Just in the past two years, Cullen Hutchison said he won more than 25 features, but none have come in his home state. That is until last week, when he finally scored a victory on Keystone State soil at Action Track USA.
Oddly enough, Cullen rarely races in his home state. He made a name for himself in North Carolina by racing go-karts at Millbridge Speedway, where numerous racing professionals from NASCAR and other series compete at, with either their children or they themselves. While turning laps at Millbridge, he caught the eye of NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell and championship-winning sprint car crew chief Brian Kemenah. Christopher and Brian were associated with 600 sprint builder Sawyer Chassis.
“I didn’t even know who Christopher was at first,” Hutchison, of Butler, Pennsylvania, said. “I just won a lot of kart races, and he approached me to drive for Sawyer Chassis. We raced with them at one of the hardest, most competitive tracks for micros, Millbridge Speedway.”
When Christopher Bell exited the 600-sprint scene, the Hutchisons started racing with Royal Chassis and Sam Johnson, of Fishers, Indiana. Cullen also steers a midget for Chase McDermand of Springfield, Illinois.
The $10,000-to-win Northwest Outlaw Invasion race at Greenwood Valley Action Tracks brought Cullen back to Pennsylvania. Since he was in town, Cullen decided to race at a track he always wanted to compete at — Action Track USA.
“Action Track USA was hammer down, and I am not used to running a heavy track like that,” Cullen said. “When holes developed it would make it harder to stay up front. You either have to avoid the holes or drive straight through them. You can’t slow down or you will upset the car — you just have to drive wide open.”
Cullen Hutchison used his wealth of experience running on a wide variety of racetracks. He found the fast line to score his first race victory on Pennsylvania soil.
“It was just special for me to win my first race in my home state,” Cullen said.
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.
