Continuing his recent legacy of taking big Bedford post season events, Mason Zeigler won the 2024 Keystone Cup at the track Saturday night. It was Zeigler’s third win in the last 4 high paying post season events including two Labor Day 55s, and his sixth career Bedford win. Including his take in the Friday prelims, his weekend was worth over $26,000.
In other action in the season ending event, for the second week in a row a Walls scored his first ever Limited Late Model win, this time it was Keith, following a Gunner win in the last Limited event. 2024 track champion Spike Moore easily scored the EMod win and Josh Ringer closed the season with a Crown Vic win.
Max Blair was the Late model pole sitter in the 60 lap Late Model event and led the first few feet, but Zeigler got by quickly and then led the distance. Zeigler opened up a decent margin over the next few laps but Blair closed as the pair entered heavy lapped traffic by lap 12.
As the two leaders stalked each other, most eyes were on Kyle Hardy who was again using the extreme outside groove to charge through the field. Hardy charged from his ninth starting spot and was up to third by lap 9. He got by Blair for second on lap 11 and the trio went at it hard in lapped traffic until the first caution flew for Dan Stone on lap 19.
On the restart, that pair continued their battle as Zeigler pulled away. When the gang again encountered lapped traffic they closed up again with the three cars looking for paths through. Hardy and Blair traded the second spot several times before Hardy began to fade around lap 35.
Rid of the Hardy challenge, Blair made several moves on Zeigler, who actually impacted a lapped car on lap 39 in the excitement. But once through the knot of traffic, in clean air, Zeigler was able to escape Blair’s clutches and ran off to the win. Blair was able to keep Zeigler in sight but fell about a full second short at the line.
Hardy was able to hang on for third after fighting off a late race challenge from Dylan Yoder who for the second year in a row came from deep in the pack (12th) to be a player at the front. Jeff Rine ran a solid but uneventful race to take 5th.
With the top 18 starters determined by Friday qualifications, Jared Miley and Jeff Miller won the Saturday B mains to get into the event. With the large field on hand, promoter Padula had announced the starting field would be expanded to 26, adding two track provisionals instead of the usual one, and those spots went high as the top two in Bedford 2024 points, Kyle Lee and Bryan Bernheisel took those spots.
In what has become a Keystone Cup tradition, the event went the 60 lap distance with only the one caution slowdown. With two of the prior events having gone caution free, this was only the second caution period in the last four Keystone events. Even with the long green flag segments, 16 of the starters in the competitive field finished on the lead lap.
Keith Walls was the Limited pole sitter but Shawn Shoemaker got the jump on the field and pulled away from everyone. With the race going green after a third lap caution, Shoemaker pulled away, at one point compiling a 7 second lead, but with two to go began to slow slightly allowing Keith Walls to begin to close.
Shoemaker slowed even more dramatically at the white flag and Walls was there, He made the big move on Shoemaker to lead the last lap and take the win, his first ever Limited win anywhere. Shoemaker held on for second ahead of Clinton Hersh and Matt Nailor. Ralph Morgan and Shoemaker won the heats.
Spike Moore made shambles of the slim EMod field. Ryan Dolan led early but Moore caught him, zoomed by on lap 8 and never looked back. Moore took the win over Dolan, Brandon Hoover, Mason Lobb and Beau Aikey.,
Josh Ringer zipped through the Crown Vic field to claim the win and end the 2024 season at Bedford. He was followed by Kyle Beckett, Noah Swank and Allen Harding. Beckett and David Heining won the heats.
LATE MODEL 60 LAPS Mason Zeigler, Max Blair, Kyle Hardy, Dylan Yoder, Jeff Rine, Matt Cosner, Justin Weaver, Gregg Satterlee, Travis Stickley, Jason Covert, Colby Frue, Jared Miley, Rick Eckert, Jon Lee, Coltom Flinner, Brent Robinson, Andrew Yoder, JT Spence, Jeff Miller, Kyle Lee, Bryan Bernheisel, Alex Ferree, Matt Sponaugle, Trevor Feathers, Jim Yoder, Dan Stone,
DNS Michael Duritsky, Nathan Lasalle, Ryan Christoff, Keith Walls, Matt Martin, Matt Nailor, Shawn Shoemaker, Mike Lupfer, Chuck Clise, Del Rougeux, Scott Sweeney, Ron Fink, Darras Deneen, Tyler Ritchey
LIMITED 20 LAPS Keith Walls, Shawn Shoemaker, Clinton Hersh, Matt Nailor, Ralph Morgan, Gunner Walls, Jakob Piper, Zach Kauffman Bryan Benton, John Miller, Maddox Smith DNS Ethan Cavalet, Wes Bonebrake
EMOD 20 LAPS Spike Moore, Ryan Dolan, Brandon Hoover, Mason Lobb, Beau Aikey, Ed Vogel, Jacob McConnell, Tommy Hughes
CROWN VIC 12 LAPS Josh Ringer, Kyle Beckett, Noah Swank, Allen Harding, David Heining, Joe Sutherland, Doug Winning, Quinten Beeman, Travis Vogel, Jake Waugh, Jonathan Haburchak
Tyler Varnish, Michael Hemminger, Will Hemm
