By Kasey Kreider
(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Saturday night at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway could’ve been considered a final tune-up night for all drivers in attendance, at least or one form or another. For drivers particularly in the Hyper Racing Wingless 600 class, the action provided one last chance to prepare for the $10,000 Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Finale. For everyone else, Saturday represented one final opportunity to build momentum into the Clyde Martin Memorial Race in two weeks.
The big winner of the night was Brent Shearer, as “Hotrod” stormed to two victories, one in the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600s and the other in the Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Sportsman class. In Hyper Racing Wingless 600 competition, defending champion Ryan Groff broke a two-year winless streak after a thrilling battle with Dominic Schmidt. Brandon Heist brought his “knife to a gunfight” and bested all challengers in the Border Magic 270s with his Sportsman motor. In makeup Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Sportsman action, Max Fasnacht grabbed his second-career win at the speedway. And the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke class once again belonged to John Maurer, as he racked up his sixth win of the year and fourth in a row.
EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600
After being involved in a wild battle for the lead in the opening laps, Brent Shearer settled into the second spot for most of Saturday night’s EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600 A-Main. But when Jason Swavely lost a motor with nine laps remaining, Shearer was there to capitalize. The Manheim native paced the way during the closing laps and then crossed over a last-corner slider from Bradley Brown to score his first Winged 600 win at the Clyde in 2025.
Austin Mieczkowski led the field for the first two circuits of the race, but found himself swarmed by Shearer, Swavely, and eventually Brown. What resulted was a fun, four-car scramble for the lead with Shearer briefly grabbing the top spot on lap 3 before Mieczkowski moved back ahead through turns 1 and 2.
As the No. 39M slid up off the corner and broke Shearer’s momentum, Swavely got to the inside off into turn 3. With Swavely and Mieczkowski proceeding to race side-by-side down the frontstretch, Shearer ducked to the bottom to make it three-wide and slid ahead entering turn 1. But Swavely was able to get back past on corner-exit, and finally began to drive away once reaching the clean air for good.
It seemed like Swavely was due for his fourth win of the season and second of the weekend, after also triumphing Friday night at Linda’s. But going off into turn 1 with nine laps to go, the motor let go underneath the No. 14 and brought “The Rocketman’s” race to a screeching halt, elevating Shearer into the lead.
Shearer led by two or three car lengths over the next few laps while Brown and Chris Panczner – who had spun on the first lap of the race – battled side-by-side for second. One last caution flew with four laps left, and it set up a showdown between Shearer and Brown for victory.
This time Brown kept Shearer in his sights, and threw a slider for the lead coming to two laps to go. Shearer made a successful crossover once, but Brown was still within striking distance on the last lap. Brown threw one last hail mary at the No. 29s, but Shearer easily got back to the throttle first and turned back down the hill, bringing his Hyper Chassis across the finish line 0.364 seconds ahead of Brown for the win.
Behind the front two, Ryan Groff won a photo finish for third (more on him in a moment) over Panczner, who still completed his impressive run from the back with a fourth-place finish. Brent Ely rounded out the top five.
With Swavely’s motor trouble, Brown took over the points lead by 14 markers entering the Clyde Martin Memorial Race in two weeks.
Results:
1. 29-Brent Shearer[4]; 2. 23-Bradley Brown[8]; 3. 3-Ryan Groff[2]; 4. 15P-Christopher Panczner[17]; 5. 17-Brent Ely[9]; 6. 97-Billy Logeman[12]; 7. 71-Brian Kramer[14]; 8. 5A-Anthony Yerger[3]; 9. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[7]; 10. 66A-Marvin Albright[11]; 11. 19C-Michael Ciccone Ch[13]; 12. 39M-Austin Mieczkowski[1]; 13. 51B-Amanda Onimus[16]; 14. 14-Jason Swavely[6]; 15. 4T-Tyler Lupton[5]; 16. 62-Cayden Blair[15]; 17. 11R-Tommy Rinck[10]
Points (Top 5) (After 7 of 13 Races):
1. 23-Bradley Brown[573]; 2. 14-Jason Swavely[-14]; 3. 17-Brent Ely[-38]; 4. 97-Billy Logeman[-41]; 5. 51-Chris Gerhart[-47]
Brent Shearer grabbed his first EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600 win of 2025 Saturday night at the Clyde. (Photo Courtesy of Wayne Hohler Photography)
Hyper Racing Wingless 600
Despite claiming his first track championship at the Clyde in 2024, Ryan Groff had accomplished that feat without parking his No. 03 on the frontstretch in the winner’s circle. In fact, Groff’s last win at the Clyde had come in May of 2023, over two years ago. But the dry spell came to an end on Saturday night, as Groff would not be denied despite the best efforts of Dominic Schmidt.
The first half of the race was led by Cole Perez, as the New Jersey native was still searching for his first Lanco win and a little redemption to boot after a near-miss earlier in the season. But Groff didn’t waste much time moving his way up the order from sixth on the grid. By a lap 13 caution flag, he was in the runner-up spot and tracking Perez down.
But an excellent restart by Dominic Schmidt saw the Zionsville native jump Groff in the pecking order, and then after a few sliders between him and Perez, the No. 08 found itself firmly in front with 11 laps left. Groff had quickly gotten by Perez for second, but now had a new challenger standing in his way for victory.
A restart on lap 19 put Schmidt and Groff side-by-side, and what followed was a thrilling display of slicing and dicing, as the two drivers traded sliders and the race lead just about every corner for the next four laps. Finally, Groff cleared for good coming to three laps to go, and Schmidt wouldn’t get another chance, as Groff stayed out in front the rest of the way and won the race by two car lengths over Schmidt.
Ryan Groff (No. 03) and Dominic Schmidt (No. 08) waged an exciting battle for the win of Saturday night’s Hyper Racing Wingless 600 feature. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photography)
Marty Brian extended his points lead to 38 over the new runner-up Schmidt with a third-place result. New Zealand’s Kayden Barker and North Carolina’s Brody Snyder – each starting their Speedweek a day early – completed the top five.
Results:
1. 03-Ryan Groff[6]; 2. 08-Dominic Schmidt[5]; 3. 16-Marty Brian[9]; 4. 44K-Kayden Barker[15]; 5. 41B-Brody Snyder[12]; 6. 9-Bradley Brown[4]; 7. 33J-Joey Robinson[10]; 8. 17-Cole Perez[1]; 9. 1F-James Fries[8]; 10. 62-Jacob Lynch[20]; 11. 11H-Holden Eckman[7]; 12. 2-Jakob Stitzel[14]; 13. 90X-PJ Reid[18]; 14. 15H-Don Hess[13]; 15. 3L-Nolen Layser[16]; 16. 4T-Tyler Lupton[21]; 17. 8W-Jayden Wagner[17]; 18. 34-Abel Engler[3]; 19. 34M-Chad Miller[19]; 20. 98-Matt Warner[11]; 21. 2J-Jace Marshall[2]
Points (Top 5) (After 6 of 13 Races):
1. 16-Marty Brian[499]; 2. 08-Dominic Schmidt[-38]; 3. 2J-Jace Marshall[-63]; 4. 1F-James Fries[-93]; 5. 98-Matt Warner[-101]
Defending champion Ryan Groff returned to Hyper Racing Wingless 600 victory lane Saturday night at the Clyde. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Border Magic 270
After winning last season’s Sportsman championship at the Clyde, one of Brandon Heist’s big goals for the 2025 season was to win a 270 feature and a Sportsman feature on the same night, with the same car. Things would go awry for Heist later on in the Sportsman A-Main, but in 270 competition, the Jonestown driver accomplished a big piece of his goal, making the race-winning pass on Mike Skias with four laps left to claim the Border Magic 270 win with his Sportsman motor.
Heist started in the fifth position, while three-time track champions Mike Miller and Richie Hartman led the field to green. Miller paced the opening circuit of the race, but his car abruptly broke sideways and spun around off the exit of the second corner on the second lap. That gave the lead to Hartman for the restart, but then Skias made his bid for the lead down into turn 3, and took the top spot away as lap 2 was being completed.
Skias held onto control of the race through a long green-flag run, while Hartman and Heist soldiered on in second and third and made a bid to track him down in lapped traffic. A caution and ensuing open-red period on lap 18 to pry the Bret Cronrath and Billy Logeman vehicles apart from each other changed the game though, and another plot twist occurred when Hartman dropped into the infield and out of the race prior to the restart.
With Heist now in second and breathing down the tail tank of Skias’ No. 8s, he began plotting a move to make the decisive pass. Using a middle groove that has brought Heist much success at the speedway over the past few seasons, he was able to gather the momentum to move to the outside of Skias and eventually claim the lead coming to the end of lap 22. A green-white-checkered finish forced Heist to survive a restart, but it didn’t change the outcome, as the No. 99 came across the finish line in first for his second win of the weekend, following up a triumph at Linda’s on Friday.
Skias held on for a runner-up finish ahead of Jason Swavely, who stormed from 15th up to third to pick up the Border Magic Hard Charger Award. Anthony Yerger took fourth on the late restart, and Nick Skias padded his championship advantage with a fifth, now leading Logeman by 61 points in the standings.
Results:
1. 99-Brandon Heist Sr[5]; 2. 8S-Mike Skias[3]; 3. 5A-Jason Swavely[15]; 4. 10A-Anthony Yerger[8]; 5. 3-Nick Skias[12]; 6. 77G-Isaac Graby[9]; 7. 41-Mike Boyer[18]; 8. 11-Mike Uhrich[20]; 9. 04-Jarrett Imler[16]; 10. 19-Matt Fernsler[14]; 11. 6-Danial Boyer[6]; 12. 16X-Dan Lane Jr[17]; 13. 4S-Kiptyn Stratton[11]; 14. 27O-Billy Logeman[10]; 15. 34-Christi Sweigart[22]; 16. 5-Bret Cronrath[4]; 17. 48-Jonah Meck[21]; 18. 21D-Dave Williams[19]; 19. 82-John Maurer[13]; 20. 81-Dylan Holmes[24]; 21. 747-Richie Hartman[2]; 22. 35-Brian Jennings[23]; 23. 94-Dallas Sanders[7]; 24. 2-Mike Miller[1]
Points (Top 5) (After 7 of 13 Races):
1. 3-Nick Skias[621]; 2. 27O-Billy Logeman[-61]; 3. 99-Brandon Heist Sr[-124]; 4. 747-Richie Hartman[-134]; 5. 5A-Jason Swavely[-151]
Defending Sportsman track champion Brandon Heist beat all challengers Saturday night in the Border Magic 270 A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of Wayne Hohler Photography)
Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Sportsman
Two Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Sportsman A-Mains highlighted the evening at the Clyde, with the first event being a makeup race from May 17. In that race, Max Fasnacht got some redemption for an early season near miss, and picked up his second-career victory at the speedway.
Fasnacht took the lead of the daytime race away from Dave Williams on the opening lap, and then set sail ahead of Mike Kreiser, Dylan Pennypacker, and Ryan Heckman over an 18-lap green flag run to start the event.
A restart with seven leps left regrouped things, and Pennypacker made his move on Kreiser for the second spot. As the laps clicked off Pennypacker was looking to repeat what he did in April, when he passed Fasnacht in the late laps to score his first Sportsman win.
But this time, Fasnacht would get the upper hand, as he ran a flawless final few laps to avoid any challenge from behind. Pennypacker came home second, while Corey Schmuck, Jr. charged from 11th at the initial green flag up to third. Heckman and Kreiser made up the rest of the top five.
Max Fasnacht went back to the winner’s circle in Saturday night’s first feature for the Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Sportsman division. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photography)
Race number two saw some new characters, most of whom were battling at the front. After already winning the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600 A-Main just before, Brent Shearer took Jake Dupler’s No. 1J back to victory lane, this time in the Sportsman class.
In her first race at Lanco since June of 2023 and just her second race of the year in total, Brianne Cronrath Wittmer started from pole position and looked quick out in front, leading the race’s first seven laps. But on the eighth circuit, Shearer dove to the inside entering turn 3 and quickly took away the lead.
Shearer’s main challenge from that point forward appeared to be represented by Heist, who was trying to make it “twice as nice” in the No. 99. But after getting to the runner-up spot, Heist’s race was foiled by losing a chain on a lap 15 restart, forcing him out of competition.
From there, Shearer cruised to the checkers, winning the race by nearly four seconds over Cronrath Wittmer. Coming home in third was Justin Harrington, while Kyle Lindsey and Ryan Heckman finished off the top five. Michael Spadafora drove from 17th to eighth to pick up the Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Hard Charger Bonus.
Thanks to his win in the first feature and a seventh-place finish in the second one, Max Fasnacht closed Corey Schmuck, Jr.’s points lead down to 32 entering the Clyde Martin Memorial in two weeks.
Makeup Results:
1. 20-Max Fasnacht[3]; 2. 27-Dylan Pennypacker[7]; 3. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[15]; 4. 30-Ryan Heckman[8]; 5. 77-Michael Kreiser[5]; 6. 28-Kyle Lindsey[12]; 7. 21V-David Ravel[11]; 8. 21D-Dave Williams[2]; 9. 19-Wes Fasnacht[10]; 10. 31-Tyler Martin[6]; 11. 17-Masen Stapleton[13]; 12. (DNS) 77J-Jade Smith; 13. (DNS) 75-Chris Dolan; 14. (DNS) 15-Josh Stoyer; 15. (DNS) 05-Evan Lawrence; 16. (DNS) 23K-Courtney Kupp
Results:
1. 1J-Brent Shearer[3]; 2. 16-Brianne Cronrath Wittmer[1]; 3. 75-Justin Harrington[4]; 4. 28-Kyle Lindsey[5]; 5. 30-Ryan Heckman[7]; 6. 77-Michael Kreiser[2]; 7. 20-Max Fasnacht[11]; 8. 8-Michael Spadafora[17]; 9. 17-Masen Stapleton[15]; 10. 31-Tyler Martin[14]; 11. 19-Wes Fasnacht[16]; 12. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[18]; 13. 99-Brandon Heist Sr[6]; 14. 21D-Dave Williams[10]; 15. 21V-David Ravel[13]; 16. 15-Bradley Brown[9]; 17. 27-Dylan Pennypacker[8]; 18. 88M-Nick Skias[12]
Points (Top 5) (After 7 of 13 Races):
1. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[604]; 2. 20-Max Fasnacht[-32]; 3. 28-Kyle Lindsey[-69]; 4. 77-Michael Kreiser[-104]; 5. 27-Dylan Pennypacker[-133]
Brent Shearer made it two wins in the same night as he parked the No. 1J in victory lane after Saturday night’s second Step Brothers Concrete & Fence Sportsman event. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke
Fleetwood’s John Maurer faced one of his tougher challenges of the 2025 season at the Clyde, having to battle for the lead into the late laps coming up from his sixth starting position. But the driver of the No. 82 once again rose above the rest in the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Strokes on Saturday night, scoring his sixth win of the season and fourth in a row.
Seth Gregory was the polesitter for the event, and was trying to become just the third different driver to win a 125/4 Stroke race in 2025. Gregory broke away to a healthy margin, while Maurer and Mike Coen scrapped for the second spot. Maurer finally cleared Coen just past halfway, but was nearly 1.5 seconds behind Gregory when doing so.
But a lap 15 caution flag bunched up the field, and put Maurer well within striking distance. Maurer dropped to the inside on Gregory with nine laps to go and nearly completed the pass before the No. 14 fought back into turn 1 on the next lap. Gregory briefly slid back ahead, but was forced to concede for good once Maurer crossed the move back over.
Maurer led the remaining laps of the race to rack up another impressive victory, extending his points lead into triple digits ahead of the Clyde Martin Memorial. Gregory battled Coen for second and came out on top, while Mike Miller and Matt Fernsler completed the top five.
Results:
1. 82-John Maurer[6]; 2. 14-Seth Gregory[1]; 3. 26C-Michael Coen[4]; 4. 5-Mike Miller[5]; 5. 19-Matt Fernsler[8]; 6. X-Dave Schroeder[3]; 7. 8-Michael Spadafora[16]; 8. 3H-Corey Harting[2]; 9. 78C-Kerry Lengle[10]; 10. 44S-Trevor Waegel[15]; 11. 23-Asher Kempton[7]; 12. 112-Dylan Yeingst[17]; 13. 15-Alyssa Holmes[12]; 14. 4W-Brandon Worthington[9]; 15. 17-Aspen Groff[11]; 16. 75-Brent Shearer[14]; 17. 3H2-Holly Harting[13]; 18. 04-Steve Simmons[18]
Points (Top 5) (After 7 of 13 Races):
1. 82-John Maurer[695]; 2. 75-Brent Shearer[-151]; 3. X-Dave Schroeder[-151]; 4. 26C-Michael Coen[-161]; 5. 04-Steve Simmons[-201]
John Maurer continued his scorching hot summer in the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Strokes by grabbing his fourth straight victory. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photography)
Next Saturday, July 19, one of the biggest and most-anticipated events of the season makes its way to the Clyde. The $10,000-to-win Performance Electronics Finale of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Flying A Motorsports will feature the biggest stars of the Wingless 600 division doing battle in one of the most prestigious events of the year. Also on the racing card will be the Junior Sprints, as they compete with the seven-night Speedweek for the second straight year. If necessary, the event does carry a rain date of Sunday, July 20. For kids in attendance, the Kids In Dirt Club will be having Poster Night. Gates will open at 4 p.m., with hot laps and on-track action starting at 6 p.m. Grandstand admission is $15 for this event, and for those unable to attend, live streaming coverage will be provided by The Cushion.