Gular Rumbles to Action Track USA STSS Mod Triumph

Kutztown, PA (August 1)— The naysayers were plentiful, but Championship Energy Action Track USA co-owners Rich Tobias and Doug Rose, as happens quite often, had the last laugh once again.
Modifieds at Kutztown? “No way,” shouted the keyboard warriors, who were quick to be negative about the August 1 STSS Modified event scheduled for Championship Energy Acton Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
Not only were Tobias and Rose certain that the Modifieds could be successful on the banked one-fifth mile layout, but so was STSS owner/promoter Brett Deyo. He worked out a deal to bring his series to Berks County’s baddest bullring, and they would compete in heat races, consolations, and a 50 lap feature!
The results show that Mike Gular was victorious, and proof that one should never, ever doubt the promotional team of Tobias, Rose, and Deyo. The 50 lapper was not just highly entertaining and competitive, but there was only ONE CAUTION period in that entire A-Main!
Colin White, from Clark Summit, PA, recorded his first Action Track USA triumph of the year in the companion Hyper Racing 600 Sprint feature. White held off a charging Christian Bruno to win by inches in the evening’s nightcap.
Championship Energy Action Track USA now gears up for a big week of motorized mayhem, as the annual Kutztown Fair takes place during the first full week of August. On Tuesday, August 8, the track will host the All Star and Junior Slingshots along with the Xcel 600 Modifieds and Vintage Cars. This will be the first race of Slingshot Speedweek.
On Wednesday, August 9, the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, presented by Toyota, will make its Action Track USA debut. The 600 Sprints are also on the menu as Cannon McIntosh, Zach Daum, teen sensation Jade Avedisian, and many more cars and stars of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series visit the Berks County oval as part of Appalachian Midget Week.
Friday, August 11, will mark another first time event for Action Track USA, as the 600 Sprints will race with wings bolted to the top of their roll cages. Joining the winged 600’s will be the winged 270cc Micro Sprints, plus the All Star and Junior Slingshots in another Slingshot Speedweek event.
And on Saturday, August 12, the annual Naftzinger Memorial/ Daniel Boone 153 takes center stage. The Enduro style cars will circle the speedway in memory of Mark Naftzinger and in search of the checkered flag.
Details on these and all the upcoming events can be found at www.actiontrackusa.com, and also at Facebook.com/Action Track USA.
The mighty Modifieds of the Short Track Super Series thrilled the large crowd who turned out to witness the inaugural appearance of the mods at Action Track USA. And they left wanting more…much more of the intensely insane wheel-twisting action they had just occurred.
Bobby Hackel IV, from East Greenbush NY, started on the pole and led 3/4 of a lap before he over-rotated in turns three and four. Gular was right behind Hackel and could not avoid contact with Danny Bouc scooting under both of them to grab the top spot. Gular and Bouc then jousted for the lead as Hackel and a very fast Corey Cormier battled for third.
The one and only yellow flag of the event was waved with nine circuits in the books. It was for a two-car spin exiting turn two, and it would be the lone chance for the drivers to relax a bit in the 50 lap main.
Gular, from Boyertown, PA took over on lap ten after a wheel-banging confrontation with Bouc and soon Cormier stormed into the runner-up slot. He caught Gular at the halfway mark and a slide fest ensued for the number one position. Cormier was out front on lap 31 but Gular reclaimed the point with 15 to go. The leaders got held up when they caught the back of the pack as first Cormier, then Gular, could not find a way around the slower cars of Ajay Potrzebowski and Rick Laubach, who were fighting one another for position.
Gular stalked the duo with Cormier eventually falling back a bit. Matt Stangle came on late in the race to slip by Hackel for third. Hackel had the car to watch all night long as he twisted his No. 97 hard into the corners, driving off his right-rear tire and hiking the left-front tire high in the air, carrying the donut nearly all the way around the track. Ryan Krachun ran a good race and finished fifth.
Gular’s victory was worth $5,000.
Before the races began, it was decided to start 16 cars in the feature, with the first 16 non-qualifiers getting a B-Main that paid $1,000-to-win.
Kevin Hirthler, from Green Lane, PA, jumped out front early in the B and led all the way to win it handily. Joe Funk, who flipped and caught fire in the consi, made hasty repairs and came out for the B-Main, where he charged from the back to finish second. Meme DeSantis, Brett Gilmore, and Nathan Horn made up the top five when the checkered waved after 12 trips around the racy, progressively banked oval.
The Hyper Racing 600 Sprints were not about to be outdone on Tuesday, and they presented another instant classic in their 25 lap feature race.
It took four tries to get one lap completed, but then the 600’s settled down and did some racing. Colin White started fifth, but the attrition provided by the original attempts to get things started propelled him to second pretty quickly.
White grabbed the top spot on lap two while 11th starting Christian Bruno, the point leader and defending champion of this division, sliced his way into second.
White and Bruno threw some haymakers at each other in the early laps. Billy Koch started 14th on the original grid, but he found the inside groove to his liking in the opening tours, and he used that line to pass his way to third.
Much of the 25 lapper had White leading with Koch right behind the
leaders. Bruno was rippin’ the lip in third and fending off the challenges of Steven Snyder Jr.
With just one lap left to run, Bruno figured he’d “just go for it” and sailed into turn one. He drew closer to the leader and utilized similar strategy in three and four, almost sweeping to the outside and pulling even with White. Colin bobbled a bit off turn four as the talented pair of throttle-jockeys headed for the white flag, but he did not make a similar mistake on the final revolution. White won the drag race to the checkered by less than a foot over Bruno, with Koch scoring a well deserved podium finish by placing third. Snyder, who was coming off a huge Terry Sprague Memorial victory at Southern Illinois Speedway just two days earlier, finished fourth and Preston Lattomus wound up fifth.
An amazing field of 50 entered the 600 Sprint portion of the program.
RESULTS:
STSS Modified Feature, 50 laps: 1.Mike Gular, 2.Corey Cormier, 3.Matt Stangle, 4.Bobby Haeckel IV, 5.Ryan Krachun, 6.Billy Pauch Jr., 7.Duane Howard, 8.Jeff Strunk, 9.Danny Bouc, 10.Frank Cozze, 11.Brian Hirthler, 12.Jimmy Leiby, 13.Ajay Potrzebowski II, 14.Rick Laubach, 15.Justin Grim, 16.Geoff Quackenbush.
STSS Modified Non-Qualifiers B-Main, 12 laps: 1.Kevin Hirthler, 2.Joe Funk, 3.Meme DeSantis, 4.Brett Gilmore, 5.Nathan Horn, 6.Joel Smith.