By Dino Oberto
(6-18-26) Big Diamond Speedway served as host to night #3 of the Yokohama Tire Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine & Truck Equipment which featured the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship along with the BQ Concrete 358 Modifieds which paid $6000 and $3000 respectively to the winners.
For both victors —Mitchel Moles of Raisin City, California, in the USAC feature and Tim Buckwalter of Pottstown in the Modified main—the night marked a long-awaited breakthrough at Big Diamond Speedway after previous runner-up finishes. Moles was second here in the past two Eastern Storm events while Buckwalter has taken runner-up finishes four times this season.
In the USAC feature Moles got the jump on pole sitter Chase Stockon in taking to the early lead over Justin Grant, Stockon, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Brady Bacon. And it didn’t take him long to establish himself as the top contender, pulling to a well-enough lead over Grant during the opening circuits.
While Moles was well in control there was a heavily contested battle between Grant, Stockon, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Briggs Danner taking place. Most notable was Danner and Thomas Jr., as they were engaging in a thrilling dogfight, several times in side-by-side fashion. Danner would eventually get past Thomas and then zeroed in on Stockon and Grant.
By the mid-way point Moles was well ahead of the pack. Meanwhile Danner had picked up third and was closing in on Grant when on lap 19 the caution waved for a spin by Olivia Thayer.
On the restart Moles fired off perfectly to maintain his lead while Danner got a good run off turn 2 and passed Grant for second. But try as he may there was no denying Moles who drove every lap with perfection and went on to score his first Big Diamond Speedway USAC Sprint Car win and first on the Eastern Storm tour.
Bacon, Grant and Stockon completed the top five.
“It feels good to finally get one of these at Eastern Storm,” said Moles. “I told Logan (Seavey), I think it was two years ago, ‘man, I really want to win here.’ It’s got a hell of a crowd and it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s kind of the stuff I like.”
The 358 Modified feature was edge-of-the-seat racing as Buckwalter had to fight tooth and nail with current points leader Louden Reimert en route to claim the hard fought verdict.
The race began with an electrifying three-wide battle between Corey Renninger, Cliff Quinn and Tim Fitzpatrick and at the completion of the circuit it would be Quinn who secured the lead.
A restart on lap two would see sixth starting Buckwalter take over third from Renninger and the next time around got by Fitzpatrick for second. Buckwalter then rode the outside line and in doing so raced to the top spot while working lap five.
Fitzpatrick would also get by Quinn and after doing so reeled in leader Buckwalter and the pair then went into a great side-by-side clash with Fitzpatrick being scored at the front to begin lap nine.
That would be short lived, however, as Buckwalter quickly reclaimed the lead as they exited the second corner and at the same time Reimert was now in on the hunt. Reimert cleared Fitzpatrick as lap 10 went into the books.
From there, the race became an electrifying two-car battle. Lap after lap, Buckwalter was forced into defense, holding off a relentless challenge from Reimert, who continued to search for any opening to take the lead.
In the closing laps Buckwalter was keeping his Weller Motorsports No. 942 on the bottom of the track which ultimately enabled him to secure his way to victory.
“It feels great to finally get one and just for Dennis and Donna Weller for trusting in me to run this car. We’ve had a lot of speed, but it seemed that we just couldn’t knock the door down. Tonight I tried to give it away. I got up on the top and once Louden (Reimert) showed us his nose I just had to slow down and be patient and that’s what we did for the last 13 laps,” said Buckwalter.
“I knew he was there and he’s just so good this year around the bottom and I knew that’s where I had to stay on those closing laps, so I had to slow down because if he was going to go around me he was going to have to do it from the top.”
Duane Howard moved to third on lap 14 and remained there to the finish. Logan Watt held off Mike Lisowski in completing the top five.
USAC Sprint Car finish (30 laps): 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Kyle Cummins, 8. Jake Swanson, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Ricky Lewis, 11. Cale Coons, 12. Christian Bruno, 13. Steven Dreviki, 14. CJ Leary, 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 16. Charles Davis Jr., 17. Ronald Helmick, 18. James Turnbull, 19. Olivia Thayer, 20. Logan Seavey, 21. Dirk Rimrott
358 Modified finish (25 laps): 1. Tim Buckwalter, 2. Louden Reimert, 3. Duane Howard, 4. Logan Watt, 5. Mike Lisowski, 6. Mike Gular, 7. Tim Fitzpatrick, 8. Chris Esposito, 9. Kevin Beach Jr., 10. WB James, 11. Jax Yohn, 12. Kevin Olenick, 13. Mike Laise, 14. McKenzi Smith, 15. Chris Jenkins, 16. Ron Haring Jr., 17. Cliff Quinn, 18. Corey Renninger, 19. Rick Laubach, 20. Wayne Witmer, 21. Brandon Edgar DNS: Hunter Metzger, Heath Metzger