8.22.20 Port Royal Speedway Results
By- Justin Snyder
Port Royal Speedway-PORT ROYAL, Penn. (August 23, 2020)- Five different drivers picked up feature wins Saturday night as part of the Bobby Rahal Toyota Lexus of Lewistown ‘Five Times the Fun, One Hot Night’.
With rain foiling racing plans throughout much of August and limited dates available for make-ups, the Speedway took on the daunting task of holding five features for three divisions in one night.
Anthony Macri kicked off the evening by picking up his fifth Port Royal Speedway feature win of 2020 during the 14th Annual Living Legends Dream Race make-up feature from early August. Macri bested track points leader Logan Wagner and Lance Dewease by 1.855 seconds to claim the checkered flag and the $10,000 prize.
Logan Wagner and Brock Zearfoss led the field to the green flag, with Wagner getting the early jump and leading lap one. Dewease followed suit into second in the opening turn, while Macri went from sixth to fourth on the opening circuit.
Two laps later Macri pulled under Zearfoss exiting turn two to move into third, but his momentum was halted when fifth-place starter Tyler Bear came to a stop on the backstretch with a small fire the following lap.
Wagner held off a slide job attempt by Dewease on the restart, which allowed Macri to gain momentum on Dewease. He traded sliders with Dewease the following lap, but Dewease held off the charge.
Three laps later the red flag flew when Paulie Colagiovanni got upside down exiting turn two and collected Kody Lehman and Drew Ritchey.
Wagner once again held off a slide-job attempt from Dewease on the restart, but this time Macri capitalized and after a brief swap of positions, claimed the runner-up spot at the flag stand on lap 11. Over the next four laps, Macri cut Wagner’s lead in half and with the leader struggling in lap traffic, he was heavy in pursuit on lap 16.
That same lap, Wagner made contact with the lap car of Dustin Baney entering turn three and Macri closed within .02 seconds. He tried a slide job in turn’s one and two on lap 18, but Wagner pulled away down the backstretch. But lap traffic once again proved to be the X-Factor when Wagner followed the car of Lehman into turn 1, allowing Macri to slide under him to take the lead.
Two laps later the final caution of the race flew when Steve Buckwalter slowed in turn four with a flat tire. Jared Eshs also came to a stop on the Speedway while under yellow. Both cars would rejoin the field.
However, with clean air at his expense, Macri pulled away on the restart. By lap 25 he held a 2.5 second advantage and he would go onto claim the checkered flag without any challenge. Wagner held on for second with Dewease, Brent Marks and Zearfoss making up the top five. Tyler Reeser earned the $350 hard charger award.
“It feels good to get finally get a win as we have been in a bit of a slump here lately,” said Macri. “We destroyed a car out at Knoxville and junked some stuff last night so hopefully this $10,000 check helps to pay some bills.”
Wagner made up for the disappointment as he took the checkered flag in the second Weikert’s Livestock 410 Sprint Car event of the night for his first win of the 2020 racing season. Wagner held off Dylan Cisney and his father Mike Wagner to claim the $4000 checkered flag in what was a makeup from the August 15th program.
Wagner and Cisney led the field to the green with Wagner once again jumping out to the point. Setting a torrid pace, Wagner hit lap traffic on lap seven and was furiously weaving in and out of lap traffic determined not to let this one slips away. By lap eight Wagner’s lead was around 1.4 seconds, but with five to go he was nearly 2.0 seconds ahead.
With two laps remaining, Cisney was closing in on Wagner, but with the feature only being 20 laps in distance, Cisney ran out of time as Wagner took the checkered flag by .850 seconds.
Cisney, Mike Wagner, Lucas Wolfe and Blane Heimback made up the top five. TJ Stutts went from 19th to s10th to earn a $600 hard charger award courtesy of Mike Cleck Paving and Valley Supply.
“We’ve been really close this year and it’s nice to finally park this Zemco Sprint Car in victory lane,” said Wagner. “I wish we were talking about the first one and $10,000, but we’ll take it and keep building toward the end of the season.”
Blane Heimbach capped off a consistent night by picking up the final Weikert’s Livestock 410 Sprint Car night for his first Port Royal Speedway victory of the season. Heimbach bested Logan Wagner and Ryan Taylor to claim 14th career victory at the Juniata County oval.
Jeff Miller and Taylor led the field to the green flag with Taylor jumping out to the early lead. By lap five Taylor held a 3.0 second advantage over Heimbach, who had moved into the runner up spot one lap prior form his third starting position.
With 10 laps to go, Heimbach was cutting into the advantage and by lap 13 he was on the tail tank of Taylor. Taylor, who had been running the top of the speedway, tried to protect the bottom, but Heimbach was able his muscle his way inside entering turn 1 and he exited turn two with the lead on lap 14.
Meanwhile Logan Wagner, who started eighth, had moved up to the third position and with three to go he moved into second. He tried to make a last-ditch effort to catch Heimbach but got bottled up in lap traffic on the white flag lap which allowed Heimbach to cruise to the checkered flag by 1.728 seconds for the $4000 victory.
Wagner, Taylor, Dylan CIsney and Lucas Wolfe completed the top five and Wagner was the races hard charger worth $600 courtesy of Mike Cleck Paving and Valley Supply.
“Anybody who knows us knows it hasn’t been an easy year at all, so this one is pretty special,” said Heimbach. “We were pretty good all night and I felt like we kept gaining on it after each race. It’s just nice to be able to reward the people who stick behind you and believe in you.”
In Penns Valley Meat Market PA Sprint Series 305 Sprint Car division action, Nick Sweigart capitalized on a pole starting position to lead all 20 laps and pick up his second victory of the 2020 race season at the Port Royal Speedway.
“Nitro Nick” lead the field to the green flag and he jumped out to the early lead over second-place starter Kirsten Hess. Series points leader Garrett Bard used the outside of the speedway to go from seventh to fourth on the opening circuit as well.
Third-place starter Doug Dodson moved into the runner-up position on lap four, but the caution flew for two slow cars in turn’s one and two to slow any momentum.
Dodson tried a slider entering turn one on the restart, but Sweigart pulled away easily exiting turn two. The following lap Bard moved into third and with the leaders burried in lap traffic, he moved into second on lap 14.
Bard attempted to track down the leader over the final six laps but could never mount a serious charge and Sweigart took the checkered flag by 1.470 seconds. The win was his his fourth career triumph at the “Speed Palace” and came over Bard, Dave Grube, Dodson and Domenic Melair.
“Starting up front was definitely key and wasn’t going to let the opportunity be wasted,” said Sweigart. “I love racing here and it’s just so cool to be standing here surrounded by a great crew and family and friends.”
Finally, Alex Bright held off Steven Drevicki to claim his first career Port Royal Speedway in the first ever visit of the USAC East Coast Sprint Cars Wingless 360 Sprint Cars to the Port Royal Speedway.
358 regular Kevin Nouse and Shawn Donath led the field to the green flag with Donath jumping out to the early lead. Bright started fourth and was on the move early as he used the top of the track to take second and the following lap, he took the lead.
Fifth-place starter Drevicki entered the picture one lap later as he moved into the second position and on lap nine, he poked his nose to the inside of Bright in turn one and two. On lap 10 he pulled even with Bright heading to the start-finish line and Drevicki threw a huge slider entering turn to take the point briefly, before Bright powered back by down the backstretch.
The leaders battled nose to tail over the next three laps before the caution flew for a spinning car in turn one brought out the caution.
The field stayed the same over the next handful of laps before a caution came out with one too go setting up a one lap dash to the checkered flag. Drevicki tried another slidejob attempt on the restart, but Bright was too good and he powered home to the checkered flag by a .510 margin over Drevicki, Davie Franek, Billy Vaninwegen and Chris Allen Jr.
“This is only our third time out in this deal, and I’ve got to say this feels pretty darn good,” said Bright. “It was like the old days with me and Steven throwing sliders out there and it was just a lot of fun.”
410 Sprint Car Dream Race Results- 1. Anthony Macri 2. Logan Wagner 3. Lance Dewease 4. Brent Marks 5. Brock Zearfoss 6. TJ Stutus 7. Jeff Halligan 8. Blane Heimbach 9. Ryan Taylor 10. Dylan Cisney 11. Kyle Reinhardt 12. Mike Wagner 13. AJ Flick 14. Tyler Reeser 15. Ryan Smith 16. Steve Buckwalter 17. Jared Esh 18. Dustin Baney 19. Nicole Bower 20. Kyle Smith 21. Kody Lehman 22. Jason Solwold 23. Drew Ritchey 24. Paulie Colagiovanni 25. Tyler Bear 26. Justin Whittall
8/15/20 Make Up Sprint Car Results- 1. Logan Wagner 2. Dylan CIsney 3. Mike Wagner 4. Lucas Wolfe 5. Blane Heimbach 6. Ryan Taylor 7. Brent Marks 8. Jeff Halligan 9. Paulie Colagiovanni 10. TJ Stutts 11. Kyle Reinhardt 12. Tyler Bear 13. Curt Stroup 14. AJ Flick 15. Jared Esh 16. Anthony Fiore 17. Tyler Reeser 18. Drew Ritchey 19. Nicole Bower 20. Mike Walter II 21. Dustin Baney 22. Kody Lehman DNS- Zeb Wise, Carl Bowser
Regular 410 Sprint Car Results- 1. Blane Heimbach 2. Logan Wagner 3. Ryan Taylor 4. Dylan CIsney 5. Lucas Wolfe 6. Anthony Macri 7. Lance Dewease 8. Tyler Reeser 9. Brent Marks 10. Mike Wagner 11. Jeff Halligan 12. Brock Zearfoss 13. Kyle Smith 14. Jeff Miller 15. Mile Walter II 16. Paulie Colagiovanni 17. AJ Flick 18. TJ Stutts 19. Kody Lehmann 20. Curt Stroup 21. Tyler Bear 22. Dustin Baney 23. Steve Buckwalter 24. Jason Solwold
PASS 305 Sprint Car Results- 1. Nick Sweigart 2. Garrett Bard 3. Dave Grube 4. Doug Dodson 5. Domenic Melair 6. Larry McVay 7. Kassidy Kreitz 8. Landon Price 9. Erin Ststler 10. Devin Adams 11. Justin Mills 12. Kirsten Hess 13. Jimmy White 14. Jeremi Hanson 15. Kyle Keen 16. Dylan Smith 17. Daryl Stimeling 18. Brody Adamsky 19. Jared Zionkowski 20. Fred Arnold 21. Andrew Boyer 22. Iam Cumens 23. Reed Thompson 24. Jason Bergstresser 25. Dustin Young 26. Branston Shue
USAC East Coast Sprint Car Results- 1. Alex Bright 2. Steven Drevicki 3. Davie Franek 4. Billy VanInwegan 5. Chris Allen Jr. 6. Bill Unglert 7. Christian Bruno 8. Shawn Donath 9. David Swanson 10. JR Berry 11. Joey Amantea 12. Kenny Miller II 13. Kevin Nouse 14. Lee Kauffman 15. Jason Cherry 16. Jonathan Swanson 17. Austin Graby 18. Craig Pellegrini 19. John Stehman 20. Ryan Quackenbush 21. Bruce Buckwalter 22. Troy Fraker 23. Heidi Hedin 24. Mark Bitner DNS- Zach Burd, Eric Jennings