Fan Notes from the Buckeye Cup at Sharon

Paul McMahan (5), Cale Conley (3c), Sam Hafertepe Jr. (15H), Cory Eliason (26) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com) (Tom Myers) 5/1/2021 - Sharon Speedway held the first of 4 All Star races for the 2021 racing season on Saturday May 1st. A stout field of 41 cars showed up to battle for the $6,000 top prize and for All Star points.

The weather was a cool and breezy 64 degrees and sunny. I was not aware of any rain in the forecast but sure enough, as we got closer to having sprint car hot laps, it clouded up? All of a sudden there was an 80% chance of rain for Hartford, Ohio at 6:00pm? Well, it all turned out okay because with one sprint heat to go, it sprinkled for like 5 minutes and then the sun came out again and there was a nice rainbow.

The racing world had just gotten the word that Paul McMahon would be piloting the CJB Motorsports sprinter that Brent Marks recently vacated. Paul would be racing the remainder of the entire All Star tour in this car with a 2nd car being piloted on occasion by Buddy Kofoid and Spencer Bayston. Paul was in the pits tonight with his new ride. Sam Hefertepe Jr. was in the pits and ready to race. Sam has been blazing fast running with the World of Outlaws recently, racing up front with them and setting a fast time and new track record in the dirt at the Bristol track. Dave Blaney was racing tonight in his radical car that is wearing his father’s throwback paint scheme. In addition to the travelling All Stars, last year’s Lou Blaney Memorial winner Cole Conley was in the pits. Also racing tonight were Cole Duncan, Adam Kekich, Sye Lynch, recent Waynesfield winner Gary Taylor, former All Star racers Brandon Spithaler, Skyler Gee, Greg Wilson, Lee Jacobs and both Matus men.

With the Brent Marks situation in mind, I asked one of the All Star officials how the driver and car owner points and tow money would work out. Now don’t quote me on this, even the All Star official I talked with was not 100% sure…. but the way I understood this was…..if Marks would have stayed racing with the All Stars he would have been able to file a new application for car owner points and tow money with his own car. As it stands now, he cannot do that anymore this year because he raced his own car at another track on the same day the All Stars held a race. He could still keep his driver points and race for the driver championship, but now he is locked out of any car owner perks. The CJB team is keeping their car owner points and tow money arrangement with the All Stars.

Sam Hafertepe Jr. Why do all the roads around Hartford, Ohio have 2 names? Custer-Orangeville road? Wilson-Sharpsville road? Youngstown-Conneaut road? Bushnell-Campbell road? Could it be that the road name is the name of the town at each opposite end of the road? As in Youngstown-Conneaut road? Or maybe they wanted to have road names like the last names of pro-athletes? You know, like Ju Ju Smith-Schuster? Or Ha Ha Clinton-Dix?

The racing surface dried out very quickly and became the dry-slick-smooth surface that Sharon usually has. During time trials the racers were up by the guardrail, actually bouncing off of it, searching for any grip they could find. The fast timer was Zeb Wise and he was the 2nd out to time.

The top ten timers were Wise, Peck, Schurenburg, Taylor, Madsen, Conley, Duncan, Eliason,
Blaney and Kekich.

The heat races were mostly follow-the-leader affairs. It was just very hard to get grip and momentum to get past anyone but there was some passing. You had to have your momentum up and going straight when someone else was sliding up the track or spinning their rear tires. It was definitely helpful to start on the front row of your heat. Many good racers started in the back and didn’t get anywhere near a transfer spot, including Hefertepe and McMahon and Wolfe. Dave Blaney was the heat 1 winner. Adam Kekich started on the pole but slid back to 6th. The top 4 transferring were Blaney, Wise, Eliason and Lynch. In heat 2 the finish was Schurenburg, Duncan, Madsen and Taylor. Heat 3 finish was Gee, Conley, Spithaler and Felmlee. The heat 4 finish was Balog, Peck, Henry and Gallager. And the last heat finish, after our short rain delay, was Jacobs, Courtney, Bauer, and Sodeman Jr.

Justin Peck at Sharon The dash 1 winner was Peck and Cole Duncan won the 2nd dash. The B main would take the top 4 to the A main. The winner was Carl Bowser, and he was followed by Kekich, Kuriger and McMahon.

Wilson and McMahon had a nice battler going for the final transfer spot with Paul ultimately sealing the deal.

There are a few drivers and teams that have struggles so far this year, but it is still early in the race season. I talked with Cap Henry and he acknowledged the team’s struggles so far. After some changes on the car and a better performance at Attica last week, he’s confident that they are turning the corner. If you will remember, Cap won 3 All Star races last year and also had a few more podium finishes. Lucas Wolfe is also struggling. I believe he was in the dash at Attica a few weeks back but it seems that even when he gets a decent feature starting spot, he falls back. I hope he and his All Star team can get it going soon. Another one is Tyler Courtney. Courtney is talented and fast, but so far this season, he has been very inconsistent. I am waiting for that breakout performance from him.

Last year, here at the Lou Blaney Memorial race, I met Kevin Killgore. Kevin works with the Adam Kekich race team. I noticed that Kevin was smoking a big cigar and since I smoke cigars, I was interested in what he was smoking so I walked up to him and we had a nice conversation about cigars. I remembered our meeting from last year so this year I made it a point to look for Kevin and sure enough, when I found him, he was trying to light a rather large cigar butt that he had obviously been working on for a good portion of the evening. I just happened to have a few cigars with me and gave him an Alec Bradley Prensado robusto. Kevin, like myself, favors the maduro wrappers on his cigars so I will make sure and have one of those with me next time. Kevin lives just north of Fremont, Ohio, but travels around and helps the Kekich race team out of Hermitage, Pa. Kevin got to helping them out a few years back when Adam was running the FAST series at Attica and Fremont.

The feature was fun to watch thanks to the back and forth for the 2nd thru 5th spots all race long. Justin Peck has been amazing so far this year. He just took off from the pole starting spot and into the lead. Justin lead every lap, going high and in the middle and down low. In the middle portion of the feature Cole Duncan and Dave Blaney challenged him for the lead a couple of times in lapped traffic but then Peck drove off and won the $6000. Hunter Schurenburg grabbed 2nd right away at the start of the race but was unable to challenge Peck. Hunter held on to that spot until giving way to Duncan and then Blaney about halfway. Blaney and Duncan then exchanged spots and chased Peck at the same time. The finish was Peck, Duncan, Madsen, Wise, Balog, Schurenburg, Jacobs, Henry, McMahon, who was up from 24th, and Eliason. Blaney was disqualified for not heading to the scales after the finish and he was scored in 25th place.

Peck is on fire right now and is the surprise story so far. Wise is impressing too so far. But watch out for Madsen and Eliason, who are quietly right behind Peck, keeping the pressure on.

The current All Star point standings after this race are now:

1. Justin Peck - 832 2. Ian Madsen - 814 3. Cory Eliason - 776 4. Zeb Wise - 774 5. Tyler Courtney - 764 6. Hunter Schuerenberg - 738 7. Bill Balog - 714 8. Cap Henry - 690 9. Kyle Reinhardt - 668 10. Lucas Wolfe - 660

Thank you Sharon Speedway and thank you All Star Circuit of Champions. Looking forward to the next race!