Action Track USA honors champions; Buckwalter, Hoch cash in on titles
KUTZTOWN » A pair of point titles, along with a National SpeedSTR Championship were among Tim Buckwalter’s many accomplishments during the 2017 racing season. All of the hardearned success had him pinching himself to make sure it really happened at Friday night’s Championship Energy Action Track USA Awards Banquet at the Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, Pa.
“Yeah, at times it’s almost hard to believe, but you have to start by surrounding yourself with good people, and I’ve been fortunate to have great people helping me out, and they are the reason for all the success we’ve had these last couple years,” said Buckwalter, who reaped the benefits of winning the USAC All Pro SpeedSTR and Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Championships at Action Track USA, on the Kutztown Fairgrounds, last season.
In the SpeedSTRs, the Douglassville wheel-twister captured six feature wins, including the season finale, to notch his first point title in that division at the Berks County oval.
Driving Paul Lotier’s Bagel Rack No. 7, Buckwalter out-pointed three-time winner Billy Pauch Jr. and Ohio’s Matt Westfall to claim the championship. Teen sensation Briggs Danner and Steve Drevicki rounded out the top five in points.
While Buckwalter plans to return to SpeedSTR competition at Action Track USA in 2018, he will not be driving a Lotier-owned machine. That is because Lotier sold his SpeedSTR in order to build a wingless 410 Sprint Car for Buckwalter. The team will run many of the USAC National Sprint Car events, making their debut in a few weeks at Bubba Raceway in Ocala, Fla. His Sprint Car schedule should only cause the third generation racer to miss one race at Action Track USA during the upcoming campaign.
Buckling into Barry & Cheryl Greth’s No. 71, Buckwalter secured his second Action Track USA point crown in the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint division. He won three main events along the way and finished second in the 60-lap Fair Week finale` to wrap up the title after a hard fought, season-long battle with Billy Pauch Jr.
Pauch was a two-time winner in 2017, as was third place points finisher Jason Swavely. The 2016 champ, Eddie Strada, wound up fourth in the standings ahead of two-time 600 titlist Jay Hartman.
The Buckwalter/Greth combo will be back together this season with a new D1 Chassis, while Pauch Jr. moves from the Adam Huff Xtreme Graphics mount to his old, familiar seat in Lamar Shaffer’s No. 91s.
Like Buckwalter, All-Star Slingshot point champion Dylan Hoch gave credit to his family and crew for all their long hours in the shop and at the track, as the Mertztown, Pa. driver accepted the hardware for winning his second consecutive Slingshot point title at Action Track USA.
Hoch won two features during the `17 season and narrowly defeated former track champ Brett Bieber for the championship, earning the crown by just 14 points over Bieber. Three-time race winner Seth Spayd ended up third in the chase, while Alex Yankowski and Jared Silfee finished fourth and fifth in the final standings.
Ten different drivers won the 13 Slingshot features run at Action Track USA in 2017, with seven of those chauffeurs recording their very first victories at the Kutztown Fairgrounds progressively banked clay oval. With his pair of triumphs, Hoch is now the alltime leading Slingshot winner at AT USA with seven victories, while Bieber and Mark Sensenig are tied for second with six wins.
Leesport throttle-jockey Reese Nowotarski authored a terrific season for himself in 2017, winning four of the five Junior Slingshot features and the point title at Action Track USA. His victories included the Junior National Tour event on August 18, and he finished fifth in the only race in which he was not the winner.
Nowotarski, who announced at the banquet that he will move up to the All Star class this season, easily won the Junior Slingshot championship over Tyler Banks, with Austin Homan, Decker Swinehart, and Tyler Ulsh completing the top five in points.
The five race Action Track Takeover Series at Linda’s Speedway saw one event get wiped out due to rain. In the four races run for the SpeedSTRs, wingless 600 Sprints, and All Star Slingshots, Steve Drevicki, Tommy Kunsman Jr., and Brett Bieber captured the miniseries point titles.
Drevicki utilized a single victory, a pair of runner-up efforts, and a seventh-place finish to secure the SpeedSTR title over Tyler Ross, Steven Nederostek, Tim Buckwalter, and Briggs Danner.