Local Racing
Marks Makes Most at the Grove; Locke and Drevicki also Score
WILLIAMS GROVE, PA (August 14, 2020): It was a good night to be leading points at Williams Grove Speedway. Each of the three feature winners sat atop the standings in their respective classes. Winning the Billy Kimmel Memorial for the 410 Sprints was Brent Marks. Taking the 358 Sprints was Derek Locke. And, taking the first ever USAC East Coast 360 Sprints was Steve Drevicki.
“It feels good to be at home racing,” said Marks, also known as the Myerstown Missile. “We were going to do a lot more traveling,” he said, “but the virus situation changed that.” Marks had spent the last several seasons touring with the World of Outlaws, and he planned to run a true outlaw schedule, mixing in better paying local events with All Stars and World of Outlaws treks. But Marks has remained close to home while series and track schedules went through radical adjustments. Now, he finds himself leading the points battles at the Grove and at Port Royal Speedway, an unexpected benefit for sure.
The win for Marks was his first of the season at the Grove, and his tenth career win. It was his first since knocking off the National Open last fall. Unfortunately for Marks, though, the track was only giving show-up points this night because the date was penned in after the cancellation of the 2020 Knoxville Nationals. Originally, the Grove was to be dark to allow competitors to journey west. Several drivers did opt to attend the One and Only, the substitute for the 60th running of the Nationals, but the majority of them stayed home to race at the Grove.
The win did not come easy for Marks. “That was a really hard race, it was the hardest that I’ve raced in a while,” he said as he struggled to catch his breath. Marks had to chase down pole sitter Brian Montieth, who led from the outset. “I made a lot of mistakes, Brian made a lot of mistakes.” Marks continued, “I thought that I lost the race, I got bottled up down there (pointing toward turn four) and, then, he did the same thing two laps later.” That enabled Marks to get a good run at Montieth and he nipped him at the flag stand as they registered lap 21. Montieth fought back to regain the lead in turn one, but Marks had the better line and he was able to power off turn two with the lead once and for all.
Montieth was paired up with another hungry veteran, Lucas Wolfe, on the front row for the 25 lapper. Jeff Halligan and Marks were in the second row. Freddie Rahmer, Jr. and Matt Campbell were in the third, and Chad Trout and Tyler Ross were in the fourth. The fifth row was made up of Rick Lafferty and Kyle Reinhardt.
Montieth wasted no time building up a lead over Wolfe. Wolfe could not hold onto second for very long, as he was displaced by Marks and Halligan with a couple of laps in the books. Rahmer nestled into fifth, followed by Campbell, Ross, and Trout.
Montieth survived a pair of restarts, on laps six and seven, brought about by minor incidents.
The final 18 laps were run under the green. Marks closed in on Montieth around the halfway mark. Montieth led by a nose on lap 15, but he was able to open up a few car lengths on his challenger when Marks got hung up behind some lapped cars. But Marks rallied and drew close to Montieh as the laps clicked away.
Things got very exciting over the last five laps. When Montieth got caught behind some slower cars, Marks made his move. He grabbed the lead at the line, but then he had to fight back Montieth’s counterattack in turn one. Marks was able to do so successfully and he held the lead to the end.
Following Marks and Montieth were Campbell, Rahmer, and Trout. Halligan, Zeb Wise, Wolfe, Kyle Moody, and Reinhardt completed the top ten. It was Moody’s first race in several weeks, as he was sidelined with a concussion.
Heat wins were scored by Campbell, Lafferty, and Rahmer. There was no B Main.
In the 358 Sprints, Derek Locke scored his second career win at the Grove in remarkable style. Locke took command just two laps into the race and he cruised to the easy win. Doug Hammaker raced up to second, and he was followed by two-time winner Kevin Nouse. Cody Fletcher was fourth after leading the first two circuits. Zach Newlin was fifth. Dylan Norris, Matt Findley, Chris Frank, Scott Fisher, and Chad Criswell rounded out the top ten.
In the USAC 360 debut, Steve Drevicki scored his first career win at the Grove. He had finished second several times before in different classes of cars, but this was his first feature triumph of any kind at the historic venue. He had to fend off the charge of Alex Bright over the last ten laps. Taking third was a former New York Modified ace, Billy Vaninwegen. Joey Biasi out dueled Carmen Perigo, Jr. for fourth. Early leader Bill Unglert crossed in sixth, followed by Kyle Spence, Bruce Buckwalter, Chris Allen, Jr. and John Stehman.
Next week, Williams Grove will host the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Also on the card will be the 410 Sprint Cars. Coming up soon will be the Jack Gunn Memorial Twin 20s for the All Stars Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars.
Dirt Racing
Dietz Does It, Leads Posse Sweep
MECHANICSBURG, PA (October 3, 2025) – Chase Dietz, of York, PA, led a Posse sweep of four of the top five positions on night number one of the National Open Weekend at Williams Grove Speedway. Joining Dietz on the front stretch were second place finisher, Lance Dewease, and the third place runner, Danny Dietrich. Justin Whittall was fifth in the race. The only card carrying Outlaw was Carson Macedo, who led the first twenty-one laps before fading to fourth at the finish.
“I just want to soak it in,” Dietz said as he tried to catch his beath following the exhilarating victory, his first ever against the travelling band. Although Dietz noted that he had speed all year at the Grove, his team assembled a new car this week and, in doing so, they made a lot of changes. “The car was very maneuverable.”
Although Dietz ran most of the race in the top groove, he admitted, “I knew that the bottom was going to come in. I knew that I had to get down there before Lance (Dewease) did. I saw his nose.” As it turned out, Dietz barely got to the bottom ahead of Dewease, forcing the cagy veteran to move to the middle in the closing laps.
“We’re just extremely grateful to be here, this sport can be very humbling,” Dietz added. Even last year, when he was running his own cars, Dietz explained that they fought hard to be competitive with the Outlaws. Although they were winless, they showed good speed and had a podium finish against the Outlaws in the 2024 National Open. “I looked back at the nights when we didn’t win, and I tried to figure out what we needed to do to bet better.”
Dewease, who followed Dietz into second on lap twenty-two and wh briefly challenged him for the lead, commented, “the last three or four laps I wasn’t very good. The lapped cars made it interesting.”
Dietrich, who completed the podium for the Posse, felt that he may have had the fastest car in the final laps but, he added, “things didn’t go my way.” He explained that, when he did pass Dewease, he did not get enough of a gap on him, and that let him (Dewease) get back in.”
Macedo drew the pole for the Dash and his win in that event placed him on the pole for the twenty-five lap preliminary, which paid $12,000 to the winner. Dietrich lined up on his right, Dewease and Dietz made up row two, followed by David Gravel and Buddy Kofoid. Diason Pursley and Justin Whittall stacked our row four. Then came Daryn Pittman and Bill Balog. Row six paired Kody Hartlaub with Justin Peck.
The back of the field was almost as impressive as the first six rows. Back there were racers such as Kerry Madsen (fourteenth), Giovanni Scelzi (sixteenth), Brock Zearfoss (seventeenth), Brent Marks (eighteenth), Ryan Timms (nineteenth), Freddie Rahmer, Jr. (twentieth), Sheldon Haudenschild (twenty-first), Logan Schuchart (twenty-first), and Troy Wagaman (twenty-sixth).
Macedo held off Dietrich in turn one to assume control of the race. Dietz ran in third on the opening lap, but he drove under Dietrich in turn four to take over second one lap later. Dewease ran along in fourth, followed by Kofoid, Gravel, Whittall, Pittman, Pursley, and Balog in the early going.
The running order was pretty static through the first five or six laps. The top ten had a major shake-up on lap seven, though. Something broke on Pittman’s car in turn three, and he spun wildly toward the outside wall. In the process, he collected Pursley, Balog, and Hartlaub. Pittman and Pursely retired from the race due to the damage incurred, but Balog and Hartlaub were able to rejoin the field for the restart after pitting for repairs.
That fracas was the only caution of the race.
Macedo and Dietz resumed the battle for the lead on the restart. However, one lap later, Dewease moved into third, ahead of Dietrich, Kofoid, and Gravel. Whittall, Peck, Scelzi, and Rahmer made up the balance of the top ten. At that juncture, Wagaman was about six positions behind Rahmer in their race within the race for the point championship.
Through the middle stage of the race, Dietz began to close in on Macedo. Dewease continued in third, several car lengths behind the leaders. Dietrich was about the same distance back in fourth.
Dietz caught up to Macedo with about five or six laps remaining in the contest. He managed to pass Macedo on the inside of turn three on lap twenty-one, but Macedo countered in turn four to regain the lead.
Macedo dove to the inside heading into turn one, but he scrubbed off spme speed. Dietz was able to get some momentum coming through turn two and that propelled hin down the backstretch. He slid Macedo for the lead coming through turns three and four, and Dewease followed in his tire tracks to take over second coming off turn four.
Dietz missed the bottom entering turn one, and Dewease poked his nose under him going through the turn, Dietz recovered, and he got a good run off turn two to preserve his lead. Dietz then committed to the low line for the final laps, requiring Dewease to move more toward the middle of the track.
Dietrich dispatched Macedo and he got a run on Dewease near the end of the race. However, Dewease was able to reclaim second soon thereafter.
At the finish, it was Dietz by a tad under eight tenths of a second over Dewease. Dietrich was third, followed by Macedo and Whittall. Kofoid, Gravel, Scelzi,Peck, and Marks completed the top ten.
Rahmer was eleventh, and Wagaman sixteenth. Although Wagaman was the hard charger at plus ten, he lost valuable points to Rahmer. The two racers will be separated by 125 points, unofficially, heading into Saturday’s season finale.
Heat wins were scored by Gravel, Kofoid, Dewease, and Pursley. Ryan Newton won the non-qualifiers race. Kyle Spence recovered from a tipover in his heat race to capture the C Main. The B Main went to Haudenschild. Gravel was the evening’s fastest qualifier, with a lap of 16.409 seconds topping Group A. Dewease timed the best in Group B, with a lap of 16.760 seconds. Fifty-six cars participated in the event.
Dirt Racing
Dale Blaney Wins World Of Outlaws At Sharon Speedway
HARTFORD, OH (September 27, 2025) – Dale Blaney had the hometown crowd on their feet and screaming after winning the World of Outlaws feature Saturday Night at Sharon Speedway, the track owned for years by the Blaney family.
Blaney started fifth and passed Cole Macedo on lap 11 for the lead then held off a furious last lap charge by Buddy Kofoid to win by just 0.136 seconds for the $12,000 payday!
The victory was Blaney’s first World of Outlaws victory in 10-years, becoming the oldest winner in Series history at 61 years 7 months and 28 days. Blaney broke the previous record set by his older brother Dave when he won at 58 years of age in 2021 at Sharon.
“There’re so many good young race car drivers out here, but to win a race at 61 (years old) is awesome,” said Blaney. ““I had the feeling that I was never going to win an Outlaw race ever again. I don’t race much. This is our sixth race this year. I haven’t run in seven weeks. The car was awesome. We just got it back together this week. I don’t know what to say. It’s great and cool to win this at Sharon Speedway- it’s the only place I’ve run this year. This is a special freaking night. I know that.”
“I wanted traffic,” said Kofoid. “My car is usually amazing in traffic. He slipped up, and then I kind of got in his air and got me slipped up. And then I hit the wall coming to the checkered, and it shot me down the track. I tried to send it and was close. I’m just happy for Dale and Dave.”
Sheldon Haudenschild finished third follow by WoO points leader David Gravel in fourth. Logan Schuchart rounded out the Top 5.
The night however belonged to the Blaney family, who fittingly closed out the the first year of the new ownership group of Dave Blaney, Ryan Blaney, and Will Thomas III in Victory Lane.
Dirt Racing
Rain Halts Fallen Heroes Memorial at Lincoln Speedway
ABBOTTSTOWN, PA (September 27, 2025): A persistent, localized drizzle forced a stoppage of the Fallen Heroes Memorial at the Lincoln Speedway. The event, which was originally dubbed the Fallen Firefighters Memorial, was expanded to give tribute to the three York County police officers recently slain while serving a subpoena.
Brett and Jordan Strickler, policemen in the area, honored the fallen officers on the wings of their 410 Sprint Cars.
The 410 Sprint Cars were ready to take to the track for their feature event when the rain set in for the second time of the night. A brief shower interrupted the heat races for the 358 Sprint Cars. However, after the rain stopped, the track crew and push truck operators quickly prepared the surface so that all qualifications could be completed.
The line-ups for both feature races are set, and the events will be completed on October 18, along with the full program for both divisions in the Final 50. So, fans will be treated to four features that evening.
The point races in both divisions will conclude on October 18.
Dallas Schott, Kyle Moody, and Billy Dietrich won the heat races for the 410 Sprinters. Ryan “Fig” Newton prevailed in the B Main. Troy Wagaman, Jr. was the fastest qualifier of the twenty-nine cars on hand. His time was an astonishing 12.855 seconds. He was one of four racers to turn sub-thirteen second laps.
In the 358 Sprint Car preliminaries, the checkers waved for Cameron Merriman, Logan Spahr, and Cody Fletcher. There were twenty-one 358 Sprints checked in for the contest.
On October 4, Lincoln Speedway will present AMA Flat Track Motorcycles and Quads. There will be no auto races in consideration of the National Open to be held at Williams Grove Speedway. The World of Outlaws will take on the Pennsylvania Posse on October 11. The Lincoln season will conclude with the blockbuster event, the Final 50 plus the held over features.

