Randy's Raceway

It was the season opener for the fast Sprint cars on the 8 lane Tuesday night at Randy’s Raceway. Getting the season off to a strong start Jim LeVan turned in 6 segment wins on way to the win. Jim also pulled that #2 pill that he always likes ! Last year Sprint car champion Brian Kisthardt  scored 2 segment wins including a win on lane 1, to come home 2nd. Cory Reinhard also had a strong machine scoring 2 segment wins for a good 3rd place finish. Trailing Cory by only 8 pieces of track Randy Haydt scored 1 segment win to finish 4th. Mark Williams scored 3 segment wins. With a win on lane 8, to close out the top 5.

6th Scott Bender / 7th Toby Reinhard ( 1 win ) / 8th Billy Decker / 9th Bob Amore ( 1 win ) / 10th Tony Zappacosta.

TEAR OFFS:

Jims win makes it 3 different winners in the Season Openers. The field was good with 16 racers in the pit area. Had 7 different segment winners. Next Week the Modifieds  are back on the 8 lane.

Berks Lebanon Series Opener Saturday at “Little T’s”, Warmups @1 racing @2.

Veteran Randy Haydt won the season opening Modified Feature for the 17th version here at Randy’s Raceway.  The veteran is coming off a strong finish to last season and is now off to a good start for this season.  Haydt bested fellow ECHORR racer Bryan Kisthardt who came home second.  Third spot went to Scott Bender in a strong finish for the Reading Racer.  Brian Sponagle continued his torrid start to this season with a fine fourth place run in his Brightbill Pinto.  Rounding out the top five was Jim LeVan.  Toby Reinhard was the first of 3 TCS racing teammates to make the top ten this week.  Alex Amore making a rare start came home seventh in his Modified prepared by his Dad.  Billy Decker was eighth followed by Cory Reinhard and Savvy Cunnius.

18 racers were on hand for the opener which went 25 lap segments.  8 different winners took the segments- Randy (5), BK (4), Jim (2),  Spoons (2), Toby (2), Billy (1), Scott (1), and winning her first ever Modified segment Savvy Cunnuis.  Way to go Savvy you kicked our ………

The 17th season of racing kicked off Tuesday night at Randy’s Raceway with NASCAR Cup action starting things off. Veteran Mark Williams got the year off on a strong note with the opening night victory. Mark scored 2 segment wins and had a ” TORRID ” battle holding off a strong run by Brian Sponagle. Spoons won 3 segments and just missed out on the win by 17 pieces of track. Trailing Spoons by 23 pieces of track Jim LeVan scored a good 3rd place finish winning 2 segments. Scott Bender scored  a segment win on lane 1 to finish 4th. Randy Haydt ( who had many issues during the night ! ) somehow scored 1 segment win rounding out the Top 5. [Read more…]

Veteran T-Jet racer Bryan Kisthardt of Macungie won his very first Championship at Randy’s Raceway in the Sprint division this season.  Kisthardt won the final two features of the year and ended up with all five runs in the top five.  He also won a season leading 21 segments in the shortened by snow season.  Veteran Randy Haydt wound up second with a feature win in week two as well as 8 segment wins.  Two former Sprint Champs were next with Mark Williams third after winning the opener and taking 10 segments.  Defending Champion Scott Bender was fourth after a slow start.  The Reading driver won 7 segments.  [Read more…]

A very competitive and fun IROC season this year at Randy’s Raceway.The season championship went down to the last race, like last year when Randy Haydt won the title by 1 point. This year it came down to Mark and Randy again. With Randy winning the season final race, Mark scored a 2nd place finish, and enough to win the IROC title  by 2 points. Mark scored 3 wins during the 8 race season, along with 12 segment wins. Randy won the season opener, then won the final 2 races to nearly win the title again. During the season “security” had to be called to the pit area when these two raced beside each other. [Read more…]

Another competitive Nascar Season was recently concluded at Randy’s Raceway.  With a season average of 15 racers weekly and 21 in total scoring points this season was very action packed.  We had 5 different feature winners in the 9 shows.  Also 14 drivers scored at least 1 segment win, 4 drivers had at least 12 wins.  Mark Williams won the Point Title but after an opening day 8^th place finish and a miss in November this season was very close. Williams won 4 features and 29 segments.  Jim LeVan finished second with 2 feature wins 14 on his career and all top 10’s.  LeVan had 28 segment wins and finished the season strong with 2 wins a second and a third in the final 4 races including the Road Course win.  Randy Haydt had a single feature win in November and 25 segment wins to finish a close third in points.  Veteran Billy Decker who won his 3^rd career feature on opening day wound up 4^th in points with steady runs all season.  Decker was only outside the top 10 one time and had 9 segment wins.  [Read more…]

A very competitive Modified season recently concluded at Randy’s Raceway and Mark Williams successfully defended his Modified title. The run to the title was not easy for Mark as each night there were many fast cars trying to get into the winners circle. Mark dominated the early season as he scored 4 straight wins to start the season, then scored 3 more wins the rest of the way he was a Top 5 finisher until week 12. Marks final totals were 7 wins and a total of 49 segment wins on way to the title. Bryan Kisthardt was a force each week “BK” scored 4 wins, nearly had a season long run of Top 5’s, until a 6th place finish in week11 ended that. BK scored 46 segment wins to come home with a strong 2nd place finish in the final standing. Randy Haydt had a very good season also, scoring 11 Top 5 finishes and a late season win in week 14, to go along with 34 segment wins, to finish 3rd in the final totals. [Read more…]

John Kosmoski Most Improved Driver

The 2016/ 2017 season officially wound up with the awarding of the season point standing finishers and a whole bunch of give away’s.   27 people attended the evening with 22 racing in our annual Banquet Race.  Cars supplied by Ed Kenderline were very competitive. 

Taking the race win was John Kosmoski who also took home the Most Improved Driver award this year.  Randy Haydt was second followed by Bob Amore, Tony Zappacosta and Cory Reinhard.  The season

IROC cars on the starting line

Champions were honored and supplied with booklets supplied once again by Randy and patches which he spent much time on.  This season was the 16^th consecutive year for Slotcar racing at Randy’s Raceway.  Mark Williams was the winner of Modified, Nascar and a very close IROC this year.  Bryan Kisthardt from Macungie was crowned the Sprint Champion, his first at the Berks Ovals. Savannah Cunnis

Savannah Cunnius Overall Rookie of the Year

Ed Kenderdine Modified Rookie of the Year

was our Overall Rookie of the year joining Ed Kenderline who won the Rookie title in the Modified Ranks.  As mentioned John Kosmoski won the Most Improved Driver award this year as he really came on strong at the end of the season including winning the Banquet Race.  Way to go all.

Give A Ways by Billy Decker.

Battle for the lead

Give A Ways By Jim LeVan

Driver stat books and box emblems

All pictures by: Scott Bender

A full view of the banquet race finish and the season standings can be found on our website.  Also seasonal division wrap up stories will be posted once a month during the Summer. 

Billy Decker is one of the original Racers here at Randy’s Raceway and has a long and interesting story of Slot Car racing.  My personal connection and friendship with Billy began in 1997 racing with him at Tom Hiester’s Speedway in Reading.  I quickly set Billy as a goal to be able to race with at Hiester’s.  He always fielded very fast cars and is a skilled racer.  I had fun driving his NASCAR one season at Randy’s and we had some good runs.  I will tell Billy’s story below but above all he has been a constant mentor to new racers and has helped numerous drivers over the years with rides, car building, advise and a friendly smile and sometimes vise crack to keep us honest.  It is an honor to be able to count Billy Decker as a friend.

Billy began racing slots in High School around 1963 with friend in his hometown of Easton PA.  A side note about Billy was he was a long time crew member and crew chief for his Easton friend Tom Hager.  This explains his passion for Dirt Track Modified racing.  Billy joined the Army in 1967 and when he got home in the early 70’s a friend of his Charlie Bray had a 6 lane track in Nazareth that he raced on for many years.  This track was a road course and oval which went way up the wall at one point.   In the early 70’s he raced with Ace Lane and Joe Connelly in NJ and then ran into the Hiester family at the Novelty stand at Big Diamond and found out about their slot car racing series.  In the mid 70’s Billy and Linda moved to the Pocono area and Billy set up his own track and had weekly racing there and also was part of a series with a Harrisburg area track.  Now would be a good time to mention Billy’s wife Linda who has supported his slot car racing over the years.  Linda has always encouraged Billy to race and is still his biggest supporter.  Billy continued to race at Hiesters in the late 70’s as well as Trains and Lanes in Nazareth.  This track was 30 ft long with some road course turns as well.  Billy won the first four classes in his first ever race there and the owner asked him to slow down and give someone else a chance.  In the 80’s Billy won 2 championships at Junior Snyder’s Raceway in Nazareth and also raced at Ed Reifinger’s. Billy spent a lot of time building cars and encouraging kids to race and was a big supporter of this at area tracks.  In the 90’s Billy was busy racing at the Hiester track and then was an original member of a new start up track in Kutztown.

Here the plot thickens.  Billy began his career at Randy’s and has been a weekly racer and constant mentor and recently stepped up as a parts supplier to the group.  Billy is on the board of directors and is involved in the groups activities.  At the end of season one Billy was crowned the inaugural Modified Point Champion at Randy’s Raceway.  Billy loves to race and enjoys the friendships formed as much as the close competion over the years.  Beside the extremely long racing resume at Randy’s Raceway, Billy has also competed in the PA Tyco series and the Berks Lebanon series winning a feature.  Billy is truly a nice guy and a valuable asset at Randy’s Raceway and the Hobby of H.O. Racing.

Billy’s career stats at Randy’s include 7 career feature wins placing him 14^th all time.  He has also won 391 segments which puts him ninth on that career list.  Billy has won 3 Modified features and in addition to his championship he was also runner up in the season Modified title in 08/09.  His most segments won in a single year was 32 in 08/09.  Billy has 6 top five point finishes in Modified and has only been outside the top 10 one season.  His last modified feature win was 11-13-12.  In NASCAR Billy won the opener this past season and finished strong with a fourth place in the standings.  Billy has 3 career NASCAR features wins and 113 segments placing him 7^th all time in that division.  His best finish in the points was 08/09 when he was runner-up.  He has been a top five driver 8 times in the season champ runs.  Billy has had good years in IROC although the late hour has not always allowed him to stick around due to his long commute home.  Billy has traveled a long way over the years to race with us. His best finish in IROC points was 5^th in 06/07 and won a feature on 3-17-09.

In the Sprint division Billy’s best finish was 5^th in the 06/07 season.  Also in Sportsman his best finish was 5^th in the 11/12 season.

At Hiester’s Speedway Billy finished 45^th in Modified in 01/02, 9^th in 00/01, 7^th in 98/99 and 6^th in 97/98.

I appreciate Billy taking the time to give me some of the facts about his slot car racing history and feel it’s important to document it.  Billy Decker is a true gentleman and a great asset to our group.  And after 54 years of racing he is making plans for next season.  I hope it will be his best yet.

Respectfully written by Mark Williams.

Modified racing capped off the season Tuesday night at Randy’s Raceway on the 8 lane fast track and Scott Bender ended a long Modified winless streak scoring the win. Scott scored 4 segment wins, to become the 5th different winner in the Modified class. Bryan Kisthardt was strong again winning 5 segments, finishing off a very good Modified season with a 2nd place run. Modified Point Champ Mark Williams also scored 5 segment wins to finish off the season with a 3rd place finish. Randy Haydt scored 4 segment wins and had a pretty calm 4th place run. [Read more…]