By Kasey Kreider
(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Often billed as one of the most exciting micro sprint racing shows in the northeast, the “Wingless” portion of the Labor Day Shootout lived up to its reputation once again on Sunday night. An ultra-wide and ultra-racy surface greeted competitors in the three non-wing divisions, while the Junior Sprints also stepped into the spotlight and turned in exciting, wheel-to-wheel action.
Christian Bruno exacted some revenge on a near-miss in Saturday’s Winged 600 Shootout by holding off Aidan Turner to score the victory of Sunday’s $1,250-to-win Hyper Racing Wingless 600 A-Main. Jason Swavely made it a weekend sweep in the Mike Rice-owned No. 2x, as he followed up Saturday’s Sportsman win with his fourth Border Magic Wingless 270 Shootout triumph. John Maurer made it a true sweep of the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke events as the Fleetwood native dominated the 30-lap Wingless feature. And the inaugural Junior Sprint “Clash at the Clyde” belonged to Gage Pio, as “The Puppy” passed more cars than anyone to win the inaugural Labor Day Shootout event for racing’s future stars.
Hyper Racing Wingless 600
It had been a Labor Day weekend of near-misses for Christian Bruno entering Sunday night’s Hyper Racing Wingless 600 A-Main event. After a second-place finish with the USAC East Coast Sprint Cars on Friday night at Williams Grove, Bruno led the first 28 laps of Saturday night’s Winged 600 Shootout A-Main before things came undone on a green-white-checkered restart.
Back on pole position for Sunday’s Wingless 600 Shootout, Bruno was determined not to let this one slip away, despite the race having plenty of parallels to the one that he had lost 24 hours before. Surviving four restarts in the final nine laps, the Deptford, NJ native sealed the deal this time around to score his second Labor Day Shootout victory – but the first in Wingless 600 competition.
A quick time-trial lap and a strong heat race performance positioned Bruno well entering the redraw, and for the second-straight night, Bruno picked the pole to put his No. 5 Groff Motorsports/Snyder Racing Enterprises entry at the front of the heap for the 30-lap finale.
On a slick and demanding – but equally entertaining – track surface, Bruno sped off with the top spot over the first few laps of the race, while 2024 Millbridge Speedway champion Aidan Turner moved past East Coast Transponders Nationals winner Alex Ruppert for second on an early restart. The drivers that were in positions one and two for most of Saturday night’s A-Main picked up where they left off with the wings removed, and the race once again settled into a long green-flag run that saw the front drivers have to navigate through lapped traffic.
As both the leaders caught the back of the field, Turner got close enough to throw a slider just outside of 10 laps to go, but couldn’t stick it enough to keep Bruno from crossing over. A caution then waved with nine laps to go, getting the frontrunners out of lapped traffic for the rest of the race.
On that restart, Turner made a bold move down into turn 1, sliding across the banking but leaving just enough room for Bruno to squeak back ahead at the exit of turn 2. From there, the chess match began to develop as cautions continued to fly a few laps after each restart. Bruno nailed the last double-file one with six to go to hold the advantage, but a caution with four laps left set up single-file restarts the rest of the way.
After losing the lead on a single-file restart with just two laps left on Saturday night, Bruno once again put his faith in rolling the bottom groove through turns 3 and 4 as opposed to trying to build momentum on the top – albeit on a drastically different track surface than one night before.
This time, that proved to be the right call, as Turner shadowed the No. 5 car on the restart with four laps to go, and again on the one-lap sprint to the finish. The North Carolina native was never quite close enough to throw a last-ditch slider, and Bruno stormed to the finish line three car lengths ahead, scoring his first Wingless 600 Shootout win to pair with a Winged 600 Shootout victory in 2022.
Coming home with second was Turner, while Dominic Schmidt used a big late restart to vault himself into third. Dylan Kontra blazed from 15th up to fourth, and Lukas Kostic came on strong late as well to complete the top five.
Despite finishing as the runner-up for the second-straight night, Turner’s efforts throughout the weekend were good enough to crown him as the champion of the Labor Day Shootout Winged/Wingless Challenge in the 600 class, garnering him an extra $320 in bonus prize money. Schmidt came home with second in those standings, while Ryan Groff, Kyle Lick, and Kostic made up the remainder of the top five.
Results:
1. 5-Christian Bruno[1]; 2. 26T-Aidan Turner[3]; 3. 08-Dominic Schmidt[8]; 4. 12-Dylan Kontra[15]; 5. 10L-Lukas Kostic[11]; 6. 03-Ryan Groff[9]; 7. 16-Marty Brian[16]; 8. 5R-Alex Ruppert[2]; 9. 11Z-Kyle Lick[6]; 10. 96-Zach Jurcik[14]; 11. 21K-Jacob Severn[12]; 12. 15D-Matthew Donley[7]; 13. 7-Shelby McLaughlin[22]; 14. 00-Brian Kramer[21]; 15. 80-Anthony Tramontana[17]; 16. 2-Jakob Stitzel[20]; 17. 54-Dakota Barlet[5]; 18. 21-Mason Beinhower[19]; 19. 30-Jack Fraser[24]; 20. 3L-Nolen Layser[26]; 21. 31C-Maverick Coffey[25]; 22. 28P-Gunnar Pio[4]; 23. 16F-Matthew Francis[18]; 24. 2L-Luke Hess[10]; 25. 16T-Trevor Gach[23]; 26. 98-Matt Warner[13]
DNQ: 9G-Grady McGrew; 51-Amanda Onimus; 9-Steven Drevicki; 721-Steven Miller; 3Y-Zachary Young; 15Q-Quinn Llewellyn; 15L-Dylan Smith; 5A-Anthony Yerger; 4J-Julian Rexrode; 13-Ben Freels; 41-Eddie Mort; 7G-Jimmy Glenn; 11H-Holden Eckman; 25X-Dan Lane Jr; 14K-RJ Kingdollar
Christian Bruno held on through several late-race restarts to grab the victory of the Hyper Racing Wingless 600 Labor Day Shootout. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Border Magic Wingless 270
After winning the inaugural Border Magic Wingless 270 Labor Day Shootout back in 2014, Jason Swavely had to wait eight years before winning it again in 2022. But since then, “The Rocketman from Fleetwood” has owned Sunday night of the Shootout, as Swavely made it three-in-a-row in the Wingless 270 event, driving Mike Rice’s No. 2x across the finish line – albeit just barely – to chalk up the win.
For the first third of the race, Swavely and polesitter John Maurer put on an excellent fight for the top spot. While Maurer’s No. 82 held serve around the top, Swavely searched around on both the top and bottom grooves, making a couple of bids for the lead that ultimately didn’t stick.
However, a lap 11 restart saw Swavely plant the bottom groove down into turn 1 and clear Maurer off of turn 2. Once finding clean track, Swavely legged out the advantage, particularly showing his strength when the second half of the race ran without a caution flag.
A brief scare for Swavely came when he began to feel the motor lay down coming to the white flag. With a lead of still over a second in hand, Swavely was able to limp his car to the finish line before hopping on the brakes and sliding to a stop in an attempt to save the motor. Regardless, the win for Swavely marked his third of the weekend, and his 13th Labor Day Shootout victory all-time. With his fourth Wingless 270 Shootout win, Swavely broke a tie with Mike Rutherford for the most in the 12-year history of the event.
Maurer was fast all night and held on for second, while Brandon Heist came home with third. 2017 Wingless 270 Shootout winner Dan Lane, Jr. finished fourth, and Dustin Roberts came out of a B-Main to grab the final spot in the top five.
With feature finishes of fifth in the Winged 270 race and second in the Wingless 270 A-Main, John Maurer claimed the $250 bonus as the Labor Day Shootout Winged/Wingless Challenge champion. Also earning prize money was second-place Brent Shearer, third-place Dan Lane, Jr., fourth-place Brandon Heist, and fifth-place Joe Dopke.
Results:
1. 2X-Jason Swavely[5]; 2. 82-John Maurer[1]; 3. 5R-Brandon Heist Sr[12]; 4. 16X-Dan Lane Jr[11]; 5. 24-Dustin Roberts[17]; 6. 75-Brent Shearer[10]; 7. 29J-Jacob Neff[14]; 8. 28-Kyle Lindsey[13]; 9. 94-Dallas Sanders[18]; 10. 71-Joseph Dopke[19]; 11. 14-Daniel Wright Jr[23]; 12. 78-Cole Williams[26]; 13. 78C-Sara Borror[16]; 14. 10A-Anthony Yerger[8]; 15. 32-Michael Hoffmaster[20]; 16. 1J-Toby Blumenshine[15]; 17. 1L-Logan Hess[3]; 18. 5A-Bradley Brown[6]; 19. 44E-Corey Waegel[22]; 20. 39M-Richie Hartman[21]; 21. 0-Charles Chance[2]; 22. 12Q-Dominic Pomponi[7]; 23. 11X-Chase Roberts[9]; 24. 76H-Bryson Haugh[25]; 25. 23B-Chase Bouchelle[24]; 26. 00-Pat Kelly[4]
DNQ: 17-Masen Stapleton; 42-Bob Sawdey; 46R-James Miller; 74-Josh Bricker; 4-Dylan Pence; 1LX-Dave Labe; 8B-Kevin Locascio; 58N-Ella Rae Nardelli
Jason Swavely picked up his second win of the weekend aboard the Mike Rice-owned No. 2x, claiming his fourth triumph in the Border Magic Wingless 270 Labor Day Shootout. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Gretna Graphics Wingless 125/4 Stroke
Despite always being strong in wingless competition at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway – and winning the most-recent Wingless 125/4 Stroke race in August of 2024 – John Maurer entered Sunday night having yet to break through in the Labor Day Shootout. But just like most nights in 2025, Maurer ended the 30-lap A-Main in the winner’s circle to become the first driver in six years to sweep both the Winged and the Wingless Labor Day Shootouts in the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke class.
Maurer started the feature from pole position after picking up a victory in his heat race, and controlled the pace of the race running around the bottom groove while drivers jockeyed for spots behind him.
Over the course of the A-Main – which only had one caution in the final 25 laps – Maurer was never substantially challenged, even with a car that he admitted in victory lane didn’t feel that strong. It still ended up being good enough for the Fleetwood native, as he scored the victory by four car lengths at the final flag, sweeping the 125/4 Stroke Shootouts for the first time since Austin Graby accomplished the feat in 2019.
The best racing was arguably for second, as Seth Gregory and Dave Schroeder battled wheel-to-wheel for the majority of the race. Gregory was able to come out on top of that spirited fight, while Schroeder still picked up third and in the process, made it an all-Mongoose Chassis podium. Justin Harrington charged on the top groove to a fourth-place finish, while Corey Harting bounced back from an early spin to claim fifth.
By winning both features, Maurer also claimed his second $250 bonus for winning the Labor Day Shootout Winged/Wingless Challenge in the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke class. Seth Gregory finished second, with Trevor Waegel, Dave Schroeder, and Asher Kempton completing the top five.
Results:
1. 82-John Maurer[1]; 2. 14-Seth Gregory[2]; 3. X-Dave Schroeder[4]; 4. 76-Justin Harrington[7]; 5. 3H-Corey Harting[8]; 6. 112-Dylan Yeingst[10]; 7. 89-Rilynn Hannula[14]; 8. 44S-Trevor Waegel[3]; 9. 23-Asher Kempton[13]; 10. 3H2-Holly Harting[15]; 11. 24K-David Kirkner[11]; 12. 04-Steve Simmons[5]; 13. 26C-Michael Coen[9]; 14. 17E-Easton Miller[6]; 15. 74-Paige Rothermel[12]; 16. 15-Mitchell Gibson[16]
John Maurer capped off a near-perfect weekend at the Labor Day Shootout by winning the Gretna Graphics Wingless 125/4 Stroke A-Main in addition to claiming the championship of the Labor Day Shootout Winged/Wingless Challenge. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
Junior Sprints
Sunday night saw the inaugural completed edition of the Junior Sprint “Clash at the Clyde,” as some of the future stars of the speedway made their first appearances competing during the biggest racing weekend of the year. Despite starting the night off behind the eight ball, “The Puppy” Gage Pio charged toward the front in both his heat race and the 20-lap feature to win the Junior Sprints’ first-ever Labor Day Shootout event.
Pio’s night started with issues, as the driver of the Hyper Black Series No. 5 was unable to take to the racetrack for time trials, putting him at the back of a heat race. However, any issues were fixed prior to the preliminary race, and Pio put on a show as he sliced and diced from last to take the win of the first heat race.
Despite that effort, Pio would still have to come from sixth in the feature, while Lanco debutant Caleb Witmer led the field to green for the A-Main. Witmer was out ahead for the first two laps before Braylon Morris darted into the top spot on the third revolution.
But Pio charged into second just a few laps later, and began tracking Morris down as the laps continued to click off. When Pio kept his car from washing up off the bottom of turn 4 coming to start the ninth lap, that gave him all the room he needed to duck inside of Morris’ No. 15 and take the lead, completing his sequence of outstanding drives to the front.
Pio pulled away to a victory by just over five seconds at the final flag, while Barrett Bressler got to second place over the final few laps to complete a great run. Morris held on for the final spot on the podium, while New York’s Brady Ayres came back from a first-lap flip to finish fourth. Witmer took the final spot in the top five.
Results:
1. 5-Gage Pio[6]; 2. 64B-Barrett Bressler[4]; 3. 15-Braylon Morris[3]; 4. 12-Brady Ayres[5]; 5. 7-Caleb Witmer[1]; 6. 39W-Logan Wirt[7]; 7. 20-Brycen Hooper[8]; 8. 95-Landen Edsall[12]; 9. 14-Brycen Austin[9]; 10. 9-Connor Edsall[11]; 11. 5B-Reid Bailey[10]; 12. 1B-Landon Bailey[2]
Gage Pio (center), Barrett Bressler (left), and Braylon Morris (right) made up the podium for Sunday night’s inaugural Junior Sprint “Clash at the Clyde” as part of the Labor Day Shootout. (Photo Courtesy of Ryan Snyder/ReflexX Photography)
The Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 6, as the championship chases will take center stage over the final three races of the season. All five weekly classes will be in action, while the Hyper Racing Wingless 600s have a doubleheader on tap with the makeup feature from May 17. Gates will open at 4 p.m., with racing starting at 5:30 p.m. General grandstand admission is $10, and for those unable to attend, live streaming coverage will be provided courtesy of The Cushion.