Port Royal – Lance Dewease wired the field from the pole for an impressive victory in Saturday’s 30-lap All Star Circuit of Champions Sprints Keith Kauffman Classic at Port Royal Speedway.
The win, behind the wheel of the Don Kreitz Jr. owned, Dave Brown Sr. wrenched No. 69, was the 101st of his career at the Port Royal oval and was worth $5,000.
In the kickoff to the Rt. 35 Moon Shine Camo Dirt Late Model Challenge Series, Dylan Yoder of Selinsgrove scored the $2,000 victory after getting the lead late when leader Jeff Rine’s motor expired.
The 30-lap Kauffman Classic, honoring the tracks most prolific sprint car winner and champion in history, went non-stop with Dewease leading every circuit while putting on an impressive show in traffic while also narrowly avoiding disaster on two occasions.
Dewease entered the rear of the field on the sixth circuit of the feature and at times made three-wide passes to continue moving forward in traffic.
At the halfway point, Dewease had a 4.760 second lead that grew to 6.748 seconds at the finish.
In the first half of the event, Dewease slammed into the inside first turn retaining barrier and glanced back out onto the track but continued on with the lead.
And then late in the event, hard contact with the lapped car of Doug Esh in the third turn proved to nearly be his undoing.
In victory lane, the right front tire of his machine was spewing air from the contact with the wheel bent away from the tire.
Ryan Smith started third in the event and motored by second-starter Blane Heimbach on the start to chase Dewease the entire distance while also fending off challenges, first from Steve Buckwalter and later from defending Kauffman Classic champion Dale Blaney.
Blaney got around Buckwalter for third on the 12th lap and reeled in Smith but repeated attempts to get by for second were unsuccessful.
During the final stages of the race Blaney’s run stabilized.
Dylan Cisney raced consistently throughout to ride home fourth with Heimbach slipping to fifth at the finish.
Sixth through 10th went to Buckwalter, Chad Kemenah, Brock Zearfoss, TJ Stutts and Mike Wagner.
Heats for the 42 cars went to Cisney, Blaney, Kemenah and Buckwalter.
The C Main was taken by Brandon Spithaler while Aaron Ott scored the B Main.
Twin dashes went to Dewease and Heimbach.
Fast time in time trials was set by Dewease with a lap of 17.559 seconds.
The Moon Shine Camo Series kickoff super late model feature was a drawn-out affair with numerous cautions and a red flag hampering the event.
On the initial lap, polesitter Matt Parks spun in front of the field in the second turn.
Tim Smith Jr. then took the lead when the first lap was completed bu fourth starter Jeff Rine was quick to motor by Smith for the lead.
And once in front, Rine jetted away from the field, entering the rear of the field on the seventh tour.
A yellow flag with eight away bunched the field finding Dylan Yoder up to second but unable to challenge on the restart with Smith instead reclaiming second.
Another yellow flag with 10 laps down again forced a restart and a red flag ensued when three cars tangled in the fourth corner that found Dave Brouse Jr. ramping up and over two cars, flipping in the process and landing upside down.
Luckily, there were no injuries reported.
Two more cautions on lap 11 and on the restart regrouped the field again but Rine was too stout for all challengers on restarts.
And then just after lap 20 was scored, leader Rine spewed smoke from his machine as his engine expired, handing the lead to Rine.
Ironically, Yoder was leading the first three late model mains of the year at the track only to lose them when mechanical ills forced him to withdraw from the races.
Chad Hollenbeck took second spot at the finish followed by Coleby Frye, Tim Wilson and Nick Dickson.
Sixth through 10th went to Mike Lupfer, 24th starter Trent Brenneman, Rick Singleton, Chad Myers and Austin Berry.
Heats went to Smith Jr., Wilson and Yoder.
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Feature Finishes
4/29/17
410 sprints:
C-Main (10 Laps) – Top 2 Transfer
1. 22-Brandon Spithaler [1]; 2. 98T-Joe Trenca [8]; 3. 9C-Roger Campbell [3]; 4. 8M-TJ Michael [4]; 5. 49H-Bradley Howard [6]; 6. 33-Brent Matus [5]; 7. 95-Hunter Mackison [2]; 8. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer [7]; 9. 1080-Jordan Mackison [9]
B-Main (12 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 25-Aaron Ott [1]; 2. 20-Ryan Taylor [2]; 3. 33S-Curt Stroup [10]; 4. 98-Carl Bowser [5]; 5. 7C-Caleb Armstrong [11]; 6. 17B-Josh Baughman [3]; 7. 35-Tyler Esh [9]; 8. 51-John Garvin [4]; 9. 91-Anthony Fiore [7]; 10. 22-Brandon Spithaler [13]; 11. 98T-Joe Trenca [14]; 12. 13-Brandon Matus [12]; 13. OO-Dane Lorenc [8]; 14. M1-Mark Smith [6]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 69K-Lance Dewease [1]; 2. 94-Ryan Smith [3]; 3. 1Z-Dale Blaney [6]; 4. 5-Dylan Cisney [5]; 5. 12-Blane Heimbach [2]; 6. 38-Steve Buckwalter [4]; 7. 10H-Chad Kemenah [10]; 8. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [9]; 9. 11-TJ Stutts [11]; 10. 55-Mike Wagner [8]; 11. 25-Aaron Ott [21]; 12. 49X-Tim Shaffer [12]; 13. O7-Doug Esh [18]; 14. 17-Caleb Helms [7]; 15. 27-Greg Hodnett [15]; 16. 20-Ryan Taylor [22]; 17. 7W-Logan Wagner [14]; 18. 14-Tony Stewart [17]; 19. 33M-Max Stambaugh [13]; 20. 7C-Caleb Armstrong [25]; 21. 47K-Kody Lehman [16]; 22. 98-Carl Bowser [24]; 23. 44-Joey Hershey [19]; 24. 33S-Curt Stroup [23]; 25. 8M-TJ Michael [27]; 26. 10-Tyler Bear [20]; 27. 98T-Joe Trenca [26]
Super late models, 25 laps: 1. Dylan Yoder, 2. Chad Hollenbeck, 3. Coleby Frye, 4. Tim Wilson, 5. Nick Dickson, 6. Mike Lupfer, 7. Trent Brenneman, 8. Rick Singleton, 9. Chad Myers, 10. Austin Berry, 11. Matt Parks, 12. Danny Snyder, 13. Jeff Rine, 14. Tim Smith Jr., 15. Chris Casner, 16. Andrew Yoder, 17. Larry Baer, 18. Dave Brouse Jr., 19. Tim Gray, 20. Steve Scaife Jr., 21. Jim Yoder, 22. Dan Green, 23. Andy Haus, 24. Scott Flickinger, 25. Patrick Bryner
DNQ: Hayes Mattern, Brian Hack