RGeeProductions
12-01-2013, 09:43 PM
On Sunday afternoon, December 1, Lehighton’s Mahoning Valley Speedway welcomed one of the most heralded short track racers of all time to the tight paved quarter mile oval as Kenny Brightbill of Sinking Springs was in town to promote the “Mid-Summer Thunder! Where Dirt Stars Meet The Asphalt” show slated for Sunday, June 29, 2014.
The special event will feature the first ever appearance of the Sunoco USAC Championship SpeedSTRs along with the National Slingshot All-Star Tour, Junior National Slingshot Tour, the Micro Stock Racing Series and a yet to be named class.
Brightbill, who earlier this season won the 2013 JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA track championship with the SpeedSTR, had his Weichert Realtors/Tabloid Graphics No. 11 title winning car at Mahoning for a special test session. He was joined by John Kovatch of Nesquehoning and Kyle Lick of Macungie who shared driving duties in the Harry’s U-Pull It/Kovatch Ford No. IV SpeedSTR. Also on hand was a Tobias Slingshot that was co-driven by the same pair and a second Slingshot car that was handled by Bobby Smith Jr., of Kunkletown and prepared by Randy Smith.
Other drivers in attendance who took part in “Mid-Summer Thunder!” announcement were 2013 Mahoning Modified track champion Eric Beers of Northampton, multi-time track titlist Keven Graver Jr., of Lehighton and Micro Stock racer Mario Oberto of Hazleton.
“The Mid-Summer Thunder! Where Dirt Stars Meet The Asphalt” was conceived by Mahoning Valley race director Tim Santee and SpeedSTR and Slingshot creator Rich Tobias. While at Motorsports 2013, they shared booth space near one another. Santee approached Tobias on possibly bringing his cars to Mahoning and since then they continued to keep in touch. When this year’s race season concluded both parties met and laid the ground work for the special show that would entail a cross promotion between Mahoning Valley Speedway and JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA in Kutztown, which Tobias promotes.
There will be two such shows at Mahoning Valley with the first being the afternoon of June 29 and again during Octoberfast 2014 weekend. Brightbill and all the Wednesday night stars at Kutztown will be part of the Mahoning race meets. ’13 Mahoning champ Beers will also be in the lineup. He will also race at Kutztown.
“It’s pretty exciting. The Santee’s are great people and this is something that is exciting, fresh and new,” said Tobias. “It was great to see Kenny Brightbill out there today, a dirt track guy sliding around this place. I’m sure they’ll take a little bit to get figured out and once they do it will be some awesome racing here.
“We’re also happy to say that Otto Sitterly will be coming down from Oswego and run that show. You’ll have Bill Pauch Sr., and Jr., Rick Eckert, Brian Montieth, Jeff Strunk, Frank Cozze, Ryan Godown and a whole gaggle of them. They’ll run the Action Track in Kutztown in 2014 and they’ll all be over here to run. It’s going to be a great historic event.”
Although this marked an official test session, the SpeedSTR was at Mahoning once before. In January of 2007 Tobias had just completed work on the then new car and needed a track to try out his creation. He called then Mahoning promoter Doug Hoffman who gave him the keys to the track for the day to shake down the car.
SpeedSTR stands for Short Track Racer and is a self-starting, open wheel race car powered by a 2.4 liter dual overhead cam Mopar engine. Tobias wanted to give his Slingshot teams and other divisional teams the opportunity to have an affordable vehicle to advance their racing careers. Not only does he provie a purse structure that makes sense for his teams, but he also seeks out race venues that have history and prestige for his racers to compete at and now includes Mahoning Valley Speedway.
The SpeedSTRs compete at other tracks in the Northeast such as, Oswego Speedway in Oswego, NY, Shangri-La II Speedway in Tioga Center, NY, Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, New Egypt Speedway in New Egypt, Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Weedsport, NY, plus many more including Canada.
At the Mahoning test adjustments continued in between lap sessions, although Tobias noted that he only wanted limited tunings. After all that is the concept behind the SpeedSTR, a race car designed to be in the hands of the driver.
“We try not to get them to work. When they work they’re boring and when they aren’t working its fun. We’re making some changes such as electric power steering and a lower fuel cell so you’ll see 3-4 tenths (seconds) in those changes. We want a car so that a guy can come and run Kutztown the night before and race here (Mahoning) the next,” said Tobias.
Brightbill has been racing and winning since 1969 yet despite all of his years of countless accolades, he was making his very first trip to Mahoning Valley on this day. After his initial set of laps the seasoned 65-year old driving legend shared his thoughts on how it felt to wheel the SpeedSTR around the unique Mahoning pavement.
“These cars are a little bit touchy on this track because they’re not made for asphalt really. Until we get them worked out it will be a bit touch and go out there. They get a little twitchy. A race track is a race track and once you learn to get around them, you learn where the groove is and if there’s a place to pass, then you can pass,” said Brightbill.
“It will probably be very interesting when we come back here in June that’s for sure. We learned a little bit and the steering is a little bit of an issue right now.”
Lick, who if fresh off a solid season of racing with the ARDC Midgets as well as Sprints and Micro Sprints, was officially the first SpeedSTR to hit the track. He made several laps to get acclimated and looked smooth even though he never had been to Mahoning before.
“It was definitely different. The track was still kind of cold and I don’t really have much pavement experience so it’s all kind of new to me to begin with. The track is just a huge circle so it’s a bit weird but I enjoyed it,” said Lick, who’s only paved racing took place indoors at Atlantic City, NJ.
“I’m really curious to see how more cars will be out there and to race around. You’re kind of on the edge of out of control already and when you put 20 other cars out there it should be pretty exciting.”
As an accompaniment to the SpeedSTR feature on June 29, the Slingshot National Tour has been inked. They last raced at Mahoning Valley in 2000. Lee Schantzenbach won the very first Mahoning race on April 10, 1999 which marked the first time the then newly designed car raced on blacktop and just the second feature race ever for a Slingshot.
“They’re going to be a National event. With the Slingshots at Mahoning Valley it will be like watching restrictor plate racing at Daytona. They’ll be bumper-to-bumper at this joint just like the big dirt Modifieds run here. Both events are going to complement each other,” said Tobias.
The purse structure for the “The Mid-Summer Thunder! Where Dirt Stars Meet The Asphalt” will be released shortly. Tobias and track promoter Floyd Santee assures it will be a very likeable payday for everyone.
By day’s end Graver, who strapped into the Kovatch mount, unofficially ran the quickest lap at 10.89 seconds which is over 90 mph.
“It was different than anything I’m use to here,” said Graver, who has 40 career Mahoning feature wins and four class championships.
“It was fun and it will take a little bit of getting use to and I know we can definitely get it better. I really think Mahoning will lend itself to a great show with these SpeedSTRs.”
Dino Oberto
The special event will feature the first ever appearance of the Sunoco USAC Championship SpeedSTRs along with the National Slingshot All-Star Tour, Junior National Slingshot Tour, the Micro Stock Racing Series and a yet to be named class.
Brightbill, who earlier this season won the 2013 JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA track championship with the SpeedSTR, had his Weichert Realtors/Tabloid Graphics No. 11 title winning car at Mahoning for a special test session. He was joined by John Kovatch of Nesquehoning and Kyle Lick of Macungie who shared driving duties in the Harry’s U-Pull It/Kovatch Ford No. IV SpeedSTR. Also on hand was a Tobias Slingshot that was co-driven by the same pair and a second Slingshot car that was handled by Bobby Smith Jr., of Kunkletown and prepared by Randy Smith.
Other drivers in attendance who took part in “Mid-Summer Thunder!” announcement were 2013 Mahoning Modified track champion Eric Beers of Northampton, multi-time track titlist Keven Graver Jr., of Lehighton and Micro Stock racer Mario Oberto of Hazleton.
“The Mid-Summer Thunder! Where Dirt Stars Meet The Asphalt” was conceived by Mahoning Valley race director Tim Santee and SpeedSTR and Slingshot creator Rich Tobias. While at Motorsports 2013, they shared booth space near one another. Santee approached Tobias on possibly bringing his cars to Mahoning and since then they continued to keep in touch. When this year’s race season concluded both parties met and laid the ground work for the special show that would entail a cross promotion between Mahoning Valley Speedway and JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA in Kutztown, which Tobias promotes.
There will be two such shows at Mahoning Valley with the first being the afternoon of June 29 and again during Octoberfast 2014 weekend. Brightbill and all the Wednesday night stars at Kutztown will be part of the Mahoning race meets. ’13 Mahoning champ Beers will also be in the lineup. He will also race at Kutztown.
“It’s pretty exciting. The Santee’s are great people and this is something that is exciting, fresh and new,” said Tobias. “It was great to see Kenny Brightbill out there today, a dirt track guy sliding around this place. I’m sure they’ll take a little bit to get figured out and once they do it will be some awesome racing here.
“We’re also happy to say that Otto Sitterly will be coming down from Oswego and run that show. You’ll have Bill Pauch Sr., and Jr., Rick Eckert, Brian Montieth, Jeff Strunk, Frank Cozze, Ryan Godown and a whole gaggle of them. They’ll run the Action Track in Kutztown in 2014 and they’ll all be over here to run. It’s going to be a great historic event.”
Although this marked an official test session, the SpeedSTR was at Mahoning once before. In January of 2007 Tobias had just completed work on the then new car and needed a track to try out his creation. He called then Mahoning promoter Doug Hoffman who gave him the keys to the track for the day to shake down the car.
SpeedSTR stands for Short Track Racer and is a self-starting, open wheel race car powered by a 2.4 liter dual overhead cam Mopar engine. Tobias wanted to give his Slingshot teams and other divisional teams the opportunity to have an affordable vehicle to advance their racing careers. Not only does he provie a purse structure that makes sense for his teams, but he also seeks out race venues that have history and prestige for his racers to compete at and now includes Mahoning Valley Speedway.
The SpeedSTRs compete at other tracks in the Northeast such as, Oswego Speedway in Oswego, NY, Shangri-La II Speedway in Tioga Center, NY, Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, New Egypt Speedway in New Egypt, Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Weedsport, NY, plus many more including Canada.
At the Mahoning test adjustments continued in between lap sessions, although Tobias noted that he only wanted limited tunings. After all that is the concept behind the SpeedSTR, a race car designed to be in the hands of the driver.
“We try not to get them to work. When they work they’re boring and when they aren’t working its fun. We’re making some changes such as electric power steering and a lower fuel cell so you’ll see 3-4 tenths (seconds) in those changes. We want a car so that a guy can come and run Kutztown the night before and race here (Mahoning) the next,” said Tobias.
Brightbill has been racing and winning since 1969 yet despite all of his years of countless accolades, he was making his very first trip to Mahoning Valley on this day. After his initial set of laps the seasoned 65-year old driving legend shared his thoughts on how it felt to wheel the SpeedSTR around the unique Mahoning pavement.
“These cars are a little bit touchy on this track because they’re not made for asphalt really. Until we get them worked out it will be a bit touch and go out there. They get a little twitchy. A race track is a race track and once you learn to get around them, you learn where the groove is and if there’s a place to pass, then you can pass,” said Brightbill.
“It will probably be very interesting when we come back here in June that’s for sure. We learned a little bit and the steering is a little bit of an issue right now.”
Lick, who if fresh off a solid season of racing with the ARDC Midgets as well as Sprints and Micro Sprints, was officially the first SpeedSTR to hit the track. He made several laps to get acclimated and looked smooth even though he never had been to Mahoning before.
“It was definitely different. The track was still kind of cold and I don’t really have much pavement experience so it’s all kind of new to me to begin with. The track is just a huge circle so it’s a bit weird but I enjoyed it,” said Lick, who’s only paved racing took place indoors at Atlantic City, NJ.
“I’m really curious to see how more cars will be out there and to race around. You’re kind of on the edge of out of control already and when you put 20 other cars out there it should be pretty exciting.”
As an accompaniment to the SpeedSTR feature on June 29, the Slingshot National Tour has been inked. They last raced at Mahoning Valley in 2000. Lee Schantzenbach won the very first Mahoning race on April 10, 1999 which marked the first time the then newly designed car raced on blacktop and just the second feature race ever for a Slingshot.
“They’re going to be a National event. With the Slingshots at Mahoning Valley it will be like watching restrictor plate racing at Daytona. They’ll be bumper-to-bumper at this joint just like the big dirt Modifieds run here. Both events are going to complement each other,” said Tobias.
The purse structure for the “The Mid-Summer Thunder! Where Dirt Stars Meet The Asphalt” will be released shortly. Tobias and track promoter Floyd Santee assures it will be a very likeable payday for everyone.
By day’s end Graver, who strapped into the Kovatch mount, unofficially ran the quickest lap at 10.89 seconds which is over 90 mph.
“It was different than anything I’m use to here,” said Graver, who has 40 career Mahoning feature wins and four class championships.
“It was fun and it will take a little bit of getting use to and I know we can definitely get it better. I really think Mahoning will lend itself to a great show with these SpeedSTRs.”
Dino Oberto