7.22.22 Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway Results
By Kasey Kreider
Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek provides an opportunity for some of the country’s greatest 600 micro sprint drivers to pit themselves against each other on a common stage, with the six-race series annually providing the platform for the best of the best to shine. For the second straight year, Speedweek’s two-day finale would be held at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, and Friday night’s Preliminary Night sponsored by Keizer Wheels did not disappoint in terms of excitement and drama. At the end of a wild A-Main that seemingly saw a new twist and jaw-dropping moment every lap, Kyle Spence found his way back to Lanco’s victory lane, picking up the victory and locking himself into Saturday night’s big dance.
After turning the quickest time in warmups, Connor Gross appeared to be one of the favorites for overall quick time once time trials began. However, Gross would instead be part of some of the early drama, as he slapped the wall on his time trial attempt and was forced to pull in with damage to the right rear before recording a time. The quickest time of Flight A belonged to one of the home track drivers, as Bradley Brown made his presence felt during his Speedweek debut with a quick time of 11.400 seconds.
That lap wouldn’t stand as the quick overall time though, as Nick Skias first beat it with an 11.370-second lap. Then, current Speedweek point leader Steven Snyder, Jr. laid down an 11.368. And finally, defending Speedweek champion Christian Bruno turned the quickest lap of all, with a time of 11.316 seconds, giving him his second overall quick time of the week.
The stage was then set for the night’s eight heat races, with the main goal being to accumulate passing points. The top six starters for each heat were inverted from their time trial lap, so any sixth to first runs would ensure that a driver started close to the front for the feature.
2020 Speedweek champion Brian Carber picked up the heat 1 win in his return to the Clyde, while Brown garnered fifth-to-second passing points after a driver in front of him in the lineup failed to start. NASCAR star Christopher Bell then turned in the night’s first sixth to first run in heat 2. Heat 3 was won from the pole by Cliff Brian, Jr., while T. J. Greve made his return to the driver’s seat and picked up the win of heat 4 from the fifth starting spot.
A sixth to first run for Bruno would ensure him the pole for the A-Main, but he would only be able to get to second, as Mason Beinhower hung on for the heat 5 victory, the first among drivers in Flight B. Snyder, Jr. then turned in a sixth to first run, dominating his heat race en route to victory. A wild heat 7 that saw Bobby Butler cut down a tire on the final lap opened the door for Kyle Spence to take the victory. The final heat race belonged to Illinois’ Daniel Robinson, as he won from the outside pole.
With the top 18 in passing points, the rest of the 81-car field had to come through four B-Mains, with the top two transferring from each to fill out the field. B-Main 1 ran relatively smoothly, with Joey Kay picking up the win and heat race winner Beinhower holding off Kyle Lick to finish second and transfer to his first A-Main of the week. B-Main 2 saw Gavan Boschele dominate to take the win, while D. J. Vanderley picked up the other transfer spot after a battle with T. J. Smith and Preston Lattomus.
B-Main 3 is when things began to get a little wild, as a caution-filled event saw Brian, Jr. back up his heat race win with a B-Main win in order to transfer, while Brian Kramer held off Jackson White and a host of others through several late restarts for the second spot. The fourth B-Main then brought the most chaos of the night, particularly surrounding championship contender Colin White, who came into the night trailing Steven Snyder, Jr. by 72 points and found himself buried in a B-Main after a late spin in his heat race.
White moved himself up toward the front from his 11th starting spot and was battling for a transfer position with just a few laps left when he clipped one of the infield tires in turn 1 and went for a spin, seemingly ending any chance he had of making the A-Main. However, chaos ensued from there. On one of the following restarts, Butler tried to pull a slide job and made contact with leader Michael Nolf, knocking Nolf out of the race and forcing Butler to regroup from the back of the field. Dominic Foster and Bubba Rains also got together while battling for a transfer spot, opening the door for White to continue a last-gasp effort to the front.
After all the chaos, White found himself third behind Aiden Price and Matt Warner with two laps remaining. White and Warner battled for the first lap, but coming out of turn 4 to the white flag, White got into Warner’s left rear, sending him for a spin and taking him out of the running to make the A-Main, while also taking away any opportunity at the championship. White’s misfortune opened the door for Butler to battle Warner for that final transfer spot, and a bold slider in turns 1 and 2 got the job done, as Price would win the B-Main, and Butler would finish second to round out the starting lineup for the feature.
Snyder, Jr. and Bell finished tied for passing points after their heat race victories, but the tiebreaker went to Snyder, Jr., putting him on pole for the A-Main. Greve lined up third and was the show for the race’s first few laps, riding quite literally up on the wall on a few separate occasions. However, that was due to a partially stuck throttle on the No. 52T, and he pulled in under the first caution period for a six-car pileup near the back of the field which knocked Kay, Reese Nowotarski, and Matt Francis out of the running.
Snyder, Jr. continued to lead after the next restart, but Bruno moved up to second and tried to keep pace with the Rising Sun, MD driver. Robinson and Holden Eckman’s crash on the frontstretch brought out the next caution, with Eckman going upside down. Thankfully, both drivers were uninjured, but both cars were out of the race. A few more restarts followed as quick yellows continued to pepper the race, including one for a flip on the backstretch by Prestyn Brown. Bruno had been able to trade sliders with Snyder, Jr. on one restart, but Snyder, Jr. kept the top spot. In the meantime, Spence had moved past Bell into third and began to make his presence felt at the front.
After Neal Allison’s spin on lap 10 brought out a caution, the race finally began to get into a bit of a green flag run. But then, chaos ensued again. Snyder, Jr., who had finished on the podium all four nights so far, finally saw his first twinge of bad luck, as he cut down a tire after hitting the guardrail and fell out of the race. That allowed Bruno to inherit the lead, and after entering the night 80 points back in the championship, a win would be crucial toward any efforts to stay alive in the fight. But with fifteen to go, Bruno broke what appeared to be a shock and perhaps some other components on the right rear of his car, and came to a stop on the backstretch out of the running.
The lead then went to Spence, but the craziness wasn’t done yet. Vanderley and Butler tangled on the ensuing restart, leaving the North Carolina driver out of the race and none too happy with the multi-time winner at the Clyde. Bradley Brown was then spun at the other end of the speedway from fourth, and pulled to the infield as well.
Spence led Bell, Carber, and Mitchell Bard back for the restart, and as Carber tried to mount a late charge, he also cut down a tire and was forced to pull out of competition. Boschele survived the chaos long enough to run in fourth, but then lost a chain on his car and came to a stop, bringing out the night’s final caution with seven to go.
The final dash to the finish would have just six cars left running. Spence led Bell, Tommy Kunsman, Allison, Bard, and Alex Ruppert for the final restart. Spence was able to clear Bell on the bottom and move to the top shelf, while Bell and Kunsman were left to fight tooth and nail for second. That battling was all Spence needed to pull away, as he cruised to a wild victory in just his second race of the week.
The win was Spence’s fourth-career Speedweek triumph, leaving him just one win shy of the all-time Speedweek wins leader Mike Dicely, who picked up five. It also gave him a locked-in spot in Saturday’s 50-lap finale, along with second-place finisher Kunsman, third-place finisher Bell, and fourth-place finisher Allison. Bard rounded out the top five and picked up hard charger honors, while Ruppert was the final finisher in sixth. Kunsman’s somewhat quiet run was crucial for the championship battle, as he moved to second in points entering Saturday’s finale, 61 markers behind Snyder, Jr. Bruno was able to gain a few points as well to be 67 back in third, but was left to wonder what could have been after being credited with a 10th-place result.
Saturday, July 23rd will be the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Finale Night at the Clyde sponsored by Groff Trucking. The final race of the six-race Speedweek series will pay no less than $5,700 to the winner, with the opportunity for a higher payout depending on car count. Steven Snyder, Jr., Tommy Kunsman, and Christian Bruno are all still mathematically alive in the points hunt, and one of those three will be crowned as Speedweek champion at the conclusion of the night. Due to the excessive heat, start times for Saturday have been moved back an hour, as the events for Saturday will now start at the same time as the events on Friday. Gates will open at 4:30, with warmups, time trials, and racing beginning at 6:30. The finale of 2022 Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek is not an event you’ll want to miss, so be sure to come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
Results:
Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek A-Main (35 Laps):
1. 25K-Kyle Spence[6]; 2. 21K-Tommy Kunsman[13]; 3. 21X-Christopher Bell[2]; 4. 15N-Neal Allison[15]; 5. 7B-Mitchell Bard[17]; 6. 5A-Alex Ruppert[16]; 7. 2-Gavan Boschele[20]; 8. 41C-Brian Carber[7]; 9. 49-Aiden Price[22]; 10. 5-Christian Bruno[4]; 11. 23B-Bradley Brown[5]; 12. 2V-DJ Vanderley[24]; 13. B5-Bobby Butler[26]; 14. 66-Billy Koch[8]; 15. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[1]; 16. 3D-Dallas Damask[9]; 17. 570-Prestyn Brown[11]; 18. 71X-Brian Kramer[25]; 19. 21-Mason Beinhower[23]; 20. 20-Daniel Robinson[10]; 21. 11H-Holden Eckman[14]; 22. 52T-TJ Greve[3]; 23. 99B-Cliff Brian Jr[21]; 24. 10X-Reese Nowotarski[12]; 25. 16F-Matthew Francis[18]; 26. 12-Joe Kay[19]
Points:
Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Point Standings (Top 5):
1. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[436]; 2. 21K-Tommy Kunsman[-61]; 3. 5-Christian Bruno[-67]; 4. 21X-Christopher Bell[-97]; 5. 6-Colin White[-103]