2025 Western Pa Spint Speedweek Preview
By: Colton Sutley
Published on 5/27/25
*All Stats used from Sprint Car Ratings and Western Pa Speedweek
For the 5th consecutive year since its 20 year long pause, Western Pa Sprint Speedweek will kickoff on Wednesday May 28th. The mini-series starts at Mercer, and then will make its way to PPMS on May 29th followed by The Jean Lynch Classic at Lernerville on the 30th, Sharon on the 31st, and the finale at Tri-City on June 1st. There have been seven different winners through 14 races since the mini-series was brought back with Ryan Smith winning not only the first race in 2021 but also the first championship that season and has announced his intention to compete this year in the mini-series.. AJ Flick is another former Western Pa Speedweek champion that has announced his intentions to run it this year, wanting to add to his two titles from 2022 and 2023. The most recent speedweek champion Dave Blaney is not racing this year having retired from driving after winning his father Lou’s memorial race last season at Sharon, but is expected to field a car for his brother Dale Blaney who is the all time winner with Western Pa Speedweek with 7 wins and is a 2 time speedweek champion.
Dave Blaney at Sharon last year in the car his brother Dale will be racing this season.
Ryan Smith has won three different times during speedweek with two of the wins coming at Sharon Speedway and one of them at Lernerville Speedway, while averaging a 4.93 finish since 2021 in speedweek races with 12 top 5s and 13 top 10s in 14 races which will make him a favorite to win the title. AJ Flick has 6 speedweek wins with wins at all of the tracks on this year’s schedule except Mercer, but he has won at Mercer in non-speedweek shows. Flick has 10 top 5s and 12 top 10s out of 14 career speedweek races while averaging a 5.28 average finish since the re-inception of Western Pa Speedweek, and has been the car to beat in Western Pa competition which makes him the favorite to be the champion this season. The last former champion expected to compete is National Sprint Car HoFer Dale Blaney, who as mentioned before is a 2 time champion in 1995 and 1996 and the last of his seven feature wins in speedweek competition came in 1997. In six speedweek races that he has competed since the mini-series has made its return he has 4 top 5s and 6 tops 10s with an average finish of 5 in the past 2 years. Running in his brother Dave’s car, Dale Blaney should once again be a favorite to win the Western Pa Sprint Speedweek Championship and continue to add to his hall of fame resume.
Ryan Smith at Lernerville last year.
AJ Flick at Tri-City this year.
One of the other three former Western Pa Sprint Speedweek winners expected to run this year’s speedweek is Brandon Spithaler. The full time All Star driver has a speedweek win at Knox in 2023, and has 1 top 5 and 5 top 10s in 8 speedweek races, and has averaged a 11.1 finish through 3 speedweeks and will be a driver to watch out for. Another former speedweek winner is another National Sprint Car HoFer is Tim Shaffer, having won a speedweek race at the now closed Challenger back in 1996. Having only ran last season since the mini-series return, Shaffer has averaged a 7.0 finish with 2 top 5s and 2 top 10s in 3 races and will be in contention for wins and the championship this year. The last driver expected to compete in Western Pa Speedweek is Bob Felmlee who won his speedweek race at Knox in 1995. Felmlee has ran all 4 speedweeks since the return of it, with an average finish of 15.1 and 7 top 10s in 13 races, and will be one to watch out for.
Brandon Spithaler at Mercer last year.
Tim Shaffer at Tri-City this year.
Bob Felmlee at Mercer last year.
There is a strong contingent of local Western Pa drivers expected to run speedweek this season. Three of those expected to race are All Star full timers Cody Bova and Leyton Wagner, and FAST full timer Michael Bauer. Bova has 2 top 5s and 4 top 10s in 14 races, while Bauer has 2 top 5s and 6 top 10s in 14 races, and Wagner has a best speedweek finish of 13th. All three drivers will be ones to watch out for to win a speedweek show this week.
Cody Bova at Lernerville last year.
Michael Bauer at Sharon last year.
Leyton Wagner at Mercer last year.
Some veteran Western Pa drivers to watch out for to potentially win a speedweek race this season include Dan Kuriger and Carl Bowser. Kuriger has 3 top 5s and 6 top 10s in 12 races, while Bowser has 1 top 5 and 6 top 10s in 14 races. A few more veterans to watch for are Adam Kekich, Jack Sodeman Jr, and Brandon Matus. Kekich has 2 top 10s in 6 speedweek races, while Sodeman Jr has 1 top 5 and 4 top 10s in 14 races and Matus has 2 top 5s and 6 top 10s in 14 races. All five of these veteran drivers have the history of having the speed to win a speedweek race this week.
Dan Kuriger at Sharon last year.
Carl Bowser at Lernerville last year.
Adam Kekich at Sharon last year.
Jack Sodeman Jr at Tri-City this year.
Brandon Matus at Tri-City this year.
There are a few young drivers who are going to be ones to keep an eye on this speedweek. Jeremy Weaver and Logan McCandless both have won 410 features in their young careers, and both have a top 10 in speedweek competition, with Weaver’s coming in 6 races and McCandless’s coming in 8 races. Another young driver who is expected to compete this week is Jacob Begenwald. Begenwald has only one attempt at a speedweek race, but this season so far has 3 top 5s and 9 top 10s in 11 races. If things go their way, any one of these young drivers could finish in the top 5 and maybe potentially come away with a victory.
Jeremy Weaver at Tri-City this year.
Logan McCandless at Tri-City this year.
Jacob Begenwald at Tri-City this year.
Some known invaders from different regions that will be racing during Western Pa Speedweek are Billy Dietrich and Ricky Peterson Jr. Dietrich raced part of speedweek last season and had some bad luck, and is looking to have better success this year with having 2 top 5s so far this season with one of them being at Lernerville. Peterson Jr has ran 4 speedweek races in the past, and is looking for his first speedweek win and already has a win at the host of the finale, Tri-City. Another invader who will be making his 410 debut is Central Pa driver Tylar Rutherford, Mark Smith has driven a Rutherford owned car before and has had success in it so watch out for Tylar to potentially do well this week in his first five 410 races. Steven Snyder Jr is another young invader who will be racing Western Pa Sprint Speedweek, and the micro sprint standout who won over $100,000 in micro races last year will be a driver to watch out for this week.
Billy Dietrich at Lincoln this year.
Ricky Peterson Jr at Tri-City this year.
This year’s Western Pa Sprint Speedweek has lots of great bonuses for teams and drivers as it does every year, along with great pay outs not only at the top but throughout the field. Each race pays a minimum of $300 to start with Mercer, Pittsburgh, and Tri-City all paying $3,500 to win and Lernerville and Sharon paying $4,000 and $5,000 to win respectively. It is one of my favorite weeks of the year, and the excitement for this year’s speedweek is through the roof with lots of teams expected and Winged Nation host Steve Post choosing it as his first speedweek to attend. Hopefully Mother Nature plays nice, and I highly suggest you go out and support what Tyler Beichner and his crew has worked hard to put together.