NEWBERRYTOWN, Pa. — It's never too late to make a debut in a division you've always wanted to try.
After picking up two championships this season, it was finally time for Maryville's Kenny Edkin to put his seat in a 410 sprint car. After 11 years in the super sportsman division, it was actually Edkin's brother's idea to expand his horizons and give a 410 a try.
"I tried talking him out of it. Believe it or not. I couldn't and we bought a motor and put a car together and here we are," said Edkin.
Edkin says the 410 deal has been in the works since May but that he couldn't change his focus too early. After he was battling for two different championships. The "Magic Man" ended up clinching his fourth BAPS Motor Speedway track title in the super sportsman and also the super sportsman touring championship; picking up wins at Williams Grove, Lincoln and BAPS. Although, he did some testing for laps at BAPS, but nothing compares to actually racing alongside other racers.
Edkin said, "We were decent on speed, but until you actually get on the track, around other cars, I think I learned more in that heat race than the three weeks coming down here testing."
It's a learning curve for a driver to jump in a different division, and you can't always control every situation.
"The option of failure kind of scares somebody," Edkin said. "We went out there, draw a low pill, had some rain and I hit some wet spots in hot laps. Which were timed and kind of screwed up the whole heat race inversion for me. So, I just look at it as laps and seat experience for the sportsman. I don't think we're done there yet."
With just one motor and one car, he says they will probably shoot for a 10-race schedule with the 410 in the 2024 season.
BAPS Results
Speaking of BAPS, they had a three division show Saturday night.
In the sprint cars, turns one and two did not make any friends starting with Darren Sholtz then Justin Whittall in the heat races. Whittal hit the wall and did a 360. It wasn't the only 360 of the night. Troy Wagaman led the field to green. Wagaman was successful in beating Dylan Norris to the first turn. As the field was catching up to lap traffic, Kyle Reinhardt showed his nose to Wagaman. The No. 27 could exhale when the yellow flag waved a lap later. Reinhardt cowboyed up on the restart, which allowed Wagaman to create some space.
Devon Borden thought he had enough room to squeeze under Reinhardt. He didn't. Cars went flying. Reinhardt did a 360, bouncing off Chase Dietz to keep his position but had damage to his wing. Just when you thought the chaos was over, in Anthony Macri's first race back in the family car, he pulled a move on Wagaman for the lead. Nash Ely went on his side to bring out an open red with three laps to go. Macri was shuffled back to where he was before the red. Wagaman took off on the restart to score his first win at BAPS.
In the wingless sportsman, from dead last to the win. Something good that happened in one and two, Tony Jackson made the winning pass. Sam Rial won the extreme stocks feature.