By Shawn Brouse
Mechanicsburg – Steve Buckwalter wired the field to pick up the victory in the Lawrence Chevrolet 410 sprint car feature at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night.
The win was the 14th of his oval career, worth $5,000.
Likewise, Adam Carberry of Bensalem wired in the HJ Towing & Recovery 358 sprint car main, taking a MacMor Construction Summer Series event.
It was Carberry’s first career Williams Grove checkers.
Buckwalter started on the pole of the 25-lap 410 sprint main alongside Austin Bishop.
Bishop made the opening lap interesting when Buckwalter beat him into the first corner by rallying to the eventual winner’s outside.
But Buckwalter bit fast on the inside lane as the pair raced onto the backstretch to take control.
Fourth starter Troy Wagaman Jr. got by Bishop on the second lap but was already well back of the fleet-running leader, who entered the rear of the field on just the sixth lap.
By lap 13 Buckwalter had amassed a 3.159 second lead and he wasn’t looking back.
Despite bobbling on and at times jumping the cushion and sacrificing significant ground, no other driver was ever close enough to make good on the opportunities.
Freddie Rahmer, who started the race in fifth, drove up to third with 10 laps to go but would fail to advance any further.
Buckwalter took the win by 3.230 seconds ahead of Wagaman.
Bishop was fourth and Lucas Wolfe finished fifth.
Sixth through 10th went to Ryan Smith, Tyler Ross, TJ Stutts, Kody Hartlaub and Cameron Smith.
Heats were taken by Buckwalter, Bishop and Ross.
Brent Marks set fast time with a lap of 17.258 in timed practice laps but later blew a motor in the final heat race and was out of action for the night.
Carberry raced with and fended off Zach Newlin for the entire 358 sprint car feature.
Newlin dogged Carberry for the lead by mostly racing just a lane higher than the leader around the speedway.
However Newlin could never quite muster the little bit of extra traction he needed in order to complete a pass.
Doug Hammaker got by Newlin for second with a lap and a half to go but it was too late to run down Carberry.
Newlin settled for third followed by Logan Rumsey and Derek Locke.
Sixth through 10th went to Seth Schnoke, Jayden Wolf, Chase Gutshall, Cody Fletcher and Kyle Spence.
Heats went to Gutshall, Logan Rumsey and Locke with Wyatt Hinkle claiming the consolation race.
Feature Finishes:
6/21/24
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Steve Buckwalter, 2. Troy Wagaman Jr., 3. Freddie Rahmer, 4. Austin Bishop, 5. Lucas Wolfe. 6. Ryan Smith, 7. Tyler Ross, 8. TJ Stutts, 9. Kody Hartlaub, 10. Cameron Smith, 11. Kyle Moody, 12. Ryan Taylor, 13. Chase Dietz, 14. Billy Dietrich, 15. Mike Thompson, 16. Jeff Halligan, 17. Mike Walter II., 18. Troy Fraker, 19. Hunter Mackison, 20. Kyle Keen, 21. Aaron Ott, 22. Matt Miller, 23. Tony Jackson, 24. Todd Zinn
DNS: Brent Marks
358 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Adam Carberry, 2. Doug Hammaker, 3. Zach Newlin, 4. Logan Rumsey, 5. Derek Locke, 6. Seth Schnoke, 7. Jayden Wolf, 8. Chase Gutshall, 9. Cody Fletcher, 10. Kyle Spence, 11. Matt Findley, 12. Frankie Herr, 13. Chris Frank, 14. Cole Young, 15. Bryn Gohn, 16. Jude Siegel, 17. Nat Tuckey, 18. Dwight Leppo, 19. Cole Knopp, 20. Samuel Miller, 21. Chad Criswell, 22. Nick Yinger, 23. Preston Lattomus
DNS: Wyatt Hinkle
DNQ: Andy Best, Bo Gordon, Tyler Rutherford, Jake Galloway, Jay Galloway