Stangle Survives For SpeedSTR Win; Buckwalter & Snyder Score in 600’s at Action Track USA

Kutztown, PA (July 31)— Cole Stangle just wanted to finish a SpeedSTR feature; a top three or top five would be icing on the cake. To paraphrase the old saying, “he got his cake, and he got to eat it, too.”
Stangle finally shed his early season mechanical woes in a big way, leading the entire 30 laps to win his first-ever SpeedSTR main at Foley Cat Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
The regularly scheduled 25 lapper for the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints went to Tim Buckwalter. The victory, which came on his son Aidan’s seventh birthday, was the 22nd of his career at Action Track USA, and his second of the season. Buckwalter’s 22 victories lead all drivers in the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint class at Berks County’s No. 1 bullring.
The postponed Ronnie Tobias Memorial for the 600 Sprints, rained out on June 5, was finally put to rest on July 31. Winning the prestigious event was none other than Steven Snyder Jr. from Rising Sun Maryland. The victory pushed Snyder a bit closer to Buckwalter in all-time 600 wins at Foley Cat Action Track USA. Snyder is now ten triumphs behind the Douglassville, PA wheel-twister.
Dylan Hoch captured his second All Star Slingshot victory of the campaign, as did Matthew Laubach in the Junior Slingshot main.
Attention now turns to Kutztown Fair Week, with racing slated to take place on Tuesday, August 6; Wednesday, August 7; Friday, August 9; and Saturday, August 10.
On Tuesday evening, there will be on-track activity for the All Star and Junior Slingshots (the first races of Slingshot Speedweek), Xcel 600 Modifieds, and Vintage Modifieds.
Wednesday of Fair Week will be highlighted by the appearance of the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. Joining them will be the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints.
Friday night will be a real “wing ding” as the 600 Sprints compete with wings bolted to the top of their roll cages. They will be joined by the winged 270cc Micro Sprints, along with the All Star and Junior Slingshots in another Speedweek event.
Saturday is the Mark Naftzinger/ Daniel Boone 153 Stock Car Race for Enduro style stock cars.
On Wednesday, July 31, Cole Stangle of Neshanic Station, NJ, darted past Tyler Kehs to lead the 30 lap affair. With Stangle running away from the field, a battle worth the price of admission was developing between Daniel Schumaker and Matt Janisch. Schumaker and Janisch waged war for the runner up spot for the final 20 circuits, trading passes and slide jobs again and again in a crowd pleasing duel for second place money. Suddenly, as they were scuffling with one another, they were also gaining significant ground on the race leader. Stangle’s mount was slowing noticeably, and he was doing all he could to make his No. 27 as wide as possible to keep Janisch and Schumaker behind him.
At the finish, Stangle survived to win his initial SpeedSTR feature, with Janisch and Schumaker hot on his heels as they took the checkered flag. Dustin Morris ran a steady race inside the top five, placing fourth at the end over a fast closing Billy Pauch Sr.
In the regularly scheduled Hyper Racing 600 Sprint feature, Tim Buckwalter snatched the top spot from Jake Fisher on the second trip around the clay. By lap four, Christian Bruno had moved from his eighth starting spot to run second. Bruno threw everything he had at Buckwalter, but the Barry & Cheryl Greth, 600cc Performance No. 71 was too strong and Buckwalter repelled each of Bruno’s attacks.
With seven to go, Steven Snyder Jr. motored into third. He eventually zipped past Bruno for second. While he kept Buckwalter in sight, Snyder could not offer a serious challenge. He followed Buckwalter across the finish line with Bruno, point leader Connor Gross, and Colin White rounding out the top five.
The nightcap, the annual Ronnie Tobias Memorial that was postponed by rain on June 5, also paid tribute to the late Joe Kay. The Pipersville, PA driver was killed in a tragic offroad accident on Memorial Day weekend. His No. 12 was driven on Wednesday by good friend Ryan Taylor, who paced the field while the pole position was left open in memory of Kay.
The original start saw the middle of the pack get jammed up with Tim Buckwalter shoved into the wall and flipping by the flagstand. Buckwalter was unhurt, but knocked out of the race, along with contenders Kyle Lick and Christian Bruno. ‘
That would be the only stoppage of the 25 lapper, as Snyder bolted into the top spot on the second attempt, then flew to the triumph in a green-to-checker romp.
The best battle in this one was the contest for runner-up honors, as Sammy Martz Jr. and Aidan Donaldson threw haymakers at one another for almost the entire distance. Trading slide jobs at both ends of the clay oval, the fight for the bridesmaid position went down to the final lap with Martz prevailing, but finishing four seconds behind Snyder, who registered his 12th career win at the speedway located on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
Martz notched his best career Kutztown finish with a hard earned runner-up effort, while Donaldson was a close third. Colin White and James Roselli finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Mertztown, PA’s Dylan Hoch capitalized on a spin by race leader Dave Carraghan with just seven tours remaining in the All Star Slingshot feature. With Carraghan just slightly ahead of Chase Schott and Hoch and all three fighting hard on the bottom of turns one and two, there was contact that resulted in Carraghan’s No. 3 going around before they got to the backstretch.
On the restart, Schott was now in front but Hoch roared past him with five to go and went on to win his second of the season over Schott, Tyler Hoch, Patrick Weiss, and Brett Bieber.
Hellertown, PA racer Matthew Laubach started on the pole and led every lap of the Junior Slingshot main. Laubach won his second of the season by a few car lengths over Carter Mullins, Billy Pauch III, point leader Landon McNichol, and Hannah Kormann.
RESULTS:
All Pro SpeedSTRs, 30 laps: 1.Cole Stangle, 2.Matt Janisch, 3.Daniel Schumaker,.Dustin Morris, 5.Billy Pauch Sr., 6.Bobby Butler, 7.Tyler Kehs, 8.Paulie Hartwig III, 9.Kyle Herve, 10.Shea Wills, 11.Jax Yohn, 12.Cale Zangli, 13.Scott Houdeshell, 14.Tim Buckwalter, 15.Gary Wagner, 16.Billy Pauch Jr., 17.Steve Young, 18.Matt Chowns, 19.Sammy Martz Jr.

Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, 25 laps: 1.Tim Buckwalter, 2.Steven Snyder Jr., 3.Christian Bruno, 4.Connor Gross, 5.Colin White, 6.Zack Weisenfluh, 7.Preston Lattomus, 8.Kyle Lick, 9.Dominic Schmidt, 10.Gunnar Pio, 11.James Roselli, 12.Cole Dewease, 13.Nate Freed, 14.Aidan Donaldson, 15.Joe Nemeth, 16.Matt Warner, 17.Vincent Gueci, 18.Connor Mirabelli, 19.Jacob Severn, 20.Gabe Gerber, 21.Anthony Tramontana, 22.Jasper Ziegafuse, 23.Dylan Hahn, 24.Danny Buccafusca, 25.Jake Fisher, 26.Craig Whitmoyer, 27.Pat Bealer, 28.Cole Gerber, 29.Shelby McLaughlin.
DNQ: Richie Hartman, Dan Lane, Dan Leaper, Ryan Taylor, Tyler Henry, Tyler Lindsay, Kayden Barker, Luke Hess, Sammy Martz Jr., Billy Koch, Dakota Barlet, Ryan Rochelle, Weston Doklan, John Barnett, Richie Baker, Jacob Homnick, JR McCutchen, Jarid Kunkle.

Ronnie Tobias Memorial for 600 Sprints (Postponed from June 5): 1.Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Sammy Martz Jr., 3.Aidan Donaldson, 4.Colin White, 5.James Roselli, 6.Connor Gross, 7.Shelby McLaughlin, 8.Zack Weisenfluh, 9.Billy Koch, 10.Cole Dewease, 11.Dan Lane, 12.Tyler Lindsay, 13.Tyler Henry, 14.Ryan Rochelle, 15.Weston Doklan, 16.Richie Baker, 17.Jarid Kunkle, 18.Christian Bruno, 19.Ryan Taylor, 20.Tim Buckwalter, 21.Kyle Lick. DNS: Dylan Hahn, Dylan Smith, Zack Bealer, Kenny Miller III, Briggs Danner.
DNQ: Sonny Tete, Lukas Kostic, Craig Whitmoyer, Payton Knecht, Dakota Barlet, Jake Fisher, Joe Nemeth, Jared Lilly.

All Star Slingshots, 20 laps: 1.Dylan Hoch, 2.Chase Schott, 3.Tyler Hoch, 4.Patrick Weiss, 5.Brett Bieber, 6.Tyler Lilick, 7.Amanda Angstadt, 8.Brianna Snyder, 9.Dave Carraghan, 10.Austin Kroboth, 11.Tom Mawson, 12.Tyler Ulsh, 13.Daniel Betz, 14.Shawn Dengler, 15.Luke McCloskey, 16.Mason Lineman. DNS: Brad Arnold, Garrett Chillot, Rick Zondlo.

Junior Slingshots, 15 laps: 1.Matthew Laubach, 2.Carter Mullins, 3.Billy Pauch III, 4.Landon McNichol, 5.Hannah Kormann, 6.Brandon Lilick, 7.Gage Marrero, 8.Jon Severn, 9.Gavin Marrero, 10.Lily Esterly, 11.Colton Henry, 12.Kaleb Stofflet, 13.Carter Parsons.