The racing season in Central Pennsylvania has two months in the books already for 2021 and, so far, it has been a very competitive year.
The racing season in Central Pennsylvania has two months in the books already for 2021 and, so far, it has been a very competitive year.
By the end of April most tracks and sanctions were just getting started. The season officially started two months ago, at the end of February, with Tim Wagaman winning at Lincoln Speedway.
There were 23 races run in Central Pennsylvania by the end of April, and that didn‘t include one more on April 30 at Williams Grove Speedway. In those 23 races, there were 18 different winners. That may be an all-time high, as victory lane has not been dominated at any of the tracks by one driver. Five drivers have all won two shows, but none have more than two wins.
There were also seven shows canceled due to weather. That made 30 shows scheduled to run.
With many tracks shut down last year, there can‘t be a good comparison to 2020. Racing had a little over a two-month hiatus from March to May. We can look to 2019 and 2018, though.
In 2019, there were only 17 races run in the same time period, with 10 different winners. Danny Dietrich had four wins already and a 90-point lead in the Champion Oil/Hoseheads.com Central PA points. In 2018, there were 20 races run by May 1 and 13 different winners, with three drivers having three wins each.
This shows that the competition level has been excellent at the tracks, with already 18 different drivers capable of winning any night. There are also more drivers that haven‘t made their way to victory lane yet this year that definitely will.
The World of Outlaws have run 15 shows with seven different winners. They have had weather and pandemic scheduling problems though. The All Stars have 10 shows in, with a very competitive nine different winners. If you wanted to get a lot of racing in this year, then Central PA was the place to be with the 23 shows run. There have been more three-race weekends scheduled so far than other years.
The car counts have been good, too, with many different drivers coming in to get some laps before their seasons start at home.
There are still six more months of racing left in Central PA for 2021, as it is always one of the longest seasons in the country. The final show is on November 13 at BAPS Motor Speedway.
At press time, in the Champion Oil/Hoseheads.com Central PA points, Anthony Macri held only a 53-point lead over Freddie Rahmer with those six more months to go. It looks to be an exciting year with many more winners to add.