To finish first, you must first finish. That’s how the old racing saying goes, and it applied particularly well for the majority of the features that took place Saturday night at the Clyde. Issues for some of the front runners led to some surprising and dramatic victories among drivers who may not have been expecting them.

It took three tries to get the opening points race of the 2022 Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway racing season in the books. But the wait proved to be well worth it, as thrilling action was plentiful in all five divisions, with the last race of the evening ending on a last corner pass.

Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway kicked off its 2022 campaign in style on Saturday night with the sixth annual running of the No Wing Spring Fling. The annual season-opening event never fails to provide a fair share of thrills and spills, with this year providing a large amount in both categories. But Bobby Butler, Chase Layser, and Mike Rutherford were able to survive the chaos and outlast their competition to open their 2022 seasons with a checkered flag.

The final night of the 2021 racing season at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway was a busy one to say the least. The four weekly divisions of racing would compete in their final races of the 2021 season, with the 270s “playing two,” as they would make up their rained-out points finale to begin the night. Plus, the Stage 1 Modifieds would make their debut at the Clyde, setting the groundwork to potentially be back on more occasions in the future. The season’s awards would also be presented to the top 15 points finishers in each division, with special awards also being presented to the rookie of the year, sportsman of the year, most improved driver, and the best appearing car in each class. On top of all that, the kids in attendance got to have fun at the Clyde one final time in 2021, as they trick-or-treated through the pit area during intermission on the Halloween/Trick or Treat Night.

After a points season spanning over five months at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, you would have a hard time believing that two of the four championship battles would not only come down to the final race, but that the two championship contenders in each class would either be tied, or all but tied, entering that final 25-lap event. But perhaps that’s a testament to the competition that Lanco has to offer, as well as the talent and competitiveness of the drivers that span all four divisions of racing at the Clyde.

It was a special and significant night of racing at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, as first responders and victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks were honored on First Responders Night Presented by Glick Fire Equipment, a night which just so happened to fall on the 20th anniversary of September 11th, 2001. During intermission, all first responders were recognized on the race track, with goodie bags and a hearty round of applause given to all of them in recognition and appreciation of all they do. But from an on-track perspective, the night was a significant one too, with it serving as the second to last points-paying race of the 2021 season for all four weekly divisions.

The wingless portion of the Labor Day Shootout at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway never fails to produce thrills, spills, and plenty of drama. The 2021 edition of the race would check all of those boxes, and as the clock struck midnight, signifying the end of the greatest racing weekend of the year, four drivers would be celebrating on the frontstretch as well-deserved winners of the Labor Day Shootout. Scott Neary would dominate the night in the All Star Slingshots’ final appearance of 2021 at the Clyde. Steven Snyder, Jr. made it back-to-back Hyper Racing Wingless 600 victories at the Clyde, winning the 30-lapper in a runaway. Dakota Barlet kept a recent hot streak going by surviving the chaos and a last-corner challenge by Dan Lane, Jr. to win the wingless 270 A-Main. And Chase Layser concluded the night by holding off a frantic charge from T. J. Greve, including another last-corner pass, to win the wingless 125/4 Stroke feature.

Labor Day Weekend annually brings about the biggest racing weekend of the year at Lanco’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. And with 149 entries signed in across the four divisions of Saturday’s opening night of the Labor Day Shootout, it became abundantly clear that the action would live up to the hype. The night would start with a wild and dramatic 270 feature, and when the dust settled, it would be Nick Skias driving from 22nd to take the lead with three laps remaining to take the night’s first checkered flag. T. J. Greve would then double down on Labor Day Shootout wins, as he dominated the 125/4 Stroke feature, and turned in a similar performance in the Hyper Racing 600s, holding off Jason Swavely in lapped traffic to make it two wins in as many races. The night’s final feature would see a first-time Lanco winner on one of the biggest stages, as Brandon Heist led from lap 5 to the finish to win the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman A-Main, allowing him to finally get elusive win number one at the Clyde.

Summer Sizzler Night at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway saw humid and overcast conditions as race teams and fans descended upon Newmanstown on the final Saturday of August. The weather was warm, but the on-track action would be what was sizzling on this evening. Excellent racing throughout the night culminated with four fantastic features that saw multi-groove racing and wheel-to-wheel action at every turn. When all was said and done, Mike Coen picked up his second 125/4 Stroke victory in three weekends with a wire-to-wire performance. Jason Swavely was nearly as dominant en route to his third 270 win of the season, and the victory drew him right back to within striking distance of Nick Skias in the championship fight. A four-car battle for the win in the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature saw Bret Cronrath come out on top for the fourth time in 2021, making the points battle a near dead heat with two races remaining. In the final feature, T. J. Greve and Jesse Maurer waged an epic battle for victory in the Hyper Racing 600 main event, with Greve coming out on top by just 0.064 seconds.

With seven features on the docket for Boyer’s Tavern of Rexmont Luau Night at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, there was bound to be a little bit of just about everything throughout the course of the evening. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, there was a mixture of new winners, familiar faces, and a former champion making a triumphant return to the Clyde. Jamie Flickinger and Alex Lukacs finally broke through for their first Lanco wins in the Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman and 125/4 Stroke divisions, respectively. Nick Skias picked up two wins on the evening, one in the 270 makeup feature and the other in the Hyper Racing 600 main event. Toby Blumenshine picked up win number six on the season in the regularly scheduled Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature. Former champion William Manotti shook off the rust after a few years away and found his way back into the winner’s circle in the second 125/4 Stroke feature. And Brent Shearer closed the night with an impressive charge from 16th to win the final feature of the evening in the 270s.

Pink Out Night Presented by KDM Skunkworks Race Engines annually serves as one of the most special nights of the year at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. Organized by Kim Glass of the Kim’s Kreations Novelty Stand and TT’s Troops, the night raises funds for breast cancer research while also turning the Clyde into a sea of pink, with pink t-shirts aplenty and even pink accenting on some of the race cars. At intermission, a special presentation was held to honor and recognize all cancer survivors. It was a recognition of their courage, strength, and bravery in dealing with this terrible disease. It was a night where only five drivers could take feature race victories. But on this night, there were far more true winners than just those who would cross the finish line first.

As USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Tour veteran Justin Grant and rising 600 Micro Sprint star Steven Snyder, Jr. descended upon Newmanstown’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway on Saturday night, both drivers entered looking to get a proverbial monkey off of their backs. For Grant, a consistent season of racing amongst the best midget drivers in the country had seen him garner four second-place finishes, but no victories as the calendar flipped to August. For Snyder, Jr., a breakout 2021 campaign had seen him take victories at multiple different racetracks. But despite always being one of the strongest cars in the field, Snyder, Jr. was still waiting to park his No. 21s in the Clyde’s victory lane. So perhaps it was only fitting that on this night, the wait would come to an end for both drivers, as Grant would outduel Emerson Axsom and Buddy Kofoid to pick up the checkered flag in the 40-lap USAC feature, while Snyder, Jr. would lead wire-to-wire to pick up his first Lanco win in the Hyper Racing Wingless 600 main event.

Every year, the Clyde Martin Memorial serves as one of the most prestigious and biggest races of the season, while also serving as one of the most crucial in the championship battle. The 2021 edition of the Clyde Martin Memorial Presented by Gold Rush Trailer Sales would be no different. Four 35-lap features for each of the weekly racing divisions would see a combination of thrills, spills, and championship implications in races which paid double points. But when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Chase Layser, Pete Skias, Toby Blumenshine, and Jesse Maurer were the ones standing in victory lane with trophies in hand, earning the right to be referred to as winners of the Clyde Martin Memorial.

If you had watched Daison Pursley compete on Friday and Saturday at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway without knowing any of his background, you would think that he was a seasoned veteran, with thousands upon thousands of laps around the progressively banked bullring. You never would have imagined that Pursley’s only experience at the Clyde was driving a USAC midget, and that that was the extent of his driving experience at any of the racetracks on the 2021 Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek calendar, if he had any experience at all. But after a week where the Locust Grove, OK native went to school competing at some of the best micro sprint tracks in the northeast, he took the field to school on Friday and Saturday at the Clyde, taking home victories in the $2,000-to-win Keizer Wheels Preliminary Night A-Main on Friday and in the $10,000-to-win Rodota Trucking and Excavating Finale on Saturday, giving him a grand total of $12,000 over both days.

At a fast, tight bullring such as the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, it oftentimes takes a driver who is willing to straddle the edge between control and chaos in order to pick up a victory. On a racetrack that featured a big cushion and produced even bigger excitement, no driver was able to walk the proverbial tightrope better than young hot shoe Daison Pursley. The Oklahoma “invader,” who entered the evening with prior experience driving a USAC midget at the speedway, was able to rip the top like no other en route to a dominating, wire-to-wire victory on Keizer Wheels Preliminary Night, bagging $2,000 for himself in the process and establishing himself as a clear favorite for Saturday night’s $10,000 prize. The win also put Pursley within striking distance for the overall Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek championship, as Colin White’s tumultuous night allowed closest challenger Christian Bruno to close the gap to six points entering the finale, with Pursley just 22 markers back in third.

It was a night of racing at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway which saw drivers be forced to race more than just their competitors, as inclement weather threatened the area for most of the early evening. But not even Mother Nature could move as fast as Jason Swavely, as he led the Hyper Racing 600 drivers across the finish line in a riveting 25-lapper that would conclude just before the skies opened up, ending the evening prematurely. The feature races for the 125/4 Strokes, 270s, and Skeet Craft Collision Sportsmans would be washed out, with those races slated to be made up at a to-be-determined date in the future.

Any fan knows that racing, particularly at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, is a game of inches. However, it may have come down to even less than that to decide the victor of Saturday night’s Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature. As Bret Cronrath pulled alongside of Clinton Hauser exiting turn 4, both drivers rushed toward head starter Mike Fry, who waved the twin checkers over what seemed to be a dead heat at the finish line. When the numbers popped up on the electronic scoring system, the margin of victory showed 0.001 seconds, the closest finish possible short of an exact tie. It was Hauser who had withstood the challenge by just that much to pick up his first victory of the season, while Cronrath would have to settle for the agonizingly close runner-up result.

On 4th-of-July-weekend races, it’s always easy to say that the fireworks going off above the racetrack will correlate to fireworks on the racetrack. Sometimes that proves to be true, while other times the racing doesn’t always live up to the excitement of the atmosphere. But ask just about any race fan who spent their 4th of July Sunday at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, and they’ll tell you that the excitement on the racetrack was simply unrivaled. The evening started with Mike Rutherford picking up his third 270 win of the season in a wild and chaotic 30-lap main event. Next, the wingless Hyper Racing 600s put in a convincing submission for race of the year, as Christian Bruno outdueled Steven Synder, Jr. in an epic battle for the victory. Then, T. J. Greve spoiled the party for Chase Layser, who had rallied from the back to the front and seemed destined for victory before losing power in turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, allowing Greve to rocket past for the 125/4 Stroke victory. Finally, Scott Neary turned in a dominant performance to pick up the win in the All Star Slingshots’ second appearance of the season.

Sometimes all it takes is one night to serve as a reminder that the old guard is still capable of getting the job done. For multiple-time track champions Mike Miller and Heath Hehnly in particular, it would be this night that they would find themselves back to a place they were more than familiar with. Miller followed up his third-place effort in the 125/4 Strokes two weekends prior with a riveting drive from fourth to the win in the 270 feature. Hehnly, meanwhile, would bypass Holden Eckman on a restart to take home his first win of the season in the Hyper Racing 600s. The Skeet Craft Collision Sportsman feature also saw a new winner in 2021, as Anthony Yerger finally turned weeks of consistent runs into a victory, taking advantage of a late issue for then-race-leader Charles Hellinger. In the 125/4 Stroke division, it would be Matt Fernsler getting his second victory of the season in dominating fashion.