By Kasey Kreider

(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

As the annual kickoff to what has become dubbed as “the month of money” at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, the 4th of July Spectacular never fails to provide some of the most jaw-dropping racing of the entire season at the Newmanstown bullring. While all three winners had a different journey to Brubacher Victory Lane, the constant that remained was high doses of drama and excitement, which forced the drivers who triumphed to fight all the way to the finish line in order to take the checkered flag.

EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600

As a former winner of the Clyde Martin Memorial Race, Elverson’s Chris Panczner was not a stranger to big triumphs at Lanco. But it had been a while – six years to be exact – since Panczner had last tasted victory at his Saturday night home. On Thursday night, the long dry spell ended for the veteran of the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600 division, as Panczner held off Jason Swavely in a thrilling battle over the final laps to take the checkers in another marquee race.

From his third starting position, Panczner moved to second quickly and trailed New York’s Maverick Coffey during the early circuits of the race. While Coffey ran a fast and steady line, Panczner was able to maintain just as much momentum keeping his car about a half-groove lower, right next to the infield tires.

With Swavely moving into third and quickly closing on the front two, Panczner finally got alongside Coffey on lap 17 and swiped away the top spot, while Swavely advanced into the runner-up position just a few laps later.

Swavely closed in on the No. 15P by running the upper groove of the racetrack, and reached the back bumper of Panczner’s machine as the race wound inside of five laps to go. As if things weren’t dramatic enough, the caution then waved with three laps remaining, setting up a frantic dash to the finish.

Panczner and Swavely resumed their duel quickly off the restart, and coming down the backstretch on the penultimate lap, Swavely tried to duck inside of Panczner into turn 3. Panczner blocked the move to perfection, though, and that proved to be his last challenge. The No. 14 couldn’t draw close enough to repeat the move on the final lap, and Panczner finally flashed across the finish line in front of the pack for the first time since 2018.

“It’s been a while, this is a long time coming,” Panczner said. “The last seven or eight laps, I saw on the scoreboard [Swavely] was behind me… I was just trying to give him enough up top to kind of bait him up there so that I could keep running the bottom and not let him get underneath me, and it seemed to work out tonight.”

Behind Panczner and Swavely, Shannon Slaughter completed the podium with a third-place finish. Anthony Yerger finished fourth, and Cody West rounded out the top five.

Results:

1. 15P-Christopher Panczner[3]; 2. 14-Jason Swavely[7]; 3. 53S-Shannon Slaughter[4]; 4. 5A-Anthony Yerger[5]; 5. 117-Cody West[6]; 6. 31C-Maverick Coffey[1]; 7. 14H-Haelee Nardelli[2]; 8. 62-Jacob Lynch[9]; 9. 12-Quinn Roberts[12]; 10. 11H-Holden Eckman[13]; 11. 7-Jarrett Cavalet[15]; 12. 66A-Marvin Albright[14]; 13. 58-Andrew Rothermel[10]; 14. 23R-Rebecca LaMothe[11]; 15. 117X-Randy West[8]; 16. L13-Robert Potter[18]; 17. 13C-Bill Coffey[16]; 18. 2K-Nathan Miller[17]

For the first time in six years, Chris Panczner parked the No. 15P in Brubacher Victory Lane in the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600s. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Border Magic 270

Although he was a bridesmaid in his first race of the evening, Jason Swavely wouldn’t be denied victory twice on Thursday night at the Clyde. Last year’s two-time 4th of July race winner made it back-to-back victories in the Border Magic 270 division.

The start of the 270 race was largely reminiscent of the Winged 600 30-lapper, as it was Tyler Clowes who jumped away to the lead from the outside pole, while Swavely went from third to second.

After running the leader back down, Swavely made quick work of the No. 76 once he got there, as Clowes opened up the bottom through turns 3 and 4 and allowed Swavely to scoot past on lap 9. Unfortunately for Clowes, his race came undone in the next set of corners when he made contact with the left rear of Swavely’s car and spun sideways.

The new runner-up Richie Hartman – who was coming off a Golden Hammer victory at Shellhammer’s the previous night – seemed like he would be Swavely’s toughest challenge. But despite his best efforts and the aid of a few late caution flags, Hartman was unable to mount a charge to take the lead away. Through a final three-lap dash, Swavely pulled away from the competitors behind him and brought Anthony Yerger’s No. 5A across the finish line five car lengths ahead of the pack.

“[Clowes] kind of gave it to me,” Swavely said. “When he went to the top up in the marbles, I wasn’t too sure what he was doing… we made some changes, so [the car is] definitely a lot better now. The thing drove really good, and here we are.”

Hartman finished second, while Josh Stoyer came from ninth to finish third. Tommy Rinck and Chris Dolan completed the top five.

Results:

1. 5A-Jason Swavely[3]; 2. 747-Richie Hartman[7]; 3. 3-Josh Stoyer[9]; 4. 11R-Tommy Rinck[4]; 5. 9M-Chris Dolan[5]; 6. 19-Matt Fernsler[12]; 7. 96W-Chase Walker[20]; 8. 54-William Mohring[17]; 9. 30-Ryan Heckman[14]; 10. 21X-Rob Swavely[22]; 11. 3S-Nick Skias[15]; 12. 4-Dylan Pence[16]; 13. 12Q-Dominic Pomponi[23]; 14. 1L-Logan Hess[19]; 15. 94-Dallas Sanders[13]; 16. 90-Alyson Godusky[18]; 17. 48-Jonah Meck[10]; 18. 46R-James Miller[21]; 19. 14-Anthony Yerger[24]; 20. 8S-Mike Skias[8]; 21. 76-Tyler Clowes[2]; 22. 1A-Justin Harrington[11]; 23. 15-Alex Swift[6]; 24. 21D-Dave Williams[1]

DNQ: 21-Dustin Young; 27P-Dylan Pennypacker; 2T-Doug Pearson; 81-Dylan Holmes; 91-Jack Redcay

Jason Swavely took the lead on lap 9 and never looked back en route to picking up his second consecutive 4th of July win in the Border Magic 270s. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Hyper Racing Wingless 600

The $1,000-to-win Hyper Racing Wingless 600 feature was another thriller that came down to the final corner on Thursday night. Rising above the rest was Lehighton’s Kyle Lick, as he piloted Zach Light’s No. 11z to the front and crossed over a last-corner slide job from Christian Bruno to claim his second Lanco win, and first in a big show.

In the early laps, the race was in the control of Connor Gross, while Lick battled with Gunnar Pio for the runner-up position. However, the race began to shift as the top groove became more predominant in the event’s second half. That’s when the No. 11z seemed to come to life, and following a lap 13 restart, he took the lead away from Gross with a slider and good defense of the No. 14c’s counter-attack.

Lick paced the field for the next several laps, but it became apparent that his top challenger in the closing circuits would be two-time 4th of July winner Christian Bruno. Bruno came from the B-Main after issues in time trials earlier in the night. But after a multiple-lap battle with Gross, he finally made his way into the runner-up spot inside of 10 laps to go, and had an opportunity to steal the win in a late sprint to the checkered flag.

On the final five-lap run, Bruno threw everything he had at Lick to try and complete the pass. Lick crossed over Bruno’s slider off of turn 4 with four laps remaining, and then defended each attempt after as the leaders raced to the white flag. Bruno drove it as deep as he could into turn 3 for the final time, and finally slid across Lick’s nose to clear the slider. But the veteran executed one final crossover to perfection, and Lick edged back in front off of turn 4 to score the victory, with a margin of just 0.071 seconds at the finish line.

“I was kinda checking the board a little bit there, we got to like halfway and I felt pretty good,” Lick said. “I saw [Bruno] was on top of the board and he came out of the B, so I knew he was gonna be good… it was an awesome race at the end.”

Gross finished in third, while Pio came home with a fourth-place result. Jesse Maurer rounded out the top five.

Results:

1. 11Z-Kyle Lick[4]; 2. 5-Christian Bruno[19]; 3. 14C-Connor Gross[1]; 4. 28P-Gunnar Pio[2]; 5. 3-Jesse Maurer[11]; 6. 5R-Alex Ruppert[18]; 7. 10L-Lukas Kostic[5]; 8. 12-Dylan Kontra[8]; 9. 16-Marty Brian[23]; 10. 03-Ryan Groff[15]; 11. 95B-James Roselli[25]; 12. 21-Mason Beinhower[22]; 13. 2J-Jace Marshall[17]; 14. 09-Vincent Gueci[6]; 15. 00-Peyton Knecht[3]; 16. 22H-Fred Heinly[10]; 17. 20S-Nick Skias[16]; 18. 76-Jacob Bierman[20]; 19. 23-Bradley Brown[9]; 20. 29-PJ Williams[14]; 21. 51-Chris Gerhart[24]; 22. 96-Zach Jurcik[7]; 23. 99-Cliff Brian Jr[26]; 24. 08-Dominic Schmidt[21]; 25. 10-Mason Peters[12]; 26. 14X-Steven Snyder Jr[13]

DNQ: 11H-Holden Eckman; 9X-Connor Mirabelli; 62X-Jacob Lynch; 25X-Dan Lane Jr; 2L-Luke Hess; 17-Cole Perez; 11-Connor Fetrow; 31-Brandon Shearer; 90-PJ Reid; 80-Anthony Tramontana; 18M-Brayden Mickley; 30-Jack Fraser; 54-Dakota Bartlet; 3Y-Zachary Young; 98-Matthew Warner; 7L-Chase Layser; 23X-Shane Trout

Kyle Lick fended off a late charge by Christian Bruno to pick up the win of the Hyper Racing Wingless 600 A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Next Saturday, July 13, the Clyde is back in action with another massive show on the docket as part of East Coast Transponders Night. While the event is a points-paying night for all five weekly classes, the Hyper Racing Wingless 600s will be racing for an astounding $7,500 to win, and East Coast Transponders will also be giving out prizes to the winners of the other four feature events. Joining up with the Border Magic 270s will be the Mason Dixon 270 Racing Series, as they return for their second and final race of the season at the Clyde with the running of “The Backroads Brawl.” Gates will open for the event at 4:30 p.m., with warmups and racing beginning at 6 p.m. With a huge night of racing on tap, don’t miss out on your chance to come LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!