Randy's Raceway

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…]

Veterans Jim LeVan and Randy Haydt won features this week at Randy’s Raceway.  LeVan captured the NASCAR feature, his second of the season winning all 6 lanes on the tough Tri-Oval.  Jim also only had 1 falloff enroute to his 14th career Cup feature win.  Second spot went to the season’s Point winner Mark Williams who scored 3 segment wins on the evening.  Third was Randy Haydt who also won 3 segments.  Brian Sponagle won 2 segments to come home 4th.  Rounding out the top 5 was Scott Bender. Billy Decker opening day winner wound up in 6th followed by Ed Kenderline and John Kosmoski.  [Read more…]

Tuesday night at Randy’s Raceway Randy Haydt ended a string of 2nd and 3rd place finishes with his 1st Modified win of the season. Drawing the #1 pill Randy scored 6 segment wins on way to the win, it was the 4th different winner in the Modified division. Scott Bender turned in a season best 2nd place finish scoring 2 segment wins, it was his 5th Top 5 of the season. Toby Reinhard collected a solid 3rd place finish scoring 3 segment wins on lanes 2 – 4, it was his 4th Top 5 finish of the season. [Read more…]

Mark Williams found victory lane for the 7^th time this season and it was career win #60.  Williams won 4 segments in lanes 1-4 and out raced Bryan Kisthardt for the win.  BK also had 4 segment wins and another strong run for the #1 car.  Brian Sponagle the racing Educator rode home 3^rd and had an impressive 5 segment wins on lanes 2 thru 6.  Jim LeVan wound up a strong 4^th winning 4 segments, bringing his career Modified segment victories to 234 moving him into fourth place all-time.  Rounding out the top 5 was ECHORR specialist Randy Haydt who had steady runs throughout.  The rest of the top ten were, Cory Reinhard, Billy Decker, John Kosmoski, Toby Reinhard and Tony Zappacosta.

Modified Notes-

An unusual segment win scenario happened this week with 17 racers in the field all the segments were won by the first 4 finishers.  This weeks event the double header for the Sprints and IROC cars has been cancelled because of Stella.  Next event will be the Mighty Modifieds on the 8 lane.  Also a special 15 lap match race for the last 8 finishers will be held with parts prizes for the winner.  Thanks to Chris Brubaker and Hiester’s HO Raceway for the idea.

Mark Williams won his fourth NASCAR feature of the season and regained the point lead at Randy’s Raceway.  Williams won 7 segments on way to his win over a strong running Jim LeVan who won 6 segments on the night in his Orange Cup car.  Third spot went to the consistent Scott Bender winner of 1 segment.  Fourth was season opening night winner Billy Decker with 2 segment wins.  Rounding out the top five was Chris Brubaker who also won 2 segments.

Next up is a Modified show on the Tri-Oval.  The Speedway has continued to draw great fields with 18 on hand for the Cup show.