Post by Kirsten Snyder on Oct 23, 2023 14:06:10 GMT
Perchak and Bruno Prevail at 34th Linda’s Speedway National Open
By Kasey Kreider
On the third Saturday of every October, the Linda’s Speedway in Jonestown, PA transforms from
a quarter-mile dirt oval into a field of dreams. Fortune favors the bold. Skill balances with luck.
And otherwise simple on-track moments and maneuvers turn into memories that will last a
lifetime.
The 34th chapter of “The Crown Jewel of Micro Sprint Racing” featured two main characters
adding to their already impressive racing resumes. In 270 Micro Sprint competition, the sport’s
greatest race was won by arguably its greatest driver. Hazleton’s Ross Perchak collected an
immaculate seventh triumph in the race after charging to the lead just before the race’s halfway
mark.
The seventh edition of the Wingless 600 Micro Sprint National Open featured similar star power
fighting for the win. When the dust settled, Deptford, NJ’s Christian Bruno rose to the top,
adding a Linda’s Speedway win to a list of racing accomplishments that, at this point, might be a
quarter-mile long.
But as is the case with most National Opens, the story doesn’t just start with the main characters.
And neither Perchak nor Bruno appeared to enter Saturday night’s A-Mains as the clear-cut
favorites for victory.
And as is the case with most National Opens, mother nature wouldn’t let the weekend go by
without making her presence felt on the event. Despite the best efforts of track crews and
dedication from the competitors, all on-track action was washed out for Friday night, throwing a
bit of a monkey wrench into a weekend that traditionally follows a strict schedule year after year.
So the 2023 edition of the National Open turned into a day-long marathon, one that would truly
test the adaptability and resilience of each driver and team, as they contended with track and
weather conditions that changed on a dime as the sun-kissed afternoon gave way to bright
primetime lights.
The all-important time trials took place on Saturday afternoon, as in a change from prior years,
the 85 270 Micro Sprint entries were split into two separate flights to contest time trials, heat
races, and lower mains before the 30 best squared off in the A-Main event. The 60 Wingless 600
Micro Sprint entries stayed the course with the more traditional, non-split format.
Schedule rearranging put the 270s first in the order for this year’s events. So the first big
statement was made by the driver who had the last laugh of last year’s National Open. Nunzi
Allegrucci knocked Perchak off the top of the time chart with a blistering second time trial lap to
record the best time of Flight A. But the quickest time overall belonged to Flight B, and former
Race of Champions winner Steve Dunmire, who seemed poised to improve on his third-place
finish from last year’s event.
The importance of time trials for the Wingless 600s could not have been understated, as the
quick-timer each of the last three years had gone on to win the 40-lap A-Main. Shickshinny’s
Mason Peters gave himself the proverbial inside line for the 2023 race, as his Keith
Crossley-owned Triple X chassis turned the fastest lap when it mattered the most.
Heat races saw many of the pre-race favorites lock in their starting positions near the top of the
lineup. Allegrucci, Perchak, Glenn Macomber, Pete Skias, and Jeff Haefke picked up heat race
wins among Flight A cars, locking themselves into the inside positions of the first five rows for
the feature. Dunmire, Josh Stoyer, Billy Logeman, Tommy Kunsman, and Cory Myers filled in
the outside of those rows after claiming Flight B heat race wins.
Wingless 600 heat races saw plenty of intensity right from the jump, as Cole Dewease tried to
wrestle the pole position away from Peters in a battle for the first heat race win. The veteran
defended his position over the young gun and locked in his place at the front of the grid for the
big show. Joining Peters in the first three rows were heat race winners Marty Brian, Connor
Gross, Dakota Barlet, defending champ Tommy Kunsman, and then Bruno, whose win in the
final heat race slotted him into the outside of the third row.
The lower mains always provide entertainment in their own right, as drivers try to “run the soup”
all the way into a qualifying position in the A-Main. After Richie Hartman and car owner Dennis
McKeon’s first National Open voyage together last year ended pretty much before it even
started, Hartman drove the wheels off the No. 747 to bring it all the way from a D-Main into the
40-lapper. Brent Shearer completed the same feat in the Wingless 600s, which may have been
even more impressive considering the sheer volume of cars in each lower main.
But once all the preliminary races wrapped up, the attention turned back to the front of the field.
As the clock wound toward midnight, it was time to find out who the glass slippers would fit for.
After a few tries at the start, Allegrucci pulled away to a sizable early advantage over Perchak,
who slipped into second following a brief battle with Dunmire. Dunmire and Kunsman then
waged war for the third position while Perchak attempted to size up Allegrucci for a move.
The move of the race came on a lap 15 restart, as Perchak pulled the crossover move on
Allegrucci down the frontstretch and beat the No. 83 to the bottom of turn 1. The pass may have
been a sign of things going awry for the defending champion, as Allegrucci slowed to a stop in
turn 4 with engine issues just a few laps later.
At the halfway break, Perchak seemed quietly confident in his ability to keep the No. 4 at the
front of the pack. But no driver has more knowledge of the winning formula to the National
Open than the man that some people refer to as “Mr. October.”
Perchak carefully picked through lapped traffic during the long green-flag run following the
race’s resumption. On the race’s final restart with seven laps to go, Perchak kicked on the
afterburners, and there was no doubt how this chapter of the greatest story in micro sprint racing
would come to an end.
Ross Perchak may be nowhere near the end of his racing career. Still, it seems that like a fine
wine, Perchak only gets better with age. A few back-to-back wins of this event were followed by
a couple of multi-year dry spells. But with a career arc that reminds you a lot of names like
Brady or Jordan, experts of the 270 Micro Sprint scene knew better than to count out the GOAT.
The win in the 2023 National Open is Perchak’s second in the last three years.
Only two former champions of the Wingless 600 National Open were a part of the 30-car
A-Main field in that division. Tommy Kunsman and Alex Ruppert had solid, but not spectacular
weekends. So the question was then to be asked: who would the newest National Open champion
be?
Peters was efforting to become the fourth straight driver to start on pole and lead all 40 laps of
the A-Main to grab the victory. But his time at the front was short-lived, as Brian made a pass for
the lead on the second lap, and Gross and Bruno followed through to second and third.
A lap 7 restart gave Gross his opportunity to put the No. 14 out in the wind, as he rocketed
around the top of turns 1 and 2 to take the lead away from Brian. Through the middle stanza of
the event, Gross was comfortably in control. A caution with 17 laps to go then came just in time
to bail the leaders out of lapped traffic.
The restart may have been viewed at the time as a blessing for Gross, but it set the stage for
perhaps one of the greatest restarts in the history of the race from Bruno, who started in fourth.
Bruno used the high line momentum to roll around Cole Dewease on the restart. Bruno then split
the difference between Gross and Brian the next lap around, as the No. 5 Hyper EVO+ machine
grabbed the grip off turn 4 and powered to the top spot.
The two Garden State drivers traded the lead for a lap before Bruno made the pass stick for good.
Bruno was the race’s fourth different leader, but the third lead change would be the final one, as
Bruno held on through the last green-flag run to grab the checkers.
A Linda’s National Open win simply adds to the list of accolades that Bruno has amassed over
his career. Two championships at Action Track USA, a Speedweek championship, and a $10,000
win at Lanco are just a few of the big accomplishments for a driver still in his teens. Despite that,
Bruno had always seemed a little snakebit at Linda’s. But not this year.
Usually the first big race of the weekend, the 25th edition of the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Race
of Champions was the final race of National Open 34 and – by extension – Linda’s Speedway for
2023. The final checkered flag of the year belonged to Alex Swift, as the Spirit Auto Center
Speedway champion dominated the race for his third triumph in the event and closed the curtain
on another memorable National Open weekend.
Results:
270 Micro Sprint National Open A-Main (40 Laps):
1. 4-Ross Perchak[3]; 2. 83D-Steve Dunmire[2]; 3. 21K-Tommy Kunsman[8]; 4. 12R-Brandon
Heist Sr[18]; 5. 88L-Josh Stoyer[4]; 6. 02-Alex Swift[12]; 7. 61-Jeff Haefke[9]; 8. 27H-Jacob
Hendershot[13]; 9. 20-Cory Myers[10]; 10. 27-Brayden Spencer[14]; 11. 41-Mike Boyer[15];
12. 17-Cody Siegel[23]; 13. 3-Pete Skias[7]; 14. 20M-Craig Myers[27]; 15. 77S-Ben Stolz[30];
16. 8S-Mike Skias[24]; 17. 8-Scott Gingrich[16]; 18. 56X-Marshall Labuda[17]; 19. 2R-Jason
Swavely[25]; 20. 45-Todd Reusser[11]; 21. 2NJ-Glenn Macomber[5]; 22. 27O-Billy
Logeman[6]; 23. 15-Sean McAndrew[22]; 24. 83-Nunzi Allegrucci[1]; 25. 84-Zach Glass[26];
26. 88D-Andrew Dietrich[21]; 27. 16C-Pat Bealer[29]; 28. 1J-Austin Graby[19]; 29. 747-Richie
Hartman[28]; 30. 9M-Chris Dolan[20]
Wingless 600 Micro Sprint National Open A-Main (40 Laps):
1. 5-Christian Bruno[6]; 2. 16-Marty Brian[2]; 3. 14C-Connor Gross[3]; 4. 2D-Cole Dewease[7];
5. 11Z-Kyle Lick[11]; 6. 6-Colin White[8]; 7. 44B-Zachery Bealer[18]; 8. 21K-Tommy
Kunsman[5]; 9. 15-Alex Ruppert[10]; 10. 29-Brent Shearer[26]; 11. 9M-Keith McIntyre Jr[23];
12. 44W-Rodney Westhafer[19]; 13. 39-Richie Hartman[12]; 14. 10P-Mason Peters[1]; 15.
56-Tyler Henry[9]; 16. 55-Sam LaMothe[22]; 17. 12-Dylan Kontra[17]; 18. 80-Anthony
Tramontana[28]; 19. 7-Matthew Warner[29]; 20. 44-Olivia Haworth[13]; 21. 71-Brian
Kramer[21]; 22. 15D-Matthew Donley[25]; 23. 32S-Garyt Smith[24]; 24. 54-Dakota Bartlet[4];
25. 9X-Connor Mirabelli[15]; 26. 10-Adam Buchel[14]; 27. 4-Craig Whitmoyer[27]; 28.
03-Ryan Groff[16]; 29. 21G-Geoff Federspiel[20]; 30. 7L-Chase Layser[30]
Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Race of Champions (20 Laps):
1. 02-Alex Swift[3]; 2. 27-Brayden Spencer[1]; 3. 31C-Conner Metheney[6]; 4. 5R-Brandon
Heist Sr.[14]; 5. 19X-Stevie Daron[2]; 6. 2NJ-Glen Macomber[9]; 7. 25-Richie Hartman[11]; 8.
2R-Christian Bruno[11]; 9. 27P-Dylan Pennypacker[10]; 10. 1S-Cory Stabley[13]; 11.
83F-Shawn Freeland[4]; 12. 13H-Keaton Himes[5]; 13. 83M-Jaxen Salisburg[16]; 14. 39-Austin
Mieczkowski[8]; 15. 14-Jason Swavely[7]; 16. 133-Brian Borawiec Jr.[15]
By Kasey Kreider
On the third Saturday of every October, the Linda’s Speedway in Jonestown, PA transforms from
a quarter-mile dirt oval into a field of dreams. Fortune favors the bold. Skill balances with luck.
And otherwise simple on-track moments and maneuvers turn into memories that will last a
lifetime.
The 34th chapter of “The Crown Jewel of Micro Sprint Racing” featured two main characters
adding to their already impressive racing resumes. In 270 Micro Sprint competition, the sport’s
greatest race was won by arguably its greatest driver. Hazleton’s Ross Perchak collected an
immaculate seventh triumph in the race after charging to the lead just before the race’s halfway
mark.
The seventh edition of the Wingless 600 Micro Sprint National Open featured similar star power
fighting for the win. When the dust settled, Deptford, NJ’s Christian Bruno rose to the top,
adding a Linda’s Speedway win to a list of racing accomplishments that, at this point, might be a
quarter-mile long.
But as is the case with most National Opens, the story doesn’t just start with the main characters.
And neither Perchak nor Bruno appeared to enter Saturday night’s A-Mains as the clear-cut
favorites for victory.
And as is the case with most National Opens, mother nature wouldn’t let the weekend go by
without making her presence felt on the event. Despite the best efforts of track crews and
dedication from the competitors, all on-track action was washed out for Friday night, throwing a
bit of a monkey wrench into a weekend that traditionally follows a strict schedule year after year.
So the 2023 edition of the National Open turned into a day-long marathon, one that would truly
test the adaptability and resilience of each driver and team, as they contended with track and
weather conditions that changed on a dime as the sun-kissed afternoon gave way to bright
primetime lights.
The all-important time trials took place on Saturday afternoon, as in a change from prior years,
the 85 270 Micro Sprint entries were split into two separate flights to contest time trials, heat
races, and lower mains before the 30 best squared off in the A-Main event. The 60 Wingless 600
Micro Sprint entries stayed the course with the more traditional, non-split format.
Schedule rearranging put the 270s first in the order for this year’s events. So the first big
statement was made by the driver who had the last laugh of last year’s National Open. Nunzi
Allegrucci knocked Perchak off the top of the time chart with a blistering second time trial lap to
record the best time of Flight A. But the quickest time overall belonged to Flight B, and former
Race of Champions winner Steve Dunmire, who seemed poised to improve on his third-place
finish from last year’s event.
The importance of time trials for the Wingless 600s could not have been understated, as the
quick-timer each of the last three years had gone on to win the 40-lap A-Main. Shickshinny’s
Mason Peters gave himself the proverbial inside line for the 2023 race, as his Keith
Crossley-owned Triple X chassis turned the fastest lap when it mattered the most.
Heat races saw many of the pre-race favorites lock in their starting positions near the top of the
lineup. Allegrucci, Perchak, Glenn Macomber, Pete Skias, and Jeff Haefke picked up heat race
wins among Flight A cars, locking themselves into the inside positions of the first five rows for
the feature. Dunmire, Josh Stoyer, Billy Logeman, Tommy Kunsman, and Cory Myers filled in
the outside of those rows after claiming Flight B heat race wins.
Wingless 600 heat races saw plenty of intensity right from the jump, as Cole Dewease tried to
wrestle the pole position away from Peters in a battle for the first heat race win. The veteran
defended his position over the young gun and locked in his place at the front of the grid for the
big show. Joining Peters in the first three rows were heat race winners Marty Brian, Connor
Gross, Dakota Barlet, defending champ Tommy Kunsman, and then Bruno, whose win in the
final heat race slotted him into the outside of the third row.
The lower mains always provide entertainment in their own right, as drivers try to “run the soup”
all the way into a qualifying position in the A-Main. After Richie Hartman and car owner Dennis
McKeon’s first National Open voyage together last year ended pretty much before it even
started, Hartman drove the wheels off the No. 747 to bring it all the way from a D-Main into the
40-lapper. Brent Shearer completed the same feat in the Wingless 600s, which may have been
even more impressive considering the sheer volume of cars in each lower main.
But once all the preliminary races wrapped up, the attention turned back to the front of the field.
As the clock wound toward midnight, it was time to find out who the glass slippers would fit for.
After a few tries at the start, Allegrucci pulled away to a sizable early advantage over Perchak,
who slipped into second following a brief battle with Dunmire. Dunmire and Kunsman then
waged war for the third position while Perchak attempted to size up Allegrucci for a move.
The move of the race came on a lap 15 restart, as Perchak pulled the crossover move on
Allegrucci down the frontstretch and beat the No. 83 to the bottom of turn 1. The pass may have
been a sign of things going awry for the defending champion, as Allegrucci slowed to a stop in
turn 4 with engine issues just a few laps later.
At the halfway break, Perchak seemed quietly confident in his ability to keep the No. 4 at the
front of the pack. But no driver has more knowledge of the winning formula to the National
Open than the man that some people refer to as “Mr. October.”
Perchak carefully picked through lapped traffic during the long green-flag run following the
race’s resumption. On the race’s final restart with seven laps to go, Perchak kicked on the
afterburners, and there was no doubt how this chapter of the greatest story in micro sprint racing
would come to an end.
Ross Perchak may be nowhere near the end of his racing career. Still, it seems that like a fine
wine, Perchak only gets better with age. A few back-to-back wins of this event were followed by
a couple of multi-year dry spells. But with a career arc that reminds you a lot of names like
Brady or Jordan, experts of the 270 Micro Sprint scene knew better than to count out the GOAT.
The win in the 2023 National Open is Perchak’s second in the last three years.
Only two former champions of the Wingless 600 National Open were a part of the 30-car
A-Main field in that division. Tommy Kunsman and Alex Ruppert had solid, but not spectacular
weekends. So the question was then to be asked: who would the newest National Open champion
be?
Peters was efforting to become the fourth straight driver to start on pole and lead all 40 laps of
the A-Main to grab the victory. But his time at the front was short-lived, as Brian made a pass for
the lead on the second lap, and Gross and Bruno followed through to second and third.
A lap 7 restart gave Gross his opportunity to put the No. 14 out in the wind, as he rocketed
around the top of turns 1 and 2 to take the lead away from Brian. Through the middle stanza of
the event, Gross was comfortably in control. A caution with 17 laps to go then came just in time
to bail the leaders out of lapped traffic.
The restart may have been viewed at the time as a blessing for Gross, but it set the stage for
perhaps one of the greatest restarts in the history of the race from Bruno, who started in fourth.
Bruno used the high line momentum to roll around Cole Dewease on the restart. Bruno then split
the difference between Gross and Brian the next lap around, as the No. 5 Hyper EVO+ machine
grabbed the grip off turn 4 and powered to the top spot.
The two Garden State drivers traded the lead for a lap before Bruno made the pass stick for good.
Bruno was the race’s fourth different leader, but the third lead change would be the final one, as
Bruno held on through the last green-flag run to grab the checkers.
A Linda’s National Open win simply adds to the list of accolades that Bruno has amassed over
his career. Two championships at Action Track USA, a Speedweek championship, and a $10,000
win at Lanco are just a few of the big accomplishments for a driver still in his teens. Despite that,
Bruno had always seemed a little snakebit at Linda’s. But not this year.
Usually the first big race of the weekend, the 25th edition of the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Race
of Champions was the final race of National Open 34 and – by extension – Linda’s Speedway for
2023. The final checkered flag of the year belonged to Alex Swift, as the Spirit Auto Center
Speedway champion dominated the race for his third triumph in the event and closed the curtain
on another memorable National Open weekend.
Results:
270 Micro Sprint National Open A-Main (40 Laps):
1. 4-Ross Perchak[3]; 2. 83D-Steve Dunmire[2]; 3. 21K-Tommy Kunsman[8]; 4. 12R-Brandon
Heist Sr[18]; 5. 88L-Josh Stoyer[4]; 6. 02-Alex Swift[12]; 7. 61-Jeff Haefke[9]; 8. 27H-Jacob
Hendershot[13]; 9. 20-Cory Myers[10]; 10. 27-Brayden Spencer[14]; 11. 41-Mike Boyer[15];
12. 17-Cody Siegel[23]; 13. 3-Pete Skias[7]; 14. 20M-Craig Myers[27]; 15. 77S-Ben Stolz[30];
16. 8S-Mike Skias[24]; 17. 8-Scott Gingrich[16]; 18. 56X-Marshall Labuda[17]; 19. 2R-Jason
Swavely[25]; 20. 45-Todd Reusser[11]; 21. 2NJ-Glenn Macomber[5]; 22. 27O-Billy
Logeman[6]; 23. 15-Sean McAndrew[22]; 24. 83-Nunzi Allegrucci[1]; 25. 84-Zach Glass[26];
26. 88D-Andrew Dietrich[21]; 27. 16C-Pat Bealer[29]; 28. 1J-Austin Graby[19]; 29. 747-Richie
Hartman[28]; 30. 9M-Chris Dolan[20]
Wingless 600 Micro Sprint National Open A-Main (40 Laps):
1. 5-Christian Bruno[6]; 2. 16-Marty Brian[2]; 3. 14C-Connor Gross[3]; 4. 2D-Cole Dewease[7];
5. 11Z-Kyle Lick[11]; 6. 6-Colin White[8]; 7. 44B-Zachery Bealer[18]; 8. 21K-Tommy
Kunsman[5]; 9. 15-Alex Ruppert[10]; 10. 29-Brent Shearer[26]; 11. 9M-Keith McIntyre Jr[23];
12. 44W-Rodney Westhafer[19]; 13. 39-Richie Hartman[12]; 14. 10P-Mason Peters[1]; 15.
56-Tyler Henry[9]; 16. 55-Sam LaMothe[22]; 17. 12-Dylan Kontra[17]; 18. 80-Anthony
Tramontana[28]; 19. 7-Matthew Warner[29]; 20. 44-Olivia Haworth[13]; 21. 71-Brian
Kramer[21]; 22. 15D-Matthew Donley[25]; 23. 32S-Garyt Smith[24]; 24. 54-Dakota Bartlet[4];
25. 9X-Connor Mirabelli[15]; 26. 10-Adam Buchel[14]; 27. 4-Craig Whitmoyer[27]; 28.
03-Ryan Groff[16]; 29. 21G-Geoff Federspiel[20]; 30. 7L-Chase Layser[30]
Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Race of Champions (20 Laps):
1. 02-Alex Swift[3]; 2. 27-Brayden Spencer[1]; 3. 31C-Conner Metheney[6]; 4. 5R-Brandon
Heist Sr.[14]; 5. 19X-Stevie Daron[2]; 6. 2NJ-Glen Macomber[9]; 7. 25-Richie Hartman[11]; 8.
2R-Christian Bruno[11]; 9. 27P-Dylan Pennypacker[10]; 10. 1S-Cory Stabley[13]; 11.
83F-Shawn Freeland[4]; 12. 13H-Keaton Himes[5]; 13. 83M-Jaxen Salisburg[16]; 14. 39-Austin
Mieczkowski[8]; 15. 14-Jason Swavely[7]; 16. 133-Brian Borawiec Jr.[15]