Don Martin's Lernerville Speedway and W.L. Roenigk Inc have been business colleagues for years.

Lernerville Kid's Club School Bus has been donated by Roenigks for over 20 years. At times, many Roenigk family members have worked either at the speedway or for the bus company.

On April 25, 2020, friends and family mourned the loss of Jim Roenigk. He was an employee at W.L Roenigk, but was an integral part of Lernerville Speedway and/or Don Martin Trucking for over 40 years. Jim's hard work, dedication and creativity helped to build both businesses into the successes they are today.

He wore many “hats” at the track. Jim's imaginative mind created plans for the Lernerville driver cards (which almost became a full-time job with all the releases involved) and he designed many adult and kid's T-Shirts. One of the most famous was the kid's “DInosaurus Wrecks.”

When he was in Florida at a Promoter's Workshop, a company announced they would put up a free scoreboard, but sell the ads.

Jim said, “Why don't we build our own scoreboard and sell our own ads?”

So in 1986, that is what the crew did and it was the first one at a local speedway with a clock. Don Martin always wanted to be sure the show started on time. Jim created the PIC-5 and PIC-10 where you bought five admissions and received one free or bought 10 and got two complimentary shows.

A number of years ago Jim, along with his brother 'Ouch' Roenigk and cousin, Billy Roenigk, dreamed up the idea of racing school busses at Lernerville.

The onset of COVID-19 at the time of Jim's passing made it impossible to conduct a memorial service. It is time to say goodbye to a friend and family member who touched the hearts of so many in the community.Sue Roenigk, President of W.L. Roenigk, has sponsored the Lernerville bus races for several years. This season, Sue along with Jim's son, Don Martin Roenigk's business, Refractory Machining Services, have joined together to have “The Jim Roenigk Memorial Bus Race,” slated for June 5.Also on the card is Kid's bike races and an Enduro. This tribute will commemorate Jim's two worlds at W.L. Roenigks' and Lernerville with enough space to hold all his family and friends.

Evans City's Ralph Spithaler has been a part of the racing scene for almost 40 years, first as a Go-Cart pilot and then a Sprint car driver.Spithaler and his crew have fun racing together. He is ninth on the Lernerville all-tiime win chart with 27. This may be the last year that he and his wife Betty own a car, but Ralph hopes to continue racing as a driver.Basically, his team is low budget“I just run what I got,” he said. “The engine block, heads and injection are 2020, but obviously the internals are not.”His 2013 J&J chassis was once run by Danny Holtgraver. He believes the purses aren't commensurate with the Sprint expenditures and doesn't want to extend himself financially.Tom Prager and his daughter Amy have been crew members since 1982, his first year. Ernie Lautkas, his grandson Trent, and Bill Wahl, along with Betty, are also valued supporters.Spithaler's first number was ten.“Everybody was a Lou Blaney fan and everyone wanted to use that number. I showed up at Shoemaker Speedway with my Go-Cart and a couple other kids were big Blaney fans, so there were three No. 10s,” he said.Rod George, Craig Rankin, Mark Flick, Mark Cassella and Kevin Bolland were a part of this early racing class! When the speedway closed, he went to Ohio to race and changed the digit one to zero, becoming #00.The only problem was if you wanted to compete in the Nationals, you couldn't run zeros. So, he tried to pick a number that no one else had.“At that time, Smokey Snellbaker was running really well in sprint No. 56 down East. That number was available in Go-Carts, so I have had that number ever since.“We are not fast enough to win these days, but we all enjoy racing. A big sponsorship can be like a double-edged sword like sometimes when you have to be at the track all the time. Right now, if the weather looks like rain or is too hot, we just stay home because we are not running for points.“ I guess you can say we are fair weather racers. We just go out and do what we can and get what we can get,” Spithaler added.Spithaler wants to run good enough so that he doesn't interfere with anyone's progress. DLK has helped with car parts and Carlyn and Jeff Hines have built his motors since 1989. They used to do Lou Blaney's motors.Spithaler works for HP Star Lumber in Evans City. Vintage Go Carts and Slot Car Racing are his hobbies. He is a steak and potatoes guy!

It was “All” in the family at Lernerville last week in the Modified and Sprint features.For the first time in their rich history, a son and father duo in two divisions finished first and second. Rex King Jr. was able to take the lead away from his father, Rex King Sr. by gaining momentum to slingshot around the elder statesman collecting the Modified feature victory.Two-time track Sprint title holder Jack Sodeman was dominating the feature race when misfortune occurred as Jeremy Hill contacted his racer triggering the nose-wing to turn backwards. With three laps remaining, Brandon and his father Brent passed Sodeman and set up a two-car shoot-out with Brandon eventually taking the checkered flag.It was his first win since 2019, when he won the first and last race that year.He said, “I kept looking out of the corner of my eye to see if dad was coming! I am so happy I won but I would have been just as happy if dad was the winner!”<i>Carol Gamble is a racing columnist for the Butler Eagle</i>