8/11/2025
Sharon Speedway
ANTHONY PERREGO WINS $10,000 AS SUPER DIRTCAR BIG-BLOCK MODS RETURN FOR 1ST TIME IN 8 YEARS; CAREER 1ST SHARON "410" SPRINT WIN FOR BRANDON SPITHALER
By Mike Leone
August 11, 2025
(Hartford, OH)...Sharon Speedway hosted the Super DIRTcar Series for the first time in more than eight years in a special Monday night program along with the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply "410" Sprint Cars. Capturing wins and celebrating in the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply Victory Lane were Anthony Perrego (Big-Block Modifieds) and Brandon Spithaler ("410" Sprint Cars).
The "Steel Valley 75" was presented by Capitol Renegade Custom Coaches and Trailers along with support from Al Heinke, Thermo Supply, Russ King Racing, King Sanitary, and King Bros. Ryan Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Champion and co-owner at Sharon Speedway, took part in a Question & Answer Session part of the Willy's World Kids Club Activities presented by Millcraft Barns in addition to offering color commentary throughout the night as part of the DIRTVision broadcast.
Making his first ever appearance at Sharon, Anthony Perrego led all 75 caution-free laps of the "Steel Valley 75" holding off 10-time Super DIRTcar Series Champion, Matt Sheppard, for his first Series win of 2025! Perrego earned $10,000 and a guaranteed starting spot for Super DIRT Week at Oswego Speedway in October.
"Anything that’s gone wrong has gone wrong,” Perrego said. “Hopefully, this will turn our year around. Obviously, we needed that big. We’ve had a few hit or miss good runs, but this week we changed a lot of crap to come here. This place is kind of just like Orange County. It’s flat. It’s slippery. I felt right at home.”
“In the first few laps, I thought it was Will Thomas, but it was obviously Matt (Sheppard),” Perrego added. “I seen him peek under me there when we got to lap cars. Then, the track was still kind of racy. I kind of got behind the lap cars and slowed my pace up so much that I just kept pushing across the track. Fortunately, I moved up, got by a couple, and that obviously gave us a pretty good lead because he didn’t get by us.”
Sheppard started the event from fifth and raced to third by getting by Thomas on the opening lap. Sheppard then disposed of Mike Mahaney for third on lap two. Garrett Krummert started fourth, but slipped back to seventh early on before moving to the top of the speedway. Krummert charged all the way up to third past Mahaney on lap 17. Dalton Slack, who won the "Lou Blaney Memorial" from 21st for $4,100 nine days ago, started in 11th and battled with Krummert for several laps before making the pass on lap 20.
Up front, it was side-by-side for the lead on lap 21 with Perrego holding off Sheppard. Perrego was able to gap Sheppard in traffic in the ensuing laps. Sheppard stayed within striking distance throughout the remainder of the event, but was unable to make a serious challenge. At the finish, Perrego's sixth career Super DIRTcar Series win came over Sheppard by 0.408 seconds in the Vinny Salerno-owned, Four Star Racing Products-sponsored #4.
“I was able to hook that bottom real good early, and got to second,” Sheppard said after his $5,000 runner-up finish. “I wasn’t really gaining any ground on Anthony, and we got into lap traffic and got racing there. It kind of felt like the bottom was trying to latch a bit, and I was hoping I could sneak by him. I got up next to him in (Turns) 1 and 2 and just couldn’t pull the pass off. Then, we just kind of tucked in line and rode it out.”
Slack was third and earned $2,500 “We passed a bunch of cars in the first five laps,” Slack said. “I kind of got going good in the middle, like in the Lou Blaney [Memorial], and I was like, alright. I saw those two on the bottom, and I was like, well, if I can get my chance, I’ll try to roll them. But they’re more experienced than I am, and they knew it was going to rubber quicker than I did. I screwed around in the middle a little too long.”
Ninth starting Alex Payne was fourth. Mahaney, who started second, dropped to fifth at the finish. Erick Rudolph, who has seven career wins at Sharon, went 13th to 6th. Mat Williamson was seventh over Jack Lehner. Krummert, who has two $2,000 wins in 2025 at Sharon including this past Saturday night, was the top local finisher in ninth and earned $1,100. Jimmy Phelps, who won the 2016 Super DIRTcar event at Sharon, was 10th.
Sharon co-owner, Will Thomas III, set fast time overall against the 35-car field in qualifying with a lap of 17.199, and then went on to win heat race one. Other heat race winners were Mahaney, Williamson, and Sheppard. Female racer, Amy Holland, won the last chance B main in her first ever Sharon start before finishing 17th in the feature. The entire night for the Big-Block Modified portion went caution-free!
Brandon Spithaler began his racing career at Sharon Speedway in 2007 in the former Limited Sprint Car division and over the course of three seasons won seven feature events and the track championship in 2009. Spithaler moved up to the "410" Sprint Cars in 2010, but could never find victory lane at Sharon. On Monday night, Spithaler battled with fellow All Star Circuit of Champions regular, Greg Wilson, regaining the lead on lap 13 and held him off over the final 17 laps for his elusive first career Sharon "410" victory worth $4,000!
"This has been a long time coming," acknowledged the soon-to-be 34-year-old Butler, Pa. driver. "I cut my teeth here in a Limited Sprint. We won a lot of races here before they changed the dirt. It's gotten a lot slicker since then and I struggled. We've gotten a lot better. We've had a lot of speed, but was never able to pull one off. This means a lot. I can't thank the whole Tiger Barris team enough. I'm thankful for this opportunity . They are only 10 minutes up the road so to put the Barris Special in victory lane means a lot."
Spithaler and Australian Ryan Newton led the 25-car starting field to green with Spithaler racing to the early lead. Two-time 2025 winner, Dale Blaney, started seventh and was up to fourth on lap one. Blaney ducked under All Star racer, Zane DeVault, for third on lap four. By lap seven it was a three-car race for the lead in lapped traffic with Spithaler trying to fend off Newton and Blaney; however, one-lap later, the driveshaft let loose on Blaney's mount and Blaney would blow a tire. DeVault couldn't miss the debris and suffered a flat tire.
Racing resumed on lap eight, but two laps later Newton, who won on Friday night at Lernerville Speedway and was trying to win in his Sharon debut, suffered a flat left rear tire after contact with Spithaler battling for the lead down the backstretch. The misfortunes of Blaney, DeVault, and Newton moved eighth starting Wilson to second for the restart.
When green replaced yellow on lap 11, Wilson went after Spithaler. The duo raced side-by-side over the course of the next three laps trading the lead back and forth; Wilson led lap 12 with Spithaler getting back by for good on lap 13. Wilson stayed within striking distance over the final 17 laps, but Spithaler made the right moves in lapped traffic to keep him at bay by 1.290 seconds at the finish. The win came in the Tiger Barris-owned, Barris Truck Supply/McFarland Lumber/Atwell & Perrine Excavating-sponsored #32B.
Wilson earned $2,000 for his best career Sharon finish. John Jerich, who was injured three months ago at Sharon, returned to the track for the first time for the "Lou Blaney Memorial" nine days ago where he qualified for the feature. On Monday night, Jerich came home a career best third for $1,400! Carl Bowser went 15th to 4th after passing Brandon Matus on lap 14. Jeremy Weaver went 17th to 5th after passing Matus on lap 22 to earn the $100 Summit Racing Equipment Hard Charger gift card.
Matus dropped to sixth after being as high as third. Sean Rayhall was 7th after starting 12th in his 2025 debut. Dan Kuriger was eighth over Brett Brunkenhoefer and Henry Malcuit in his 2025 Sharon debut. Logan McCandless, Newton, and Blaney won the heat races over the 25-car field.
Coming up this Saturday night (August 16) is a "Super Series" event presented by Bala Management featuring the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply "410" Sprint Cars in another $4,000 to-win/$400 to-start event along with the RUSH Sprint Cars, HTMA/Precise Racing Products RUSH Sportsman Modifieds, and the Gibson Insurance Agency Pro Stocks. Group qualifying for the Sprints will take place at 6:40 p.m. General admission is just $15 with kids 13 and under free!
Super DIRTcar Series for the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply Big-Block Modifieds (75 laps, $10,000 to-win): 1. 4-Anthony Perrego[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[5]; 3. 3RS-Dalton Slack[11]; 4. 70A-Alex Payne[9]; 5. 35-Mike Mahaney[2]; 6. 25-Erick Rudolph[13]; 7. 88-Mat Williamson[8]; 8. 2-Jack Lehner[6]; 9. 29-Garrett Krummert[4]; 10. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[12]; 11. 27-Tanner Van Doren[17]; 12. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[10]; 13. 91-Felix Roy[18]; 14. 12-Darren Smith[15]; 15. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[14]; 16. 21A-Peter Britten[23]; 17. 5H-Amy Holland[21]; 18. 15X-Justin Stone[25]; 19. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[16]; 20. 14S-Justin Shea[20]; 21. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[22]; 22. 9-Will Thomas[3]; 23. 6S-Brian Swartzlander[24]; 24. 165-Rex King Jr[7]; 25. 6-Matt Stangle[19]; DNS: 17-Marcus Dinkins.
DNQ for the feature: 45-Steve Feder, 32-Jim Rasey, 13A-Ryan Susice, 13-Rick Regalski Jr, 17M-Kyle Fink, 87-Rocky Kugel, 6R-Bill Rose, 55-Rob Kristyak, 18JR-Mike Dougherty Jr.
Hovis Auto & Truck Supply “410” Sprint Cars (30 laps, $4,000 to-win): 1. 32B-BRANDON SPITHALER[1]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson[8]; 3. 3-John Jerich[4]; 4. 11-Carl Bowser[15]; 5. 5-Jeremy Weaver[17]; 6. 13-Brandon Matus[3]; 7. 14-Sean Rayhall[12]; 8. 08-Danny Kuriger[18]; 9. 47-Brett Brunkenhoefer[14]; 10. 70-Henry Malcuit[6]; 11. 3V-Chris Verda[19]; 12. 29-Logan McCandless[9]; 13. 20M-Vivian Jones[16]; 14. 81-Rayce Jacobs[11]; 15. 22M-Dan McCarron[10]; 16. 4-Zane DeVault[5]; 17. 16-Jim Morris[20]; 18. 47L-Dusty Larson[13]; 19. 7T-David Kalb[23]; 20. 3J-Jacob Begenwald[21]; 21. 4W-Eric L Williams[24]; 22. 30-Jazlyn Boyles[25]; 23. 33-Brent Matus[22]; 24. 66-Ryan Newton[2]; 25. 10-Dale Blaney[7].
Sharon Speedway is owned by the Dave Blaney, Ryan Blaney, and Will Thomas III and is a 3/8-mile dirt track located on Custer-Orangeville Road in Hartford, Ohio near the intersection of Routes 7 & 305. For more information, check out the website at www.sharonspeedway.com or call 330-772-5481. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sharonspeedway and follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter) @sharonspdwy.
Article Credit: Mike Leone
