8.25.19 Pennsylvania Sprint Series Results
By: Frank Buhrman
“Iceman” Ken Duke Jr. is enjoying a season most racers can only dream about, winning races and leading both the Pennsylvania and national IMCA/RaceSaver points, but one track was conspicuously missing from the top tier of his 2019 resume: BAPS Motor Speedway.
On Sunday night, Duke and his Fairfield Chevrolet/Apache Tree Service/sprintcarunlimited.com #67 took care of that small discrepancy with a convincing victory in the 20-lap PA Sprint Series feature at the York County speedway.
It’s not that you could call Duke’s performance at BAPS poor: he had a 12-race streak of Top 10 finishes at BAPS dating to early 2017, but his last victory at the track had come nearly three years ago, on September 3, 2016. With the victories mounting at other regular PASS tracks like Port Royal, Path Valley, Clinton County and Duke’s hometown Selinsgrove Speedway, BAPS did stand out.
No more.
After drawing the outside front row starting position Sunday, Duke out-charged pole-sitter and Saturday night’s Port Royal winner Landon Price for the early lead, then held off challenges from Price and Dylan Shatzer after subsequent caution flags to establish dominance. After a final caution brought on a one-lap dash to the checkered flag, he was leading Shatzer by 1.216 seconds.
It was Duke’s eighth PASS win of 2019 and his tenth overall.
“In the heat race, we really weren’t that good,” Duke said in Victory Lane of his third-place finish in the preliminary, “but my guys, they’re incredible. They made all the changes, and this thing was fast.
“I knew when you’re starting on the front row, we were going to have a pretty good chance. If you can get in the clean air, that makes everything better when you can do that.
“This is our tenth win this year, so I don’t know what to say . . . we’re just really happy to be here tonight.”
Shatzer, who was sidelined early in 2019 by a highway traffic accident, scored his third top-three finish in four starts since returning to action. The 19-year-old Hagerstown resident in the Harshman Racing Engines/Kline’s Auto Body/D&D Auto Recycling #75 took second from Price but had nothing for Duke in the end.
Middletown’s Doug Dodson continued a string of strong finishes (six top-sixes in eight races), grabbing third late in the going, while the 17-year-old Price, from Fleetwood, hung tough and followed his Port Royal win with a fourth. Defending PASS Champ “Zach Daddy” Newlin of Millerstown advanced steadily to come home fifth.
Completing the Top 10 were John Walp, Jake Frye, Larry McVay, Dylan Proctor and Keith Prutzman.
McVay was the nights Hard Charger, advancing from 14th starting spot to his eighth-place finish. Garrett Bard also moved up six spots from 21st to 15th, and both Prutzman and Adams moved up five positions.
Heat races for the 25-car field were won by Billy Ney, Price and Walp.
The third heat was cut short after three laps when “Nitro Nick” Sweigart jumped the cushion, hit the guard rail and was launched into the catch fence in the second turn. Sweigart, uninjured, exited the car quickly, but extracting it from its perch and repairing the catch fence required a lengthy red flag session.
Sweigart was able to return to action and start the feature, only to lose a left front wheel early in the going and finish last.
PASS/IMCA returns to BAPS next Saturday night, joining the Super Sportsman cars, late models and street stocks. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
Results from BAPS Motor Speedway, Sunday, August 25, 2019
HEAT 1 – 1. 83-Billy Ney; 2. 55-Domenic Melair; 3. 2-Erin Statler; 4. 67-Ken Duke Jr.; 5. 1-Tom Carberry; 6. 99A-Devin Adams; 7. 11-Dylan Smith; 8. 99G-George Riden (DNF); 9. 17K-Kyle Keen (DNF).
HEAT 2 – 1. 69P-Landon Price; 2. 20-Doug Dodson; 3. 21J-Jason Dunn; 4. 92D-Dylan Proctor; 5. 83L-Larry McVay; 6. 50-Jay Krout; 7. 79-Ian Cumens; 8. Garrett Bard.
HEAT 3 (flagged after three laps due to time) – 1. 5-John Walp; 2. 11Z-Zach Newlin; 3. 8-Nick Sweigart; 4. 75-Dylan Shatzer; 5. 56-Jake Frye; 6. 28-Keith Prutzman; 7. 19-Kruz Kepner; 8. 92-Alex Potosky.
FEATURE – 1. 67-Ken Duke Jr.; 2. 75-Dylan Shatzer; 3. 20-Doug Dodson; 4. 69-Landon Price; 5. 11Z-Zach Newlin; 6. 5-John Walp; 7. 56-Jake Frye; 8. 83L-Larry McVay; 9. 92D-Dylan Proctor; 10. 28-Keith Prutzman; 11. 99A-Devin Adams; 12. 2-Erin Statler; 13. 1-Tom Carberry; 14. 21J-Jason Dunn; 15. 95-Garrett Bard; 16. 50-Jay Krout; 17- 55-Domenic Melair; 18. 83-Billy Ney; 19. 79-Ian Cumens; 20. 11-Dylan Smith; 21. 19-Kruz Kepner; 22. 93-Alex Potosky (DNF); 23. 17K-Kyle Keen (DNF); 24. 99G-George Riden (DNF); 25. 8-Nick Sweigart (DNF).