By Kasey Kreider

(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

With the target on his back as last year’s East Coast Transponders Nationals champion, the pressure was on Lewisberry’s Alex Ruppert to back up his dominant performance from one year ago. It may not have always been smooth sailing on Friday night at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, but Ruppert answered the bell once again, taking charge of the Hyper Racing Wingless 600 25-lap prelim A-Main and outdueling Trevor Cline to secure the $1,000 victory – plus a lock-in spot for Saturday night’s $12,000-to-win East Coast Transponders Nationals championship A-Main.

The Storm Chassis Junior Sprints also contested their first-ever wingless event at the Clyde in preparation for their massive $2,000-to-win finale on Saturday. It was Kunkletown’s Gage Pio who wrote his name in the history books once again, grabbing the win after an exciting 20-lap feature.

Hyper Racing Wingless 600

Time trials once again kicked off the festivities for the 2026 iteration of the East Coast Transponders Nationals, with the 59 entries signed in for competition vying for a maximum of 100 points if they could time quickest in their flight.

With the field split into two, it was James Roselli who set the quick time of Flight A – and the fastest time overall – with a lap of 11.526 seconds. Kayden Barker then collected 100 points of his own as the fast-timer of Flight B, ripping around the clay with a lap-time of 11.630 seconds. Meanwhile, Ruppert turned in the fourth-fastest lap among those in Flight A, lining the defending champion up in the very first heat race of the night.

With 100 more points on offer to each heat race winner, the ante was upped from the first drop of the green flag. The first heat race of the night was caution-filled, and even Ruppert wasn’t immune from the chaos. After being involved in an incident on the opening lap and being forced to restart at the tail of the field, Ruppert missed a big pileup that took place ahead of him and eventually found his way back to the front, taking the victory and putting him in a good position starting near the front of the Friday night feature.

Meanwhile, Kayden Barker picked up a win in his heat race, maxing him out at 200 points and leaving him as the “high-point” driver entering Saturday evening. The other heat races belonged to Aiden Purdue, Matt Warner, Trevor Cline, and Abel Engler.

After three B-Mains filled out the rest of the 24-car lineup, it would be Aiden Purdue and Kayden Barker to start on the front row and lead the field to green for the Friday Night Lights A-Main. Debuting a brand new Hyper Chassis for car owner Mike Dicely, Purdue set the pace for the opening few laps, while Ruppert began navigating his way up through the order from the fifth starting spot.

After using the inside groove to climb up to the runner-up position, Ruppert bolted to the top side and began to wind up momentum in his Moxzy No. 5 Hyper Chassis. Blasting around the top of Purdue’s No. 37, Ruppert grabbed the lead on the sixth lap.

Ruppert held the top spot, but still had to work to keep it, as Purdue moved to the top shelf as well and tracked Ruppert back down. After throwing one slider for the lead that Ruppert was able to cross over, Purdue eventually fell back into the clutches of Trevor Cline, and they waged a spirited battle for the second spot. The two drivers traded sliders and criss-crossed lines for a few laps before a caution flew and reset things with 11 laps left.

Ruppert and Purdue made up the front row for the initial attempt at a lap 15 restart, but Purdue was called for a jump, docking him two positions and moving Cline onto the front row. As the laps wound down after the restart, Ruppert and Cline put on a thrilling show jostling for the top spot.

With a couple of huge sliders, Cline seemingly put himself in position to seize the lead for good, as he cleared Ruppert coming off of turn 2 with four laps remaining. However, Cline’s undoing would be a caution flag that waved before that lap could be completed. With scoring reverting to the previous lap, Ruppert found himself back ahead for the final sprint to the finish.

Despite a few caution flags being peppered inside of the last few laps, Cline was never able to mount another move on Ruppert’s No. 5, as Cline was instead forced to race with Christian Bruno just to hold onto second. Ruppert pulled away by a couple of car lengths over the final one-lap dash, and sprinted home to keep himself a perfect three-for-three in East Coast Transponders Nationals A-Mains, dating back to last year.

Cline held off Bruno for second, as Bruno charged from a B-Main and the 21st starting position to capture the final place on the podium. Connor Gross finished fourth, and Purdue rounded out the top five.

Results:

1. 5R-Alex Ruppert[5]; 2. 55X-Trevor Cline[4]; 3. 5-Christian Bruno[21]; 4. 14C-Connor Gross[12]; 5. 37-Aiden Purdue[1]; 6. 12-Dylan Kontra[19]; 7. 89-Kyle Spence[8]; 8. 95B-James Roselli[7]; 9. 39L-Brian Carber[14]; 10. 98-Matthew Warner[3]; 11. 3NZ-Kayden Barker[2]; 12. 21-Zach Curtis[13]; 13. 16-Alex Slade[11]; 14. 2L-Luke Hess[17]; 15. 5X-Chase Rodgers[22]; 16. 3-Dominic Schmidt[15]; 17. 10L-Lukas Kostic[16]; 18. 15G-Ashen Glazier[24]; 19. 23M-Kenny Miller III[23]; 20. 2X-Jason Swavely[9]; 21. 10G-Mason Peters[18]; 22. 21B-Mason Beinhower[20]; 23. 34-Abel Engler[6]; 24. 66-Billy Koch[10]

DNQ: 25-Gunnar Pio; 50-Jacob Severn; 14-Cole Gerber; 10J-Noah Carpenter; 91-Nate Freed; 28-Brent Shearer; 1F-James Fries; 95-Colton Key; 11H-Holden Eckman; 95F-Nicholas Fauci; 9G-Grady McGrew; 71-Brian Kramer; 29X-Liam Kane; 14Z-Tony Zajonczkoski; 88J-JR McCutcheon; 90-Trent Warner; 15D-Matthew Donley; 707-Jax Wittmer; 5A-Anthony Yerger; 95AU-Flynn Roser; 5C-Grady Rinehart; 14W-Amelia Westlake; 23-Adam Presnar; 1-Tylen Trammell; 6-Tom Alloco; 7J-Cyle Johnson; 15Q-Quinn Llewellyn; 12G-Lance Griffith; 99G-Gordon Greenlaw; 01M-Aden Myers; 03-Ryan Groff; 4J-Zane Reeves; 2J-Jace Marshall; 26-Aidan Turner; 49-Scott Kreutter

Alex Ruppert continued his win streak at the East Coast Transponders Nationals by picking up the victory in the $1,000-to-win Friday Night Lights A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

Storm Chassis Wingless Junior Sprints

After winning the inaugural Junior Sprint race at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway back in 2024, Gage Pio made some more history on Friday night, coming from seventh to win the first-ever Wingless Junior Sprint main event at the race track.

The Junior Sprint events were action-packed all night long, with side-by-side and three-wide battling being the norm throughout their heats and feature. North Carolina’s Wyatt Parsley made a huge move on the opening lap of the A-Main, carving from high-to-low out of turn 2 and elevating himself from fourth to first in just that one move.

As Parsley continued to set the pace, Ashlyn Wittmer moved into the second spot, and Pio worked his way into third. Wittmer began to challenge Parsley and was all over the back bumper of the No. 93W before she hopped over the left-rear wheel of Parsley’s machine. The two leaders got jammed together and slid to a stop at the top of turn 2, allowing Pio to inherit the lead with just five laps completed.

With clean air in hand, Pio pulled away on the restart as the rest of the pack jockeyed for position. As it turned out, there wouldn’t be a caution flag for the rest of the race, and Pio sped off aboard the No. 26 Hyper Chassis to collect another Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway triumph.

With the top four drivers locking into tomorrow evening’s dash prior to the A-Main, there was still plenty to race for aside from just the race win. New York’s Brady Ayres made a big move on the final restart and held on the rest of the way for second, while Cole Surman also secured a lock-in spot finishing third. The fourth and final position came all the way down to the wire, as Parsley rallied from the tail of the field and made a last-lap, last-turn pass on Logan Schibilia. The two cars came across the finish line nearly dead even, with Parsley stealing the spot by just 0.010 seconds at the stripe.

Results:

1. 26-Gage Pio[7]; 2. 12A-Brady Ayers[1]; 3. 33S-Cole Surman[8]; 4. 93W-Wyatt Parsley[5]; 5. 45-Logan Schibilia[12]; 6. 7R-Ashlyn Wittmer[2]; 7. 39W-Logan Wirt[10]; 8. 95-Landen Edsall[9]; 9. 9-Connor Edsall[14]; 10. 36J-Jaxson Payero[11]; 11. 14A-Brycen Austin[13]; 12. 52K-Dawson Kreutter[15]; 13. 64B-Barrett Bressler[3]; 14. 7K-Everette Knorr[4]; 15. 7-Caleb Witmer[6]

“The Puppy” Gage Pio scored the win in Friday’s prelim night A-Main for the Storm Chassis Wingless Junior Sprints. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)

The East Coast Transponders Nationals at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway conclude on Saturday, July 4 with the epic finales for both the Hyper Racing Wingless 600s and the Storm Chassis Wingless Junior Sprints. The Junior Sprints will be racing for a whopping $2,000 to win in their 20-lap main event before the action concludes with the 51-lap, $12,000-to-win A-Main for the Wingless 600s. Grandstand admission opens at 4 p.m., with hot laps starting the on-track action at 6 p.m. Grandstand admission is $20, while for those unable to attend, live streaming coverage will be provided by The Cushion.