Super Matt Squeaks By Gular To Win STSS Thriller at Action Track USA
Kyle Lick Claims Victory in 600 Sprint Opener
Kutztown, PA (May 27)— It may have taken him until the final few feet—literally—to get the lead, but Savannah, NY’s Matt Sheppard pushed the nose of his No. 9S ahead of Mike Gular just before they crossed the stripe to win the STSS NJ Quality Drywall South Region event at Kutztown’s Action Track USA on Tuesday night.
Sheppard became the third different winner in three STSS races at the Berks County oval, joining Gular (2023) and Matt Williamson (2024).
Kyle Lick streaked to victory in the Hyper Racing/ EVO Injection 600 Sprint A-main as the track located on the Kutztown Fairgrounds finally opened its 2025 season after three consecutive rain outs.
Cole Stangle and Gular led the field to green as the 50 lap Berks County Brawl got underway. Throttling off the turn four banking on the seventh tour, Gular blasted by Stangle to grab the top spot.
Brandon Grosso was on the move early, working past Bobby Hackel for fourth, then challenging—and passing—Anthony Perrego for third. But he didn’t stop there; ducking under C. Stangle for second after Stangle got crossed up while navigating turns three and four on the 14th circuit.
One revolution later, seventh-starting Sheppard took over the third position. Grosso and Gular scuffled for the lead before Gular broke away, leaving Grosso to deal with the fast closing Sheppard.
While Gular danced away to a comfortable advantage, Grosso and Sheppard went side-by-side for the runner-up slot and Alex Yankowski, who started tenth, waged an entertaining battle with Alex Payne for the fourth position.
A few well-timed cautions, flying just as Gular caught the back of the pack, permitted the leader to race free from lapped traffic. The second of these situations occurred on lap 38, at which point Billy Pauch Jr., in the Breitenstein Motorsports No. 14, broke into the top four from his initial starting spot of 12th.
On the restart, Payne made a daring move, zipping between Pauch and Grosso to snatch third.
As the laps clicked off and the race wound its way to conclusion, Gular went into conservative mode, protecting the bottom of the clay but seemingly stuck behind the slower car of Paul Mancini. Mancini was glued to the bottom, holding his line, and Gular decided to follow him. That decision allowed Sheppard to close in quickly, and the final few frantic circuits had the huge crowd holding its collective breath as “Super Matt” ate up the gap between himself and the leader. On the final rapid revolution, with Gular committed to following Mancini in the low groove, Sheppard rolled the top in three and four. He beat Gular to the checkered flag by a scant 0.138 seconds for his first triumph of the 2025 STSS campaign.
“What a crazy race!” Sheppard said afterward. “I tried to make that middle to top (groove) work a few times during the race. It seemed like if you could bounce through it, it was good.
“He (Gular) committed to the bottom and the lap car definitely jammed him up. I said, ‘I’ve got one shot here’ and I got lucky. It was just enough to beat him to the line.”
A disappointed Gular, from Harleysville, PA, took home second place pay with Canandaigua, NY’s Payne running a solid race to finish third. Anthony Perrego, from Walden, NY wound up fourth and Grosso, who hails from Montgomery, NJ, completed the top five.
Heat wins for the 30 car field went to Gular, Sheppard, Payne, and Danny Bouc, who suffered an unfortunate rollover in the A-main.
Collecting $1,000 for his victory in the Rocky 20 B-main was Schnecksville, PA resident Tanner Van Doren. The young charger decided to keep the cash rather than trade it for a starting spot in the 50 lap Berks County Brawl.
Oley, PA’s Louden Reimert was the Hot Lap Hero, setting quick time at 11.176 seconds.
Forty-nine entries were filed for the Hyper Racing/EVO Injection 600 Sprint portion of the program. Connor Mirabelli jumped to the lead as the green waved to begin the 25 lapper. Polesitter Chase Wehr charged back to the point on lap three.
Nate Freed, who started on the outside of row three, roared into the runner-up spot on the fourth tour, but eyes were on 12th starting Kyle Lick as he flew into fourth by the time five trips around the clay were completed.
Freed was the new leader after a restart on lap six, and it wasn’t long before Lick was chasing him. Lehighton’s Lick hounded Freed for five circuits before he used the turn four banking to rocket to the top spot as lap 11 was scored.
Steering Zach Light’s 600cc Performance No. 11z, Lick proceeded to run away and hide from his pursuers, opening up a big lead over Freed, who had to defend his position from some of the best in the business who were scrambling behind him. Briggs Danner, Connor Gross, Tim Buckwalter, Steven Snyder Jr., defending point champion Colin White, and Kenny Miller III all took turns jousting for a spot in the top five during the second half of the race. It was intense competition among this pack as the laps clicked off and they swapped positions at both ends of the speedway.
At the finish, Lick crossed the stripe with a gap of 1 1/4 seconds over Freed, who notched his best ever Action Track USA result with a second place effort. Danner ended up third with Snyder and Gross finishing fourth and fifth.
Berks County’s Baddest Bullring is back in action on Wednesday, June 4, with the running of the 13th Annual Ronnie Tobias Memorial. The racing menu included the All Pro SpeedSTRs, the Hyper Racing/EVO Injection 600 Sprints, along with Super National events for the All Star and Junior Slingshots.
Pit gates open at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, while grandstand gates swing open at 5:00. Warm-ups get underway at 6:15.
RESULTS:
STSS Modifieds, 50 laps: 1.Matt Sheppard, 2.Mike Gular, 3.Alex Payne, 4.Anthony Perrego, 5.Brandon Grosso, 6.Alex Yankowski, 7.Billy Pauch Jr., 8.Ryan Godown, 9.Cale Ross, 10.Louden Reimert, 11.Logan Watt, 12.Dillon Steuer, 13.Ryan Krachun, 14.Paul Mancini, 15.Matt Stangle, 16.Cole Stangle, 17.Bobby Hackel IV, 18.Danny Bouc.
STSS Modified B-Main, 20 laps: 1.Tanner Van Doren, 2.Eddie Strada, 3.Ryan Krachun, 4.Brian Hirthler, 5.Joe Toth, 6.Kyle Smith, 7.Jimmy Leiby, 8.Logan Watt, 9.Jack Butler, 10.Danny Tyler, 11.Paulie Hartwig III, 12.Anthony Tramontana, 13.Geoff Quackenbush, 14.Logan Bauman.
Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, 25 laps: 1.Kyle Lick, 2.Nate Freed, 3.Briggs Danner, 4.Steven Snyder Jr., 5.Connor Gross, 6.Tim Buckwalter, 7.Kenny Miller III, 8.Christian Bruno, 9.Colin White, 10.James Roselli, 11.Justin Yohn, 12.Julian Rexrode, 13.Tyler Henry, 14.Joe Nemeth, 15.Billy Koch, 16.Lukas Kostic, 17.Dakota Barlet, 18.Anthony Perrego, 19.Weston Doklan, 20.Danny Buccafusca, 21.Chase Wehr, 22.Dylan Smith, 23.Connor Mirabelli, 24.Zack Weisenfluh, 25.JT Bierman, 26.Zach Curtis, 27.Anthony Tramontana, 28.Gunner Pio.
DNQ: Gabe Gerber, Amanda Buchel, Luke McCloskey, Brianna Snyder, Colton Colaluce, Jasper Ziegafuse, Logan Dontonville, Jacob Fisher, Chris Tittle, Kate Mattern, Landon Smith, Sammy Martz Jr., Jarid Kunkle, Sonny Tete, Adam Buchel, Kyle Herve, Jace Marshall, Adam O’Brien, Ryan Rochelle, Anthony Schlosser-White, Amanda Onimus.
