Danner, Paul, Silfee, Ulsh win season-enders

KUTZTOWN » The 2018 racing season concluded on Sunday, August 19 at Championship Energy Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds. When the final checkered flags waved after another night of competitive, close-quarters racing action, Allentown’s Briggs Danner emerged as the driver with the most wins (this season) in the USAC SpeedSTR division, nailing down his fourth of the year in the 30-lap finale.

Stoney Point, N.Y.’s Damon Paul captured his second victory of the season in the 25-lap curtaincloser for the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints. Jared Silfee, of Saylorsburg, capped a big week by winning the Kutztown Komet 100 for the All Star Slingshots. His win also clinched the 2018 Slingshot point title and it came just days after Silfee’s $2,000 triumph in the Super Slingshot Fair National during National Dirt Week at the fairgrounds.

Tyler Ulsh was victorious in the Junior Slingshot feature on Sunday. Ulsh used his win to catapult from third to first in the Junior Slingshot point standings, winning the title by just five points over Shelby McLaughlin.

Billy Pauch Jr. was another racer who had a very successful season finale on Sunday. Even though he did not win either of the features in which he competed, the Milford, N.J. ace secured point championships in the USAC SpeedSTR division (his third title at Action Track USA) and in the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint class.

The 30-lap SpeedSTR main began with Stephen Nederostek grabbing the early lead, then fending off the challenges of Matt Janisch and TJ Mayberry. Sixth-starting Briggs Danner was the man on the move, winging his way third on the sixth trip around the racy oval. Janisch pushed his No. 48 to the lead on lap ten, leaving Nederostek to battle with Danner for the runner-up spot.

Danner claimed second a few circuits later, then engaged in a “slider-fest” with Janisch, trading slide jobs at both ends of the progressively banked speedway. Danner finally cleared the Janisch machine on the backstretch of lap 17 and went on to record the victory, his fourth of the season, by more than 1.5-seconds over Janisch. Tim Buckwalter, who had won the previous two SpeedSTR events at the Berks County race place, slipped past Nederostek to take over the third position with eight to go, and that is where he finished. Steve Drevicki and Pauch Jr. completed the top five.

The 30-lapper went nonstop, the first time in the six-year history of Action Track USA that the SpeedSTRs ran an entire feature clean and green. Danner’s winning time was 6:16.153 in an entertaining race highlighted by intensely competitive action throughout

the field.

Quick calculations after the feature indicated that Pauch Jr. won the championship by 135 points over last year’s champ, Tim Buckwalter.

CARL HESS - FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA A “flame burp” pops from the exhaust as Damon Paul (#144) and Jay Hartman get off the gas and slide into turn one. Paul was really dialed-in and took his second victory of the season in the Wingless 600 Micro Sprint A Main later in the night.

CARL HESS - FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Billy Pauch Jr. (#96s) and Damon Paul (#144) battle wheel-to-wheel exiting turn four on the front straight. By night’s end, Paul would take his second win of the season and Pauch Jr. would claim the 2018 point championship in the highly competitive Wingless 600 Micro Sprint division.

CARL HESS - FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Briggs Danner (#78), who entered the 2018 season winless at Action Track USA, chalked up his fourth win of the season in the USAC SpeedSTR division. Danner is pictured here dueling for the lead with Matt Janisch (#48) who crossed the line in second place at the checkers.