RPW Exclusive: Versatile Tim Buckwalter & PA-Based USAC Team Ready To Take Eastern Storm Success On The Road

Column By: RUSTY RHOADES / RPW – POTTSTOWN, PA – “It’s kinda like a dream come true right now, we really don’t know what we’re doing!”

Those were Tim Buckwalter’s words in the middle of embarking upon his first Eastern Storm tour, USAC’s grueling annual 410 journey through the Northeast every June. Looking back, I think it’s safe to say that he and his start-up Keystone State wingless sprint squad can be credited for much more than that so far only in their infancy.

Just a couple handfuls of USAC races into their lifespan, they’ve shown not only tremendous growth, but also the respect earned from the best of the best in the wingless business. Both are key to build on and work from in the future, specifically in preparing to attack the vaunted Indiana Sprintweek slate that kicks off Friday night at Plymouth Speedway.

The LNB Motorsports team made their 2018 debut along with the touring regulars at Bubba Raceway Park in February. Right out of the gate, they managed to qualify for the Main each of the 3 nights at the Florida facility, including a top-15 finish one of the nights. That is highly impressive when considering the lowest car count of the three nights had 28 teams signing in.

Their highly anticipated Eastern Storm run was littered with big achievements. At the always tough Williams Grove Speedway, Buckwalter posted the 5th best time, a top three in his heat and his first top 5 feature result with the series.

The Pottstown, PA resident followed that up the next evening by earning the KSE Hard Charger Award at Port Royal Speedway, moving from 16th up into 9th when the checkers fell, earning back-to-back top 10 USAC finishes for this young team.

Any thoughts of a fluke were put to rest just one night later at BAPS Motor Speedway. Another top 10 in time trials set the stage for a wild heat, bumping and pulling sliders with the likes of elite non-wing pilots Kevin Thomas, Jr. and C.J. Leary. After eventually settling for runner-up to Thomas Jr., we were all made very aware of the respect Buckwalter had gained with his USAC peers, as Kevin called himself out during his heat win interview for the contact he made with Tim battling for the lead. I was told Thomas also walked over to the LNB hauler after returning pitside to offer a similar “apology”, if you will, for the incident. Another outstanding feature performance resulted in a 3rd consecutive finish top 10, as he battled hard all race with those around his 7th starting spot and pulled in a 5th place score by night’s end.

The Eastern Storm finale took every team to uncharted Empire State territory, and the high-flying LNB team took every advantage of the even playing surface. Buckwalter jumped out to the lead on lap 3, figuring out how to get around the ultra tight facility by using the virtually unavoidable turn 2 wall everyone was hitting to his advantage. He then engaged in another great battle with a well-known wingless warrior, Thomas Meseraull, until getting into that turn 2 wall too hard around halfway and leaving “T-Mez” with nowhere to go as he got into the 7 on the way by and erased a potentially magnificent exclamation point on the week. Again, even though it was just a racing deal, eventual winner Meseraull lamented in victory lane on the incident and how he would’ve really enjoyed the two going at it in a wild finish.

I asked Tim about the respect factor and how rapidly it appeared to develop with many of the top notch USAC competition during the week. “I remember the first thing my dad always taught me was huge. You have to earn respect against these guys. You’re just as equal as them, and when you get the right car and crew going like this, next thing is earning respect out there. I Just go and talk to the guys and I think they respect that.” He continued, “I try to run them clean but also realize bumping and bruising is all part of racing and they all race like this on tour so much that I know nobody’s trying to wreck me on purpose, so it allows me to run hard with them and not worry about getting junked.” Those wise words of fatherly advice are definitely based on personal experience that Tim’s dad, Rick Buckwalter, earned over many years of tough battles on Mid-Atlantic modified bullrings.

And his highly versatile son’s ability to get a quick handle on whatever type of vehicle he’s in make the recent national notoriety only a confirmation of what we all knew he was capable of for years now. I first remember hearing about Tim as he and his generation of racing Buckwalter relatives, Bruce and Steve, combined with other notable names a decade or so back to showcase easily the best era of ARDC Midget action I’ll ever see at places like Grandview and Williams Grove. Only a couple years later, the same wheelman was parking the big 358 modifieds in the same Grandview victory lane his father did. And he’s currently running for points at Action Track USA as the defending champion in both the SpeedSTR and wingless 600 classes while also regularly wheeling a Grandview 358 modified around the top 15 in points as well. All this while putting this new non-wing 410 deal on the map at the same time!

All the numerous wins, titles and notoriety across his diverse dirt career thus far don’t keep Buckwalter from realizing how fortunate he is to have gotten this chance with the LNB non-wing team. “I gotta thank all the guys, Paul (Lotier) and Ray (Nemeth) for giving me the opportunity, Gene (Francowiak) for all the cars, and just the whole crew, they’re busting their butts and we’re all new at this but really having alot of fun.”

You could obviously see the enthusiasm in his responses and how it was already raising Buckwalter’s level of anticipation for this upcoming venture to the Midwest. “We have a good baseline setup now finally. And all that stuff is absolutely coming with us out there. We’re writing every little thing down from here to compare with tracks and conditions out in Indiana. It’s pretty unorganized and hard to read right now, but come time for Sprint Week we’ll have it all officially laid down and ready to see what we can do with it.”