By Kasey Kreider
(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)
After winning the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek event Thursday night at the Linda’s Speedway, Alex Ruppert described his 2024 season to date as “straight motivation.” A good chunk of that motivation came from a near-miss in the Speedweek Finale two years ago, a lost Speedweek championship in 2023, and a jump-start that took him out of the lead of the $7,500-to-win East Coast Transponders Race just seven days prior to this year’s Speedweek Finale.
But on Saturday night at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, after another thrilling Speedweek Finale, the close calls and agonizing defeats were finally avenged. Ruppert rocketed up from the eighth-starting spot in the feature, passed eventual Speedweek champion Christian Bruno for the lead with 15 laps to go, and ripped the lip all the way to the checkered flag throughout a remarkable 42-lap green-flag run to the finish.
Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics Finale
As was the case throughout the week for Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek competitors, the evening started off with time trials for the 85 cars who entered the speedway in pursuit of the grand prize.
The field was split into two flights, and defending Finale winner and Speedweek points leader Christian Bruno made an early statement by timing fastest among cars in Flight A. But for the first time all week, it was a driver from Flight B who turned the quickest overall lap. That driver was none other than the first Wingless 600 track champion Bradley Brown, who zoomed around the speedway in just 10.905 seconds.
But Bruno quickly re-established himself as the favorite during heat race action, as he went from sixth-to-first in a chaotic first heat race to establish himself as the top driver in passing points entering the qualifiers. Lafayette, IN’s Greyson Springer – turning his first laps ever at the Clyde – also went 6-to-1. The other heat races were won by Garyt Smith, Chase Rodgers, Jacob Severn, Billy Koch, Kyle Lick, and Zack Weisenfluh.
Entering qualifiers, Ruppert – who had made every Speedweek A-Main since the 2022 Speedweek races at the Clyde – was in a little bit of a precarious position. A 12th-place showing in time trials followed by a 4-to-4 run in his heat race had Ruppert sitting 29th in the passing points chart. Good enough to make a qualifier, but not good enough to be inside of the top 18 that he needed to be in after the qualifier races to ensure that he would transfer directly to the feature.
But when those 10-lap qualifiers came around, Ruppert’s car began flexing its muscle. Ruppert charged from eighth to third over the duration of the race, good enough to firmly put him in the feature. Kyle Spence, Kyle Lick, Gunnar Pio, and Zach Jurcik took home the qualifier race wins.
While many of the big names had qualified for the feature, there were still several stars who had to compete in B-Mains. The winner of each B-Main qualified directly to the feature, while finishers 2-6 made up the field for the Last Chance Showdown. The thrilling B-Mains were won by Matt Warner, Ryan Groff, Steven Snyder, Jr., and Dylan Kontra. And when the dust settled after the Last Chance Showdown, Alex Bright, Holden Eckman, Brian Carber, and Chase Rodgers took the final four spots in the 50-lap A-Main.
Banking off of their 6-to-1 runs earlier in the night, Bruno and Springer made up the front row for the Speedweek Finale, while Ruppert began his quest for victory in eighth. As caution flags sprinkled the early portion of the race, it seemed at first that the race could take a very similar form to last year’s Finale, where the bottom was dominant for most of the race before the top came in late.
But that quickly proved not to be the case, as Kyle Spence used the top side to motor around Springer and put pressure on Bruno before a caution flew on lap 9. A quick caution led to a single-file restart, and no one could’ve imagined at that point and time that it would’ve been the final restart of the race. However, that’s exactly what it was.
So entering that restart, it was Bruno, Spence, and Springer who were in the top three, with Gunnar Pio resuming in fourth, and then Ruppert restarting in fifth.
Bruno moved up to the top right away and kept the lead, but the driver everyone had their eyes on was Ruppert, as it became evident that his car was the fastest on the track. Ruppert got Pio a few laps after the restart. Then, after a few back-and-forth sliders, completed the pass on Springer. And just prior to halfway, Ruppert swooped past Spence to take the runner-up spot.
Within just a couple laps, Ruppert found himself on Bruno’s tail tank as the leaders worked lapped traffic. Ruppert pulled one quick slider at halfway that Bruno crossed over, and then the Lewisberry native stalked the defending Finale winner for the next 10 or so laps, plotting his next move.
The decisive pass came with 15 laps to go, as Ruppert threw a shallow slider entering turn 1. As he slid in front of the Groff Motorsports machine, Bruno got tight on the cushion and rubbed the wall, taking away any chance at a response and firmly placing Ruppert into the top spot.
Ruppert appeared as if he might have one final challenge coming in the form of Springer, who got back to the runner-up spot after falling as far back as fourth. Springer’s inexperience at the Clyde may have cost him a bit in this instance, as he wasn’t as comfortable running against the wall as some of the other Lanco veterans.
Springer was running Ruppert down for a few circuits, but rode up on the wall and nearly flipped down the backstretch with eight laps remaining. From that point on, Springer pulled back the reins just a little bit, allowing Ruppert to cruise home to the biggest win of his career.
Perhaps it was a fitting victory for the pilot of the Drydene No. 5 machine. The track that had broken his heart during Speedweek the last two years showed that third time could be the charm. And Ruppert left no doubt in anyone’s mind following those 50 frenetic laps that he was a cut above the rest when showtime rolled around on Saturday night.
“Brenden [Bright] gave me a great race car there,” Ruppert said. “I could see [Bruno] in front of me, he was wearing down… I knew we were gonna be able to pounce on him there through lapped traffic… we did that and it feels awesome.”
“We had a faster race car two years ago and gave that one up, and we’re back now and we got our redemption. This Speedweek was all about redemption for the past two years.”
And so it was redemption for Ruppert, as he claimed his second win of the week following his Linda’s triumph. Springer capped off an incredible debut week in the northeast in second, while Spence rounded out the podium. Kyle Lick came home fourth, and Briggs Danner came from 17th to finish fifth.
Unlike recent years, there wasn’t a whole lot of drama surrounding this year’s Speedweek points fight. Maybe that was fitting considering who the person was that lifted “The Big Belt.” Deptford, NJ’s Christian Bruno – Speedweek’s “Mr. Consistency” – claimed his second Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Performance Electronics title.
Bruno may have faded to finish seventh in Saturday’s Finale at the Clyde, but that result was the worst of the week for Bruno. Despite not winning a feature, Bruno made every A-Main of the week, extending his streak to a remarkable 31 consecutive Speedweek races that he has qualified for. Runner-up finishes on Thursday and Friday put Bruno in a solid position entering Saturday’s final race, where he scored the points title over Tommy Kunsman and Steven Snyder, Jr.
Results:
1. 5R-Alex Ruppert[8]; 2. 24G-Greyson Springer[2]; 3. 89-Kyle Spence[3]; 4. 11Z-Kyle Lick[7]; 5. 99-Briggs Danner[17]; 6. 21K-Tommy Kunsman[6]; 7. 5-Christian Bruno[1]; 8. 20-Alex Bright[23]; 9. 08-Dominic Schmidt[13]; 10. 8C-Brian Carber[25]; 11. 16-Marty Brian[10]; 12. 5X-Chase Rodgers[26]; 13. 28P-Gunnar Pio[4]; 14. 2S-Zachery Bealer[5]; 15. 3-Jesse Maurer[15]; 16. 03-Ryan Groff[20]; 17. 11H-Holden Eckman[24]; 18. 98-Matt Warner[19]; 19. 10L-Lukas Kostic[18]; 20. 12-Dylan Kontra[22]; 21. 2SX-Garyt Smith[14]; 22. 23-Bradley Brown[12]; 23. 96-Zach Jurcik[9]; 24. 66-Billy Koch[11]; 25. 15N-Neal Allison[16]; 26. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[21]
DNQ: 50-Jacob Severn; 14-Jason Swavely; 24W-Zack Weisenfluh; 95B-James Roselli; 94-Hayden Wise; 15D-Matthew Donley; Z17-Michael Nolf; 3B-Michael Fauci; 39-Richie Hartman; 42-Dylan Hahn; 29-PJ Williams; 7B-Mitchell Bard; 7-Shelby McLaughlin; 17-Cole Perez; 64-Ronnie Dawson; 88-Justin Yohn; 14C-Connor Gross; 25-Kenneth Beinhower III; 81G-GianCarlo Ramessar; 5H-Haylee Papp; 4J-Julian Rexrode; 5J-Braden Jones; 99X-Dakota Barlet; 01-Geordan Marrero; 9W-Weston Doklan; 33-Joey Robinson; 7L-Chase Layser; 570-Prestyn Brown; 21G-Geoff Federspiel; 76-Jacob Bierman; 37-Zak Keyser; 22H-Fred Heinly; 88-JR Mccutcheon; 09-Vincent Gueci; 1F-James Fries; 38S-Angelo Kouroupis; 51-Amanda Onimus; 501-Jasper Zeigafuse; 94A-Aiden Price; 88B-Billy Calvert; 2B-Brian Hughes JR; 20S-Nicholas Skias; 71K-Brian Kramer; 18B-David Blazavich; 29B-Brent Shearer; 21-Mason Beinhower; 33M-Matt Smith; 32H-Wayne Scott; 2D-Cole Dewease; 9-Sawyer Davis; 18-Jared Lilly; 56-Tyler Henry; 91-Nate Freed; 90-PJ Reid; 34D-Todd Davis; 62-Jacob Lynch; 18CB-Colton Blazavich; 64M-Ethan Mitchell; 30-Jack Fraser
Junior Sprints
The inaugural Junior Sprint Speedweek also came to an end on Saturday night at the Clyde. After sweeping the KKM Challenge earlier in the year, Mooresville, NC’s Brexton Busch returned to the Newmanstown bullring and capped off a perfect week of racing.
While Busch faced challenges throughout the week from drivers like Jase Smith, Gage Pio, and on Saturday night Larry Kelleher, the driver of the No. 18B was able to win all six feature events that took place during the week. His reward for that feat was being crowned as the inaugural Junior Sprint Speedweek champion.
“I had some confidence that I might be able to win because I’ve ran here and I’ve gotten some seat time.” Busch said. “It was really fun to get out here and race some really cool tracks.”
Kelleher finished second – right on Busch’s tail – in the Finale A-Main, while Pio came home in third. Braylon Morris finished fourth, and Smith completed the top five.
Results:
1. 18B-Brexton Busch[1]; 2. 16-Larry Kelleher[3]; 3. 5-Gage Pio[4]; 4. 15-Braylon Morris[7]; 5. 52-Jase Smith[8]; 6. 1I-Enzo Iudicello[9]; 7. 7-Ashlyn Wittmer[6]; 8. 707-Jax Wittmer[2]; 9. 10W-Weston Foster[12]; 10. 1S-Will Simco[15]; 11. 28-Archer Jumper[14]; 12. 45-Logan Schibilia[13]; 13. 15G-Ashen Glazier[11]; 14. 40-Tigh Shaffer[5]; 15. 65J-Landon Snyder[10]; 16. 22H-Gauge Healy[16]
The Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway continues its stretch of big races with “the granddaddy of them all,” the Clyde Martin Memorial Race on Saturday, July 27. The event features 35-lap, double-points paying A-Mains for all five of our weekly divisions. In order to be eligible for this event, drivers must be members and must have attempted to compete in at least three points shows this season. The list of eligible drivers can be found on the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway website. It will also be Bike Night at the Speedway for all kids who are in attendance. Gates open at 4:30 p.m., with warmups and racing beginning at 6 p.m. As we wrap up a huge month of July, don’t miss your chance to see who takes home the trophies and to LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
