Dirt Racing
Timms Takes Ten Grand 360 Sprint Finale
GIBSONTON, FL (February 16, 2024): Ryan Timms, the teen from Oklahoma City, earned the biggest victory of his young career by taking the Ronald Laney Memorial that wrapped up the King of the 360 Nationals at East Bay Raceway Park. The race concluded the 48th Annual Winternationals a day early due to the heavy rains forecasted for the weekend. The staff at the speedway will get a well-deserved break before rolling into the final regular season at the Clay by the Bay.
Timms was excited about his win. “It feels awesome. It’s even better being able to come from fourteenth to win it. God. I had such a fast race car. It was kind of a perfect race for us. The last couple of nights, we kind of struggled. We had a fast car all weekend, we just didn’t have much luck. I’m glad that we could put a whole race together and get up through there and get a win here.” He summed, “it’s definitely extra special being the last 360 race at East Bay.”
It did not take long for Timms to realize that he had a chance to win the finale. “I think it was lap ten, we were up to fourth. I knew that I had the car under me to do it. I just had to be patient enough and I had to wait for the guys ahead of me to kind of mess up. I was waiting to get to lapped traffic and I was able to capitalize on their mistakes.”
Timms added, “this place is cowboy up. It’s just a slide job fest really. You’re cutting it close to everybody.”
Sprint car racing in Florida in February has always been like a gathering of the clans, bringing together racers from all over the country to do battle for the glory and the gold. For the returning veterans, and for the fans, it is like an annual reunion. That theme meant even more for the second place runner, Tim Shaffer, who was reunited with the Demyan-Rudzik race team and with his former crew chief, Brian Kemanah. “We put this thing back together. It’s like the band is back together again, For us, the third night out and it really started clicking,” he said.
“We’re happy with second. We really would have loved to win it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” he added.
Shaffer was disappointed that the race was the end of an era, saying that “it kills me” that the track will be closing. “I really like this place. I’ve been coming down here for a long time. It’s fun. It’s the right time of year. There are really good people here. I’m going to miss it.”
Austin McCarl, who entered the race as a sentimental favorite of many of the fans, was frustrated with the lapped cars that he encountered in his journey to third. “The traffic was really crazy.” He explained that, as the leader, he was not shown proper respect when he came up to lap a former winner of the race. But, he was ready to move on. “We’re excited for the rest of the year. I’ve never started this early and to have two big checks in the lounge is really great.”
Austin McCarl drew the pole for the top six point men based on the two preliminary nights. Next to him was Shaffer, who coincidentally placed second to McCarl in the combined prelim results. A.J. Maddox and Davey Franek started in row two, with Danny Martin and Justin Peck taking the third row. Next came the heat winners, Terry McCarl, Eric Riggins, Tyler Clem, Danny Sams, and Sam Hafertepe, Jr., in that order. P12 belonged to Max Stambaugh, who was second in his heat.
Austin McCarl led Shafffer into turn one, but Franek used the inside line to take over second on the first lap. Peck, Maddox, Danny Martin, Sams, Riggins, Timms (who was already up from fourteenth), and Cole Macedo made for a potent top ten.
Franek handed second over to Shaffer on lap ten, and Timms was up to fifth by the time a red came out for the three-car tangle in turn three. Peck, Riley Goodno, and Wayne Johnson were involved, with Goodno taking the brunt of the impact. All three cars were eliminated, but none of the drivers were injured.
Austin McCarl maintained control after the restart, but Shaffer was stalking him. Unable to find a place to make a pass, Shaffer remained close in second until lap twenty-eight, when Timms went by in traffic. Timms then took up the chase of Austin McCarl.
It only took Timms three more rounds to catch and pass Austin McCarl coming down the front stretch. McCarl remained close enough to try a slider going through turn three, but Timms had better momentum and he retained the lead.
Now Shaffer resumed his challenge to Austin McCarl, but, this time it was for second, as Timms began to stretch his advantage. Shaffer made the pass on Austin McCarl on lap thirty-seven. But Timms was on cruise control by that time.
Shaffer began to close as Timms encountered more lapped traffic. Still, Timms had a comfortable margin over Shaffer.
After the white flag was displayed to Timms and several others, Parker Price-Miller came to a stop in turn two. That set up a one-lap dash for all the marbles.
Timms got the jump on Shaffer and he completed the final lap of the last edition of the Winternationals without incident. Shaffer was second, followed by Austin McCarl, Sams, and Aaron Reutzel, who came from twentieth on the grid. Franek was sixth, ahead of Hafertepe, Macedo, Devon Borden, and Terry McCarl.
There were three B Mains held. The victories went to Macedo, Dale Howard, and Liam Martin. Provisionals were awarded to Mark Smith and Price-Miller.
The DIRTcar United CCC Modified Lites provided support once again. Jimmy Wills, of Dover, DE, returned to the winners’ circle at the end of the twenty-five laps. He was the first racer to pass Tim White under the green flag in the three days of action. Taking second was fellow Delawarean Ryan McKinney. Third went to Justin Williams. White was fourth, followed by Charles Permann. Heat winners were White and Wills. The fastest qualifier was White, with a time of 17.420 seconds.
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.
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.
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.
Dietz Does It, Leads Posse Sweep
Corey Heim parlays overtime restart into record 10th NASCAR Truck Series win
Opportunistic Chase Elliott steals a NASCAR Cup Playoff win at Kansas
Dale Blaney Wins World Of Outlaws At Sharon Speedway
