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As the month of September marched on, races became more scattered for Lane Snook and team. The team took to the Path Valley Speedway on September 14th, for a night of racing at the Spring Run ¼ mile. Snook put the limited late model in victory lane earlier in the season at the tight bullring. Speed and confidence continued for the 23 team.

Lane would roll off from the 7th starting position in the feature. A lesson in patience and perseverance was shown to the young 16-year-old. “I was able to move my way up to second throughout the race and battle for the lead,” stated Snook, “but with harder tires and lots of cautions at the end of the race, we ended up second.” Coming up one spot short of his second triumph of the season at Path Valley, but still garnering a podium finish.

This would be the last time the 23 car would roll onto the track in September, but the driver would take a few weeks to gain valuable experience and knowledge from friend Drake Troutman. Lane was able to travel with the Lucas Oil Late Model tour racer to the Knoxville Late Model Nationals and Brownstown Speedway. Snook found the experience to be different but in a good way. “It’s definitely cool traveling all over the place and getting to watch some of the best, and to see how they do it.” Lessons learned over the course of the trip could help the young racer who is still learning the ins and outs of the Late Model scene.

“I’ve learned a lot about different ways of how to set the car up and understanding why they do it.” As many older racers and crew chiefs will say, every driver should learn how the car works and how to work on it. These are valuable skills for the Mifflintown native to learn. “I’m grateful to Drake for allowing me to come help him and for him teaching me stuff about cars and how the cars work.”

Another thing that most drivers or past drivers will tell you is that trying to just show up to the track and spectate a race can be challenging or even unappealing “It’s pretty weird going to the racetrack and not racing,” stated Lane. However, the lessons and information could help down the road as the 3 time winner, in 2024, looks for more success in the coming weeks to close out the season.

The upcoming schedule for Lane features a trip to BAPS Motor Speedway on October 12th. A little road trip follows the next weekend as Eldora is on the schedule for the Dirt Track World Championship. The final weekend of the season will take place at Path Valley with a doubleheader weekend of October 25th-26th. That, for now, will close out the sophomore season for the team.

As the temperature continued to rise and make for hot days and nights in July, Lane Snook also started to rise in performance. After scoring several strong runs in May and June, including a win, July proved to be no different. 

While not all results saw the 23 car in a podium spot, speed was evident. To start off the month, a make-up feature was on tap at BAPS. Podium one of the month found the young 16-year old driver, as Lane charged from 8th to 3rd position. Being an addition to the regular show, this meant the team would have to prepare for another feature that evening. Rolling off 9th in the regular feature, misfortune found the 23 car. “Had a car spin in front of us and I had to spin to avoid.” Not what you want to happen, but the aforementioned gains in speed showed. “We went to the rear and made our way back up to 10th.” Good speed shown, with two top 10’s to kick off the month. 

The next weekend found the team traveling to Selinsgrove, where speed seemed to be produced right out of the box for the Mifflintown native. Going to the top of the speed chart on his first lap of time trials, again proved the speed found. However, lap two ended the night, with a blown motor. The team was understandably bummed, but with the small track car loaded up, the team went to Path Valley the following week and didn’t appear to have missed a beat. 

“Started 3rd in the heat and finished 4th. That put us starting 7th in the feature and made our way to 2nd.” Even after a slight misstep on the cushion set him back to 3rd late, Lane was able to power back around and grab the 2nd spot on the final circuit. 

Closing out the month of July at BAPS brought the team back to the site of Snook’s first win. Winning speed was there and Lane advanced from 9th-2nd in the feature event. “The car kept getting better as the race went on,” stated the young late model pilot. “I think the more laps I’ve run, that we’ve found some stuff that I like with the setup on the car. I’ve definitely got more comfortable as the year has went on and we are putting some good runs together.” All of this while having to navigate different types of tracks and surfaces. 

The ¼ mile tracks like Path Valley are definitely fun and elbows up,” said Snook. “½ miles are aero dependent and that can make them hard to race on,” identifying a key challenge of the bigger speedways like Port Royal and Selinsgrove. “If they widen out, they can race good.” 

As evident with his performances there this year, Lane highlighted ⅜ mile tracks, like BAPS as “about the perfect size for a racetrack. The last couple times we’ve been there, it’s been good racing and fun to race on.” 

August will be no different in the variety of facilities the 23 team looks to head to. Port Royal will kick off the month on August 3rd, followed by Path Valley on the 10th. BAPS Motor Speedway success will hopefully continue as the limited late models are on the card August 17th. A double header weekend featuring Port Royal and Selinsgrove is on the calendar for the 23rd and 24th, before rounding out the month at Port Royal for the start of the Juniata County Fair. 

A month racing in the heat and on different size speedways, not only showed the teams ability to compete on a regular basis, but also proved the progress made by a young racer. Three podiums and a top-10, helped the confidence of the 16-year old driver, and will hopefully continue as August features a similar schedule to that of the successful July. 

The Snook family and Lane, would again like to thank all of their amazing partners and sponsors for keeping the team on track and performing at a consistently strong level.