Spithaler wins “Western PA Sprint Car Championship” at Mercer in All Star Sprints

By Jim Balentine 

(Mercer, PA)

After destroying a car in an event at freedom Raceway Friday night, Brandon Spithaler no less than 24 hours later emerged victorious capturing the prestigious “Western Pennsylvania Sprint Car Championship” in the Napa All-Star circuit Champions 410 sprint show at Michaels Mercer Raceway presented by Sunbelt Rentals Saturday night. Third generation driver, Karston King won his first ever Top Shelf Trucking 602 Dirt Crate Sportsman modified feature; Elyn Wickham captured the first-ever Crown Vic race.

On a beautiful crisp late summer evening the All-Star circuit of Champions 410  sprint cars presented by Napa arrived for their second visit of the season with 29 cars on hand to do battle. Greg Wilson, who was the 2006 and 2007 series champion who came out of retirement just a short time ago, was the man to beat in the 35 lap feature as Wilson would dominate the event from the pole leading the first 24 laps in the nonstop event. A red flag came out in turn four for a double flip by Darren Naida and Cody Bova slowed the field. Both drivers were OK.

When the race went back to green second place starter Brandon Spithaler  who destroyed a car the night before at Freedom Raceway was able to get around Wilson on the high side and went on to pick up his first ever All-Star win in the western Pennsylvania sprint car championship feature event and his 13th career 410 win at Mercer. June’s winner Cale Thomas would finish in third position, Kalib Henry 4th and Leyton Wagner would move up to 5th from his 16th starting position. “ it was a long night (after the crash last night) we pulled the motor out of that car last night and put it in this car that was sitting up in the garage… in the slick I knew Greg (Wilson) was going to be good and I chased him and chased him and we ran clean for laps and to not touch it’s awesome!!! It was a group effort after last night and this is awesome!” Quick time was Brandon Spithaler with a 14.536. Heat races went to Kalib Henry, Greg Wilson, and AJ flick with the B main going to Logan McCandless and the dash to Brandon Spithaler.

Karston King became the newest third generation driver to pick up a feature win at Mercer by dominating the top shelf trucking dirt 602 crate sportsman feature leading from the beginning in the marathon 29 minute event. Former 305 sprint winner Darrin Gallagher would march his way from the rear to get around the field battling with opening night winner Todd English for the 2nd position. On a restart with two laps to go a disaster with strike as Gallagher would get sideways in turn 2 and collect the entire field that was behind him, leaving only five cars that were able to avoid the Melee. luckily no one was injured in the large pile up. Due to time constraints the race was called on lap 18 with King joining his father, grandfather and uncle as feature winners at Mercer. Todd English was able to finish in second; Logan Lockhart 3rd, Cole Edwards 4th and Jim Bryce from 16th was 5th. A jubilant King would say “it’s awesome I’m glad I can do it here in front of you fans!!! I was hoping I could restart good and I was trying to get as low as possible to hold of Gallagher.”

Elyn Wickham will go down in Mercer history as being the winner of the first ever crowned Vic race held at the speedway. he dominated the 12 lap event leading all the way to capture his first win, Brian Kreps was 2nd, Jacob Moon 3rd, Brad Shaffer 4th and Brad Albert 5th.

The next race on the Mercer Raceway Schedule will be held September 20 as we will run the make-up Shaffer Memorial for the Top Shelf Trucking Dirt 602 Crate Sportsman with other divisions to be announced .

Media Results for 9/6/2025 at Michaels Mercer Raceway – Mercer, PA

DIRT 602 Crate Sportsman Top Shelf Trucking 23 Entries

A Feature 1 20 Laps

1. 165K-Karston King[2]; 2. 7 11-Todd English[6]; 3. 58-Logen Lockhart[5]; 4. 29-Cole Edwards[8]; 5. 1-Jim Bryce[19]; 6. 23-Darin Gallagher[10]; 7. 7P-Caden Petry[12]; 8. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[3]; 9. 41-Brian Schaffer[4]; 10. 1X-Ryan Riffe[13]; 11. 12L-Patrick Lane[11]; 12. 717-Bill Adams[7]; 13. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[15]; 14. 56M-Jacob McElravy[14]; 15. 14-Will Schaffer[21]; 16. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[1]; 17. 77-Tommy Kristyak[20]; 18. 119-Joe Gibson[23]; 19. 70B-Nolan Burns[9]; 20. 02-Jeremy Beichner[18]; 21. 29A-Anthony Antus[16]; 22. 71-Gage Priester[17]; 23. (DNS) 2-Kole Holden

Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:31.564

1. 58-Logen Lockhart[2]; 2. 12L-Patrick Lane[1]; 3. 165K-Karston King[8]; 4. 7P-Caden Petry[4]; 5. 1X-Ryan Riffe[5]; 6. 29A-Anthony Antus[7]; 7. 1-Jim Bryce[6]; 8. 119-Joe Gibson[3]

Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:15:35.493

1. 23-Darin Gallagher[6]; 2. 333G-Dalton Gabriel[1]; 3. 41-Brian Schaffer[4]; 4. 717-Bill Adams[8]; 5. 56M-Jacob McElravy[7]; 6. 71-Gage Priester[2]; 7. 77-Tommy Kristyak[5]; 8. 2-Kole Holden[3]

Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:02:26.631

1. 29-Cole Edwards[1]; 2. 7 11-Todd English[7]; 3. 51R-Thomas Rodgers[2]; 4. 70B-Nolan Burns[3]; 5. 10S-Trevn Schaffer[4]; 6. 02-Jeremy Beichner[5]; 7. 14-Will Schaffer[6]

Hot Laps 1 | 00:02:24.196

1. 58-Logen Lockhart[4]; 2. 12L-Patrick Lane[1]; 3. 165K-Karston King[22]; 4. 1X-Ryan Riffe[13]; 5. 7P-Caden Petry[10]; 6. 29A-Anthony Antus[19]; 7. 1-Jim Bryce[16]; 8. 119-Joe Gibson[7]; 9. (DNS) 333G-Dalton Gabriel; 10. (DNS) 29-Cole Edwards; 11. (DNS) 71-Gage Priester; 12. (DNS) 51R-Thomas Rodgers; 13. (DNS) 2-Kole Holden; 14. (DNS) 70B-Nolan Burns; 15. (DNS) 41-Brian Schaffer; 16. (DNS) 10S-Trevn Schaffer; 17. (DNS) 77-Tommy Kristyak; 18. (DNS) 02-Jeremy Beichner; 19. (DNS) 23-Darin Gallagher; 20. (DrNS) 14-Will Schaffer; 21. (DNS) 56M-Jacob McElravy; 22. (DNS) 7 11-Todd English; 23. (DNS) 717-Bill Adams

All star sprints 410 Sprints – Winged 29 Entries

NAPA Auto Parts A Main 35 Laps | 00:22:21.562 | NAPA Auto Parts

1. 22-Brandon Spithaler[1]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson[2]; 3. 49X-Cale Thomas[4]; 4. 101-Kalib Henry[5]; 5. 38-Leyton Wagner[20]; 6. 08-Danny Kuriger[9]; 7. 13-Brandon Matus[3]; 8. 2-AJ Flick[7]; 9. 17-Dylan Norris[8]; 10. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[16]; 11. 5K-Adam Kekich[15]; 12. 3-John Jerich[6]; 13. 6-Bob Felmlee[13]; 14. 32-Jeremy Kornbau[22]; 15. 47-Dusty Larson[12]; 16. 45-Devon Borden[24]; 17. 46-Michael Bauer[21]; 18. 4-Zane DeVault[25]; 19. 29-Logan McCandless[19]; 20. 31C-Chase Metheney[14]; 21. 20B-Cody Bova[10]; 22. 7N-Darin Naida[17]; 23. 70-Henry Malcuit[11]; 24. 16M-Jim Morris[18]; 25. 33-Brent Matus[23]

Gates Corporation B Feature 12 Laps | 00:03:14.534 | Gates Corporation

1. 29-Logan McCandless[2]; 2. 38-Leyton Wagner[1]; 3. 46-Michael Bauer[3]; 4. 32-Jeremy Kornbau[6]; 5. 33-Brent Matus[4]; 6. 45-Devon Borden[5]; 7. 00-Chris Frank[7]; 8. 35-Jared Zimbardi[8]; 9. 81-Rayce Jacobs[9]; 10. M4-Louis Mattes IV[10]; 11. 4-Zane DeVault[11]

Level Utilities Dash 6 Laps | 00:01:33.899 | Level Utilities

1. 22-Brandon Spithaler[6]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson[2]; 3. 13-Brandon Matus[4]; 4. 49X-Cale Thomas[1]; 5. 101-Kalib Henry[3]; 6. 3-John Jerich[5]

Premier Planning Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:04:35.357 | Premier Planning

1. 101-Kalib Henry[2]; 2. 22-Brandon Spithaler[4]; 3. 20B-Cody Bova[1]; 4. 49X-Cale Thomas[3]; 5. 6-Bob Felmlee[5]; 6. 7N-Darin Naida[7]; 7. 46-Michael Bauer[6]; 8. 00-Chris Frank[9]; 9. 32-Jeremy Kornbau[8]; 10. M4-Louis Mattes IV[10]

All Pro Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:04:04.566 | All Pro

1. W20-Greg Wilson[2]; 2. 3-John Jerich[4]; 3. 70-Henry Malcuit[1]; 4. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[8]; 5. 08-Danny Kuriger[3]; 6. 5K-Adam Kekich[6]; 7. 38-Leyton Wagner[5]; 8. 35-Jared Zimbardi[9]; 9. 45-Devon Borden[7]; 10. 4-Zane DeVault[10]

Adaptive One Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:04:50.454 | Adaptive One

1. 2-AJ Flick[2]; 2. 13-Brandon Matus[4]; 3. 47-Dusty Larson[6]; 4. 17-Dylan Norris[3]; 5. 16M-Jim Morris[8]; 6. 31C-Chase Metheney[1]; 7. 29-Logan McCandless[5]; 8. 33-Brent Matus[7]; 9. 81-Rayce Jacobs[9]

Capital Renegade Qualifying 2 Laps | 00:00:30.194 | Capital Renegade

1. 22-Brandon Spithaler, 00:14.536[4]; 2. 3-John Jerich, 00:14.634[13]; 3. 13-Brandon Matus, 00:14.689[7]; 4. 49X-Cale Thomas, 00:14.702[11]; 5. 08-Danny Kuriger, 00:14.741[12]; 6. 17-Dylan Norris, 00:14.752[20]; 7. 101-Kalib Henry, 00:14.759[10]; 8. W20-Greg Wilson, 00:14.812[5]; 9. 2-AJ Flick, 00:14.817[9]; 10. 20B-Cody Bova, 00:14.889[17]; 11. 70-Henry Malcuit, 00:14.926[18]; 12. 31C-Chase Metheney, 00:14.927[3]; 13. 6-Bob Felmlee, 00:14.948[6]; 14. 38-Leyton Wagner, 00:14.950[25]; 15. 29-Logan McCandless, 00:15.010[14]; 16. 46-Michael Bauer, 00:15.012[1]; 17. 5K-Adam Kekich, 00:15.030[22]; 18. 47-Dusty Larson, 00:15.063[19]; 19. 7N-Darin Naida, 00:15.094[29]; 20. 45-Devon Borden, 00:15.097[21]; 21. 33-Brent Matus, 00:15.167[8]; 22. 32-Jeremy Kornbau, 00:15.256[16]; 23. 17GP-Tim Shaffer, 00:15.275[27]; 24. 16M-Jim Morris, 00:15.367[26]; 25. 00-Chris Frank, 00:15.382[15]; 26. 35-Jared Zimbardi, 00:15.503[24]; 27. 81-Rayce Jacobs, 00:15.506[2]; 28. M4-Louis Mattes IV, 00:16.141[28]; 29. 4-Zane DeValult

Crown Vic 6 Entries

A Feature 1 12 Laps

1. 919-Elyn Wickham[2]; 2. 4-Brian Krepps[4]; 3. 309-Jacob Moon[1]; 4. 26-Brad Shaffer[3]; 5. 30-Brad Albert[5]; 6. 34-Rod Jones[6]

Heat 1 6 Laps | 00:04:27.226

1. 919-Elyn Wickham[6]; 2. 4-Brian Krepps[4]; 3. 309-Jacob Moon[5]; 4. 26-Brad Shaffer[1]; 5. 30-Brad Albert[3]; 6. 34-Rod Jones[2]