Rick’s Racing Roundup: Ruhlman Takes Top Honors At Newly Reopened Knox Raceway

| June 22, 2022

KNOX, Pa. – For the first time since 2015, Knox Raceway, formally Sportsman’s Speedway, hosted circle track racing under new owner Brian Steinman.

(Pictured above: Chad Ruhlman in victory lane at the newly reopened Knox Raceway. Photo by Rick Rarer.)

A good crowd and a nice field of cars gathered for the highly anticipated season opener this past Friday at Knox Raceway. The RUSH wingless sprint cars and mini stocks headlined the show along with a seventy-five-lap enduro.

Before racing got underway, a special tribute and dedication was presented to former sprint car racer Francis Sesco, who recently lost his life in an automobile accident. With his entire family in attendance, his ashes were spread around the speedway. Michael Lutz had the honor of driving his 410 Sprint Car around the speedway while spreading Francis’s ashes around the track.

Fans were treated to some great racing as the track size is a perfect fit for the wingless RUSH sprints and they put on some of their best racing of the year. When the checkers flew, Chad Ruhlman would park the Tim Engles owned sprint car in victory lane after edging out Pleasantville’s Gale Ruth Jr. for the win. In the mini stock feature, it was Jeff Huber taking the top honors, and Matt Wiedlund was the winner of the enduro.

The next event at Knox Raceway will be on Saturday, July 2, when the BRP Modified Tour brings the area’s best-modified drivers together for the Sid Unverzagt, Sr Memorial Race, which will pay 2,500 dollars to the winner. RUSH sprint cars will return for this event along with the RUSH modifieds. The Knox Raceway staff has made a ton of improvements to the facility and continues to as the season progresses.

As the new surface at Michael’s Mercer Raceway continues to get better, so does the racing. Adam Kekich came from his seventh starting spot to win the most exciting sprint car feature of the season so far at the Mercer oval Saturday night. Seneca’s Jacob Gomola used a late-race pass of lady racer Vivian Jones to win his first 305 sprint car feature at the track since 2020 for new car owner Michael Beichner.

Seneca's Jacob Gomola returned to victory lane at Mercer Raceway Saturday (Rick Rarer photo) (1)

(Pictured above: Jacob Gomola, of Seneca, returned to victory lane at Mercer Raceway Saturday. Photo by Rick Rarer.)

Michael’s Mercer Raceway will return to action on July 9th with another big show for the 410 sprint cars with 3,000 dollars going to the winner as they join the regular four classes.

After a week off, racing resumed at Tri-City Raceway this past Sunday and found Ohio invader Ricky Peterson taking home the top honors in the sprint car feature. The surprise winner was driving for recent 305 sprint car winner Jeremy Kornbau over the weekend and it was Peterson’s first Tri-City win and Kornbau’s first as a car owner.

Racing returns this Sunday at Tri-City with action getting underway at 6:00 p.m.

For late model fans, the place to be this weekend will be Lernerville Speedway where the 16th annual Firecracker takes place Thursday, Friday, and Saturday featuring the Lucas Oil Late Model Series for the first time. This will be the highest paying event in the track’s history with Saturday’s winner taking home 50,000 dollars.

The all new Lockhart Raceway kart track in Seneca recently had their grand opening and is receiving rave reviews with kart racers coming from all over to compete at the new state-of-the-art facility. Racing action takes place on Thursdays and Saturdays and you can get more information on the new track at lockhartraceway.com.


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