Carraghan & Inglin Notch Kutztown Fair Victories On August 12 At Action Track USA Chase Schott Wins Junior Slingshot Main; Kerry Meitzler Is Vintage Car Victor

Carraghan & Inglin Notch Kutztown Fair Victories On August 12 At Action Track USA
Chase Schott Wins Junior Slingshot Main; Kerry Meitzler Is Vintage Car Victor

Kutztown PA, August 12 — Dave Carraghan makes no secret about his belief that his “significant other”, Lisa Doddy, is his good luck charm. On Thursday night at the Kutztown Fair, in the All Star Slingshot Speedweek opener, Lisa just might have been the key to Carraghan’s victory.

The Emmaus, PA chauffeur drove to a wire-to-wire triumph at Championship Energy Action Track USA in the 25 lap main event for the All Star Slingers. Joining Carraghan in Weaknecht Archery Victory Lane were Korey Inglin (who emerged victorious in the first race ever run at Action Track USA by the Xcel 600 Modifieds), Chase Schott (Junior Slingshots), and Kerry Meitzler (Vintage Stock Cars).

The All Star Slingshots will return on Sunday, August 15, in a mega-card that features the Dick Tobias Classic for the All Pro SpeedSTRs–a 75 lapper that will pay the winner a cool $5,000–along with the rained out Fair Week National for the Hyper Racing/EVO Injection 600 Sprints–a 40 lap race in which the winner will pocket $1,000. The Fair Week National for the 600 Sprints was rained out on Wednesday, August 11.

There was no rain on Thursday, August 12, and Dave Carraghan utilized a third place finish in his heat race to make the redraw that would determine his starting position in the 25 lap feature for the All Star Slingshots. And that is when Lisa Doddy, his girlfriend, came through by picking the pole for her man.

Carraghan then led start to finish in a race that was slowed by caution only one time, with just five circuits remaining. The restart was no problem for the driver of the Zgura’s Concrete/ Walbert Avenue Auto Service/ Red Robin No. 3, as Carraghan dashed away from runner-up Tyler Ulsh, who had his hands full with a hard charging Scott Neary. With two to go, Neary slipped past Ulsh for second. While he closed in on the race leader over the final two tours, it was a case of “too little, too late” for the defending World Champion of the Slingshots. Carraghan roared to the win over Neary by less than a half-second, with Ulsh hanging on for third. Shelby McLaughlin finished fourth and Kyle Herve completed the top five.

Heat race victories were recorded by Sam Neary, Brett Bieber, and Scott Neary. A total of 27 All Star Slingshots signed in for competition.

The inaugural race for the Xcel 600 Modifieds at Action Track USA was a good one, as 34 entries took part in very competitive heats, a B-Main, and a 20 lap main event.

When the checkered flag waved, it was Korey Inglin registering the victory. Inglin made a power move on the outside of early pace setter Ray Gradwell to snare the top spot on a lap six restart. Inglin’s No. 2B then waltzed away to commanding leads after each of the yellow flags that dotted the 20 lapper. Behind him, however, the action was hot and heavy.

Gradwell led the first five trips around the high banked oval, with Tyler Bartik, Inglin, and Jon Josko nipping at his heels while trading the second, third, and fourth positions. After Inglin captured the lead and ran away, Gradwell battled with Josko, Justin Schraden, and a high flying Sam Scicchitano, who made his presence known inside the top five just after the halfway mark of the feature.

Scicchitano grabbed third with five to go, then wrestled second from Gradwell on a restart with three circuits remaining. Inglin, quickly checked out on that restart, though, and gassed to the big win over Scicchitano, Schraden, Gradwell, and Josko.

Four heats were run for the Xcel Mods, with wins going to Scicchitano, Craig Whitmoyer, Inglin, and Josh Bewley. Geoffrey Sutton captured the B-Main victory.

Chase Zimmer bolted from the pole of the Junior Slingshot feature to lead the first five laps while Chase Schott and Louie Horvath diced for second. On the fourth trip around the clay, Schott muscled his way past Horvath and brought eighth-starting Ryan Rochelle with him.

A restart on lap six put Schott on the outside of the front row, next to Zimmer, and Chase put the pedal to the metal as the green reappeared, edging ahead of Zimmer as they drag-raced down the backstretch. Schott then cruised to a 2.5-second victory over Zimmer, who held off numerous challenges from Rochelle during the second half of the race. Rochelle, making his first-ever start at Action Track USA, wound up an impressive third with Brayden Morrison an equally impressive fourth and Horvath raced home in fifth.

Kutztown’s own Kerry Meitzler, whose family built the dirt track (in the mid-1990’s) that became Action Track USA, started fifth in a seven-car field of Vintage Stock Cars. Meitzler threaded his way forward, taking the lead from Joe Medaglia and going on to win the 15 lap exhibition race.

Sunday’s Dick Tobias Classic begins with warm ups at 6:15 p.m. The 75 lapper for the Speedway Entertainment All Pro SpeedSTRs, powered by VP Racing Fuels, will pay $5,000 to the winner. Wednesday’s rain out pushed the Fair Nationals for the Hyper Racing/EVO Injection 600 Sprints to Sunday, too, setting up two big events to end the weekend. The All Star Slingshots are also on Sunday’s menu.

All of the details on Sunday’s event can be found at www.actiontrackusa.com and at Facebook.com/Action Track USA.

RESULTS:
All Star Slingshots, 25 laps: 1.Dave Carraghan, 2.Scott Neary, 3.Tyler Ulsh, 4.Shelby McLaughlin, 5.Kyle Herve, 6.Brett Bieber, 7.Sam Neary, 8.Jax Yohn, 9.Taylor Mills, 10.Amanda Angstadt, 11.Ryan Raidline, 12.James Benz, 13.James Hendricks, 14.Nate Freed, 15.Josh Patterson, 16.Tucker Jones, 17.Andrew Turpin, 18.Gavin Danner, 19.Matt Keifert, 20.Lucas Pittenger, 21.Colton Lineman, 22.Charlene Benz, 23.Mason Pittenger, 24.Slade Darrah, 25.Chase Bixler. DNS: Josh Roth; Thomas Nettleship.

Xcel 600 Modifieds, 20 laps: 1.Korey Inglin, 2.Sam Scicchitano, 3.Justin Schraden, 4.Ray Gradwell, 5.Jon Josko, 6.Josh Bewley, 7.Josh Pepe, 8.Craig Whitmoyer, 9.Kenny Harris, 10.Richie Hitzler, 11.Jeremy Guistwite, 12.Bryce Smith, 13.Geoffrey Sutton, 14.Tyler Bartik, 15.Thomas Prychika, 16.Seth Schnoke, 17.Ty Hoke, 18.Hunter Diehl, 19.Brandon Graner, 20.Chad Kreiser, 21.Kevin McGinty, 22.Eric Whitby, 23.Tim Bauer, 24.Austin Daniels.

Junior Slingshots, 20 laps: 1.Chase Schott, 2.Chase Zimmer, 3.Ryan Rochelle, 4.Brayden Morrison, 5.Louie Horvath, 6.Dylan Hahn, 7.Mason Lineman, 8.Daniel Batz, 9.Jaden Pierce, 10.Jase Smith, 11.Bobby Klein, 12.Austin Kroboth.

Vintage Stock Cars, 15 laps: 1.Kerry Meitzler, 2.Joe Medaglia.