Written by Bert Wojcik
Photo by Jesse Carberry
Every now and again you get a race that sets the entire season on its head and throws the biggest wrench into what might have been a near sure thing. That was Big Diamond on Friday night. The United Racing Club made its 38th appearance at the Schuylkill county 3/8th mile oval for its last race in Pennsylvania for the 2024 season. After what felt like a marathon, Lincoln University’s Tyler Ross scored his second URC win of the season and is now within 5 points of Josh Weller with 2 races left in 2024.
The feature started with Seth Schnoke and Cody Fletcher on the front row. The highside was the place to be as Cody Fletcher would take the early lead and lead the first lap. Coming to complete the 2nd lap Kyle Smith would explode a right rear and caution would wave. This is where the shenanigans would begin. On the restart. Cody Fletcher fired too early and would get sent back a row for a jump start. That would move JT Ferry to the front row and he would choose the high side to take the lead. Caution would then fly as Jake Galloway would bring out the caution. On the restart would see Ferry get around Schnoke. And some hot and heavy racing was happening behind them. Tyler Ross would find his way around Schnoke for the 2nd spot.
Fletcher would hit a yuke tire and would fall back before calling it a night with a broken front end. We would stay green when current URC Points leader Josh Weller would catch the wall going into turn one and go upside down. He would be uninjured. On the restart Ross would get around Ferry on the restart and complete the lap but the caution would fly immediately as Schnoke’s right nose wing panel would come off in the racing line by the flag stand.
On the restart Ross would get the lead and pull away from Ferry. Jordan Thomas was all over the back side of Ferry. He would hold him off for the moment as Ross pulled away. The night would go from bad to worse for Schnoke after losing the left front nose wing panel and he would come to a stop on the front stretch and call it a night.
On the restart. Thomas would get around Ferry. Then Brett Wanner would get a run to get around Ferry. Ferry would send it in too hard into turn 3 and spin out into the turn 3 wall doing some damage to the rear end of the car calling it a night. That would trigger an open red.
Restart would come out with 8 laps to go. Wanner would try to close on Thomas on the restart but couldn't get around him as Thomas would close in but couldn’t make the pass. He would close in on Ross but caution would come out. An awful night for 2nd in points Reese Nowotarski would get even worse as he would lose his second motor of the night. The broke a camshaft in hot laps and missed the heat race. Now with 5 laps to go the 2nd motor would expire on the 10x of Nowotarski with 5 laps to go.
On the final restart Ross would pull away. But wasnt as good in 3 and 4 as Jordan Thomas was but better in turns 1 and 2 and that was enough for Ross to pull away and claim his second win of the URC season.
“Points is what Bob wants, “ Said Ross in victory lane afterwards. “ Unfortunately I'm going to miss a race soon here with other commitments. But Bob and the entire crew worked their tails off to get this car where I needed it to be. I didn't want Jordan (Thomas) to get around me. That kid is fast. But the yellows fell our way at the end and got the clean air. We had Big Diamond circled on the calendar. We always run so well here.”
But the darling of the night had to be Brett Wanners drive from 10th to 3rd. He had a chance to have a good run at Baps go awry but Big Diamond definitely made up for it. “I’m feeling really good after tonight.” Wanner said with the help of his interpreter as Brett is deaf. “ I've only been in the car 4 times this year and I'm extremely happy to get 3rd here tonight. I didn't feel like I was strong enough. Could of used a gear change but We’ll take third place for the night.
The United Racing Club will be back in action on Friday September 6th for the annual trip to The Georgetown Speedway in Georgetown Delaware.
Results for 8/23/2024 at Big Diamond Speedway - Minersville, PA
URC 360 Winged Sprint Cars 20 Entries
URC A Feature 25 Laps
- 7-Tyler Ross[8]; 2. 79-Jordan Thomas[6]; 3. 54-Brett Wanner[10]; 4. 11-Robbie Stillwaggon[5]; 5. 32-Kyle Smith[14]; 6. 669-Brandon McGough[12]; 7. 4-Ken Meisner[9]; 8. 22R-Ron Helmick[15]; 9. 55W-Randy Wilbert[4]; 10. 51-Jon Brennfleck[16]; 11. (DNF) 10X-Reese Nowotarski[19]; 12. (DNF) 18J-JT Ferry[3]; 13. (DNF) 29R-Seth Schnoke[1]; 14. (DNF) 63-Josh Weller[11]; 15. (DNF) 14-Anthony Fascone jr[18]; 16. (DNF) 66A-Cody Fletcher[2]; 17. (DNF) 19T-Jacob Galloway[13]; 18. (DNF) 11H-Hayden Miller[7]; 19. (DNS) 99-Jonathan Swift; 20. (DNS) 99K-Mike Kiser
URC Heat 1 8 Laps
- 11-Robbie Stillwaggon[3]; 2. 4-Ken Meisner[2]; 3. 29R-Seth Schnoke[5]; 4. 54-Brett Wanner[4]; 5. 19T-Jacob Galloway[6]; 6. (DNF) 99K-Mike Kiser[7]; 7. (DNS) 10X-Reese Nowotarski
URC Heat 2 8 Laps
- 11H-Hayden Miller[1]; 2. 7-Tyler Ross[4]; 3. 18J-JT Ferry[3]; 4. 63-Josh Weller[6]; 5. 32-Kyle Smith[5]; 6. 51-Jon Brennfleck[2]; 7. 14-Anthony Fascone jr[7]
URC Heat 3 8 Laps
- 66A-Cody Fletcher[1]; 2. 55W-Randy Wilbert[2]; 3. 79-Jordan Thomas[3]; 4. 669-Brandon McGough[6]; 5. 22R-Ron Helmick[4]; 6. 99-Jonathan Swift[5]
- Robert Wojcik on Aug 25, 2024
- Article Date: 8/25/2024 by Bert Wojcik