Hamlin, PA - Seven Great Features Highlight An Evening At Hamlin Speedway
By: Steve Pados, GA Motorsports Media

As the summer sunshine continues to capture the beautiful scenic Pocono Mountain landscape, the drivers and crews of a special breed of racers continue to compete and put on great shows at the Hamlin Speedway and Saturday night was no exception. Promoters Denise and Randy Smith offered another fabulous edition of the 2017 racing season at Hamlin and the talented roster of drivers once again displayed their daredevil, race to the walls brand of racing excitement. A large crowd was on hand to witness the show as one hundred and eight racers came to do battle on Saturday evening. The seven feature card was presented by S&S Speedways Indoor Go Karts located in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and JPA Masonry located in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania.

When the final scorecards were tallied it was "The Oxford Express" Dale Kober scoring his eighth win of the season in the Super Slinger finale. "The Angle" Cole Stangle continues to raise the bar as he sped to his second win of the season in the Hampton RV and Trailer Stage One Modified Division. Duane White led all of the way to capture his first ever career win in the JPA Masonry Wingless 600 Sprint main. "The Fearless One" Kyle Ferrucci added another notch to his gun belt with his third win of the season in the Wingless 270 Sprint main. Jack VanVarick, competing in only in a handful of events this season, was in the zone as he raced to his first win of the season at Hamlin in the Junior Slingshot finale. "The Ry-Guy" Ryan Stangle has only been competing at Hamlin a few times but he was spot on as he sped to his first career victory of the season in the JPA Masonry Rookie Wingless 600 feature event. In the headliner event of the evening, "The Oley Jet" Brett Bieber led all thirty laps to claim his second win of the season at Hamlin in the All Star Slingshot finale.

The seven feature events were all excellent runs and the "stars of tomorrow" Junior Slingshot drivers continue to excel with each turn of the steering wheel as seventeen drivers began the feature on Saturday night. JJ Rice and Jack VanVarick brought the field to the line. VanVarick jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag and the move would prove to be the winner as VanVarick would withstand a full blown effort from Rice to lead all twenty laps to capture his first career win at Hamlin in his Bangor Steel Sponsored hot rod. A scramble on the final lap found Adam Buchel notching a runner-up finish in his Cole Polishing sponsored mount. Rice would finish third with Jake Mason and Shelby McLaughlin completing the top five. Heading up the second five was John Kendall with Mikey Johannes, Tyler Banks, Abby Yates and Kyle Swart all nailing down top ten finishes.

Mark Corna raced into the lead in turn one at the start of the Hampton RV and Trailer Stage One Modified main event. Corna would lead for a lap before yielding to Mike Samony as the mighty one used a strong top shelf maneuver to take away the lead from Corna. Samony would lead through lap nine as when he encountered slower traffic Cole Stangle was the johnny on the spot and grabbed the lead. That would be the only move Stangle would need as he controlled the point despite the fact he had Pat VanVarick and Joel Smith breathing down his tailpipes. Cole Stangle would race to his second win with VanVarick and Joel Smith behind him. John Comandini was fourth and Anthony Recchio rounded out the top five. Michael Samony headed up the second five with newcomer Andrew Vreeland, Cody Motto, newcomer Jacob Nemeth and John Bachetti Sr completing the top ten.

The JPA Masonry Rookie 600 Sprint feature found Ryan Stangle hustling out front at the start of the event. Stangle was able to find the line he wanted and stayed true to the line throughout the running of the event. Paul Richards Jr took up the chase at the halfway point and closed nose to tail with Stangle but a costly jingle with a slower car coming to the finish line created the loss of valuable real estate at the end. Stangle would capture the win with Macy Litchauer second, Joey Amantea third, Ryan Lacoe fourth and Chloe Andreas returning to action to nail down fifth place. Paul Richards Jr headed up the second five with Carmen Leggio Sr, Zack Weisenfluh, newcomer Mike Thompson and Jack Hanna completing the top ten.

The Wingless 270 Sprint headliner found Alex Reinsmith getting the jump on the field when the green flag was displayed. The event settled into a high speed chase as Reinsmith would lead for four laps until the high flying Kyle Ferrucci drove on by. Once in front, Ferrucci built up a huge lead on the field to go on and capture his third win of the season. Reinsmith would finish second with Glenn Macomber third.

Super Slinger action found Dale Kober getting the jump on the field at the start of the event. Once in front, Kober was able to race to daylight while some heated racing action was going on behind him. Kober has had the hot hand all season long and sped to his eighth win of the season with Greg Zellman making a valiant effort to finish in the runner-up role. Mike Taylor was third with Donny Hockman grabbing up fourth in the Tess Horvath race car, Wes Hearn fifth and Jimmy Conroy making up the remainder of the field.

The JPA Masonry 600 Wingless Sprint main found South Abington Township resident Duane White driving to daylight at the drop of the green flag. White kept a steady pace with plenty of heated action going on behind him. Joseph Smith and Joel Smith had their own battle gong and Mack Brink and Mick D'Agostino would join the battle several laps later. This was a night when everything went (r)white as Duane White raced to his first career win at Hamlin. Joseph Smith outlasted Joel Smith for runner-up honors with Joel Smith, Mack Brink and Mick D'Agostino completing the top five. Damon Paul, Colin White, Danny Buccafusca, the returning Pat Bealer and the returning Ryan Quackenbush completed the top ten finishers.

Thirty three cars attempted to qualify for the next to last leg of the Slingshot Speedweeks event. Utilizing the dual heat format, Brett Bieber earned the pole start for the thirty lap headliner. Bieber out gunned Dylan Hoch into turn one and the move would prove to be the highlight reel as Bieber hit his marks constantly around the speedway and later in the race was able to drive away from the field in between caution flags. Bieber would earn his second win of the season with Hoch in the runner-up role. Cody Kline was third with Tyler Peet and Jared Silfee completing the top five. Dale Kober headed up the second five with Mike Taylor, Cole Stangle, Russell Benke and Seth Spayd following. The next five in line were Samantha Muller, Alan Kober, Amanda Buchel, Dakota Kohler and Anthony Raisner. Twenty of the twenty seven starters completed all thirty laps of the feature event.

PEARL JAMS:

Heat racing action at Hamlin continue to fuel the fires that make Hamlin Speedway the place to be on Saturday nights as Duane White and Joseph Smith were victorious in the 600 Sprint heat events. Two heats were required for the Stage One Modifieds with Joel Smith and Cole Stangle securing the wins. Kyle Ferrucci captured the heat win for the Wingless 270 Sprints. Dale Kober captured the lone heat race win for the Super Slingers. Two rounds of heats were need to establish the starting lineup for the All Star Slingshots and capturing heat wins were Wes Hearn, Brett Bieber, Dylan Hoch and Troy Langerdoerfer in round one while Seth Spayd, Tyler Peet, Russell Benke and Alan Kober were victorious in the second round.

The Junior Slingshot ran time trials with Shelby McLaughlin holding the hot hand at 14.890 seconds over JJ Rice and Tyler Banks.

Newcomers or returning racers to the Hamlin Speedway scene for the Saturday night racing action included Brian Smith in the Junior Slingshots. Donny Hockman returned to action in the Super Slingers. The All Star Slingshots featured Dylan Hoch, Brett Bieber, Seth Spayd, Anthony Raisner, Kyle Herve, Dakota Kohler and Joe Toth. Tanner Jones was leading his heat event when he expired an engine in his racer. Mike Thompson, Dennis Chamberlain, Ryan Quackenbush, Pat Bealer and Eddie Strada were in action in the 600 Sprints. Chloe Andreas and Dennis Stawinski Jr returned to action in the Rookie 600 Sprints. Jacob Nemeth and Meredith Howell were on hand to do battle in the Stage One Modifieds.

Despite all of the rain that has inundated the Northeast, Randy Smith had the speedway in great shape for the evening of speed and three and four wide action in the heat events was commonplace. At intermission Smith brought out the grader to give the drivers an equal race track to compete on and the racing was over the top great.

Cindy Motto won the 50/50.

Happy birthday wishes go out to Ed Strada Jr on his 50th birthday.

Scranton Times writer Scott Walsh took in the racing action for the first time and came away very impressed with the professionally run speedway and the over the top talent that exists at Hamlin. Walsh is preparing some future stories regarding the Hamlin Driving roster.

Congratulations are in order for Hamlin drivers for the great showing on Tuesday night at the Reading Nostalgia Nationals with Shelby McLaughlin capturing the Junior Slingshot event and Jared Silfee winning the All Star Slingshot event in the Randy and Denise Smith owned Slingshot making it a clean sweep in the winner's circle.

"The Communicator" Matthew Gaughan took in the show this week as he drove in from Ohio.

RESULTS:

All Star Slingshots: (Speedweeks Tour Event) Brett Bieber, Dylan Hoch, Cody Kline, Tyler Peet, Jared Silfee, Dale Kober, Mike Taylor, Cole Stangle, Russell Benke, Seth Spayd, Samantha Muller, Alan Kober, Amanda Buchel, Dakota Kohler, Anthony Raisner, Kyle Herve, Tess Horvath, Tanner VanDoren, Ashley Kober, Austin Silfee, Wes Hearn, Joe Toth, Troy Langendoerfer, Dillon Emmons, Josh Marcus, Taylor Mills, Mike McLaughlin.....DNQ: CJ Fritz, Damon Paul, Emily Fleming, Clayton Davey, Corey Zielinski, Tanner Jones

Wingless 270cc Sprints: Kyle Ferrucci, Alex Reinsmith, Glenn Macomber

JPA Masonry Wingless 600cc Sprints: Duane White, Joseph Smith, Joel Smith, Mack Brink, Mick D'Agostino, Damon Paul, Colin White, Danny Buccafusca, Pat Bealer, Ryan Quackenbush, Geordan Marrero, Tyler Lindsey, Jacob Balliet, Joey Amantea, Mike Thompson, JD Casazza, Cody Smith, Eddie Strada

Hampton RV And Trailer Stage One Modifieds: Cole Stangle, Pat VanVarick, Joel Smith, John Comandini, Anthony Recchio, Michael Samony, Andrew Vreeland, Cody Motto, Jacob Nemeth, John Bachetti Sr, John Bachetti Jr, Evan Civick, Mark Connelly, Meredith Howell, Mark Corna

Junior Slingshots: Jack VanVarick, Adam Buchel, JJ Rice, Jake Mason, Shelby McLaughlin, John Kendall, Mikey Johannes, Tyler Banks, Abby Yates, Kyle Swart, Austin Homan, James Benz, Joey Kalafut, James Hendricks, Rachel Dickinson, Brian Smith, James Costlow

Super Slingshots: Dale Kober, Greg Zellman, Mike Taylor, Donny Hockman, Wes Hearn, Jim Conroy, Corey Zielinski

JPA Masonry Rookie 600cc Wingless Sprints: Ryan Stangle, Macy Litchauer, Joey Amantea, Ryan Lacoe, Chloe Andreas, Paul Richards Jr, Carmen Leggio Sr, Zack Weisenfluh, Mike Thompson, Jack Hanna, Hunter Metzger, Tony Parlanti, Cody Powell, Dennis Chamberlain, Dennis Stawinski Jr, Tyler Lindsey

Racing every Saturday evening from April through September. The next event on the Hamlin Speedway schedule is set for August 19th when all regular divisions will be in action.

Make sure to check the Hamlin Speedway website or Facebook page for any additional information. Pit Gates open at the speedway at 3 PM; Drivers Meeting at 5:45; Hot Laps are at 6:00 and the racing begins at 7 PM sharp. Admission Prices for regular shows are: Adults $10.00; Senior Citizens $5.00 Children under 6 are Free

Please support the many great sponsors who assist in working and sponsoring the season long events at the speedway. Tilcon, Ron Brown Hauling, JPA Masonry, RockAuto.com, S&S Speedways and Yankowski Enterprises are all part of the advertising family at the speedway and we graciously thank them for their support.

Hamlin Speedway is seeking additional marketing sponsors to join the speedway team for the 2017 racing season. For more information, contact Steve Pados at: 484-784-7756 or through email at: steveswp@ptd.net or Denise Smith at S&S Speedways at: 570-420-5500 or at: www.SSSpeedways.com or on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SSSpeedways/ or www.HamlinSpeed.com or facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HamlinSpeed

For photos of the great racing action at Hamlin, please contact Tim Krysiuk at: https://strictlydirtphotography.smugmug.com/

Visit us often for a great night of racing action as.........................

The Hamlin Speedway Is The "Pearl" Of The Poconos