Kenny Miller III Is USAC East Coast Sprint Star at Action Track USA

Drevicki & T. Buckwalter Take SpeedSTR & 600 Sprint Season Finales

Kutztown, PA (September 8)— Sunday’s season finale at Foley Cat Action Track USA—the Dick Tobias Classic presented by Belfor Property Restoration—had it all…solid car counts, a fast but nice and racey surface, and the excellent competition for which the speedway on the Kutztown Fairgrounds is known. And, because it was the final event of 2024 at Berks County’s #1 Bullring, it was only fitting that on this night, it was Miller Time…
Morgantown, PA’s Kenny Miller III registered his first USAC East Coast Sprint Car triumph at the track where he was the 2019 point champion in the 600 Sprint class. He needed a little bit of luck (good luck for him, but not for Briggs Danner) and a fast Weikel Sportswear No. 23m to notch his second win of the USAC E.C. Sprint Car campaign.
Current USAC E.C. point leader Steve Drevicki finished fifth in the Sprint Car feature, but captured his fifth career SpeedSTR victory—and first since 2020–in the 30 lap Dick Tobias Classic for that division.
Tim Buckwalter raced to his fourth win of the year in the nightcap, the 30 lapper for the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints.
Danner and Miller shared the front row for the start of the USAC E.C. Sprint Car main, with Danner dashing to the early lead. Miller and Christian Bruno scuffled for the runner-up spot while eighth-starting Carmen Perigo Jr. sliced his way to fourth position by the time lap five was scored.
When Danner caught the back of the field and began the process of lapping cars, the heavy traffic slowed his pace and permitted Miller to close the gap. Danner maintained a slim lead until the lapped traffic blocked Miller and allowed him to scoot away once again…until calamity struck its ugly head with six tours remaining.
Two of the slower cars got together as they battled for position and Danner’s No. 39 was bearing down on them. “I had to slow drastically so I didn’t run into them,” explained Danner afterward. “I thought I could catch my car and take off again, but I couldn’t and it came to a stop.”
Danner sat at the top of the banking in the middle of turns one and two as the caution flag waved. He had to restart behind the cars that remained on the lead lap, and Miller was the new leader.
Miller held serve over the final revolutions as Bruno, Perigo, Drevicki, and the resurgent Danner mixed it up for positions two through five. Blasting off turn four on the final trip around the clay, Danner rim rode the high groove in three-wide fashion with Perigo and Drevicki. He barely beat his foes to the finish line, claiming third spot behind the victorious Miller and runner-up Bruno. Perigo and Drevicki placed fourth and fifth.
“Whew, I’m out of breath,” smiled Miller in Weaknecht Archery Victory Lane. “Briggs is so darn good; he probably had us beat tonight until he had trouble over there. I don’t wish anyone bad luck, but I was kind of glad to see him sitting over there when the yellow came out. I was worried about Christian behind me, because he’s been really fast, too, but we had enough to hold him off tonight.”
Bruno and Perigo were heat race winners as 16 Sprint Car teams entered the event.
An impressive field of 23 All Pro SpeedSTRs signed in for Sunday competition—a season-high for the class that was plagued by rainouts in 2024.
Reading’s Steve Drevicki wrestled the top spot from Matt Janisch on the fifth circuit. Drevicki, driving a Honda powered No. 17 and making his first SpeedSTR start of the season, led the rest of the way but it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for the three-time champion of the USAC E.C. Sprint Series.
Briggs Danner soared into second place on the ninth lap and this year’s SpeedSTR point champ, Tim Buckwalter, zipped into third prior to the halfway mark of the 30 lapper. Danner hounded Drevicki for several circuits, but could not get quite close enough to make a move for the lead.
With ten to go, Drevicki’s job became a little easier because Buckwalter began throwing some haymaker slide jobs on Danner in an attempt to snare the runner-up position. Their battle enabled Drevicki to motor away to a comfortable advantage. He recorded the first SpeedSTR win for the new Honda engine, crossing the stripe by nearly three-quarters of a second over Danner, who nipped Buckwalter for runner-up honors. A late race charge propelled Bobby Butler to fourth and Janisch wound up fifth.
Mike Bednar, Janisch, and Dan Shumaker captured the SpeedSTR heat race wins.
The Hyper Racing 600 Sprints may have run last but, as is typically the case at Action Track USA, they were certainly not “least”.
Their 30 lap portion of the Dick Tobias Classic presented by Belfor Property Restoration saw Aidan Donaldson jump on top at the outset and he set the pace for the first ten revolutions. Tim Buckwalter and Fred Heinly diced for second spot with Buckwalter, from Douglassville, PA, finally securing the position on lap four.
Buckwalter then stalked Donaldson for the next seven tours before making his bid for the lead on the 11th trip around the oval. He went to the bottom to pass Donaldson, then tried to run away from the pack as Donaldson, Connor Gross, Colin White, and Christian Bruno waged war for the runner-up slot. Gross maneuvered his way into second, then snookered Buckwalter (Tim’s word for it) on a restart to snatch the lead at the halfway point. Gross went on to lead the next 11 laps with Buckwalter harassing him every inch of the way.
With four to go, Buckwalter executed a slider in three and four, squeezing up in front of Gross as they accelerated off turn four. But Gross was prepared for that move, and he darted to the inside lane of the front stretch to regain the top spot. But now Buckwalter had a run on the high side, and he powered his way around Gross’ No. 77, gassing his mount back to the lead. Tim kept his 600cc Performance, Greth Racing No. 71 out front for the final frantic laps as Gross, White, and a fast-closing James Roselli fought for second through fourth positions.
At the checkered, it was Buckwalter scoring his fourth win of the 600 Sprint season. Gross beat White to the stripe by a nose to finish second. Roselli wound up fourth and Kyle Lick completed the top five.
Heat winners for the 48 car field of 600’s included White, Buckwalter, Lick, Gross, and Tyler Lindsay. Zack Weisenfluh and Connor Mirabelli won the pair of Last Chance Qualifiers.

In the afternoon portion of the season-ending program, Cody Siegel from Bloomsburg, PA, captured the 25 lap feature for the winged 270cc Micro Sprints, while Dylan Hoch recorded his fourth victory of the year in the All Star Slingshot 20 lap main. New Jersey’s Hannah Kormann notched her first Action Track USA triumph by holding off Hailey Eroh in the Junior Slingshot feature.
Siegel started second but outgunned Jonah Meck to lead lap one. Siegel would go on to lead every trip around the tricky daytime surface to record his first-ever win at Berks County’s #1 Bullring located on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
Louden Reimert hassled Siegel until his No. 88x broke with 11 complete. Alex Reinsmith became the new runner-up but could not keep pace with the high flying Siegel. Tyler Puterbaugh and Meck fought a great battle for third with Puterbaugh eventually securing the spot.
At the finish, it was Siegel winning handily over Reinsmith, with Puterbaugh, Meck, and Jack Redcay completing the top five.
2024 All Star Slingshot point champ Dylan Hoch, from nearby Mertztown, owes his girlfriend a nice dinner. She picked the pole for him in the redraw, and Hoch capitalized on his good fortune by romping to victory in the 20 lapper.
A hot and heavy, race-long battle for second developed among Patrick Weiss, Dave Carraghan, Tyler Hoch, and Zack Gerber. At one point, on a restart with seven circuits remaining, Weiss, T. Hoch, and Gerber went three wide for the position as they raced off turn two and motored onto the backstretch. Carraghan saw a sliver of daylight on the bottom and went under the threesome to claim the runner-up slot.
Weiss and Carraghan diced for second during the final laps with Weiss just nipping the No. 3 at the finish line. The top five consisted of winner Dylan Hoch, Weiss, Carraghan, Daniel Betz, and Amanda Angstadt.
The victory was the 17th of Dylan Hoch’s career at Action Track USA, moving him within two of all-time Slingshot win leader Brett Bieber.
Carney’s Point, NJ resident Hannah Kormann led all the way to win the Junior Slingshot feature. But it wasn’t easy, as Hailey Eroh hounded the leader for each of the 15 trips around the clay, and numerous caution flags added to Kormann’s worries. But her No. 16k was terrific on each restart, taking off and clearing Eroh’s No. 57.
Charlie Moore provided some comfort for Kormann, as he closed in and scuffled with Eroh for the runner-up position. At the finish, it was Kormann, the daughter of Modified drive Eric Kormann, winning her very first feature at the Berks County oval. Eroh finished second with Moore claiming the final spot on the podium. Billy Pauch III and Anna Strachko rounded out the top five.
RESULTS:
USAC East Coast Sprint Car Feature, 30 laps: 1.Kenny Miller III, 2.Christian Bruno, 3.Briggs Danner, 4.Carmen Perigo, 5.Steve Drevicki, 6.Jared Kreider, 7.Bruce Buckwalter, 8.Daulton Herrick, 9.Jason Cherry, 10.Mike Smith, 11.Heidi Hedin, 12.Wesley Gomez, 13.Thomas Radivoy 14.Gary Huston, 15.Cameron Smith, 16.Ed Akin.

All Pro SpeedSTR Feature, 30 laps: 1.Steve Drevicki, 2.Briggs Danner, 3.Tim Buckwalter, 4.Bobby Butler, 5.Matt Janisch, 6.Cole Stangle, 7.Mike Bednar, 8.Dustin Morris, 9.Sammy Martz Jr., 10.Dan Shumaker, 11.Steve Young, 12.Jax Yohn, 13.Scott Houdeshell, 14.Shea Wills, 15.Nate Shumaker, 16.Tyler Kehs, 17.Cale Zangli, 18.Kyle Herve, 19.Matt Chowns, 20.Kody Arment, 21.Gary Wagner, 22.Austin Graby. DNS: Paulie Hartwig III.

Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Feature, 30 laps: 1.Tim Buckwalter, 2.Connor Gross, 3.Colin White, 4.James Roselli, 5.Kyle Lick, 6.Dakota Barlet, 7.Danny Buccafusca, 8.Fred Heinly 9.Billy Koch, 10.Jasper Ziegafuse, 11.Julian Rexrode, 12.Lukas Kostic, 13.Michael Nolf, 14.Jarid Kunkle, 15.Gabe Gerber, 16.Aidan Donaldson, 17.Zach Curtis, 18.Tyler Lindsay, 19.Teddy Reed, 20.Christopher Tittle, 21.Christian Bruno, 22.Connor Mirabelli, 23.Ryan Rochelle, 24.Joe Nemeth, 25.Weston Doklan, 26.Sammy Martz Jr., 27.Dallas Damask, 28.Zack Weisenfluh, 29.Jake Fisher.
DNQ: Cole Gerber, Jared Lilly, Richie Baker, Wayne Scott, Colton Colaluce, Geordan Marrero, Evan Nolf, Jase Smith, Jacob Severn, Adrianna Delliponti, Logan Mears, Josh Patterson, Korey Inglin, Jacob Stitzel, Jimmy Glenn, John Barnett, Jace Marshall, Kris McKeon, Vince Gueci.

270cc Micro Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Cody Siegel, 2.Alex Reinsmith, 3.Tyler Puterbaugh, 4.Jonah Meck, 5.Jack Redcay, 6.William Mohring, 7.Chase Ziegafuse, 8.Clinton Hauser, 9.Jacob Neff, 10.Alyson Godusky, 11.Chason Hauck, 12.Mark Kemp, 13.Johnny Roberts, 14.Louden Reimert, 15.Matt Bangs, 16.Marshall Labuda, 17.Isaac Graby, 18.Cayden Forsythe.

All Star Slingshots, 20 laps: 1.Dylan Hoch, 2.Patrick Weiss, 3.Dave Carraghan, 4.Daniel Betz, 5.Amanda Angstadt, 6.Garrett Chillot, 7.Danny Buccafusca, 8.Brett Bieber, 9.Troy Kline, 10.Zack Gerber, 11.Jon Imhoff, 12.Nathan Abrahims, 13.Tyler Hoch, 14.Shawn Dengler, 15.Tyler Lilick, 16.Austin Kroboth, 17.Matthew Laubach, 18.Colton Lineman, 19.Darian Danyluk, 20.Tyler Ulsh, 21.Gavin Danner. DNS: Luke McCloskey.

Junior Slingshots, 15 laps: 1.Hannah Kormann, 2.Hailey Eroh, 3.Charlie Moore, 4.Billy Pauch III, 5.Anna Strachko, 6.Gavin Wolfe, 7.Landon McNichol, 8.Carter Mullins, 9.Colton Berndt, 10.Frank Fritzinger, 11.Brandon Lilick.