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[#17RaceTeam]

Weekly Race Report Hummingbird Speedway June 15, 2013 By: Randy Albert Pacing pioneers were on hand Saturday night to relive racing history at Hummingbird Speedway’s Racing Pioneers Night. Cars with history to tell and drivers who piloted them were on hand to give fans a glimpse of what stock car racing was like “back in the good old days.” Special thanks to Bud Garvey and friends for all their efforts and towing and showing the old iron on and off the track to the fans. Living the good new days in the winner’s circle for the evening was Chris Farrell from Clearfield in the BWP Bats Steel Block Late Models. The Warrior Energy Services Street Stock race was another classic battle with Steve Arthurs from Falls Creek coming out on top. Doug Surra out of Kersey put notch number three on his belt, taking the win in the Pure Stock Class. Rounding out the evening’s entertainment was the Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders with Brockway’s Zach Lindemuth taking his first win of the season. It was Big John Reed from Reynoldsville setting on the pole for the BWP Bats Steel Block Late Model class. Lining up alongside him was Paul Kot from Brockway with Kot jumping out to a quick lead. Dwayne Brooks from Falls Creek quickly moved into the second spot to challenge Kot trailing his back bumper by inches. Chris Farrell from Clearfield returned to The Bird this week and was in the hunt from the start looking outside the leaders for a way to the front. Kot was in control of the race early as Derek Rodkey out of Osceola Mills worked through traffic and was looking under Bob Connor from DuBois trying to take the fourth position. Farrell was trying every line to gain an advantage on Brooks taking the position on lap 10 and taking aim for the leader Paul Kot. A caution ended the nights of Rodkey and Brooks early leaving Farrell to chase down Kot. Last week’s winner, Eric Moore from Frenchville had moved up into the fourth spot by mid race with Farrell putting the heat on Kot being a dead heat at the line. Farrell held the low grove and a slight advantage moving into the lead on the next circuit with Kot coming back to challenge in the low groove on the back stretch. Farrell was too strong for the field as Kot fell back and Moore not being able to move up to vie for the top position. This was Farrell’s second visit to the speedway this year and his first win. Hope to see him back and make a competitive class even more interesting. Two heat races were held in the division, they were won by Dwayne Brooks and Chris Farrell. The Street Stock racing at Hummingbird this year has been exciting to say the least. Tonight the Warrior Energy Services sponsored racers proved to be no less exciting. Ed Connor and Shawn Lindemuth lined up on the front row for the feature race. Ed hails from DuBois with Shawn racing out of Brookville. The caution flew on the first lap leaving Lindemuth out of the race and placing Brandon Connor up front alongside Ed. This isn’t the first time we have seen the Connor Duo leading the hard chargers to Bob Sullinger’s flag stand. Ed led the field while Brandon raced side by side with Brian Rhed from Brockway. Hot on their tail was Steve Arthurs from DuBois who has shown some potential in the last few races only to have something end his night early. Brandon Connor and Arthurs battled side by side while keeping Ed in striking distance. Rhed looked on from the fourth position looking and waiting for an opening. Skip Lindemuth was on the move and up into the fifth place by mid-race. It was a three way, three wide race for the second spot between Arthur, Lindemuth and Brandon Connor. Connor washed high coming out of turn four giving the advantage to Lindemuth and Arthur. Ed Connor still held the lead but was feeling the heat from Arthur and Lindemuth. A late race spin set up the finish for a green, white, checkered flag dash. Arthur looked outside for the lead on Ed Connor with Lindemuth using what little low line was left. You could have covered them with a napkin on the last lap as Arthur used the high groove and the slingshot momentum coming off of turn four to take the win. Lindemuth managed to nose under Ed Connor for second relegating Ed to the third spot followed by Brandon who could only look on due to the lack of a place to try for the lead. Another sensational finish in the competitive division with Steve Arthur overcoming weeks of frustration fulfilling the potential he has shown in recent races. Steve Arthurs and Skip Lindemuth won the heat races in the Street Stock Class. Pure Stock race cars made their way on to the track led by Doug Surra from Kersey and Scott Zimmerman out of Brookville. Surra set a quick pace at the start with Mike Anderson from DuBois trying to close the gap. A caution on lap 4 reeled Surra back in giving the others a chance to try their luck at keeping pace a second time. Surra didn’t wait for his counterparts and quickly move out again as Dave Kohler from Rockton moved into the second spot. Colton Joiner from DuBois began to pressure Kohler racing him door handle to door handle, eventually moving into second. Joiner was fast but was running out of time as the laps wound down. He closed on the leader at the wave of the white flag but Surra held on strong to take the win, his third of the season. Heat race winners included Devin Lewis and Mike Anderson. Closing out the evenings racing entertainment were the Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders with Randy Holliday from Brookville and Randy Albert from Morrisdale on the front row. Albert jumped to a quick lead on the outside followed closely by Zach Lindemuth and Cory Reitz, both drivers from Brockway. Albert led the race until a caution regrouped the field with Albert taking the outside line for the restart. He again jumped to the lead and began to work lap traffic with Lindemuth close behind. In the closing laps Albert drifted high in turn two opening the door for Lindemuth on the bottom. Lindemuth took advantage of the opportunity as Albert tried to regroup but had no time to try to retake the lead. Lindemuth went on to take his first win of the season. Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinder heat race winners included Cory Reitz and Randy Albert. Believe it or not, next week is the mid-season championship with double points in all divisions. All of the classes are close and the teams and drivers will be concentrating on staying up front and out of trouble. For some of the best short track racing in Central Pennsylvania be sure to visit Hummingbird Speedway this Saturday night. Hummingbird Speedway provides a family friendly environment and competitive action for the racing enthusiast. Steel Block Late Models, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, and Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders will make up next week’s program. Visit the speedway web site at www.hummingbirdspeedway.com for details on next week’s race, point standings, weekly photographs, and more. FINAL RESULTS BWP Bats Steel Block Late Models 1. 53 Chris Farrell Clearfield 2. 36 Paul Kot Brockway 3. 00 Eric Moore Frenchville 4. 102 Rick Maxim Reynoldsville 5. 10 Bruce Raybuck Falls Creek 6. 9 John Reed Reynoldsville 7. 18 Bob Connor DuBois 8. 48 Jr Rich Runyan Brockway 9. 78 Brian Molnar Falls Creek 10. 1B Dwayne Brooks Falls Creek 11. 14R Derek Rodkey Osceola Mills 12. 99X Kyle Beimel St Marys 13. 15S (DNS) Ed Connor Warrior Energy Services Street Stocks 1. 01 Steve Arthurs Falls Creek 2. 22 Skip Lindemuth Hazen 3. 33 Ed Connor DuBois 4. 05 Brandon Connor DuBois 5. 69R Brian Rhed Brockport 6. 101 Bruce Hartzfeld Stump Creek 7. 48R Bob Rosman Sykesville 8. 68 Don Henry Falls Creek 9. 37 Joe Kot DuBois 10. 28 Fuzzy Fields Brockway 11. 54 Shawn Lindemuth Brookville 12. 43 P (DNS) Pernell Beimel St Marys Pure Stocks 1. 3 Doug Surra Kersey 2. 1* Colton Joiner DuBois 3. 42 Dave Kohler Rockton 4. 76 Mike Anderson DuBois 5. 73 Devin Lewis Weedville 6. 32 Scott Zimmerman Brookville 7. 8 Cory Silvis Brookville 8. 15M Shawn Munoz Punxsutawney 9. 83 Dalton Gustafson Weedville 10. 88 Mike Miller Rockton 11. 13.5 Rob Molnar Falls Creek 12. 4T Randy “Tank” Coombs Big Run 13. 3L Brandon Lansberry Marion Center Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders 1. 34 Zach Lindemuth Brockway 2. 17 Randy Albert Morrisdale 3. 32 Matt Bryant Weedville 4. 65C Cory Reitz Brockway 5. 422 Randy Holliday Brookville 6. 63 Dustin Gray Weedville 7. 43 Josh Gray Weedville 8. 6B Frank Barrett III DuBois 9. 73 Troy Peace Big Run 10. 2B Rusty Murray Mayport

[FIGJAM]

Because I'm old, I've been attending Nostalgia Night at Lernerville Speedway the past few years. In fact, being an old racer I try and get to a lot of the nostalgic themed events around PA and they are getting better all the time. One thing I can say about Nostalgia Night at Lernerville is, Don Gamble does a magnificent job getting things working and last year topped the cake with actual Vintage racing - not demonstration laps but real racing. So it was with great anticipation that I traveled up 80 to attend Hummingbird Speedway for their Oldtimers Night looking for something different to the last Oldtimers Night I attended. Should have saved my time, gas and entry fee. Bud Garveys cars are a great look back to the day, but I'd seen most of them before. I had a great time catching up with a couple of old timers again but apart from that, what was actually different from the last time I was there? NOTHING. Same 4 classes. In fact, I think they were all the same drivers that I saw when I last attended Hummingbird some 3 or 4 years ago. I'm not knocking the drivers who raced and put the show on but it was just like I was in the movie Groundhog Day. Buds a great guy and what he does to restore and show these cars is amazing, but there is so much more that can be done to draw in a crowd and make Buds efforts worthwhile and this night something special. I like this little racetrack. Its well appointed and has a great layout and it always produces good racing, but one thing that screams out to me is - so much potential, so little vision. Whoever runs it needs to get their heads out of their butt and give people a show worthwhile traveling for. Variety is the spice of life. When was the last time they had Sprintcars, Modifieds, Emods, Mod Lites, Midgets, Mini Sprints, Legends, in fact ANYTHING DIFFERENT? From an old racers point of view, there is a huge potential with their Oldtimers Night. The foundation with Bud Garvey and his cars is there, just needs someone passionate and visionary like Don Gamble to make it a special night.

[suhoney18]

I like this little racetrack. Its well appointed and has a great layout and it always produces good racing, but one thing that screams out to me is - so much potential, so little vision. Whoever runs it needs to get their heads out of their butt and give people a show worthwhile traveling for. Variety is the spice of life. When was the last time they had Sprintcars, Modifieds, Emods, Mod Lites, Midgets, Mini Sprints, Legends, in fact ANYTHING DIFFERENT?

don't quote me but i don't think they have the guardrails for a sprint show...they had a brp race set up but something came about and they never worked it out after that...micros/midgets/mod lites would actually be pretty to cool to see on that little track but doubt anything will ever come about...

[thebigdueceduece]

don't quote me but i don't think they have the guardrails for a sprint show...they had a brp race set up but something came about and they never worked it out after that...micros/midgets/mod lites would actually be pretty to cool to see on that little track but doubt anything will ever come about...

sprints on that track would be one hell of a site to see but they need to bring more than 6...., if they can get them at AMP they should be able to get them at the bird thought as far as walls being to small? they need to bring mods i think, advertise it, they are just off 80..hell you tell me they cant get cars to travel to that track?

[Dingo]

Because I'm old, I've been attending Nostalgia Night at Lernerville Speedway the past few years. In fact, being an old racer I try and get to a lot of the nostalgic themed events around PA and they are getting better all the time. One thing I can say about Nostalgia Night at Lernerville is, Don Gamble does a magnificent job getting things working and last year topped the cake with actual Vintage racing - not demonstration laps but real racing. So it was with great anticipation that I traveled up 80 to attend Hummingbird Speedway for their Oldtimers Night looking for something different to the last Oldtimers Night I attended.

Should have saved my time, gas and entry fee.

Bud Garveys cars are a great look back to the day, but I'd seen most of them before. I had a great time catching up with a couple of old timers again but apart from that, what was actually different from the last time I was there? NOTHING. Same 4 classes. In fact, I think they were all the same drivers that I saw when I last attended Hummingbird some 3 or 4 years ago. I'm not knocking the drivers who raced and put the show on but it was just like I was in the movie Groundhog Day. Buds a great guy and what he does to restore and show these cars is amazing, but there is so much more that can be done to draw in a crowd and make Buds efforts worthwhile and this night something special.

I like this little racetrack. Its well appointed and has a great layout and it always produces good racing, but one thing that screams out to me is - so much potential, so little vision. Whoever runs it needs to get their heads out of their butt and give people a show worthwhile traveling for. Variety is the spice of life. When was the last time they had Sprintcars, Modifieds, Emods, Mod Lites, Midgets, Mini Sprints, Legends, in fact ANYTHING DIFFERENT?

From an old racers point of view, there is a huge potential with their Oldtimers Night. The foundation with Bud Garvey and his cars is there, just needs someone passionate and visionary like Don Gamble to make it a special night.

The PA Vintage Dirt Modifieds tried so hard for 3 months to be part of the Pioneers Night, to the degree we turned Stateline and Sharon away from that date to try and make it happen. After talking to Louie and trying to hash things out, he simply never called us back. In the finish and with the race season just around the corner, we just threw our hands in the air and scheduled another track for that date. We took 10 Vintage Modifieds to Deerfield last Saturday and put on the best and closest racing we have since our Series inception. That's 10 cars on display and 10 cars actually racing that Hummingbird missed out on and would have produced a show similar to that at Lernerville.

Oh and FIGJAM, those cars that raced at Lernerville were PA Vintage Dirt Modifieds. We turned up to show our cars last year in support of what Don Gamble does to keep the past alive but it was thanks to the efforts of one of our members, Scott Covert, who had talked to Gary Risch and organized the heat and feature.

Make sure you get along this August for Nostalgia Night. At this stage we are looking at close on 20 RACE CARS from PA, Maryland, NY, Ohio and Canada taking to the track on the Friday, then at PPMS on the Saturday night.

As for Hummingbird, we have told them we will always be open to racing there to take their Pioneers Night to a higher level, but after banging our head against a brick wall these past 2 years, they need to get in to us early with a date in future as our priority will be with tracks that have supported us in the past.

Dingo

[scruffy1a]

The PA Vintage Dirt Modifieds tried so hard for 3 months to be part of the Pioneers Night, to the degree we turned Stateline and Sharon away from that date to try and make it happen. After talking to Louie and trying to hash things out, he simply never called us back. In the finish and with the race season just around the corner, we just threw our hands in the air and scheduled another track for that date. We took 10 Vintage Modifieds to Deerfield last Saturday and put on the best and closest racing we have since our Series inception. That's 10 cars on display and 10 cars actually racing that Hummingbird missed out on and would have produced a show similar to that at Lernerville.

Oh and FIGJAM, those cars that raced at Lernerville were PA Vintage Dirt Modifieds. We turned up to show our cars last year in support of what Don Gamble does to keep the past alive but it was thanks to the efforts of one of our members, Scott Covert, who had talked to Gary Risch and organized the heat and feature.

Make sure you get along this August for Nostalgia Night. At this stage we are looking at close on 20 RACE CARS from PA, Maryland, NY, Ohio and Canada taking to the track on the Friday, then at PPMS on the Saturday night.

As for Hummingbird, we have told them we will always be open to racing there to take their Pioneers Night to a higher level, but after banging our head against a brick wall these past 2 years, they need to get in to us early with a date in future as our priority will be with tracks that have supported us in the past.

Dingo

You're replying to yourself? Very creative way to create publicity. Good luck filling your August schedule vacancy, Dingo/FIGJAM.

[plymouth-man]

I wasn't going to comment about this because I'm friends with some of management and know the owners but I really want this little track to survive so here goes. In the past they have always resisted change and bigger shows, for what reason I don't know. Its the 21st century and for tracks to survive they have to improvise and change to what the average fan wants to see, I know for a fact that many fans talk about how great it would be to see small sprints or mods on that track and how it would help draw fans from out of the local area. Just like figjam stated that he came up to see something different, like old mods racing around the 1/3 mile track but all he got to watch was the same old 4 divisions. Its time to bring in a new class weather its crates or 305 sprints or a true semi late class, its time to change or I'm worried that with low car counts and fans dwindling that the fate of Dog Hollow might happen. I didn't write this to slam the track but to hopefully get the owners to improve their show and make it better for the fans and the bottom line at the ticket booth.

[thebigdueceduece]

I wasn't going to comment about this because I'm friends with some of management and know the owners but I really want this little track to survive so here goes. In the past they have always resisted change and bigger shows, for what reason I don't know. Its the 21st century and for tracks to survive they have to improvise and change to what the average fan wants to see, I know for a fact that many fans talk about how great it would be to see small sprints or mods on that track and how it would help draw fans from out of the local area. Just like figjam stated that he came up to see something different, like old mods racing around the 1/3 mile track but all he got to watch was the same old 4 divisions. Its time to bring in a new class weather its crates or 305 sprints or a true semi late class, its time to change or I'm worried that with low car counts and fans dwindling that the fate of Dog Hollow might happen. I didn't write this to slam the track but to hopefully get the owners to improve their show and make it better for the fans and the bottom line at the ticket booth.

create a crate SS class, or a Crate Late class, i think thats where to begin! better than a one time sprint show.

[gofast05]

I think bring in a modified class. like e-mods. they're fun to watch and are reasonable on the wallet for guys to run

[suhoney18]

I think bring in a modified class. like e-mods. they're fun to watch and are reasonable on the wallet for guys to run

imca mods...they could run clinton county fridays and then just come up i-80

[faster1]

e-mods are no where near easy on the wallet.

[gofast05]

e-mods are no where near easy on the wallet.

didn't say easy on the wallet. but compared to some of the street stocks, and late models, they'd be more reasonable. only way they would work anyway, is if the track copies rules from other tracks.

[boogity_boogity_boogity]

I am a fan of the track and I believe they need to have a semi big show and bring more late models and some sort of sprints. The sprints always put on a good show everywhere I have seen them. Then if they create a new late model class. But I think they might run into the same problem AMP has. I am very indifferent with the emods. They can put on a good show, but it also can be very boring.

[SpeedyGonzales]

Hummingbird bring in a special big race???? that's not gonna happen. They had a chance to get the ULMS super Lates in there last year and had no interest in it. good luck w that.

[snooky]

From what I can see neither AMP or the Bird are making any $. Car counts are low at both tracks. Number of fans in seats are slim at best. AMP does seem to be working harder to get more cars and people, the Bird is pretty much doing same thing they always have done. It is really too bad they can't work together. That doesn't seem likely. If I were the Bird, I would do SOMETHING, a special, increase purse, SOMETHING to put nor cars in pits or butts in bleachers.

[jake shady]

From what I can see neither AMP or the Bird are making any $. Car counts are low at both tracks. Number of fans in seats are slim at best. AMP does seem to be working harder to get more cars and people, the Bird is pretty much doing same thing they always have done. It is really too bad they can't work together. That doesn't seem likely. If I were the Bird, I would do SOMETHING, a special, increase purse, SOMETHING to put nor cars in pits or butts in bleachers.

between amp and hummingbird one should change to friday night. friday night cars from dog hollow are available. friday night late models from clinton county are available every 2-3 weeks for 2-3 weeks. and ALL SATURDAY NIGHT CARS ARE AVAILABLE. now lets think about this on a different twist. if you race friday the cars that plan to attend friday and saturday races wont be wrecked. and they may be driving cleaner as to not smash thier chances to race saturday. thunder mountain was friday!! so now 2 friday night tracks are closed. i believe this is a no-brainer. de-gosipal-from-da-snake

[gofast05]

between amp and hummingbird one should change to friday night. friday night cars from dog hollow are available. friday night late models from clinton county are available every 2-3 weeks for 2-3 weeks. and ALL SATURDAY NIGHT CARS ARE AVAILABLE. now lets think about this on a different twist. if you race friday the cars that plan to attend friday and saturday races wont be wrecked. and they may be driving cleaner as to not smash thier chances to race saturday. thunder mountain was friday!! so now 2 friday night tracks are closed. i believe this is a no-brainer. de-gosipal-from-da-snake

soon enough someone will reply to this stating something like "go buy a track and run it your way". I totally agree with everything you said. one of these two places needs to switch to Fridays. otherwise neither place will survive. its common sense. dog hollow guys are gonna be looking for a place to go on Fridays, some of them will make the haul to lernerville but not everyone. AMP will pull cars from hummingbird on a Friday night, hummingbird will pull cars from AMP on a Saturday night, or visa-versa. with 3 Saturday night tracks competing against each other, it'll never work out.

[race ace]

if you want to see how to draw cars take a trip to Clinton county some Friday night , they are drawing a huge amount of cars switching between sprint cars and late models and then their regular classes of cars pro stocks ..fwd four cylinders . imca mods ,and 2 classes of micro sprint cars and their food is good and reasonable in cost drivers like to run for Vern Wasson because he is a no b.s . kind of guy . i think Sunday night for Hummingbird would be better ,but you are not going to see it they won't change anything up there and AMP has no interest in running any night but Saturday night and with the hillside seats being paid reserve i think they are doing ok on fan counts you have to remember there are a lot of spots on that hill and we usually have around 8 people where i sit at.

[gofast05]

I think hummingbird would benefit switching to Friday nights. just remembered AMP has a deal with Clinton County anyway so there isn't a chance that they would switch.

[thebigdueceduece]

I think hummingbird would benefit switching to Friday nights. just remembered AMP has a deal with Clinton County anyway so there isn't a chance that they would switch.

They gotta do something, i think if the bird paid more that would help in its own. i hear alot of drivers complain about that. but they are not doing the work to keep the cars. Amp is tryin and doin mostly the right things right now, the bird better do something quick. car count should be higher than it has been from what i have seen the couple times i have gone.