The 31st Annual Red Robin PA Speedweek is in the books, with Danny Dietrich coming out as the 2021 champion. Dietrich won the title without registering a win, with three-time Speedweek winner Brent Marks finishing second. Dietrich was consistent all week, resulting in the title.
The 31st Annual Red Robin PA Speedweek is in the books, with Danny Dietrich coming out as the 2021 champion. Dietrich won the title without registering a win, with three-time Speedweek winner Brent Marks finishing second. Dietrich was consistent all week, resulting in the title. He was second twice, third three times, and fourth twice. His only finish out of the top-four was a 14th at BAPS Motor Speedway. Brent Marks won three times but also had some bad nights. It is Dietrich‘s second PA Speedweek championship.
Marks won at Lincoln Speedway, BAPS Motor Speedway, and the finale at Selinsgrove Speedway. His 24th-place finish due to spark plug failure at Port Royal Speedway eventually hurt him in the final points.
Rico Abreu finished third in the final standings, also without a win but with consistent finishes. Justin Peck and Paul McMahan completed the top five in points. After Marks three wins, Dewease took two wins, sweeping both Williams Grove Speedway shows. Kyle Larson only ran three shows but won two of them, with wins at Grandview and Port Royal. Justin Peck took one win at Lincoln Speedway, with Peck becoming the 47th different winner in Speedweek history.
PA Speedweek began in 1991 with five shows run at three different tracks. The promoters in the area wanted to keep the drivers at home racing for some extra money. The first year, Steve Smith Sr. took three of the five races for the first title. In the early years, I remember going to Speedweek shows at Big Diamond Raceway, Silver Spring Speedway, and Penn National Speedway. Penn National and Silver Spring are no longer around.
This year‘s series was scheduled for 10 nights at seven different tracks, but one night at Port Royal and the Hagerstown, Maryland show were rained out. PA Speedweek has become a major attraction, with the tracks having some of their best crowds of the year. Drivers from around the country are also attracted to running the 10 nights in a row.
Fans had been asking to get BAPS Motor Speedway back into PA Speedweek and this year the track returned for the first time since 2006. Through the years, Speedweek has run 214 races at 12 different tracks with 47 different winners. With his two wins, this year Lance Dewease took the all-time Speedweek win lead from Fred Rahmer — 31 to 30. Fred Rahmer still leads in Speedweek titles. Rahmer has 13 series titles as a driver and one as a car owner.
Danny Dietrich also came out with the Champion Racing Oil/Hoseheads.com Central PA Sprint Cars Point Series lead at the end of Speedweek, but by the end of July he is now 16 points behind Anthony Macri. There were 84 different drivers representing 13 states and three countries contesting 2021 PA Speedweek. Twelve drivers ran all eight shows during the week.
There are now speedweeks all over the country, with non-winged, 360 and 410 winged shows from coast to coast. The All Stars Ohio Speedweek was the first, but PA Speedweek has grown into a major sprint car event every year.