Tim Buckwalter Doubles Up at Action Track USA on June 12

D. Hoch & Carraghan Win Slingshot Mains; Laubach Victorious in Jr. Slings

Kutztown, PA (June 12) — It was a very good night, times 2, for Tim Buckwalter at Foley Cat Action Track USA on Wednesday, June 12.
The Goldie & Elton Meitzler Memorial proved lucrative for “the WheelMaster General” from Douglassville, PA, as Buckwalter went home with the winner’s cash for the SpeedSTR and 600 Sprint main events.
Dylan Hoch from nearby Mertztown, PA, captured the postponed Ronnie Tobias Memorial for the All Star Slingshots while Dave Carraghan, from Emmaus PA, registered the Meitzler Memorial victory for the Slingers. Defending Junior Slingsot champion Matthew Laubach recorded the feature win for the Juniors on Wednesday.
For the first half of the All Pro SpeedSTR 30-lapper, it appeared as though Billy Pauch Sr. would score the win. Pauch, who was subbing for his son, Billy Jr., in the Ralph Rehrig No. 1R, shot to the lead from his outside front row starting spot.
With “Billy the Kid” in firm control, Cole Stangle dashed from fourth to second in the first two revolutions. By lap six, Mike Bednar was challenging Stangle for the runner-up position, passing the No. 27 just before Stangle spun on the seventh circuit.
Following the yellow for Stangle’s spin, the SpeedSTRs put together a long stretch of green flag racing, with a torrid battle for second developing between Bednar and 11th starting Tim Buckwalter. The duo produced an entertaining slide-fest for the position, swapping the spot numerous times as the Meitzler Memorial reached its halfway point. With 18 complete, Bednar looped his No. 23 in turn four, handing the runner-up slot to Buckwalter.
Under caution for Bednar’s spin, Pauch suddenly turned left and pulled to the infield with exhaust header issues. His misfortune enabled Buckwalter to inherit the top spot with 12 to go.
Matt Janisch was now in second, and he hounded Buckwalter for the remainder of the event. Buckwalter’s mount sustained a broken right-rear shock as he moved through the pack early in the race, so Tim admittedly “drove a little cautiously” until Janisch stuck his nose under the leader during the race’s latter stages. On the final trip around the oval, Janisch got a run down the backstretch, appearing to set up a big slide job on the leader, but Buckwalter anticipated the move and ran a lower line through three and four to block the slider.
At the finish, it was Buckwalter narrowly defeating Janisch, with Connor Gross finishing a solid third in his SpeedSTR debut. Gross was driving the DA Hanson No. 134 as a sub for Devin Borden. Kyle Herve and Shea Wills rounded out the top five.
In the Meitzler Memorial for the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, James Hendricks darted to the early lead with Preston Lattomus slicing his way forward from the outside of row three to second place by lap six. Steven Snyder Jr., a former point champion of this division, got pinched into the backstretch wall and flipped wildly from the midway point of the backchute into turn three on the seventh tour. Snyder was okay, but his race was finished.
Tim Buckwalter, who started ninth, now ran fourth behind Hendricks, Lattomus, and Joe Nemeth. Buckwalter quickly disposed of Nemeth on the restart, then executed a two-for-one maneuver in turns three and four to snatch the top spot. Buckwalter was humming around the bottom, with his 600cc Performance No. 71 dialed in perfectly in the low groove.
It was all Buckwalter after that, but the battle for the runner-up position was a good one. Colin White, who rolled off 11th for the initial green flag, steadily climbed through the field, finally squeezing past Hendricks for second with nine circuits remaining. But Buckwalter was long gone, leaving White to settle for second place payout.
At the checkered, it was Buckwalter claiming his second triumph of the night with White finishing about one second behind him. Hendricks, in his best Action Track USA effort in a 600, wound up third. Connor Mirabelli and defending champ Christian Bruno finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
The All Star Slingshots made up their portion of the June 5 Ronnie Tobias Memorial, which was also a Super National event.
As the field completed lap one of the 25-lap affair, Dylan Hoch nipped pole sitter Patrick Weiss for the number one position by about a foot. Hoch then cleared Weiss’ No. 22w and began to pull away.
The fight for positions two through five was a good one, though, as Weiss tried to defend that spot over Chase Schott, Brett Bieber, and Luke McCloskey.
Hoch cruised to a three-second victory over Schott, Weiss, Bieber, and McCloskey with Dave Carraghan improving 14 positions to finish sixth.
In the evening’s regularly scheduled Meitzler Memorial for the All Star Slingshots, Carraghan leaped from third to first in the early stages, then held off a hard charging Dylan Hoch to record his eighth career feature win at Action Track USA.
Hoch harassed his good friend throughout the 20 lapper, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at his friendly rival. But Carraghan was hooked up on the bottom side of the speedway, holding off Hoch by one-quarter of a second at the finish.
Tyler Hoch ended up third, chasing his brother and Carraghan to the stripe. Bieber notched another fourth-place finish and Schott rounded out the top five.
Matthew Laubach stalked early leader Billy Pauch III before making his move for the lead on lap four. Sixth-starting Miles Zehner traded the top spot with Laubach on a couple of occasions before “the Salt Shaker”, Laubach, took command for good.
Laubach won by a comfortable margin but the race for second got crazy-good on the final lap as Zehner crossed the line sideways, but runner-up, with Landon McNichol, Carter Mullins, and Pauch III right there with him and under a blanket. They finished in that order but it was oh-so-close among them.
Foley Cat Action Track USA comes back this Wednesday, June 19, with another four division show of high speed adventure. The All Pro SpeedSTRs will compete in two features, as they make up their portion of the Ronnie Tobias Memorial that was rained out on June 5, along with a regularly scheduled 30-lap main event.
Joining the SpeedSTRs will be the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, plus the All Star and Junior Slingshots.
Pit gates open at 4 p.m. and grandstand gates swing open at 5:00. Warm-ups are slated for 6:15 with qualifying races set to begin right after the hot lap sessions and opening ceremonies.
This will be the final race before the annual two-week break as one of the country’s largest Folk Festivals takes over the Kutztown Fairgrounds. Following the June 19 racing event, the track will be silent until Wednesday, July 10.
MEITZLER MEMORIAL RESULTS:
All Pro SpeedSTRs, 30 laps: 1.Tim Buckwalter, 2.Matt Janisch, 3.Connor Gross, 4.Kyle Herve, 5.Shea Wills, 6.Scott Houdeshell, 7.Tyler Kehs, 8.Cole Stangle, 9.Dustin Morris, 10.Billy Pauch Sr., 11.Mike Bednar, 12.Dan Schumaker, 13.Chuck Eckert, 14.Steve Young, 15.Cale Zangli, 16.Paulie Hartwig III, 17.John Oliver.

Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, 25 laps: 1.Tim Buckwalter, 2.Colin White, 3.James Hendricks, 4.Connor Mirabelli, 5.Christian Bruno, 6.Jasper Ziegafuse, 7.Zack Weisenfluh, 8.Alex Ruppert, 9.Jacob Severn, 10.Connor Gross, 11.Joe Nemeth, 12.Dakota Barlet, 13.Dylan Hahn, 14.James Roselli, 15.Gabe Gerber, 16.Shelby McLaughlin, 17.Tyler Lindsay, 18.Dan Lane, 19.Preston Lattomus, 20.Weston Doklan, 21.Ryan Rochelle, 22.Sonny Tete, 23.Richie Baker, 24.Ryan Kunkle, 25.Steven Snyder Jr., 26.Craig Whitmoyer, 27.Aidan Donaldson.
DNQ: Jake Fisher, Peyton Knecht, Jarid Kunkle, Lukas Kostic, Logan Dontonville, Billy Koch, Kyle Lick, Jase Smith, Pat Bealer, Matt Chowns, Zach Curtis, Julian Rexrode, Jacob Homnick, Tyler Henry, Dylan Smith, Cole Dewease, Jace Marshall, Zach Bealer, Cole Gerber.

All Star Slingshots Ronnie Tobias Memorial Super National, 25 laps (Postponed from June 5): 1.Dylan Hoch, 2.Chase Schott, 3.Patrick Weiss, 4.Brett Bieber, 5.Luke McCloskey, 6.Dave Carraghan, 7.Shawn Dengler, 8.Garrett Chillot, 9.Zack Gerber, 10.Amanda Angstadt, 11.Brianna Snyder, 12.Tom Mawson, 13.Daniel Betz, 14.Scott Heilman, 15.Austin Kroboth, 16.Mason Lineman, 17.Tyler Hoch, 18.Mike Maguire, 19.Troy Kline. DNS: Bobby Klein, Lydia Navarro, Brian Smith, Body Marks, Brayden Morrison, PJ Bozowski, Mason Pittenger, Lucas Pittenger, Gavin Danner.
All Star Slingshots June 12 Feature, 20 laps: 1.Dave Carraghan, 2.Dylan Hoch, 3.Tyler Hoch, 4.Brett Bieber, 5.Chase Schott, 6.Luke McCloskey, 7.Tyler Ulsh, 8.Shawn Dengler, 9.Patrick Weiss, 10.Amanda Angstadt, 11.Garrett Chillot, 12.Zack Gerber, 13.Brianna Snyder, 14.Daniel Betz, 15.Mason Lineman, 16.Austin Kroboth, 17.Scott Heilman, 18.Troy Kline, 19.Tyler Lilick, 20.Mike Maguire, 21.Tom Mawson.

Junior Slingshots, 20 laps: 1.Matthew Laubach, 2.Miles Zehner, 3.Landon McNichol, 4.Carter Mullins, 5.Billy Pauch III, 6.Jon Severn, 7.Colton Henry, 8.Hannah Kormann, 9.Brandon Lilick, 10.Kaleb Stofflet.