Randy's Raceway
The 17th Annual Awards Banquet at Randy’s Raceway was held last Tuesday and a crowd of 30 enjoyed the awards presentations as well as many giveaways and prizes. This is the first time in many years that 4 different Point Champions were crowned. Modified went to Mark Williams, Cup went to Randy Haydt, Sprint was won by Jim LeVan and the IROC title went to Brian Sponagle.
Mark Williams Modified / Jim LeVan Sprint Car / Randy Haydt NASCAR / Brian Sponagle IROC
In keeping with a tradition of writing a story each year about one of our Racers at Randy’s Raceway, I figured it was time to tell a bit of Randy’s story. Randy like most of us started racing at his parents house when he was a kid, building his own track in the garage. Remember that building part of the story for later. Randy raced on the road course an 18×8 setup after transitioning away from trains. His early group of neighborhood friends included Kenny Gilmore and Terry Meitzler and they had organized racing including keeping points averaging 10-15 kids each race. Sometime around 1973 or so Randy raced at Beck’s Sportshop in Kutztown where he meet Tom Hiester and raced with his group in Reading a few times in those early days. Racing with Tom’s group from the mid 70’s through the early 80’s when he built his second Road Course in Texlertown. No organized racing there just for fun and that track still exists today at least we think.
Randy stopped organized H.O. racing for a time until the mid 90’s when he got back into it this time with the Tyco’s. He raced again with the Tommy Hiester group who was still going strong as well as Big T and Ed Reifinger. During this time Randy also raced in the Berks Series as well as the PA Tyco Series and the Wizzard Road Course Racing Series. At the Hiester and Big T tracks Randy meet many of the core group that would come to race in the next phase. In 2000 Randy meticulously built his famous Tri-Oval in what most people would call a second floor apartment Dining Room. The track building which over the years has number about 8 tracks including two that were designed and built as portable tracks which have been carried around the area and raced on by many. This is what sets Randy apart in my opinion from someone in the hobby who is a racer because Randy takes great pride in building tracks and maintaining them as well as promoting races at his house as well as other venues. Randy is always helpful with other guys tracks and has become a go to guy in the area for wiring, lap counters and general help. He is also well versed on the computer programs as we all know to well.
Randy opened that first track in the Dining Room for the 2001/ 2002 season and when asked did he ever think 18 seasons later that the group would still be going strong he said he never imagined. He always hoped it would survive but never expected to meet so many good friends and see the support stay so strong over the years. Randy has done a lot of slotcar racing including Oval racing with AFX, Tyco, Lifelike and T-Jets. Road Course racing with Magnet cars, Tyco, Lifelike and Storms. And maybe his true passion has become T-Jet racing with ECHORR. This is a very professional group of guys which Randy has become an intrical part of. Henry Harnish introduced Randy to this type of racing and lent him cars to get his feet wet over 10 years ago.
Randy the racer has won Championships at Randy’s Raceway, Ed Reifingers, Big T’s, Berks Series, Berks / Lebanon Series, ECHORR Nostaglia Race Championship, UFHORRA Novice Class Champion as well as Team championships with ECHORR Challenge in Kutztown and the Meet in the Middle in Kansas City.
Tracks where Randy has Raced include Randy’s Raceway, Hiester HO Raceway, Randy’s Raceway II Woodland SPD.,Big T’s, Little T’s, Ed Reifinger Speedway, Laudan Seigfried Raceway, Tom Wenner Raceway, Bob Zelano’s, Paul Barkaski’s, Fred McCollough’s, Rich Schmitz, The Fenton Brothers, Kevin Reimerts, Ted Van Pelts, Wizzard Raceway and many other tracks. With ECHORR stops have include Randolph Raceway, Springfield Slotcar Club of NY, Hiram Durant’s tracks, Len-Jet H. O. Raceway in Ashland MA owned by Peter Lintros.
In addition to all that Randy does so much behind the scenes that many have no idea. Randy is an avid toy and slot car collector and it is said that he even has a room where much of this is displayed. At Randy’s Raceway alone he has 8 championships and 66 career Features wins placing him 3rd all time. Also third in all-time Segment wins with 759. Randy is more than a Racer and many of us have people like him to thank for hours of fun and good competition over many years. Thank you Randy from all of us.
Mark Williams defended his points championship this year and won the final Modified feature of the season at Randy’s Raceway. Williams won all 8 lanes in his Gilmore Racing Orange Modified. After drawing the 8 pill he finished the season strong. Runner-up went to Randy Haydt in his race ready modified. Haydt won 2 segments and finished second in the season standings. Third spot went to Cory Reinhard who won a single segment on lane 6 but had a consistent night. The young racer from Boyertown also wound up third in the season ending championship. Fourth spot in the event went to veteran Scott Bender followed by another veteran Bob Amore. For Amore it was his best Modified run this year and he picked up 3 segments along the way.
Modified Musings
Wow did Savvy Cunnius have a great night in the TCS Racing stable Modified. Savannah won three segments in her first 4 races and wound up sixth in the main event. Alex Amore had a nice run as well finishing eighth in the feature and grabbing a race win on lane 8. Rookie Laudan Seyfreid had motor problems and was off the pace this week, but he ended a very good season. Thank you to Chris Brubaker for donating the nice raffle prizes. Welcome to newcomer Andrew Z, thanks for Nick introducing him to the group. 19 racers on hand for the finale. The Annual Awards Banquet will be held next Tuesday beginning at 6pm.
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NASCAR racing closed out its season on Tuesday night and Mark Williams who started off the season with a win closed out the Cup season with his 2nd win of the year. Mark scored 4 segment wins including wins on lanes 1 & 2. Cory Reinhard finished off a strong season winning 2 segments for a Runner Up finish. Looking for his 4th straight Cup win Randy Haydt scored 2 segment wins finishing 3rd. Jim LeVan scored 2 segment wins for his 6th top 5 finish of the year was 4th. Toby Reinhard scored his 2nd straight top 5 winning 2 segments to finish 5th.
6th Lauden Seigfried ( 2 wins ) / 7th Savannah Cunnius ( 1 win ) / 8th Scott Bender / 9th Bob Amore ( 1 win ) / 10th Nick Wummer.
FUEL STOPS:
Good having Bill Brenner back with us. Final Cup race had 16 racers in the pits. Good night for team TCs with Cory 2nd, Toby 5th and Savvy 7th all scoring segment wins. Also Nick Wummer with his 2nd straight Top10 run. Season final 3 weeks as Modifieds close out their season on the 8 lane next week, followed by the Banquet, than the drivers meeting for everyone.
Due to uncertain weather conditions tonight’s racing is canceled.
Jim LeVan opened the Sprint car season with a win and capped off the Sprint car season with his 2nd winged win of the year. Jim ran his fast Orange #1 to 5 segment wins on the middle lanes on way to an impressive win. It was a “TORRID” battle for the Runner Up spot as Lauden Seigfried held off Scott Bender by 1 piece of track for 2nd. Lauden scored 2 segment wins and had lead lap finishes the rest of the way to come home with a strong 2nd place finish. Scott Bender recorded his best Sprint car finish this year winning 1 segment for a 3rd place run. Billy Decker also turned in his best Sprint car run scoring 2 segment wins to finish 4th. Randy Haydt scored his 2nd straight 5th place finish to close out the Top5.
6th Brian Vanbuskirk ( 1 win ) / 7th Toby Reinhard / 8th John Kosmoski / 9th Tony Zappacosta ( 1 win ) / 10th Brian Sponagle.
HOT WINGS:
Good run by Brian V finishing 6th and getting a segment win. John Kosmoski was back from his vacation making his 1st Sprint car start finishing 8th. Also good to see Tony Z back also scoring that 1st segment win and a 9th place finish. Next Week Modifieds back on the 8 lane. Mark what happened to the pit row Security ?.
WILLIAMS WINS MOD MAIN ON TRI-OVALMark Williams won his third feature in a row this time using the tricky Tri-Oval in the weeks highlighted Modified division. A good field of 14 racers was on hand. Williams won 5 segments on the evening and was followed by Brian Sponagle with his best Modified run of the season. Spoons won 2 segments including an impressive win on lane one, bringing his season total of segment wins to 18. This was the only lane one win on the evening which is proving to be a tough lane to win on this season. Third spot went Jim LeVan who won 5 segments in a row after faltering a bit on lane one. The segment wins brought the Reading Racers season total to 27 which is second most this year. [Read more…]
So as our season is coming to an end here are some numbers as compiled by Scott and Mark. We have 3 Modified and single Sprint and NASCAR events left for the season. We have had a good year as far as attendance and competition. The myth surrounding the lane 2 pill is uncovered for Jim’s piece of mind. Although he says he always gets #2 actually this season he did get it 4 times, Mark got it 3 times and Cory and Spoons got it twice. 10 drivers got it just once so it was fairly even.
Also our numbers for driver entries in Modified are up almost 2 per week. The season average in Modified is now 19.2. In NASCAR numbers are up by almost 5 drivers per week to a season average of 18.3. Sprint entries are up about 1 driver for a 14.3 per race average.
SOME NUMBERS REVISED
The lane two facts are although Jim has picked lane 2 four times in reality his % is much higher because he now waits until that number has been pulled so he really pulled it all most every time he drew this season. Now if only he could pull the winning 50/50 every week…………………..
Cup racing returned to Randy’s Raceway this time for its annual Road Course race. Randy Haydt rolled to his 3rd straight Cup win scoring 3 segment wins. Randy’s win was by just 6 pieces of track over Toby Reinhard who scored 3 segment wins on way to his season best 2nd place Cup finish. Trailing Toby by just 7 pieces of track Brian Sponagle scored 4 segment wins for a good 3rd place run, it was Spoons 5th top 5 cup run of the season. Just 12 pieces of track behind Brian Vanbuskirk scored his best Cup finish turning in a solid 4th place run, winning 2 segments. Good run by Lauden Seigfried his 1st time on the Road Course scored 1 segment win to cross the line 5th.
6th Nick Wummer ( 2 wins ) / 7th Mark Williams / 8th Jim LeVan / 9th Larry Sanders / 10th Savannah Cunnius
LEFT TURNS:
Road Course race had 15 racers entered. Good to see Larry Sanders almost get a segment win but still a very good 9th place finish. Also strong runs by Brian Vanbuskirk, Lauden Seigfried, and Nick Wummer. Also to good to see Rob London back with us. Modified racing back next week on the Tri-Oval.
Mark Williams won his second Modified feature in a row this time on the smooth new 8 lane just missing a sweep scoring a 19.31 on lane one. Williams won for the fifth time this season. Randy Haydt scored 19 in all 8 lanes as he ran side by side with the eventual winner all evening. Third spot in his best finish of the season was veteran Billy Decker. Decker scored a segment win on lane three and had at least 19 laps on every lane but lane one. Fourth spot went to Scott Bender in his fast Modified stocker winning a segment on lane two. Rounding out the first five was Cory Reinhard who won 3 segments on the evening. The rest of the top ten were, Mike Feltenberger (1 win), Bill Rowley (1 win),Laudan Seyfried (2 wins), Jim LeVan and Brian Sponagle.
Newsworthy- Good having Mike Feltenberger in the field again this week keeping my string going of racing with him since around 1973. He must be getting old. 16 racers signed in the pit area this week as Bruce and Bill made another start on the super 8 lane. Bill had some strong runs going including a segment win on lane six and a fine 7th place finish in the main event. Team TCS racer Cory Reinhard continued his great season with another top five in his family owned Modified. Cory has been in contention almost every week this year.
