RACE RECAP (7/19/2025): Bruno Captures $10,000 Speedweek Finale for the Second Time; Gross and Wittmer Score Speedweek Championships

By Kasey Kreider

(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Wayne Hohler Photography)

Although Christian Bruno had tasted victory in the $10,000-to-win Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Finale just two years prior, there was an argument to be made that the two-time Speedweek champion was more motivated than ever to park his No. 5 Groff Motorsports/Snyder Racing Enterprises Hyper Chassis in Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway’s winner’s circle on Saturday night. After leading the first 35 laps of last year’s Speedweek Finale, Bruno cut a tire and faded to finish seventh over the closing laps. Even with “The Big Belt” in hand, Bruno felt he had let one slip away.

After an uncharacteristically inconsistent 2025 edition of Speedweek which saw Bruno “DNF” at Greenwood Valley and “DNQ” at Linda’s to snap an unheard-of streak of 33 consecutive Speedweek A-Main starts, the Deptford, NJ native stormed back with a vengeance, leading all 85 laps of A-Main action over the final two nights. After his win at McGrewBid Motoplex on Friday, Bruno once again sprinted off to the lead from the outside pole and led through a 41-lap green flag run to start the race. Bruno then fended off Trevor Cline and Kyle Spence down the stretch to put his stamp on another marquee victory.

Meanwhile, a dramatic battle for the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Flying A Motorsports championship came down to the final few laps. Despite bringing out the race’s only caution flag with nine laps left, Middleton, MA’s Connor Gross fought back through a hair-raising battle in traffic to finish 11th, good enough for the two-time Speedweek race winner to claim his first title by just three points.

Wingless 600 Speedweek Finale

87 cars signed in for competition on the seventh and final night of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Flying A Motorsports. The Performance Electronics Finale would start with two flights of time trials, gridding the field for 10 heat races. From those heat races, passing points would be earned to advance the top 48 drivers into four qualifiers, representing the final piece of the puzzle to ultimately determine the 18 locked-in starters to the feature. The rest of the field would go through four B-Mains to set the remainder of the 26-car lineup for the 50-lap A-Main.

For the second time in the last three years, Alex Ruppert entered Saturday night’s Finale with the lead in the Beyea Headers point standings for Speedweek. Despite his win Thursday at Linda’s, Ruppert’s advantage was just one singular point over Connor Gross, with Greenwood Valley winner Dylan Kontra still within shouting distance at 18 points behind entering the final night.

Groff Motorsports Time Trials kicked off the evening, and Ruppert – winner of last year’s $10,000 Finale and the $15,000 East Coast Transponders Nationals earlier in the month – once again flexed his muscle. His lap time of 11.068 seconds was quickest among all qualifiers, while Concord, NC’s Aidan Turner also earned max points by setting the fast lap of Flight B at 11.098 seconds.

A top-30 invert meant that the fast-timers would start sixth in their respective heat races, and needed to work their way forward in order to put themselves high in the passing points chart entering qualifiers. Ruppert was in the first of 10 Keizer Aluminum Racing Wheels heat races, and for the first time all month, looked mortal on a track surface that was gripped up and more bottom-dominant than usual.

Ruppert could only muster a run of 6-to-5 in his heat race, while Jarid Kunkle dashed off to take the win. Meanwhile, Gross went from 5-to-3 in that same heat, putting him well ahead of Ruppert in passing points with qualifiers still looming. Mason Beinhower, Matt Smith, Chase Rodgers, and Brody Snyder won the other heat races among Flight A cars.

In Flight B heats, the highlight was Bruno, as after a third-place effort in time trials, he was the only driver to go from sixth-to-first in order to pick up a heat race win. The other heats were claimed by Kyle Lick, Kyle Spence, Connor Mirabelli, and Jayden Wagner.

Bruno went into qualifiers as the high-point man, but could only climb to third in the first of those four 10-lappers. Indiana’s Kole Kirkman won the first qualifier, while Adam Buchel led Gross across the finish line in the second, allowing both of those drivers to be on a list of just three competitors who qualified for all five Speedweek A-Mains in 2025.

In the third qualifier, Ruppert looked poised to bounce back and pick up a win from the pole that would lock him comfortably into the feature. But on the last lap, Trevor Cline used the middle groove to steal the win away, and Ruppert would have to sweat it out as the last qualifier hit the track.

Dominic Schmidt took the victory of the fourth and final qualifier, and when the final points were calculated, Ruppert was just able to squeak into his 18th consecutive Speedweek A-Main, slotting into the 16th spot. Kontra qualified as well, getting in at 13th, and Gross was the highest of the championship challengers, locking into the seventh spot.

Four B-Mains rounded out the starting lineup, as Cole Gerber and Rodgers transferred out of the first one, while Cullen Hutchison and Lukas Kostic came from the second. Aiden Price and Matt Smith made it out of the third B-Main, and Mirabelli along with Zak Gorski took the final two positions in the race out of B-Main No. 4.

Meanwhile, on the heels of two six-to-two runs, Turner bested Bruno for high-point honors entering the feature, and last year’s Millbridge champion would lead the field to green for the final 50 laps of the week.

But once the green flag waved, Turner’s time out in front only lasted for about a half-lap, as Bruno stuck the middle through turns 3 and 4 to grab the top spot as the field zoomed past to complete the opening lap.

In the early stanza of the race, Bruno led a four-car freight train, with Turner, Cline, and Lick in tow. The battle for fifth then raged on between Spence, Gross, Schmidt, and James Roselli.

The first of many “hold-your-breath” moments for Turner over the course of the A-Main came on the ninth lap, as he slid dead sideways off the exit of turn 2, checking up Lick while Cline squeezed past.

From that point until around the halfway mark, it was a two-car breakaway with Cline mostly mirroring Bruno’s line through the middle of the track while the gap fluctuated anywhere between one to three car lengths. Around lap 25 is when the leaders caught the tail of the fast field, and Bruno began using his experience around the Newmanstown bullring to his advantage as he sliced through traffic and began padding his lead.

Meanwhile, Gross had settled into the fifth spot, needing just to finish ahead of Ruppert and within a few positions of Kontra to claim the Speedweek title. Spence eventually repassed Gross for the final spot in the top five, but the No. 14c was still well clear of Ruppert and Kontra, who ran 11th and 12th and had nearly taken each other out after making contact off turn 2 earlier in the race.

But as the laps quickly ticked off and the race remained green, the battle for third tightened up into a four-car scrum between Turner, Lick, Spence, and Gross. After trying to work in the top early in the race, Spence had moved all the way to the bottom groove and dialed in around the tires, elevating himself to third.

As Spence drove off, Turner continued to fight both with the handle of his No. 26 and with the lapped traffic. Coming to complete lap 41, it all came to a head, as Turner made contact with Chase Rodgers down into turn 3, leaving him sideways and trying to gather his car right in front of Lick. As Lick hopped on the brakes to avoid contact, Gross didn’t have enough time to miss him, and slammed into the side of the No. 11z. Gross avoided significant damage, but couldn’t keep his car from stalling, bringing out the race’s first yellow with just nine laps left.

Fortunately for Gross, Bruno had lapped several cars prior to the caution flag. This meant that he would restart in the 15th spot, with Ruppert just three positions ahead in 12th and Kontra in ninth.

As the field fired off for the restart, a three-car battle for the win developed between Bruno, Cline, and Spence. All three drivers ran distinct lines, with Bruno speeding through the middle, Cline trying to wind up the top, and Spence hugging the infield tires. Cline pulled the pin on a slider entering turn 3 with eight to go, but Bruno had enough momentum to easily cross him over and hold onto the lead.

Meanwhile, the decisive moment in the championship came as the three contenders were completing lap 44. Running the high groove, Kontra and Ruppert both biked on the entrance to turn 3, allowing Gross to slip past Ruppert on the bottom and regain prime position to claim the title. Disaster nearly hit again though as Kontra and Gross sped into turn 1 and fought for the same piece of real estate. Despite heavy contact between the two, each of them kept their cars straight and held onto their positioning ahead of Ruppert.

The one slider that Cline pulled turned out to be his only bid for victory, as he could never hit the top just right to get the run that he needed to dive inside of Bruno. Keeping both drivers covered behind him, Bruno dashed to the finish line just 0.166 seconds ahead of Cline, with Spence breathing down both of their necks as well.

For Bruno, it was his fourth-career Speedweek win, putting him just one win shy of Mike Dicely for the all-time Speedweek wins mark. Bruno also became just the fourth driver to win multiple Speedweek races at the Clyde, joining Spence, Daison Pursley, and Brian Carber.

“Last year, that stuck with me probably till now,” Bruno said in victory lane. “We led I think 30-35 laps here last year, and I got in the fence, popped a tire, and I lost sleep over that race last year… This race right here is all we work for… to win it really means a lot.”

Behind Cline and Spence, Kyle Lick made a last-lap pass to score fourth, with Dominic Schmidt rounding out the top five.

Christian Bruno picked up his second win in the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Finale at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway on Saturday night. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)

Christian Bruno (middle), Trevor Cline (right), and Kyle Spence (left) made up the podium at the end of Saturday night’s 50-lap Performance Electronics Finale at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. (Photo Courtesy of Wayne Hohler Photography)

And in the championship fight, Gross came home 11th, directly behind Kontra in 10th, and three spots ahead of Ruppert in 14th. In spite of all the chaos and late-race drama, it was good enough for Gross to add his name to an exclusive list, becoming just the 13th different 600 Speedweek champion all-time.

“I was full-send from there,” Gross said about his approach after restarting 15th late in the race. “Although I didn’t win a race this week, last year showed we could do that, and this year, the cards just didn’t pan out. But the Speedweek title and $4,000 is pretty sweet.”

The final tally was just three points between Gross and Ruppert, with Kontra finishing 15 points behind. Bruno and Buchel rounded out the top five in points.

Results:

1. 5-Christian Bruno[2]; 2. 55-Trevor Cline[4]; 3. 89-Kyle Spence[5]; 4. 11Z-Kyle Lick[3]; 5. 08-Dominic Schmidt[8]; 6. 24G-Kole Kirkman[10]; 7. 14-James Roselli[6]; 8. 26-Aidan Turner[1]; 9. 16T-Trevor Gach[14]; 10. 12-Dylan Kontra[13]; 11. 14C-Connor Gross[7]; 12. 10-Adam Buchel[11]; 13. 49-Aiden Price[21]; 14. 5R-Alex Ruppert[16]; 15. 75K-Jarid Kunkle[9]; 16. 03-Ryan Groff[15]; 17. 44K-Kayden Barker[18]; 18. 14X-Cole Gerber[19]; 19. 5X-Chase Rodgers[23]; 20. 83H-Cullen Hutchison[20]; 21. 91-Nate Freed[17]; 22. 10L-Lukas Kostic[24]; 23. 41-Brody Snyder[12]; 24. 78-Zak Gorski[26]; 25. 9X-Connor Mirabelli[22]; 26. 33-Matt Smith[25]

DNQ: 2-Jakob Stitzel; 30-Jack Fraser; 62-Jacob Lynch; 4T-Tyler Lupton; 96-Zach Jurcik; 56-Tyler Henry; 9G-Grady McGrew; 76-JT Bierman; 71-Brian Kramer; 80-Anthony Tramontana; 24C-Dylan Cooke; 8W-Jayden Wagner; 88-Justin Yohn; 75X-James Hendricks; 92-Jake Winters; 15D-Matthew Donley; 2S-Garyt Smith; 3B-Dallas Damask; 64-Ronnie Dawson; 09-Vincent Gueci; 55S-Hank Stellar; 7D-Wyatt Davis; 7R-Ryan Mckinney; 2D-Cole Dewease; 12S-Brianna Snyder; 13C-Maverick Coffey; 9W-Weston Doklan; 88J-JR McCutcheon; 5H-Haylee Papp; 32-Cody Rose; 7-Shelby McLaughlin; 88B-Billy Calvert; 22M-Jake Mitchell; 31-Brandon Shearer; 14Z-Tony Zajonczkoski; 34-Abel Engler; 21-Mason Beinhower; 570-Prestyn Brown; 9S-Sawyer Davis; 28-Dakota Barlet; 98-Matt Warner; 33J-Joey Robinson; 4J-Julian Rexrode; 20S-Nicholas Skias; 72-Sam Johnson; 1F-Chris Gerhart; 24T-TJ Greve; 64M-Ethan Mitchell; 50-Jacob Severn; 23-Bradley Brown; 43-Caleb Scarborough; 16-Marty Brian; 29-Alex Bright; 32J-Justin Burr; 8G-Grayson Price; 52-Scott Kreutter; 61-Ryan Kunkle; 11H-Holden Eckman; 2J-Jace Marshall; 21G-Geoff Federspiel; 21K-Tommy Kunsman

Connor Gross took home “The Big Belt” after winning the 2025 Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Flying A Motorsports championship. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)

Connor Gross (middle) poses in victory lane with Hyper Racing’s Mike Dicely (right) and Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek promoter Nick Fillman (left) after claiming the 2025 Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Flying A Motorsports title. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photography)

Junior Sprint Speedweek Finale

After Brexton Busch swept all the races of last year’s inaugural Junior Sprint Speedweek en route to the championship, Fleetwood’s Jax Wittmer made lightning strike twice, as he capped off a perfect five-for-five week with a dominant performance at the Clyde.

Wittmer was fastest of the 25 entries in group time trials, but was denied a heat race win for the first time all week when he finished second to Archer Jumper. Ashlyn Wittmer and Braylon Morris won the other two heats, and it would be Jax’s sister who would start on the pole for the 20-lap A-Main after the passing points were calculated.

Despite slipping back on the initial start, Jax Wittmer got a do-over when the caution flag waved before the first lap could be completed. On the second start, Ashlyn and Jax Wittmer ran side-by-side with each other for the first two laps, with Jax edging ahead at the start-finish line before the caution waved on lap 3.

With the No. 707 back in clean air, Jax made sure that he wouldn’t lose command through the rest of the race, despite the best efforts of Morris. Morris closed to within a couple car lengths as the drivers settled into a long green-flag run to the finish. But Wittmer was able to get through lapped traffic more efficiently, while Morris was forced to battle for his runner-up position in the closing laps.

When the checkered flag fell, Wittmer crossed the line 1.679 seconds ahead of Morris, completing his perfect week and becoming the second Junior Sprint Speedweek champion just a month and a half removed from suffering compression fractures in his back after a quarter midget crash.

Jumper fought for second but ultimately finished in the third position, while Gage Pio and Lucas Ferriola brought home the rest of the top five.

In the Speedweek points, Wittmer took the title by 33 points over Morris. Andrew Ferriola finished third in the standings, and Pio along with Enzo Iudicello rounded out the top five.

Results:

1. 707-Jax Wittmer[2]; 2. 15-Braylon Morris[5]; 3. 28-Archer Jumper[4]; 4. 5-Gage Pio[8]; 5. 75-Lucas Ferriola[3]; 6. 14-Lane White[7]; 7. 26-Andrew Ferriola[9]; 8. 1E-Enzo Iudicello[12]; 9. 7-Ashlyn Wittmer[1]; 10. 49-Brooks White[11]; 11. 12-Brady Ayres[16]; 12. 64B-Barrett Bressler[15]; 13. 45-Logan Schibilia[13]; 14. 27-Jase Smith[6]; 15. 33S-Cole Surman[18]; 16. 95-Landen Edsall[14]; 17. 1S-Will Simco[17]; 18. 1B-Landon Bailey[25]; 19. 9-Connor Edsall[23]; 20. 2-Brantlee Leitzel[20]; 21. 22H-Gauge Healy[10]; 22. 26C-Camden McGaha[22]; 23. 52K-Dawson Kreutter[19]; 24. 14A-Brycen Austin[21]; 25. 5B-Reid Bailey[24]

Jax Wittmer celebrated in victory lane after winning the Junior Sprint Speedweek Finale at the Clyde and taking home the 2025 Junior Sprint Speedweek championship. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photography)

Next Saturday, July 26, the Clyde returns to action with the annual Clyde Martin Memorial Race. In honor of the former members of the Lanco Micro Midget Club who are no longer with us, all five divisions will compete in 35-lap, double-points paying feature events in what is the most prestigious event of the season for track regulars. This race is a members only event, and drivers must have competed in at least three points races in order to be eligible. The list of eligible drivers can be found on the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway website. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m., with hot laps and racing beginning at 6 p.m. General grandstand admission is $10, and for those unable to attend, live streaming coverage will be provided by The Cushion.