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High Limit Racing returns to Grandview Speedway with stout field of drivers

matthew knaub, reading eagle, pa.
·4 min read

As a young kid years ago, Austin Bishop attended races at Grandview Speedway as a fan.

On Tuesday night, Bishop will be one of the local drivers looking to defend home turf as the stars of High Limit Racing compete at Grandview Speedway for the second year in a row.

“Those guys are tough, but I’m certainly going to go for it,” Bishop said. “To win there would be one of the coolest things I could do in my career.”

Presented by the Thunder on the Hill Racing Series, the dirt track located outside Bechtelsville in Washington Township will host High Limit Racing on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The second-highest purse for a sprint car race in Grandview history, the winner of the 35-lap feature will take home a prize of $20,000.

“It’s big for Grandview Speedway, it’s big for Thunder on the Hill,” Thunder on the Hill Racing Series promoter Bob Miller said. “Because of the spotlight that 410 sprint car racing is in nationally from coast to coast, to be part of this is a big thing for us. We’re extremely proud and happy to be part of it.”

Headlining the field of drivers is Rico Abreu, the winner of the last two winged 410 sprint car races at the track. A former NASCAR Truck Series driver, Abreu has two wins and six top-10 finishes in eight starts at Grandview.

Rico Abreu after his win at Grandview in 2022. (COURTESY OF SCOTT BENDER)

Abreu won the 2022 Hodnett Cup during Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek before capturing the $23,023 winner’s prize in the debut of High Limit at Grandview last year.

“The show obviously delivered, even though it rained out and we had to go on a rain date, we still had a capacity crowd on hand,” Miller said about the 2023 race. “It worked out well for Grandview as well as High Limit, and that really set the stage for us just falling right into their schedule for 2024.”

Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne will be making his seventh career appearance at Grandview and only his third since 2018, when he finished a career-best third. He finished sixth last year.

A founder and co-promoter of High Limit Racing, Brad Sweet will be making his first appearance at Grandview in a winged 410 sprint car. The former NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series driver last raced at the track in a United States Auto Club wingless sprint car in 2009.

A five-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion, Sweet is the High Limit points leader through 17 races. He has six victories this season.

“It’s really an honor for Grandview, as well as the Rogers family and myself, that you can get this kind of talent to show up,” Miller said.

Former NASCAR Truck Series driver Tanner Thorson is also expected to compete after finishing sixth in his first winged 410 sprint car race at Grandview in 2022. Thorson also has two wingless sprint car and two midget starts at the track, all of which he finished in the top four.

“They’re professionals, they do it for a living,” Bishop said about the top drivers. “They’re on top of their game and they’re ready to go all the time.”

Abreu, Kahne, Sweet and Thorson will be up against the rest of the full-time High Limit drivers as well as many of the top sprint car drivers from Pennsylvania, known collectively as the “PA Posse.” Pennsylvania-based drivers Danny Dietrich, Freddie Rahmer and Anthony Macri will be in action along with Elverson’s Bishop, Birdsboro’s Aaron Bollinger, Douglassville’s Tim Buckwalter and Mertztown’s Ryan Taylor.

Buckwalter in his No. 20 winged 410 sprint car at Grandview Speedway in 2023. (COURTESY OF SCOTT BENDER)

“It’s 100 percent all the time, you got to go, go, go,” Bishop said about the challenges of racing against the High Limit drivers. “You can’t wait around for anything to happen, you have to force the issue. A little bit is a lot with those guys.”

Despite the challenges, Bishop and Bollinger are focused on elevating their focus and performance on Tuesday.

“If you’re sleeping on the restarts, those guys are going to beat you every time,” Bollinger said. “You got to go there and up your game a little bit.”

With high banks and tight corners, the one-third mile track, which will also host vintage cars on Tuesday, lends itself to exciting racing. Tuesday will be the first of two winged 410 sprint car races at the track this year, as Grandview will host scheduled race No. 5 of Pennsylvania Speedweek on Tuesday, July 2.

“It’s such a fickle place because it’s fast and it’s tight and things happen quickly,” Miller said. “The best always rises to the top.”