Well the practice day for the St. Patty’s Day race came up quick, and we thought the winter was over and then the snow fell, but that did not stop16 racers to make the journey to Kutztown, PA. Most of them were here all day and took advantage of the 5 hours of practice time. Both tracks were clean and ready for the racing action. There was great tech talk, tuning, tweaking, adjusting, many laps, and a few choice words for some. This all goes without saying when you are working on T-Jets. 5pm was here before we knew it and 9 of us of walked up to the local tavern for some fine food and socializing.
Sunday morning was here and the doors opened at 8am. The coffee was made fresh and doughnuts were on hand for morning treats. Racers started to filter in and claimed their pit areas for the day. Around 9am the signing in started and the total drivers for Super Stock was 34, 4 more then last years event. We had a few experienced first time racers at Randy’s Raceway and some new rookies who came to give road racing a try this year. They all were a great addition to have joined with us for friendly racing competition. A few of the regulars could not make it due to other circumstances or the number of entries would have been higher.
Hiram Duran ECHORR President doing Pre-Tech of the cars
The cars were called for tech and the racing began around 10am.
Super Stocks being the first class to run for the day started on the 6-Lane Tub Track. The racers were placed at random by Track Mate and a 3-minute round began for the 34 racers. The lap times were comparable to last year and racing lap totals
L – R Shane Hiester / Hank Galloway / Randy Haydt / Mario ” Chief ” Pisano / Ray Kurtz / Mark Williams
were very close this year. 1st through 6th place were only 5 laps apart in an 18 minute race running about a 5 second lap time. It was Bryan Kisthart from Emmaus, PA taking the top honors over 2nd place finisher Joel Lux from Buffalo, NY. This was Bryan’s first win on the Tub Track and Joel’s second 2nd place finish. 3rd place went to last year’s winner Rich Schmidt from
Morgantown, PA. Hiram Durant from Westminster, MD ( ECHORR President ) raced for a solid 4th place finish. Rounding out the top 5 was Derek Shaeffer from Harrisburg, PA ( last name spelled like the beer ) Speaking of beer; there was green beer on tap the whole weekend for all to enjoy. Finishing in 6th position and 1 lap out of 5th was Dave Simms from Newtown Square, PA. These top 6 drivers ran well through all six races and to be 5 laps apart shows how close the competition was for the Super Stock class.
Seven racers decided to run slip-on tires and the top 5 all finished within 5 laps of each other. Randy Haydt from Kutztown, PA became the first slip-on tire winner on the Tub Track. He finished by sections over George Bukovsky from Willmington, DE who placed 2nd. 3rd place went to Mark Webster from upstate ? NY and was only 1 lap away from the top 2 spots. Chuck Sheaffer from Harrisburg, PA was 4th and Joe Rinn from Hillsborough, NJ was 5th.
After the Super Stock race was over everybody’s attention turned to the food. Once again Spud’s came through and supplied us with burgers, fries, wings, pierogies, and the condiments to go along. The host provided a wide variety of other extras that added to the feast. A big thank you goes to Hiram D, Derek S., Joe Rinn, and Pit Stop who helped to keep the races running all day while I attended to the food.
The Indy Cars on the line at Randy’s Raceway
Next on the race day schedule was the Indy car race on the 8-Lane Oval. This has always been an exciting race to be in or just watch. What you have are fast Indy cars with coast and very little brake so stopping at the end of a 20 foot straight is a bit tricky. Bryan Kisthart once again pulled off the championship win. Joel who placed 2nd was down 1 lap to Bryan. Last year Joel beat Bryan by 1 lap so lets see what will happen next year ? The top spot could have gone to either racer each having their own
Bryan Kisthart winner of Super Stock and Indy
trouble in different lanes. Byran had issues getting started in lane 1. Joel had a pick up shoe problem and was pushing other Indy cars down the back stretch who jumped in his lane. The 3rd spot was given to Chuck Sheaffer and 4th went to Randy Haydt. Hiram Durant finished in 5th. Mark Williams from Oley, PA who is a Rookie to racing these cars finished in 6th. Something else we never saw before was a 3 wheel Indy car driven by Vic Quiones. Vic lost a left rear tire with 20 seconds left in his heat and finished. Good way to run stagger on the oval Vic !
Spending a great weekend with friends and to have the competitive racing that we have is fantastic. Thank you to all 34 racers who made the trip to Kutztown and making this event a success. For everyone that would like a live report we will see you next year for the 3rd Annual St. Patty’s Day Race.
All scores are posted below.
Randy Jay Haydt
Randy’s Raceway
Kutztown, PA
www.randysraceway.com
