by Bert Wojcik
Photo by Jesse Carberry
We thought he was going to leave us alone in 2023. But Jason Shutlz and the Kirk Ritter owned 35 car unloaded at Bedford and were the class of the field all night as Shutlz picked up his 10th career United Racing Club feature victory at the Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway. His 2nd straight URC win at Bedford with the club's last visit coming in May of 2021 and his 2nd straight opening day win after winning last year at Port Royal.
14 cars signed in but it was a quality over quantity kind of field at the unique West Central Pennsylvania half mile. The night had everything including a caution for a loose dog on the track during a heat race. The dog was uninjured and returned to the owners. But when feature time came around. The racing was fast and heavy and young Resse Norotarski and the 2 time and defending URC Champion Shultz brought the field to green to kick off the 76th season of URC competition. Shultz would lead lap one while behind him Norotarski would have to hold off a slider from the 2018 champion and four time winner a season ago,Josh Weller. Weller would complete the pass and try to go after Shultz when the first caution of the 25 lap feature came out as Brandon McGough spun and came to a stop in turn 4.
Racing would resume on lap 4 with Norotarski getting an advantage and getting by Weller and taking Mechanicsburg’s Derek Locke with him for a 3 car battle for second going into turn 1. Locke was using the bottom most of the night to get the 2nd spot going up the hill into turn 3 to try and run down Shultz. Racing would continue until Jay Galloway could not get off the turn 2 opening in time with a flat right rear on lap 10.
Green would be back out on lap 11 with Shultz and Lock and Weller getting away from the field. Shultz was just about to get into some lap traffic with Weller and Locke in tow and the car may have not been as great in dirtier air. " We were trying different stuff tonight, you know, just getting out of her comfort zone and seeing if we can handle that." Shultz said after the race .
Well whatever Ritter and the crew did it worked on the final restart Shutlz went and hid. Shultz would go on to a 5 second lead to win on opening day for the second year in a row. “ We Love coming to Bedford.” Shultz said after the race. “ We had an opportunity to run here and we were going to make the most of it and we did.” Locke would end up finishing second. Third would go to Weller. Nowotarski would end up fourth, and Adam Carberry rounded out the top five.
The United Racing Club heads off to Da Skook this coming Friday May 19th for their trip to Big Diamond Speedway. All Times and information will be posted this week on URC Socials.
Media Results for 5/12/2023 at Bedford Speedway - Bedford, PA
URC 360 Winged Sprint Cars 14 Entries
A Feature 1 25 Laps
- 35-Jason Shultz[2]; 2. 77-Derek Locke[6]; 3. 63-Josh Weller[3]; 4. 10X-Reese Nowotarski[1]; 5. 47-Adam Carberry[8]; 6. 11H-Hayden Miller[10]; 7. 11T-Mike Thompson[5]; 8. 669-Brandon McGough[7]; 9. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[13]; 10. 5Z-Zack Burd[12]; 11. 17K-Kyle Keen[4]; 12. 4-Ken Meisner[9]; 13. 27G-Jay Galloway Jr[11]; 14. (DNS) 89-Robbie Stillwaggon
Heat 1 8 Laps
- 35-Jason Shultz[1]; 2. 10X-Reese Nowotarski[2]; 3. 17K-Kyle Keen[3]; 4. 4-Ken Meisner[7]; 5. 669-Brandon McGough[5]; 6. 27G-Jay Galloway Jr[6]; 7. 5Z-Zack Burd[4]
Heat 2 8 Laps
- 63-Josh Weller[1]; 2. 77-Derek Locke[6]; 3. 11T-Mike Thompson[4]; 4. 47-Adam Carberry[3]; 5. 11H-Hayden Miller[5]; 6. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[2]; 7. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[7]
- Robert Wojcik on May 13, 2023
- Article Date: 5/13/2023 by Bert Wojcik