Bridgeport, NJ – Five years ago, Danny Serrano pitched the idea of a big weekend event for the quarter mile track and the Skyscraper Weekend was born. The race is now run in his memory.
The Skyscraper Micro Sprint Spectacular sponsored by Cassidy Painting lived up to its name as the cars filled the pit area for the weekend event. Qualifying started on Friday with timed hot lap sessions and the Skyscraper Showdown for the Hyper Racing Evo Injection 600 Micro Sprints and the Winner’s Classic for the 270s. Chris Fenimore and Matt Smith earned starting spots in Sunday’s Skyscraper by setting the fastest laps while Tommy Kunsman earned his spot with the win in the Skyscraper Showdown. Lee Reinhardt and Tommy Kunsman timed into Sunday’s main event while Ross Perchak won the Winner’s Classic for his spot.
Two sets of heat races were run on Saturday for both the 600 and 270 micro sprints. Passing points were used to determine the ten top drivers in each class. Then on Sunday, heat races and B Mains were used to fill the remaining starting positions.
Pat Bealer, behind the wheel of the Mike and Trish Sheffield No. 42C raced to his first ever 600 Micro Sprint victory at the Spirit Auto Center Speedway and he made it a good one, taking home the $4,000 winner’s share of the purse. Billy Koch and Matt Smith led the field to the start of the forty lap event with Smith leading the way for the first five laps. Bealer took the lead with an inside move on lap six and started to pull away from the field. Smith was sidelined after a racing incident on lap eleven but Tommy Kunsman and Briggs Danner raced into the picture on the lap eleven restart.
Kunsman trailed Bealer throughout the race but was never withing striking distance when the race when the race went green from the lap eleven restart to the checkered flag. For the second year in a row, Kunsman ran second followed by last year’s winner, Damon Paul, Alex Bright and Briggs Danner. Brandon Pavel, Eddie Strada, Colin White, Tim Buckwalter and Kole Kirkman rounded out the top ten.
Colin White was celebrated as the 2021 Poker Series Champion for the Hyper Racing Evo Injection 600s.
Lee Reinhardt looked like the sure winner after leading the 270 feature event through numerous cautions but with just two laps to go, Reinhardt tangled with lapped traffic, leaving the lead to second place Tommy Kunsman. Kunsman led the final two laps to capture his second Skyscraper win in a row in the main event for the 270s. 2021 270 Champion, Alex Swift finished second followed by Nick Skias, Ross Perchak and Glenn Macomber. John Wagner, Jr., Timmy Bittner, Tommy Rinck, Lee Reinhardt and Jon Dougherty completed the top ten at the checkered flag.
Alex Swift won the 2021 Poker Series title for the 270s.
Seventy-three 600s competed for starting spots in the 2021 Skyscraper while more than thirty 270s were on hand for the winged portion of the show.
The weekend was extremely well managed by the four man tech team of George Nardelli, Dale Gross, Dave Orange and Ken Andreas. Promoter, Doug Rose was very pleased with the team’s ability to thoroughly perform technical inspections throughout the weekend. Cars were checked after the timed hot lap sessions on Friday, after the double heat races on Saturday and following the main events on Sunday. The rev was checked as was the fuel, charging systems and oil pans were dropped. There were no issues and the competition went smoothly for the entire weekend with the assurance that all cars in competition were racing on an even playing field.
It was a three day race weekend that Danny Serrano would have been proud of. He was remembered throughout the weekend as a true champion of the small car competitors.
Skyscraper for the Hyper Racing Evo Injection 600 Micro Sprints (40 laps -$4,000):
Pat Bealer, 2. Tommy Kunsman, 3. Damon Paul, 4. Alex Bright, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Brandon Pavel, 7. Eddie Strada, 8, Colin White, 9. Tim Buckwalter, 10. Kole Kirkman, 11. Steve Bracall, 12. Bobby Butler, 13. Zach Bealer, 14. Jay Hartman, 15. Michael Nolf, 16. Joey Amantea, 17. Preston Lattomus, 18. Christian Bruno, 19. Alex Reinsmith, 20. Richie Keller, 21. Alex Rupert, 22. PJ Williams, 23. Aidan Borden, 24. Robert Pierce, 25. James Morris, 26. Frank Holmes, 27. Billy Koch, 28. Lavar Scott, 29. Matt Smith, 30. Chris Fenimore, 31. Chris Hummer, 32. Jon Keller
Poker Champion – Colin White
Skyscraper for the 270 Micro Sprints (30 laps – $3,000 to win):
Tommy Kunsman, 2. Alex Swift, 3. Nick Skias, 4. Ross Perchak, 5. Glenn Macomber, 6. John Wagner, Jr., 7. Timmy Bittner, 8. Tommy Rinck, 9. Lee Reinhardt, 10. Jon Dougherty, 11. Dom Pomponi, 12. Mark Landwher, 13. John West, 14. Pete Skias, 15. Ken Andreas, 16. Andrew Locuson, 17. Matt Thompson, 18. Tyler Reinhardt, 19. Lee Nardelli, 20. Jacob Hendershot, 21. Jimmy Wagner, 22. Tyler Grau, 23. Jason Swavely, 24. George Nardelli, 25. Nick Walton
Poker Champion – Alex Swift
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