Jacob Begenwald, 16, ready to take on High Limit’s best at the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup in Lernerville

Jacob Begenwald will have the shortest commute to Lernerville Speedway of any sprint car driver competing in the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup on Tuesday.

He lives in Buffalo Estates, across the street from the track in Buffalo Township, and now that he passed his driver’s license test Thursday, he can drive himself.

Although he has only recently been allowed to drive on the road, 16-year-old Begenwald has been doing laps on the racetrack for quite some time.

He will now race against the national stars of the High Limit Sprint Car Series in the 33rd running of the Silver Cup, which pays $25,000 to win.

“We moved here about eight years ago and started coming to Lernerville ever since,” Begenwald said. “I ended up liking it here and we met AJ (Flick), a seven-time Lernerville champion, who’s a really cool guy. It just grew from there.”

Begenwald is in his second year as a 410 sprint car driver.

He started out in karting and then moved on to micro-sprints and smaller 305-engined sprint cars, finding success at all levels.

He won a qualifying race at Lernerville at the season-ending Steel City Stampede in his rookie year in 2023 and most recently won a qualifying race on July 12.

“I had to make a big adjustment from the pickups to the big cars because the scale and the power-to-weight ratio is just incredible,” Begenwald said. “I always thought sprint cars were really cool. Watching videos of them going around the Eldora wall and the sheer speed they can achieve is incredible. Honestly, the other reason I like sprint cars is because I don’t want to do body work every week like they do on the late models.”

Begenwald has been studying in Freeport for the past two years and has been accepted to Lenape Technical School in Ford City starting this fall. He is enrolling in a construction trades training program.

He currently sits ninth in Lernerville’s weekly rankings with one top-five and two top-10 finishes, the second of which came on Friday.

High Limit is in its first year as a national circuit after starting last year as a 14-round midweek series that included a stop at Lernerville in September. This will be the first time the Silver Cup will be sanctioned by High Limit after previously being sanctioned by the All-Star Circuit of Champions and World of Outlaws.

The series is the brainchild of 2021 NASCAR champion Kyle Larson and five-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet, who are brothers-in-law.

Sweet left the World of Outlaws after winning the series title last year to run High Limit full-time.

He currently leads the points table ahead of former All-Star champion Tyler Courtney, Central Pennsylvania ace Brent Marks, Rico Abreu and Corey Day.

Alongside Flick and last Friday’s winner Carl Bowser, Begenwald will be part of a local contingent that will take on the High Limit riders.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Begenwald said. “You look at these guys with their big bags and all the equipment they have, they put everything they have into what they have. We’re just looking to make a name for ourselves. We’re racing against guys like (Brandon) Matus, AJ, Bowser and (Brandon) Spithaler every week and it’s tough to race with them, let alone the (High Limit) guys. Sweet came here last year and set the track record. To race with these guys, you have to have top-notch equipment and a little bit of luck.”