Wednesday, August 17 - Tonight was racing at the 140th annual Kutztown Fair as the season at Kutztown winds down with one more race tomorrow to finish out the 2011 season. By race time a large crowd was on hand to witness the night of racing. The crowd was larger than normal due to the fair and the fact that admission to the race was free after paying the eight dollars to enter the fair and the two dollar parking fee. The action got underway a little late at 7:12 with a dash race for the 270cc micros to determine the starting positions of the top eight for the feature. Matt McAnally was never headed in this one. It was followed by time trials for the 15 national junior slingshots in attendance with Tyler Johnston setting fast time of 14.755 seconds on the 1/5 mile dirt oval. The wingless 600cc mini sprints had their dash race next with the same format mentioned above with Ryan Smith winning. The Atlantic Coast Old Timers had their track time next with about a dozen old time sprints and midgets on hand with many towing in from New England to show off their vintage machines.

Two junior slingshot heats were next with Jacob Dunn joining Tyler Johnston as winners in these races. Two B mains were next on the agenda, one each for the 270’s and the 600’s. All this activity was recorded by 8:55 and it was intermission time. I ventured out into the fairgrounds and found the Kutztown Fire Company had a stand where I purchased a delicious grilled bologna sandwich. By the time I finished eating the 30 minute intermission was over and the first feature of the evening was staged and ready to go. One of our racing buddies mentioned that the junior slingshots would run first as they had to get home to go to bed. Tyler Johnston invaded and swept the evening’s events for the juniors winning over Chris Kurtz and Abbey Price in ten minutes with only two cautions.

The 30 lap, $1000 to win 270cc feature would be first to take the stage with 17 year old Matt McAnally taking off like a shot from his first starting position. This one became almost painful to watch with eight cautions interrupting the racing. Young McAnally would hold off all challenges through the numerous slowdowns and take the checkered over Ryan Smith, Ross Perchak, Richie Hartman and Trevor Kobylarz. That is an impressive group of racers to fend off and McAnally should be proud of his big win. The last feature of the evening would be for the wingless 600cc mini sprints contesting their 30 lap distance for the $1000 first place prize. Without an inversion of the top cars with a straight up start from the dash Ryan Smith would start and finish first but there was some good racing happening behind him. Tim Buckwalter moved up two spots to grab the runnerup spot with 8th starting Jay Hartman snatching third from Brett Schoenly on the last lap with 7th starter, Jonathan Hull rounding out the top five. An impressive run was turned in by Shane Lewis who got in on a provisional advancing from 25th to 8th at the final checkered which waved at 10:27. Look forward to the 141st annual Kutztown Fair in 2012.