tired from shifting and everything. But other than that, it was a rocket out there.”

Toby Blumenshine came home in second for the third Sportsman race in a row, while Slaughter completed the podium in third. Corey Schmuck, Jr. and Tyler Martin rounded out the top five.

Results:

1. 16P-Patrick Kirn[3]; 2. 21-Toby Blumenshine[4]; 3. 53S-Shannon Slaughter[2]; 4. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[6]; 5. 31-Tyler Martin[8]; 6. 8-Michael Spadafora[1]; 7. 27-Dylan Pennypacker[5]; 8. 54-Lisa Warren[10]; 9. 30-Ryan Heckman[7]; 10. 22J-Jonathan Hellinger[9]

Patrick Kirn claimed his first Lanco win in nearly two years in Sunday’s Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600

After finally breaking through and getting his first EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600 win at the Clyde, Billy Logeman decided to only wait eight days before getting his second, as he put forth a dominating drive to round out the day of racing.

Logeman started on the pole, but established himself as the quickest car on the speedway regardless of track position. With a No. 97 machine that only seemed to get faster as the race wore on, Logeman flashed across the finish line nearly two seconds in front of his closest challenger after leading all 25 laps.

“Last week I got my first one ever in a 600, and then to back it up today,” Logeman said. “Today was a lot of luck by pulling that number one [pill] on a track like this. But still, it’s pretty cool to go back-to-back.”

New York’s Pet Kelly came home with a second-place finish, while Bradley Brown rounded out the podium. Chris Gerhart finished fourth and Brian Kramer completed the top five.

Results:

1. 97-Billy Logeman[1]; 2. 00-Pat Kelly[3]; 3. 23-Bradley Brown[6]; 4. 51-Chris Gerhart[5]; 5. 71-Brian Kramer[9]; 6. 10-Mason Peters[10]; 7. 75-Mark Yoder[7]; 8. 29S-Sophya Papp[12]; 9. 17-Brent Ely[2]; 10. 66A-Marvin Albright[11]; 11. 5X-Chase Rodgers[8]; 12. 58-Andrew Rothermel[4]

Billy Logeman made it back-to-back trips to Brubacher Victory Lane in the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600s. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Junior Sprints

Following the quarter midget exhibition, Lanco’s first-ever Junior Sprint event was contested by Gage Pio and Braylon Morris in preparation for next week’s KKM Challenge and July’s Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek. In the 12-lap exhibition race, it was Gage Pio – the younger brother of Wingless 600 feature winner Gunnar Pio – taking the victory following a nice, clean battle with Morris throughout the early laps of the race.

Results:

1. 5-Gage Pio[1]; 2. 15-Braylon Morris[2]

Gage Pio (right) and Braylon Morris (left) pose in Brubacher Victory Lane after competing in Lanco’s first-ever Junior Sprint event. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

This coming week, one of the biggest micro sprint events of the year will take place at the Clyde. The POWRi-sanctioned KKM Challenge makes its debut in the northeast, featuring a $10,000 to win finale for the Outlaw Non-Wing 600 division. US6A Winged 600s along with Junior Sprints will serve as the support divisions on each night of competition. The action kicks off with practice night on Wednesday, May 29, running from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The two preliminary nights then take place Thursday and Friday, May 30-31, with hot laps beginning at 6:30 p.m. Everything culminates with the finale on Saturday, June 1, as the $10,000-to-win event headlines the card of racing that begins with hot laps at 6 p.m. If necessary, Sunday, June 2 would be used as a rain date. For all information on the race, please reference POWRi’s official website, along with the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway page. With this one-of-a-kind event taking place throughout the week, don’t you dare miss the opportunity to come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!