By Dino Oberto
(7-17-26) One of the most prominent teams associated with Big Diamond Speedway is the Fitzpatrick family, longtime supporters of the 3/8-mile dirt oval whose racing roots at the track span more than four decades and include numerous victories.
Yet despite all the success they have enjoyed through the years, Friday night may stand out as one of their most memorable. Team drivers Logan Watt and Kevin Fitzpatrick captured their respective features in the BQ Concrete 358 Modifieds and USS Achey Inc. 602 Crate Sportsman, adding another high-water mark to the legacy of this distinguished team.
In the Modified main Wayne Witmer outdueled pole sitter Aleia Geisler to take the early lead while fourth starting Watt grabbed second by lap three and the next time around thrust his way to the top spot.
Duane Howard also was on the move and seized second place shortly after Watt was at the helm, but it did not last long after he went into turns one and two a bit high which caused him to give up a few spots.
Making a charge at this point was Tim Buckwalter who secured second place with nine laps complete and was doing all he could to move in on leader Watt.
Buckwalter then came oh-so-close to taking the lead following a lap 12 restart. Watt had driven high into the first two corners which allowed Buckwalter to dash underneath him, however, a subsequent yellow flag would negate all that.
“We had that restart and I had Timmy (Buckwalter) on the outside and I got the jump and I saw him drive by and I knew I couldn’t make that mistake again,” related Watt.
From there on Watt would stay strong and steady and went on to notch his second win of the season.
“We had a fast car all night and we had a good starting spot which obviously helped, and it was good all night,” said Watt.
Before the Modifieds took to the track, the Limited Late Models ran their feature, helping define the racing surface for the rest of the evening.
“It creates a racy track with those Late Models, and it definitely widens out the track and build a berm on the top and it was fun to race on. You saw Timmy start a little bit further back and how he was able to come up because of that and hats off to Jake (Smulley) for giving us a good track to run on tonight,” added Watt.
“This (No.) T3 is awesome and I have to thank Trials to Triumph Foundation who are a big part of this group and all of our amazing sponsors who stick behind us and especially Shawn, Tim and Kevin Fitzpatrick. At the beginning of the year we had a bit of a rough patch, but we stuck together as a group, and we just kept working at it and now we have two wins, and we’ll keep plugging away at it to keep it going.”
Although it marked Buckwalter’s fifth runner-up finish of the season, the result did enable him to narrow the gap with Louden Reimert for the division points lead.
Kevin Olenick was fast throughout the race and came home with a solid third and likewise with Jax Yohn and Rick Laubach who rounded out the top five.
In the Sportsman race Kevin Fitzpatrick was the pole sitter but it would be Kevin Smith who would take command when the action commenced.
While Smith maintained that spot over the first half of the race, Fitzpatrick was taking on the intense challenge being thrown at him by hard-charging Dakota Kohler.
At the midway point there was a caution that would set up a new battle between Smith, Fitzpatrick and Kohler. When things resumed Fitzpatrick pulled alongside Smith and after some thrilling side-by-side dueling he finally made the race winning move three laps from the finish.
It was not only the second win of the season for Fitzpatrick but overall, his fifth of the year that includes three wins early on in the Rookie 602 Crate Sportsman.
Kohler also got by Smith and stayed glued to Fitzpatrick in taking second.
Back in action Friday evening where the Limited Late Models running in the “Double B” Bob Bowers Memorial and with a very respectable purse of $2000-to-win and $300 to start it brought out a solid 24 cars and fans were treated to an amazing race.
When Devin Frey assumed the lead on a lap two restart from Cody Lear, he was looking poised to stay there, but Gunnar Walls gradually reeled him in and with seven laps to go was all over the tail of the No. 62.
Not only was Frey having to contend with the pressure being applied by Walls, but lapped traffic had also come into play and would ultimately become the key factor of the race.
Coming out of Turn 4 on lap 15, Frey not only had Walls all over him, but the pair also came upon slower cars. Unfortunately for Frey he got trapped behind one and Walls swiftly stayed clear enough to snag the lead and go on to score an exciting victory.
In the Red White and Blue Autos Inc. Roadrunners Chuck Fayash put on a spirited battle with Joey Brennan before unseating him for the lead of the race at the outset of lap nine.
From there on he went into cruise control and motored to his first win of the season. Point leader Alex Schoffstall picked up second late in the going but could not advance from there as Fayash was too far gone en route to his 13th career win.
358 Modified finish (25 laps): 1. Logan Watt, 2. Tim Buckwalter, 3. Kevin Olenick, 4. Jax Yohn, 5. Rick Laubach, 6. Wayne Witmer, 7. Mike Lisowski, 8. Aleia Geisler, 9. Chris Espisito, 10. Kyle Smith, 11. Kevin Beach Jr., 12. Bryan Kuhl, 13. Zane Roth, 14. McKenzi Smith, 15. Cliff Quinn, 16. Corey Renninger, 17. Kenny Hildebrant, 18. Louden Reimert, 19. Duane Howard, 20. Alan Rudalavage, 21. Brandon Edgar, 22. Del Howell DNS: Hunter Metzger, Heath Metzger
602 Crate Sportsman finish (20 laps): 1. Kevin Fitzpatrick, 2. Dakota Kohler, 3. Kevin Smith, 4. Bryce Bashore, 5. Ryan Graver, 6. Zach Steffey, 7. Trevor Bixlor, 8. Brennan Chapman, 9. Aaron Weaver, 10. Shannon Slaughter, 11. Logan Starr, 12. Xavier Sprague, 13. Matt Martino, 14. Ed Mrochko, 15. Tajae Adams, 16. John Deatrich, 17. Mark Behm, 18. Anthony Tortorello, 19. Tyler Vidal, 20. Nate Brinker, 21. Reice Widger, 22. Jim O’Hara, 23. Bryan Rhoads, 24. Dennis Graber
Limited Late Model finish (20 laps): 1. Gunnar Walls, 2. Devin Frey, 3. Matt Cochran, 4. Joe Lusk, 5. Jennifer Lesher, 6. Travis Mease, 7. Matt Murphy, 8. Jake Moser, 9. Keith Walls, 10. Wayne Pfeil, 11. TJ Bowman, 12. Sammy Rial, 13. Wayne Saffer, 14. Carter Hohenadel, 15. Terry Gingerich, 16. Tristan Lee, 17. Andrew Yoder, 18. Ben Whitaker, 19. Jasen Geesaman, 20. Cody Lear, 21. Mike Walls, 22. Shaun Miller, 23. John Schoch, 24. Travis Horan
Roadrunner finish (20 laps): 1. Chuck Fayash, 2. Alex Schoffstall, 3. Joey Bennan, 4. Terry Kramer, 5. Andrew Buchinski, 6. Glenn Rowan, 7. TJ Fitzpatrick DNS: Jim Kost, Jonathan Trumbo