By- Justin Snyder
Port Royal Speedway- PORT ROYAL, Pa. (Sept. 7, 2020)- Anthony Macri capitalized on a front row starting spot and held off Brock Zearfoss and Logan Wagner to claim the 68th Annual Foss Jewelers Labor Day Classic Monday evening at Port Royal Speedway.
The victory was Macri’s sixth Port Royal Speedway triumph of the season and was worth $4000 for his efforts.
“I feel like we are clicking on all cylinders right now,” said Macri. “My confidence is obviously pretty good right now and I’m just glad we held on for the win.”
Macri lined up on the front row alongside of one-time winner on the season, Jeff Halligan, and after the first green flag was called back by track officials, he used momentum exiting turn two to slide under Halligan to lead lap one.
Zearfoss, who started fifth, was on the move early on as he moved to fourth on lap two and third the following circuit.
With the track taking rubber early, Halligan capitalized on Macri running the top of the Speedway and he used the bottom of the speedway in turn’s one and two to take the lead on lap five.
However, with lap traffic entering the picture only a few laps later, Macri capitalized on a rookie mistake by Halligan to lcose the gap significantly on lap eight.
Now glued to the bottom of the track, Macri regained the lead on lap nine and he started to stretch his advantage when the caution flew on lap 12 for a flat tire for Ian Madsen. By then, Zearfoss had disposed of Halligan as well and was lurking in the rearview.
“Jim and I talked before the feature and he told ne to run the top until we got passed and we got passed early,” said Macri, referring to his crew chief Jim Shuttlesworth. “He passed me, and I went into maintaining mode and getting into lapped traffic he made a mistake and I just snuck under him and started saving my stuff.”
Zearfoss had an opportunity on the restart to challenge Macri, but the caution again flew one lap later for a spinning Kyle Smith in turn one. Macri opened a half second advantage within three laps after a return to green, but the caution flew again on lap 18 for debris.
One more caution flew on lap 21 for a slowing Brent Marks, but for the rest of the race the name of the game was staying on the bottom and not missing your marks. Track point leader Logan Wagner was able to sneak into a podium position as well, but neither him or Zearfoss was able to capitalize as Macri hit all of his marks and crossed under the checkered flag by an advantage of 1.644 seconds.
Stutts and Halligan finished up the top-five, while Danny Dietrich, Mike Wagner, AJ Flick, Dylan Cisney and Justin Peck rounded out the top-ten.
Zach Newlin earned $400 courtesy of Valley Supply and Mike Cleck Paving as race’s hard charger by going 23rd to 13th.
“I was happy with the cautions, because it was keeping me out of lap traffic,” said Macri. “I knew lapped traffic would open the door for someone to make a ballsy move, so I was happy to see the cautions.
“At the same time, I was nervous because I was seeing all those right rear tires blowing and we had a soft right rear on so it was definitely nerve wracking. I was happy to see it end because those last five laps the tires were vibrating pretty bad and I knew it was only a matter of time before one went.”
For Zearfoss, who blew a right rear tire heading to the scales after the race, he knew without lapped traffic he’d have to rely on a mistake if he wanted to come home first.
“It was rubber racing, but our car was good enough to make a move,” said Zearfoss. “He had clean air the entire time basically. I noticed when he got to lapped traffic, he got really tight and we were still really good.
“I tried to get him one there and the caution came out and I was just hoping another chance would come around. We never got that chance unfortunately, but we’ll take second and keep plugging away.”
410 Sprint Car Results- 1. Anthony Macr; 2. Brock Zearfoss; 3. Logan Wagner; 4.TJ Stutts; 5. Jeff Halligan; 6. Danny Dietrich; 7.Mike Wagner; 8.AJ Flick; 9. Dylan Cisney; 10. Justin Peck; 11. Curt Stroup; 12. Ian Madsen; 13. Zach Newlin; 14. Cory ELeiason; 15. Tyler Bear; 16. Jared Esh; 17. Lucas Wolfe; 18. Ryan Smith; 19. Brett Michalski; 20. Kody Lehamn; 21. Brent Marks; 22. Kyle Smith; 23. Brian Brown; 24. Aaron Reutzel; 25. Dave Blaney; 26. Justin Whittall
Wingless Super Sportsman
Billy Brian Jr. and Joey Biasi won a pair of Wingless Super Sportsman feature events Monday evening at Port Royal Speedway.
In their first feature event, Brian Jr. came form the fourth position to win over Kevin Gutshall, Biasi, Craig Perigo and Cliff Brian Jr.
Brian Jr. moved into second on the opening circuit and to the lead using the bottom of the speedway to pass Brian Hartzell in turn one and two with 18 to go.
Eric Jennings tried multiple times over the next dozen laps to get around Brian Jr, but he couldn’t get enough momentum to pull off a pass.
A late caution with three laps remaining set up a late-race shootout, however Brian Jr. was just too good on the bottom and he cruised home to the victory by 1.097 seconds.
“I’m old enough and ran enough labor day shows in my career to know if you don’t get up off the rubber it’s going to be hard for them to pass you,” said Brian Jr. who noted he last won a limited late model race at the speedway in 1989. “I’m dating myself a bit, but we just had to our marks and we were able to do that.”
Biasi capitalized on a front row starting spot to claim the second feature, which was a rain postponement make-up from earlier this season. He took the checkered flag by a margin of 1.147 seconds over Jennings, Steve Wilbur, Steve Whary and Brian Hartzell.
Biasi fell back to third early in the race, but with 15 to go he moved back into the runner up spot when Derek Sheaffer slid up in turn one. He quickly was all over Wharry and he used a slide job entering turn one with 13 to go to take the lead for good.
A late race caution with four laps to go had Jennings all over the back end of Biasi, but with cars battling hard behind him for the runner-up spot, Biasi cruised home to the victory.
“I’m not a very good leader and I’m not good on dry and slick so when it took rubber, I was happy,” said Biasi. “I just tried to stay on the bottom and not miss my mark and this is just really cool.”
Wingless Results 1- 1. Billy Brian Jr; 2. Kevin Gutshall; 3. Joey Biasi; 4. Craig Perigo; 5. Cliff Brian Jr.; 6. Steve Wilbur; 7. Brian Hartzell; 8. Eric Jennings; 9. Rick Regalsi; 10. Derek Sheaffer; 11. Kirk Baker; 12. Steve Wharry; 13. John Stehman; 14. Ricky Rutt; 15. Larry Drake; 16. Michael Smith; 17. Luke Lenker; 18. Tom Savage; 19. Brett Perigo; 20. Caden Smith; 21. Todd Martin; 22. Gene Eppley; 23. Andy Feil; 24. Richard Mellor; 25. Matt Sherlock; 26. Rohan Beasley
Wingless Results 2- 1. Joey Biasi 2. Eric Jennings 3. Steve Wilbur 4. Steve Wharry 5. Brian Hartzell 6. Kevin Gutshall 7. John Stehman 8. Derek Sheaffer 9. Cliff Brian 10. Larry Drake 11. Tom Savage 12. Luke Lenker 13. Jason Failor 14. Billy Brian Jr. 15. Colby Womer 16. Cadence Smith 17. Matt Sherlock 18. Jason Fraker 19. Mike Smith 20. Ricky Rutt 21. 8 22. Brett Perigo 23. Todd Martin 24. Andy Feil 25. Rohan Beasley 26. Richard Mellor
Limited Late Models
Todd Snook led every lap of the Selinsgrove Limited Late Model feature event to bring home his second career feature event in the division at the speedway. Snook also owns four feature wins previously in the Econo Late Model division.
Snook won by an advantage of 1.085 seconds over Dillan Stake, Devin Hart, Donnie Farling and Andrew Yoder.
Snook and Curt Dunn led the field to the green flag and Snook got the early jump form the bottom of the speedway.
A handful of cautions plagued the race for the first half of the event and by lap seven, Hart was all over Snook for the lead. The two made brief contact on the backstretch with seven laps to go, but the contact halted the momentum of Stake and allowed Snook to pull away.
A multi-car caution once again set up a six-lap dash for the checkered flag, but with Stake and Hart doing battle for second, Snook was able to pull away to earn his first victory of the season.
“I don’t know if all those cautions helped me or hurt me, but I was starting to get comfortable there late,” said Snook. “We were lucky enough to draw the pole and that’s probably what won it for us, but I’d rather be lucky than good.”
Limited Late Model Results- 1. Todd Snook 2. Dillan Stake 3. Devin Hart 4. Donnie Farling 5. Andrew Yoder 6. Danny Snyder 7. Derick Quade 9. Randy Burkholder 10. Shawn Shoemaker 11. Chase Bowsman 12. David Latsha 13. Kenny Yoder 14. Mike Smith 15. Dany Sollers 16. Jason Nace 17. Ethan Beasom 18. Jason Schoch 19. Kyle Bachman 20. Taylor Farling 21. Curt Dunn 22. Dan Condo 23. Joe Lusk 24. Ryan Zook 25. Jordan Kaufman 26. Jennifer Hartz 27. Mike Wall DNS- Shawn Stahl
4 Cylinders
Eric Boozel won the 4-cylinder feature event Monday evening at Port Royal Speedway. The division started 43 cars for the 15-lap race and with five laps remaining, only 20 cars remained.
Boozel started on the pole and fell back to fifth on the opening turn. He regained his composure though and advanced to second at the completion of lap one. After multiple cautions, Boozel took the lead when Adam Campbell got sideways while leading on a lap nine restart and he went untouched the rest of the way.
“I had a good car, but Adam had a better car and that was his race to win,” said Boozel. “I was waiting on him to slip off and I could see he had an issue and I just tried not to get caught up in a wreck.”