DirtonDirt Dispatches

Dispatches: Key moment enlivens Keystone Cup

October 23, 2025, 1:05 pm

From series, staff, track and other reports

Trever Feathers at Bedford Speedway. (Jason Walls/wrtspeedwerx.com)

Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing during the last weekend in October, including the Fall Clash’s Keystone Cup at Bedford and Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series at Atomic (look for Atomic’s Saturday coverage elsewhere). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:

Keystone moment

The fortunes of the top three drivers in the eighth annual Keystone Cup abruptly changed in an instant on the 40th lap Saturday at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway.

Unheralded polesitter Matt Sponaugle of Wiley Ford, W.Va., was on track for by far his biggest career victory. Bryan Bernheisel of Jonestown, Pa., was confident his second-running car was the best on the track. And third-running Trever Feathers of Winchester, Va., was happy to have improved from his 10th starting spot at a track where he frequently struggles.

After Sponaugle led 39 laps, the top three positions were quickly shuffled when his No. 8 got too high exiting turn four. Regaining the handle on his car, it cut across the top of the frontstretch into the low groove. His lost momentum held up Bernheisel, and Feathers was able to blow past on the outside.

Feathers led the final 11 laps at the half-mile oval for a career-high $20,000 payday and his fourth victory on the first-year Fall Clash circuit.

"I'm kind of speechless. I can't believe it. This place is not good to me ever,” Feathers said. “I time-trialed like crap, made up for it in the heat race and in the feature, I just made a lot of decent moves and was in the right place at the right time when the top two got together off (turn) four.”

Feathers, whose harder tire choice made it difficult amid several early cautions, had himself gotten too high in turn four previously and saw the leading Sponaugle make the same mistake.

"He just got too high,” Feathers said. “When he did, he took Bryan with him. I just stayed in the fuel and the outside opened up and I went through. I couldn't believe it honestly. It was luck.”

While Sponaugle faded to finish fifth, Bernheisel settled for third behind Feathers and 21st-starting Gregg Satterlee.

“Happy to get a podium finish, but at the same time really disappointed because we had the best car on the track, bar none, and Sponaugle just screwed up there off of (turn) four and got us all bunched up and that's how I fell back to third. I was just trying to be patient, you know, run a smart race, and he ended up screwing me over,” Bernheisel said. “It sucks because this would have been the biggest win our team ever had and for sure for me. This one just got stolen from us and it's hard to come by these opportunities.” — FloRacing reports

Winners again

Mike Marlar and Ronnie Delk haven’t just reunited as driver and car owner. They’ve also resumed their winning ways.

Four races into the pair’s comeback as a team, Marlar drove to a $5,000 victory in Friday night’s 30-lap opener of the Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series-sanctioned Night the Stars Come Out weekend at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio. The 47-year-old veteran turned back challenges from newly-crowned Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Devin Moran of Dresden Ohio, for a triumph with some special meaning.

Marlar spent a decade racing for Delk, the 48-year-old owner of Delk Equipment Sales in Crossville, Tenn., before Delk liquidated his Dirt Late Model program in the fall of 2023 as Marlar landed a full-time ride with Greg Bruening’s Skyline Motorsports. But Marlar departed the Skyline seat after last month’s World 100 and Delk immediately stepped up to commence another run as Marlar’s car owner.

While Marlar initially thought he’d perhaps enter a race or two with Delk before the close of the 2025 season, the pals debuted their Longhorn Chassis No. 157 in Oct. 10-11’s World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series weekend at Boothill Speedway in Greenwood, La., and haven’t looked back. Marlar was quiet at Boothill (finishes of 13th and 21st), but he added a solid sixth-place finish in Oct. 18’s Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and on Friday started his third straight weekend of action with a victory.

“I got to thank Ronnie for putting this deal together on short notice,” Marlar said of Delk. “We didn’t really have any kind of plan on what we were doing. We were just gonna race a little bit. Next thing you know, he got a rig and got some ways we could travel, so we’re doing way more than I thought we was gonna be able to do so I’m just happy for Ronnie and thankful for Ronnie for that.”

Marlar still has his trusted crewmen Josh Davis and Jerry Sprouse on his side and has added some new sponsors to his effort with Delk, including Maryland’s Langenfelder Mechanical Contractors and another Marylander in Jerry Foster, who fields the modified that Marlar has driven a couple times this season. He noted that his friend from Iowa, Craig Lindsey, provided the engine that was under the hood of his “Bullhorn” machine at Atomic.

This latest version of the Marlar-Delk team-up also carries support from Longhorn Dynamics, the shock and suspension arm of Longhorn Chassis.

“When me and Ronnie restarted our team we wanted to go with just the manufacturer across the board on everything,” said Marlar, who recorded his first win driving for Delk since Sept. 29, 2023, in a WoO event that was also at Atomic. “Just take a little weight off me, and, you know, them (Longhorn Dynamics) guys are handling all the shocks and springs and set up stuff. So far so good.”

Marlar came off the pole position to lead Friday’s feature from flag-to-flag, though he benefitted from a well-timed caution flag on lap 14 that negated what would have likely been Moran’s pass for the lead. Marlar controlled the remainder of the distance to beat Moran by 1.338 seconds and mentioned afterward that maybe he was just due to catch a break at Atomic.

“I was really tight,” Marlar said. “I knew the bottom was down there, I just couldn’t get across there without pushing so I was just having to hustle it way too much. But grip’s always not a bad thing, you know. Sometimes it’s just a little too tight.

“I’ve been to this place and had some get away from me … I’d just be there to pass (for the lead) and have a caution. I think today I got them all back. A couple of times there I was pretty much passed and had cautions, so I’m glad that worked out. That goes to show when it’s your day, it’s your day.”

Moran, 31, understood that his shot for the win largely evaporated with the caution flag that dulled his momentum, leaving him to accept second place and look forward to Saturday’s $15,000-to-win finale.

“I just needed that caution not to come out,” Moran said. “I got by Mike in lapped traffic. He just really didn’t know where to be. He had a good car and (third-place finisher) Josh (Rice) had a really good car, and, once I got by him, I was like, ‘If you get the lead here, it, it’s easy to kind of protect it if you know where to go.’ That (caution) was just a bad break when that happened, but Mikey did a good job after the caution.” — Staff and series reports