Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs Characterize April for Lane Snook

As the season started to kick back into full swing in Pennsylvania, Lane Snook and team were hoping that the results and wins that highlighted last season would start to materialize. After starting out the month with a win at Bedford and a strong, to be continued, run at Port Royal in the limited late model, Snook would switch back over to the super late model to continue April.

Selinsgrove would be the place that he and team would travel to next. With a strong qualifying effort and heat race win, Lane was finally getting to show some speed that the car had. Snook would take the early lead in the feature and start to log laps up front. Challenged by Gregg Satterlee, Snook would relinquish the lead, but would hold off Max Blair for a strong 2nd place finish. This was the first show they managed to finish in the Super Late Model.

Issues would come back to light for the team the following night at Port Royal. The car experienced some trouble, pretty much every time it touched the track. Lane and team “had electrical and fuel issues all night.” The 23 car was able to make a strong qualifying and heat race effort despite the car sounding quite upset throughout the heat. Lane managed to get into the redraw and rolled off 6th in the feature.

“We missed the setup a little bit, and our issues got worse, so I pulled off to end up 20th.” Another disappointment on the year in the super division.

The next week of action would not only feature the same tracks but similar results. Selinsgrove started off great, on Friday, with Lane posting a good qualifying effort and winning his heat race. He would start outside the front row of the feature, and “got another early lead and got through some lap traffic pretty good, then Satterlee got around me again.” Lane was able to keep up with the leader and even had another shot at the lead. 

“I showed my nose in 3-4 to him, then he took my line away in 1-2, and I got air tight and got into the fence.” The electrical issues from the week before reared their head again and knocked the 23 car out of a podium run, with only a few laps to go in the feature. A 15th-place effort was all that was left to show after having a car capable of winning.

Luckily, the team’s luck started to go back the other direction, the following night at Port Royal. The team decided to just participate in the limited late model portion of the program, as they had already been slated for a front row spot in the make-up feature that was a part of a double feature program. Lane would return to form in the make-up feature and lead every lap of that feature and pick up win number two of the year. In the main program, Lane made the best of locked-down track conditions and ran from 5th up to 3rd. A refreshing set of finishes after a few tough results.

With the weather not looking the best the following weekend, the team decided to head to Selinsgrove Speedway again, this time with the limited, for some Friday night action. Snook was able to win his heat and start from the pole in the feature. In dominating fashion, Lane was able to lead every lap of the feature and grab win number three on the season. “We are just as good as we were last season,” Snook said, in talking about the limited late model program.

April definitely featured stats that were good and not so good. “I feel like we’ve shown we have had speed in both cars.” With a lot of trouble in the super late model, the team has had to dig through the car and try to find the small things that are making for troublesome nights. 

“I think if we get our electrical issues figured out, which I think we do, it’ll help us focus on the setup of the car some more.” Something the young racer has found to be lacking slightly in the super. 

“The new car that we ran at Selinsgrove, we’ve been really good in, just the driver needs to get a little bit better and some more experience.” A similar opinion on their program at Port Royal in the Super Division is something Lane wants to improve on. 

“I’m pretty excited to try this car somewhere the track really slows down and gets slick,” in talking about their Selinsgrove program, and Lane also mentioned that they “need to get a little bit better when it slicks off,” at Port Royal. With all the issues hopefully under control, Lane will look to rebound in May with more consistent finishes.

May will feature a lot of racing, as April did. Kicking off the month on May 2nd at Port Royal in the super. May 8th, they will tow over to the Selinsgrove Speedway in preparation for the World of Outlaws the following week on May 14th. The team then plans to double up on shows at Bedford, first on the 15th with the limited, and then again with the World of Outlaws on the 17th in the super. 

Memorial Day weekend will see the team again travel back out to the Bedford Speedway, in the super late model, on the 22nd, and Port Royal on the 23rd, as the limiteds join the Bob Weikert Memorial. The final weekend of the month will feature trips to Bedford and Selinsgrove, both in the super late model.

As always, try to tune in to the races if you can’t attend in person. Keep an eye out on the team’s website (LaneSnookRacing.com) and social media for raceday updates and results.