Buckwalter sweeps Sprints in Ronnie Tobias Memorial
“Us old guys need shorter races like these; we can handle these short ones,” smiled Billy Pauch Sr. after winning the first of six main events run at the JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
All six features were just 17 laps in distance; they were the highlight of the Fourth Annual Ronnie Tobias Memorial at Action Track USA, and this fact backs up Pauch’s statement: in the four-year history of the event, he’s won three of the eight mains run for the USAC All Pro SpeedSTRs. Wednesday’s victory was also the third of the season for the Frenchtown, N.J., veteran.
In the closest finish of the season, Mike Bednar nipped Steve Buckwalter by a scant 0.035-seconds to record his very first Action Track USA feature win in the second 17-lapper for the SpeedSTRs.
Tim Buckwalter, of Douglassville, became the first driver (in any division) to win both of the Ronnie Tobias Memorial main events on the same night as he swept the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint features on Wednesday.
Mertztown’s Dylan Hoch and Kunkletown’s Dale Kober split the twin 17’s for the NAPA Auto Parts All Star Slingshots. The triumph in the hotly contested first Slingshot main was the second of the year for Hoch, while Kober notched his first career Action Track USA win in the second feature.
The JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA is back in action this Wednesday, June 22nd, in the final event before the speedway’s forced summer break. There will be no racing at the Kutztown Fairgrounds on June 29 and July 6, due to the annual Folk Festival that takes over the facility. Racing returns on Wednesday, July 13, with the running of the TriTrack Challenge for the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints Powered by Hyper Fuel Injection Technology, worth $1,000 to the winner (provided he/she takes the Gambler’s Challenge). The SpeedSTRs and All Star Slingshots will also be on the July 13 menu.