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By Dino Oberto
(Minersville, PA 8-14-26) Throughout the season at Big Diamond Speedway Tim Buckwalter of Douglasville has continually displayed amazing speed and swiftness in the BQ Concrete 358 Modifieds, but as good as he’s been, there’s also been frustration in the fact that five of his nine top-5 finishes have been in the runnerup spot and only one win to show.
On Friday evening at the popular Schuylkill County dirt oval Buckwalter found himself again racing near the front and as you can imagine, in second place. First it was against Kevin Beach Jr., and then over the second half of the 25-lap contest he was clinging to the lead and having to withstand the offensive being thrown at him by point leader Louden Reimert.
Buckwalter though wasn’t about to settle for another second place tally as he strategically held Reimert at bay and parked the Donna and Dennis Weller owned No. 942 in Victory Lane for a well-earned second win of 2026.
“I just kept thinking to myself anything but second again and hats off to the Weller family for what they give me because we were struggling here the last month and a half and they stick with me,” said Buckwalter.
“I have to give my hats off to Ed Hefline too, he’s my crew chief and he worked his butt off this week changing things around and the whole crew, without them guys I wouldn’t be standing here. It’s been an incredible season, and we couldn’t do it without all my guys, it takes a good crew to be able to do this as many times as we do and I am very lucky to have them.”
At the outset Heath Metzger got the jump over pole sitter McKenzi Smith to lead the opening circuit ahead of Beach and Rick Laubach. The next time around a strong running Beach sped past Metzger for the lead while eighth starting Buckwalter was making haste, motoring his way to second by lap three.
Fans were not only being indulged to the extremely close action with Beach and Buckwalter but right in their path it was just as thrilling a battle being waged amongst Laubach, Metzger, Reimert and Mike Lisowski.
Buckwalter had several opportunities to surpass Beach on restarts. Each time, however, Beach chose the outside lane and successfully held him off. Reimert then worked his way into third, turning the contest into a three-car fight for the lead.
With 12 laps remaining, a caution reset the field and on that restart, Buckwalter finally got the better of Beach to take the lead, while Reimert moved into second and from then on it was a nip and tuck dogfight for the top spot.
Racing several times side-by-side and with the laps winding down, Buckwalter realized his best form of defense would be to protect the bottom, and he instinctively went from the outside and took his fight to the low lane which enabled him to hold strong and secure the win.
“Louden (Reimert) ran me clean and then we had to worry about the lapped traffic too. I just couldn’t get off the bottom like he did and once I got to the lead I kept trying the top and I saw him and I said to myself just slow it down and make him go around you on the outside,” explained Buckwalter.
“Jake (Smulley) did an awesome job with the track tonight and there was two-wide racing. We came from eighth and Louden came from ninth and the passes are there, you just have to use the track that he gives you.”
Beach held off Laubach for third. After having to pit for a flat tire early in the going, Jax Yohn put on a crowd pleasing drive coming through the pack and rounded out the top five.
In the USS Achey Inc. 602 Crate Sportsman Nanticoke’s Nick Hamm was gifted the lead after two aborted tries on the initial start got called back and the then front row of Jim O’Hara and Reice Widger where set back for jumping to soon.
And Hamm would make the best of his newly awarded prize as he never wavered leading all the distance for his first win of the year.
While Hamm had the reins of the lead well in hand, things were increasingly close behind him. Brennan Chapman made a valiant effort to stay within reach of Hamm, and he then had the resist the challenges of the division’s hottest driver, point leader Ryan Graver.
Widger also stayed in the hunt too and had been mixing it up with Chapman and Graver before having to hold off Dakota Kohler in completing the top five.
The River Valley Builders PASS 305 Sprint Cars made their lone Big Diamond Speedway appearance of the season and authoring a dominating run was Ken Duke Jr., of Selinsgrove who led wire-to-wire. For Duke, who is the PASS points leader, it was his first victory at the track.
Mike Alleman was second although he proved no match for Duke who outclassed the field en route to the victory.
In the Big Creek Concrete Rookie 602 Crate Sportsman feature Gage Phillips Jr., of Fleetwood made his debut at the track one he won’t soon forget as he raced to victory.
Gage started on the pole and led the first four laps but then yielded the top spot to Josh Metzler following a restart on that same tour.
Gage then returned the favor in the same manner on a lap nine re-go and there was no looking back from there as he drove on to the memorable verdict.
358 Modified finish (25 laps): 1. Tim Buckwalter, 2. Louden Reimert, 3. Kevin Beach Jr., 4. Rick Laubach, 5. Jax Yohn, 6. Mike Lisowski, 7. Logan Watt, 8. Duane Howard, 9. Dom Buffalino, 10. Alan Rudalavage, 11. Aleia Geisler, 12. Heath Metzger, 13. WB James, 14. Wayne Witmer, 15. Zane Roth, 16. Corey Renninger, 17. Cliff Quinn, 18. Jim Bobbitt, 19. George Hildebrandt, 20. Kaitlyn Bailey, 21. Bryan Kuhn, 22. Mark Gaugler. 23. McKenzi Smith, 24. Alex Tonkin
602 Crate Sportsman finish (20 laps): 1. Nick Hamm, 2. Brennan Chapman, 3. Ryan Graver, 4. Reice Widger, 5. Dakota Kohler, 6. Zach Steffey, 7. Trevor Bixler, 8. Shannon Slaughter, 9. Brandon Firestine, 10. Jim O’Hara, 11. Ed Mrochko, 12. Tajae Adams, 13. Mark Behm, 14. Dennis Graber, 15. Matt Martino, 16. Devin Whitmoyer, 17. Loagan Starr, 18. Kevin Fitzpatrick, 19. Aaron Weaver
Rookie 602 Crate Sportsman finish (20 laps): 1. Gage Phillips Jr., 2. Zach Moyer, 3. Josh Metzler, 4. Tyler Chase, 5. Blake Vidal, 6. Mason Harakel, 7. Lucas Weil, 8. Payton Renninger, 9. Michael Eckardt, 10. Nick Clemens, 11. Lorenzo Lopiccolo
PASS feature finish (20 laps): 1. Ken Duke Jr., 2. Mike Alleman, 3. Chris Meleason, 4. Tyler Brehm, 5. Mike Melair, 6. Landon Price, 7. Christopher Dolan, 8. Brady Beavers, 9. Tyler Schell, 10. Jim Miller, 11. Erin Staller, 12. Mark Connoly, 13. Jonathan Swift, 14. Mikell McGee, 15. Cole Dewease
