Jim Bernheisel’s primary goal during Appalachian Mountain Speedweek has nothing to do with personal gain and everything to do with improving dirt-track racing.

The Jonestown, Pa., manager of the miniseries is adamant to complete each of the eight Super Late Model programs as early as possible. So far, through Thursday’s fifth-round program at Selinsgrove Speedway, Bernheisel and his well-trained crew have seen all five checkered flags fall before 10:15 p.m. On Thursday, the 35-lap feature at the half-mile finished at 9:10 p.m. | RaceWire

“Everybody knows we have to keep this moving,” said the 66-year-old Bernheisel, who revived the miniseries that had been idle for five years. “We all like racing, too, right? We all hate standing around and watching nothing happen. We really, really want to keep things moving. I think we’ve accomplished that.”

Running a lean and efficient program is, without question, the first order of business for Bernheisel, who already knew that in his 49 years of racing before adding his recent promotional ventures.

He believes that’s largely reason why he attracted 16 drivers — all with full-time jobs, by the way — to follow the entire miniseries in 2023 while garnering 98 different competitors among last year’s six completed races. In the minitour’s second year, Bernheisel has upped single-race payouts to at least $5,000-to-win, added$3,000 to the points fund and has again seen 16 drivers with perfect attendance through Selinsgrove.

Bernheisel's quickly run events, however, have drawn mixed reviews. He's kept intermissions short, has cracked down on drivers stopping on the track under caution periods for sheetmetal repairs, doesn’t allow two courtesy laps for flat-tire changes and tries to weed out anything slowing the show’s efficiency.

Thursday’s time trials, for instance, had drivers taking the green flag upon the entering onto the track from the turn-four pit exit as single warmup laps were ditched.

“Port Royal does it way even though the flagstand is a little farther down the frontstretch,” Bernheisel said. "I like it because it saves time, what we’ve been all about. And because we don’t put more laps on the track. In retrospect, I wish we would’ve taken the extra lap having 21 cars. We were way ahead of schedule all night anyways.

“I write notes everywhere I go … what can we do to make the nights go more smoothly? …Today, more than ever, I think that’s what the public wants. I think that’s how we get fans back. We’re going to put on a show. We’re going to entertain you. All right, now let’s go home.”

But, as Bernheisel has noticed, the quick nights have tested drivers.

“I will say, the one that has been changing … last year we refired this thing up and everybody was so appreciative of firing it back up, we had very few ruffled feathers,” Bernheisel said. “Now, in the second year, every little thing has drawn a little scrutiny. I look the guys in the eyes and tell them, ‘Look, this is how we’re doing it.’ ”

Thursday’s feature winner Rick Eckert is among drivers who doesn’t agree with all of Bernheisel's speed-up plans.

“At least in the feature, a driver should get two laps for a flat tire,” Eckert said. “Jim wants to get the show done early. If that was my series, I’d want 24 cars to finish and not three guys not get finished because they have a flat tire. But it is what it is. It’s his series. You ain’t gonna change his mind.”

Despite the disagreement, Eckert respects Bernheisel and supports the miniseries for a reason.

“Oh yeah, it’s fine,” the Hall of Fame driver from York, Pa., said when asked if he respects the minitour director. “He’s like the rest of us: Hard-headed.”

Bernheisel’s sure to impose the rulebook on every competitor with no exceptions, including his son Bryan.

“By the way, the rule bit my kid tonight,” Bernheisel said Thursday. “It was a disaster for their race team. I hate holding up the race. I’ve stated that before. All these challenges are around keeping the program moving.”

Miniseries points leader Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., says Bernheisel’s swift-moving race nights “benefit 99 percent of us racers" and Thursday’s runner-up Coleby Frye of Dover, Pa., agreed.

“Dude, I fall asleep all the time watching some of these races,” Frye said. “They are too late. We need something like this.”

Beyond running quick programs, Bernheisel is unabashed about enforcing series rules in a fair and unbiased way.

On Tuesday at Path Valley Speedway in Spring Run, Pa., two miniseries drivers faced penalties. Kyle Hardy’s third-fastest qualifying time in his group was disallowed when he failed deck-height requirements and Chad Homan was penalized in the B-main for striking the safety cone under caution.

“Yeah, I can be hard-headed, but somebody has to be in charge,” Bernheisel said. “I have that job. And about disqualifying people, I don’t like it. I’ve been there. I don’t like it. It’s a part of it I hate. The guy that hit the cone (Tuesday at Path Valley) and sent him back two spots out of a transfer spot is a friend, my customer and he’s staying at our shop this week, Chad Homan, who came down here from New York.

“We were knocking him out of the race, but it’s our rule and we did it. I hope people respect that. When they get whining and ask, ‘Why did you do that?’ Like, this guy is my friend and is hanging out at my shop all week, and we did it because it’s the right thing to do. That’s how it is.”

The part of the night Bernheisel doesn’t mind spending extra time on is the drivers’ meeting, where he gladly fields questions competitors may have.

“That’s what blows my mind,” Bernheisel said. “They ask me, ‘Aren’t you going to do this?’ I say, ‘I say that at the drivers’ meeting every night. Are you not there?’

“We’ve definitely ruffled a couple feathers along the way. We get guys going, ‘Oh, why didn’t you pull sheetmetal? Why didn’t you give me two courtesy laps for changing a flat?’ I tell them, ‘If you don’t want to have to worry about wrinkled sheetmetal, then don’t run into stuff.’

“I don’t want to gyp the fans. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have a kudos for keeping the show moving and then jerk around all night and care about all that stuff. You can’t have both. And I think it’s more important to keep the show moving.”

Bernheisel credits his efficient programs to his crew, namely race directors Jeff Gromis and Keith Harro. Gromis, like Bernheisel, is a dirt-track racing lifer whom he first met at Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville Pa., 49 years ago.

“He knows his way around the sport,” Bernheisel said.

Harro, meanwhile, has come on board for the miniseries this year as a second race director “who’s good with the technical side of the sport,” including submitting lineups and results into MyRacePass.

“All my officials are either employees of mine, but are involved in racing — a lot of the young guys that do a lot of the brunt work and heavy lifting,” Bernheisel said. “Some of my other people, my race directors, have been involved in that end of the sport almost their entire lifetime.”

Above all else, Bernheisel trains his crew to enforce the miniseries rules at all costs because “if any other track or series doesn’t enforce their rules, then shame on them.”

“That’s bad for the sport,” he said. “I tell my sons, if we stay away from every track or series that we disagree with or didn’t like, we wouldn’t have anywhere to race. … We can’t go by that. There are a couple guys who are hurt because I actually enforced our rules and they didn’t want to come. That’s so foolish. Are you not going to race with us again? Of course you will. Get over yourself. Wipe your tears and get on with it. Quit being a baby. I enforce our rules.”

All told, Bernheisel believes he’s executed his sentiments well.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job,” Bernheisel said. “We’re not rookies. Last year was the first year. We’re sophomores now. We’re 11 races into our tenure and I feel like we do a better job than a lot of people who have been doing it for decades. That isn’t boasting. That’s a matter of fact because it’s something about the sport that’s always bothered me.

“Everybody sits around and complains about everything they see about racing. I’ve decided to do something about it as best as I could. I feel like this has been a stated goal to correct some of the things I’ve seen that I think should be done better. If we definitely want our sport to survive and thrive, we have to be done earlier and we have to do better.”