Open Throne at
Tri-City Raceway Park
By: Colton Sutley
Published on 4/18/25
Lots of change is coming to Tri-City Raceway Park in 2025, not only are they adding more classes, switching from Sunday racing to Fridays, but they also will have a new track champion in the Winged 410 Sprint Car division. The reason is that 3-time and defending track champion AJ Flick is expected to compete at his home track Lernerville Speedway where he is a eight time track champion, he also is potentially going to run full time with the resurrected All Star Circuit of Champions. That will make this season even more interesting, because Flick was not just the track champion at Tri-City the past three years, but the man to beat there. In 44 races since 2016, he has had 15 wins, 35 Top 5s, and 39 Top 10s with 11 of those wins just from the past three seasons (Stats according to sprintcarratings.com). His average finish for the past 5 seasons since the track has been opened full time again in 2020 is 4.4. While AJ Flick will still attend some races at Tri-City this year, and continue to work his way up from being tied 8th on the all time wins list, it will be all about who will take over the throne of track champion at Tri-City Raceway Park this season.
*All Stats used from Sprint Car Ratings and all time wins list information from Penn Ohio Racing
3x Track Champion AJ Flick
There are a few former track champions who are expected to potentially compete weekly for points this season at Tri-City. The first one I will mention is 2020 track champion Jack Sodeman Jr who ranks 21st on the all time wins list with 5 wins to his name. Sodeman Jr has won 4 of his 5 victories at the track in the last five seasons with his average finishes for those seasons being 6.14. The second generation driver has had 30 plus wins since 2015 in Western Pa so keep your eye on him to win some at Tri-City and potentially take the championship. Meanwhile the driver who beat him to be the track champion in 2021 was Brandon Matus. The third generation driver ranks 30th all time with 3 wins all of them coming in th3 2020 and 2021 seasons. His average finish the past five seasons at the track is 7.16. Matus is no guarantee to run weekly at Tri-City, but if he does he is a former champion who has shown he can get it done in Western Pa. The last former track champion expected to compete weekly is one of the best to ever do it in Western Pa, Bob Felmlee. Felmlee is a 3 time track champion at Tri-City having won it in 1996, 1998, and 2006 which is second all time at the track in the sprint division. He also ranks second all time on the wins list with 34 wins being behind Rod George in both wins and championships. Since coming back to racing in 2021, Felmlee has won three races and is hungry for more. His average finish at the track since coming back has been 6.28 which puts him right in the running to win his potential fourth and record tying track championship.
2020 Track Champion Jack Sodeman Jr
2021 Track Champion Brandon Matus
3x Track Champion Bob Felmlee
The next group of drivers expected to compete weekly at the track are made up of some young and unproven drivers, as well as drivers who are seasoned but fairly new to 410 winged sprint cars. Jeremy Weaver is the only driver in that group to have a win, and it came at Tri-City last season. Weaver is young and still coming into his own in the 410, but is a former RUSH Sprint Car champion and finished in the Top 10 last season 8 out of the 12 races completed. Another young driver to watch out for is Chase Metheney who had 5 top 10s last season in 9 races with an average finish of 12.4, meanwhile veteran racer Andy Cavanaugh had a top 5 finish and 5 top 10s in 12 races with 11.4 as his average finish. Veteran racer Bodey McClintock finished his rookie 410 season with 3 top 10s and an average finish of 14.0, while 16 year old Dusty Larson, son of legend Jarod Larson, had 2 top 10s with an average finish of 13.0 in only 7 races. Youngster Jazlyn Boyles finished last season with one top 10, an average finish of 13.4 in 8 races and will be another young driver to watch out for. Jeremy Weaver may seem to have the best chance out of this group of less experienced 410 drivers, but you can not count out any of them when it comes to making a run at the track championship.
Jeremy Weaver
Chase Metheney
Dusty Larson
There are also some drivers who may end up high in the points while not running weekly at Tri-City, whether it be for the reason of being committed to a touring series or chasing points elsewhere. Brandon Spithaler is committed to running with the resurrected All Star Circuit of Champions, but may very finish high up in the points at Tri-City with ranking 20th all time at the track with 6 victories. Michael Bauer and Ricky Peterson Jr both plan to attend a lot of Tri-City races while they are running full time with the FAST on Dirt series with Bauer having come close to victory multiple times and Peterson Jr having 2 wins to his credit. Matt Farnham is a regular invader from New York who may come down enough to compete for a top finish in points having won twice before, meanwhile Carl Bowser is expected to run Lernerville Speedway most Fridays but will be one to watch out for on opening night and other non conflicting race days with having won 5 times at the Western Pennsylvania track. There are a few other drivers who may make surprise visits to Tri-City that could be in the running for wins this season such as Tim Shaffer, John Jerich, and Blaze Myers among others.
Matt Farnham
Michael Bauer
Who will be the track champion at Tri-City Raceway Park will come down to the wire this season, and it all starts Friday April 18th. Pit gates open at 3 pm and general admission opens at 4 pm while racing is supposed to start at 7 pm. So get to the big half mile, and see who will win opening night!