Modified driver Louden Reimert has won at several tracks, but never at his home track, Grandview Speedway. In any division. Despite a sportsman championship at the track. That is, until now.
He celebrated that momentous moment on Saturday with his father, Shawn (pictured), and grandfather, Terry, in victory lane at the Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania, dirt track. All three generations have turned laps at Grandview Speedway.
“I’ve won at every track around me, but never in any class at Grandview Speedway, just 15 minutes from home,” Reimert, of Oley, Pennsylvania, said. “I had a relieved feeling when I saw the checkered flag. I felt I was racing for so long and waiting for that breakthrough moment. The fact that I hadn’t won at Grandview Speedway was getting to me. It’s our family’s home track.”
During the 2021 season, Reimert left the Grandview Speedway ranks as he moved from sportsman modifieds to 358 modifieds. He headed two hours away from home to compete weekly at New Egypt Speedway in New Jersey. A year later, Reimert won his first 358 modified race at BAPS Motor Speedway in York Haven, Pennsylvania. While he may have never won at Grandview Speedway, cutting his teeth there may have helped his prospects elsewhere.
“There is a lot happening at the beginning of every race at Grandview Speedway,” said Reimert. “You have to be cautious and patient … sort everything out and wait for the right opportunity to make my moves.”
This season, Louden Reimert and his team decided to make Grandview Speedway their weekly Saturday-night track again. That decision paid off. From a sixth starting spot, Reimert won the feature, which went green from lap eight to lap 30. His methodical approach to racing seemed to pay off.
“I inherited fifth early in the race and hung out there for a while,” Reimert said. “I moved up to second on lap 11 and then was able to take the lead from Ray Swinehart. My strategy was not to use up everything on the car early in the race — and that was a good plan — seeing we went green for 22 laps.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
