Rain Cuts Races Short At Snydersville Raceway

Story By: ALEX GREENZWEIG / SNYDERSVILLE RACEWAY – SNYDERSVILLE, PA – What seemed to be a perfect night for racing turned short for drivers and fans of Snydersville Raceway. With early morning rain that plagued the Pocono’s, the track had taken on enough water to make into a mud hole. However, the track and crew knew it could be raced on.

After hours of prep, the results made for a fun and exciting, super tacky race track. Drivers traversed from all over the northeast to descend upon the 1/8 mile dirt oval to make 81 entries of Karts, Microstocks, Slingshots, and 1/4 Midgets.

The racing was unlike any other night. As the cars hit the track, everyone noticed that no rubber had been laying down on the speedway which allowed for an outside grove to develop. Many drivers took advantage of the outside groove to make for exciting outside passes and maneuvers. As the show neared completion, heavy mist and fog started to slick up the already moist race track, ultimately making it unsafe to race on.

A meeting of all remaining division that didn’t get to run their feature was assembled. The drivers voted to end the night early with 7 features that were cancelled. Those features would resort to the heat finish to determine the final finishes for the night with the exception of the Sr. Animal Champ Money Race.

The Sr. Animal Champ Money Race drivers held a meeting after to determine if they wanted to base the finish off of qualifying or reschedule the race and finish under checkers. Seven out of the ten drivers voted to reschedule to the race to Friday, May 19. The drivers voted to also allow new entries into the money race to make for bigger field and better payout for the money race, but the new drivers will have to start behind those that had already qualified for the starting spots.

After getting all of the details hashed out, the night was over and the finishes were official.

The Kid Kart division is in growth cycle for 2017 as five young and talented drivers showed up to put on an exciting race with Brianna Snyder getting his first career win in her second season in the Kid Karts. Last weeks winner, Craig Sprague Jr., fell short of the win to come in second. Ricky Ross III made his debut for the first time in any race car to finish in third. Howard Hager wheeled his kart for a fourth place finish and Wyatt Yetter rounded the field out in fifth.

Gunnar Zeiner picked up his second win in a row in the Jr. Sportsman Champ. Cadence Freeman wheeled her champ and didn’t go down with a fight, nipping at the heals of Zeiner to finish in a close second. Xavier Sprague made improvements on the car to finish third this week. Brandon Walsh set fast time in the feature but it wasn’t enough each lap, to finish fourth. Justin Teresak struggled with the handling of the tacky track to finish fifth.

Week two for Chris Hendershot brought him a win in the Briggs Stock Light division over hard charging Matthew Rodenbach, finishing in second. Zach Evans struggled on handling, finishing in third. Finishing in fourth, making his debut at Snydersville, is Michael Baron.

Jeffrey Shire Jr. took the win in the Jr. Restricted Champs.

Gunnar Zeiner is 4 for 4 on wins at Snydersville, picking up the Jr. Sportsman win over Brandon Walsh finishing in second. Cadence Freeman wheeled the car to a third place finish over Griffin Hendershot, finishing in the fourth and final spot.

Rich Whitman got lucky with his division being one of the rained out features, to take the win in the Briggs Stock Heavy. Former Microstock winner, Mike Andrews, took his new flat kart for test drive and brought home an impressive second place finish. Brandon Takacs worked the wheel hard to finish in third over Matthew Rodenbach finishing in fourth. Finally, Don Hendershot struggled to find grip and came home with a fifth place finish.

The Microstock Animal 206 division put on an exciting heat and feature event with exhilarating two groove racing and side-by-side action. James Counterman took advantage to the outside starting spot in his heat and powered around the outside of last weeks feature winner Larry Ealey to take home the heat win. Starting on pole for the feature meant Counterman had to stay smooth and consistent, and he did that exactly. He pulled away from the rest of the field over the 15 lap dash and drove his way to his 1st Microstock Victory in one of the hardest and most competitive divisions. Matt Ackerman didn’t go down without a fight early on, but couldn’t catch Counterman to finish second in the feature. After a rough race last week, Tom Arntz dialed in the #17 Emmons Racing Microstock to go home with a top three finish. Larry Ealey struggled with the tacky race track but pulled off a fourth place finish. Dillon Emmons worked his way in the tight field of cars to top 5 finish. 6th- Matt Gyurkovics, 7th- Caleb Van Noordt, 8th- Timothy Flyte, 9th- Bob Wilson.

Dillon Emmons took home some hardware by picking the win up in the AllStar Slingshots.

Alex Kolonics struggled to get around Croop last week for the win, but this week he found Victory Lane, taking the win in the Jr. Restricted division. Blaze Croop came in second after struggling with handling of his kart.

John Wagner took home the Victory with back to back wins in the Briggs Super Heavy class over “Rapid” Rick Shive, finishing in second. Eddie Geiger Jr. wheeled his Bangor Steel #63 to a solid third place finish. Joe Henry Makowski showed a little more speed to finish in fourth. J.P. Curry struggled with motor problems in the race, pulled off in the early running to take a DNF, finishing fifth.

The Sr. Animal Champs were eleven cars strong this week with a great mix of invaders and regulars. The race filled with excitement and great action throughout the 20 laps saw Brandyn Burkholder take the lead in the early running as the pack behind him sliced and diced for each spot. However, Casey Steinhoff, readied to spoil Burkholder’s day. With five to go Steinhoff dived under Burkholder going into three to take the lead as they maneuvered through the lap traffic. Burkholder didn’t go down without a fight and tried to regain the top spot but had failed passing attempts on Steinhoff. As the checkers fell, Casey Steinhoff too kthe win for the Animal Champs, continuing his win streak at Snydersville with the champ kart. Brandyn Burkholder put up a good fight coming home with a second place finish. Defending Point Champion of the Animal Champs, Troy Snyder, also put on a good race in the early running to finish third. Teddy Reed jumped in the Freeman Racing #10 Champ to bring a fourth place finish for the team. Jake Jones struggled to get the setup down but worked his way to fifth place finish. 6th- Patrick Chilmonic, 7th- Bob Wilson, 8th- Paul Valent, 9th- Buddy Lord, 10th- Brandon Rusczek, 11th- Charlie Shaver.

Eric Freeman took back to back wins in the Sr. Clones for the second week in a row. Austin Brengel made his first stop of 2017 at Snydersville to put on a hard race with Freeman as the two battled back and forth. Brengel didn’t have enough to get past Freeman to come home in second. Newcomer Mike Parkhurst picked up on the groove well and drove his way to a third place finish. Joe Henry Makowski doubled up on classes and it worked well, picking up a fourth place finish. Scott Zimmerman suffered some contact with an infield tire, taking him out of the race to finish fifth.

Jason Kraycirik wheeled his way through the slick conditions to another win in the Jr. Slingshots. Wyatt Hager gave it all he got but fell short to finish second. Colton Yetter steadily improving took home a third place.

Josh Reeder took the win in the Sr. Flathead Champ division as he prepare with some of the regulars returning this week.

Logan Stangle picked up the pace to bring home his second win of the season in the Beginner 1/4 Midgets over Oliver McKenna taking home second place.

The Honda 120 1/4 Midgets put on an exciting race as Jacob Bierman took home his second win of the season. Easton Miller didn’t go down with attempting to bump Bierman from the top spot but finished second as they took the checkered. Dylan Kuronya, a past quarter midget winner at Snydersville, struggled to get grip but took home a third place. Colton Yetter also found it difficult to turn finished in fourth. Xavier Sprague had no luck with getting the car to stop spinning, ultimately finish in fifth.

Mark Mohr took home the win in the Honda 160 1/4 Midgets while being in the mix of the 120s.

Dylan Kuronya didn’t go home empty handed and brought home the feature win in the World Formula 1/4 Midgets over Mark Mohr finishing in second.

Even with the shortened night, the racing was eventful and very exciting. We want to thank everyone who joined us last Friday Night for racing. We hope you make the return to Snydersville this Friday as the AllStar Slingshot battle it out for $250 to win and the 1/4 Midgets will be putting the Wings on for the first Wing Night 1/4 Midget Event of the 2017!