By Kasey Kreider

(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

On the eve of the inaugural East Coast Transponders Nationals – the highest-paying race to win in the nearly 70-year history of the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway – there were still plenty of 4th of July fireworks as part of the “Friday Night Lights” preliminary action of the massive two-day show. With all 63 entries accruing time trial and Friday night heat race points in order to help their effort of locking into Saturday night’s big dance, a select 18 drivers earned the right to battle for a $1,000 payday, and a guaranteed starting spot in the 40-lap finale.

Lewisberry’s Alex Ruppert concluded Friday night prelim action as the “high-point man,” maxing out at 200 after timing quickest amongst his flight in time trials and scoring a victory in the first round of heat races. If there were any remaining doubts about Ruppert being one of the favorites – if not the outright favorite – for the $15,000 grand prize, he put them to rest in Friday night’s 25-lap A-Main. After coming out on top of a fierce mid-race battle with Gunnar Pio, “Lil Rupp” sprinted away to the checkers over the final eight-lap dash to the finish line.

Time trials began the evening for all competitors descending on the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, and with the field split into two flights, a maximum of 100 points were on offer for two lucky drivers as they looked to kick off their weekend on the right foot.

Ruppert was quickest among the Flight B cars with a lap time of 11.109 seconds. But the quickest time overall belonged to a driver from Flight A, as Jakob Stitzel rocketed around the racetrack in just 11.080 seconds to put 100 points into his own metaphorical bucket entering the first round of heat race action.

While Stitzel had a chance to secure pole position for the Friday night A-Main with a heat race win, it wasn’t to be for the Shoemakersville native. Stitzel came home second in his heat race behind former Winged and Wingless 600 track champion Bradley Brown – a result still good enough to lock him into the preliminary feature as one of the top-three finishers, but not good enough to put him on pole for the Friday nightcap.

Instead, that honor went to Matt Warner, who won the second heat race and locked himself in as the high-point driver among Flight A cars. Winning the other Flight A heat race was North Carolina’s Aidan Turner.

In Flight B heats, Ruppert cruised to the checkers in his 10-lapper, putting him on the outside pole for the feature. The other two Flight B heat races went to Gunnar Pio and Billy Koch.

With that, the 18-car lineup was set for a Friday night, 4th of July showdown, as Warner and Ruppert brought the field to the initial green flag. However, the first run of the race only lasted about 10 seconds, as a chain-reaction crash battling for the third spot saw Billy Koch’s car go tumbling down the backstretch and into turn 3. The ensuing stackup also collected the cars of Geoff Federspiel, Jason Swavely, and Cole Gerber, but only Koch’s machine received too much damage in the kerfuffle to continue.

On attempt number two at the start, Ruppert made a bid for the lead down into turn 1, sliding up the banking and keeping just enough momentum on corner-exit to charge into turn 3 ahead of the pack. But his advantage would be short-lived, as Warner and Gunnar Pio both slid across the bow of the No. 5 machine back into turn 1. With Ruppert boxed in off the corner, Pio darted away with the top spot as the leaders rumbled back around to complete lap 2.

After quickly moving back around Warner’s mount, Ruppert went to work chipping away at the four car length advantage that Pio had opened up riding the rail at the Newmanstown bullring. It didn’t take long for the gap to disappear, as by the eighth lap, Ruppert was back on the tail tank of No. 28P and back to throwing haymakers in order to reclaim the top spot.

The battle quickly came to a head, as the drivers made contact on two separate occasions on lap 9. The first collision came as Ruppert slid across the front bumper of Pio’s car in the middle of turns 1 and 2, and the second contact followed as Pio crossed back to the inside and slammed the door ahead of Ruppert on the exit of the turn, with a little bit of right-rear to left-front contact to boot.

Just a lap later, Ruppert was back in slider territory, and his second move was the one that stuck. With Pio busting the rear end of his machine sideways out of turn 4, Ruppert kept forward momentum down the frontstretch and finally grabbed control of the lead at the completion of lap 11.

Alex Ruppert (No. 5) and Gunnar Pio (No. 28P) spent the majority of Friday night’s 25-lap A-Main fighting amongst each other for the $1,000 preliminary night prize. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Pio kept pace though, and after a few laps of slicing and dicing through lapped traffic, a lap 18 caution for Abel Engler’s spin looked as if it could give the Kunkletown native one last good shot at claiming victory.

But push came to shove on the final restart, and Ruppert won the fight for space down into turn 3 while Pio’s machine got knocked out of line and shuffled back behind Aidan Turner and a methodically-marching Kyle Spence. With Ruppert in clean air and the fight left to be had behind him, last year’s Speedweek Finale winner danced off to victory over the final eight laps, putting himself as the only guaranteed starter for Saturday’s A-Main, and entrenching himself as one of the heavy favorites to win the whole thing.

A charge from 12th came up one spot short for Spence, as he was forced to settle for second. Pio recovered for a frustrating – but perhaps motivating – third-place result. Dominic Schmidt went from 10th to fourth, and Turner finished off the top five.

Results:

1. 5R-Alex Ruppert[2]; 2. 89-Kyle Spence[12]; 3. 28P-Gunnar Pio[4]; 4. 08-Dominic Schmidt[10]; 5. 26T-Aidan Turner[3]; 6. 23-Bradley Brown[5]; 7. 14-James Roselli[16]; 8. 12-Dylan Kontra[18]; 9. 98-Matthew Warner[1]; 10. 55-Trevor Cline[15]; 11. 11Z-Kyle Lick[8]; 12. 14J-Jason Swavely[11]; 13. 14X-Cole Gerber[17]; 14. 21G-Geoff Federspiel[13]; 15. 2-Jakob Stitzel[7]; 16. 34-Abel Engler[9]; 17. 5-Christian Bruno[14]; 18. 66-Billy Koch[6]

DNQ: 2J-Jace Marshall; 51-Chris Gerhart; 2L-Luke Hess; 9X-Connor Mirabelli; 20-Alex Bright; 16-Marty Brian; 71-Brian Kramer; 15D-Matthew Donley; 5X-Chase Rodgers; 83-Gabe Gerber; 22H-Fred Heinly; 10L-Lukas Kostic; 11H-Holden Eckman; 90-Trent Warner; 25X-Dan Lane Jr; 57-Cameron Vargo; 28-Greyson Springer; 5A-Anthony Yerger; 17-Cole Perez; 2D-Cole Dewease; 62-Jacob Lynch; 16L-Logan Dontonville; 32-Justin Burr; 54-Dakota Barlet; 4E-Emmalie Starr; 7-Shelby McLaughlin; 91-Nate Freed; 3B-Dallas Damask; 75X-James Hendricks; 25-Kenneth Beinhower III; 88J-JR McCutcheon; 90X-PJ Reid; 1F-James Fries; 21-Mason Beinhower; 14C-Connor Gross; 14Z-Tony Zajonczkoski; 7J-Cyle Johnson; 20S-Nick Skias; 03-Ryan Groff; 66A-Marvin Albright; 52-Scott Kreutter; 95-Nicholas Fauci; 50-Jacob Severn; 3Y-Zachary Young; 50X-Jasper Zeigafuse

Alex Ruppert capped off a perfect Friday night at the East Coast Transponders Nationals by picking up the Friday Night Lights feature win. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

The East Coast Transponders Nationals concludes Saturday, July 5. The night begins with a second round of heat races. At the conclusion of those events, the top 18 drivers in points for the weekend will lock into the A-Main, with the top six competitors jockeying for their Saturday night starting spot in the $300-to-win Alpha Seal Cash Dash. The alphabet soup and a 20-lap A-Main for the Junior Sprint competitors will precede the 40-lap, $15,000-to-win finale of the East Coast Transponders Nationals. Gates open at 4 p.m., with on-track action starting at 6 p.m. For those unable to attend in person, live streaming coverage will be provided courtesy of The Cushion. For kids in attendance, the Kids in Dirt Club will be participating in a bubble painting activity.