PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Port Royal Speedway welcomed back the 358 sprint cars on Saturday night after a six-year hiatus and it was Jeff Halligan knifing his way through the field to pick up the payday in the Mahoney’s Plumbing and Heating Summer Series event.
Halligan took home the posted $1,500 winner’s share plus another $440 in bonus money he was eligible for thanks to the Hoseheads.com gamblers draw.
Port Royals own Devin Hart turned in an impressive night of work by sweeping both econo late model mains in convincing style, making bold moves to get to the front in both events.
In the super late model main, Jeff Rine also worked forward from mid-pack to pick up a victory but only after seesawing back and forth for the lead in a thrilling battle with former track champion Tim Wilson.
A make-up 305 sprint main saw Zach Newlin pick up his first career Port Royal checkers while Kyle Smith claimed victory in the regular 305 sprint main to get his second oval win of the season.
A total of 105 race cars were in action on Saturday night with 225 laps of scored, green-flag competition put on the books.
Wyatt Hinkle led the first two laps of the 25-lap 358 sprint main before Eric Parker blasted by for the lead in what would be a non-stop feature.
Parker entered the backmarkers on the eighth lap and began working traffic and meanwhile, 10th starter Jeff Halligan was knifing through the field.
Halligan motored into third with 10 laps completed and then made quick work of Hinkle for second.
It took him a bit longer to run down Parker’s advantage but once he caught the pilot he was able to drive by for control with seven laps to go.
Parker waged a brief comeback, shooting under Halligan in an effort to regain the top spot with Halligan was up to the challenge and pulled away for a 2.369 second victory.
Steve Drevicki rode home third followed by Doug Hammaker and Troy Wagaman.
Heats went to Parker, Hammaker and Kyle Denmyer with Steve Wilbur taking the consolation race.
Chad Myers took the lead at the start of the 22-lap super late model main chased by Nick Dickson and Tim Wilson.
Wilson took second on the third lap and began his pursuit of the leader before finally muscling by for the point on a lap nine restart.
Wilson set a good pace once out front but eighth starter Jeff Rine was moving forward to challenge for the lead along with Tim Smith Jr.
Smith went into second on the 11th tour with Rine in third.
Rine raced into second on lap 14 and then ran down the leader with five laps to go and it was at that point that the front duo began performing swapping the lead at each end of the speedway.
Repeatedly, Rine would get in front using the low lane but Wilson would regain control using the high cushion to be scored the leader at the line.
Wilson made one miscue on the cushion with two laps to go and that secured Rine the win as he took advantage of the slip to race to his fourth win of the year at the track.
Wilson rode home second followed by 12th starter Dylan Yoder, Tim Smith J r. and Andy Haus.
Heats went to Rine, Roy Deese Jr., and Haus.
Zach Newlin restarted the make-up 305 sprint main held over from May 5 with six laps completed.
Newlin cruised around the track to pick up his first win at the track by 3.889 seconds over Jonathan Jones, Dylan Shatzer, Nick Sweigart and Drew Ritchey.
Kyle Ganoe led only the first two laps of the regularly slated 305 sprint feature before eighth starter Kyle Smith parted the waters from the fourth row for the lead and win.
Smith ripped around the speedway to record his second win of the year at the oval followed by Nick Sweigart, Ganoe, Ken Duke Jr. and Drew Ritchey.
Heats went to Sweigart, Jon Scarborough, Newlin and Ritchey with the consolation race going to Jimmy White.
In the make-up econo late model main from May 5, Devin Hart started on the pole and raced ahead of Eric Irvin until Irvin got by for control on lap five of the 18-lapper.
However Hart was not to be deterred or denied and he reclaimed the point from Irvin with seven laps to go before beginning to work traffic.
An impressive and slick moved on the backstretch to thread the needle between two backmarkers secured him the win late in the race.
Irvin was second followed by Derick Garman, Kenny Yoder and Tim Fedder.
Second starter Tim Fedder lead from the start in the regular econo late model main while Hart started out in eighth.
Hart was strong during the entire event and took fourth from Todd Snook with nine away and then third from Jared Fulkroad with eight laps to go in the 18 circuit feature.
Restarts on laps 12 and 14 gave Hart clear shots at the leading pair of Fedder and Irvin and the second restart saw him get by both drivers, first with a strong outside sweep in the first turn to get second before he dive-bombed under Fedder in the third turn seconds later to get control after passing both cars on the same lap.
Fedder was second followed by Irvin, Fulkroad and Snook.
Heats went to Hart and Irvin.
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Feature Finishes
6/30/18
358 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Jeff Halligan, 2. Eric Parker, 3. Steve Drevicki, 4. Doug Hammaker, 5. Troy Wagaman, 6. Wyatt Hinkle, 7. Kevin Nouse, 8. Kyle Denmyer, 9. Chris Arnold, 10. CJ Tracy, 11. Brent Shearer, 12. Tyler Walton, 13. Chris Frank, 14. Matt Findley, 15. Kenny Kuhn, 16. John Stewart, 17. Dylan Norris, 18. Steve Wilbur, 19. Dwight Leppo, 20. Hank Donovan, 21. Rodney Westhafer, 22. Zachary Allman, 23. Dalton Dietrich, 24. Dan Richcreek
DNQ: Jason Cunningham, DJ Montgomery, Nyles Berkes, Cody Fletcher
Late models, 22 laps: 1. Jeff Rine, 2. Tim Wilson, 3. Dylan Yoder, 4. Tim Smith Jr., 5. Andy Haus, 6. Chad Myers, 7. Mike Lupfer, 8. Marvin Winters, 9. Roy Deese, 10. Trent Brenneman, 11. Reese Masiello, 12. Shaun Jones, 13. Jerry Bard, 14. Jason Schmidt, 15. Billy Wampler, 16. Scott Flickinger, 17. Ralph Morgan, 18. Matt Parks, 19. Austin Berry, 20. Nick Dickson, 21. Dave Brouse Jr., 22. Kyle Knapp, 23. Vern Zerby
DNS: Chuck Haydt Jr.
305 sprints, 18 laps: 1. Kyle Smith, 2. Nick Sweigart, 3. Kyle Ganoe, 4. Ken Duke Jr., 5. Drew Ritchey, 6. Zach Newlin, 7. Darren Miller, 8. Jaremi Hanson, 9. John Scarborough, 10. Jonathan Jones, 11. Cale Reigle, 12. John Walp, 13. Christian Rumsey, 14. Jay Krout, 15. Erin Statler, 16. Kirsten Hess, 17. John Fiore, 18. Scott Lutz, 19. Colton Hoover, 20. Jimmy White, 21. Josh Dressler, 22. Dylan Shatzer, 23. Nathan Gramley, 24. Samantha Lieberman
DNQ: Stephanie Dodson, Wally Eshenaur, Ryan Lynn, Mike Alleman, Andrew Hake, Brian Sweitzer, Jake Waters, Dave Guss Jr., Jeff Miller, Dave Grube
305 sprints, 18 laps (make up from May 5): 1. Zach Newlin, 2. Jonathan Jones, 3. Dylan Shatzer, 4. Nick Sweigart, 5. Drew Ritchey, 6. Ken Duke Jr., 7. Kyle Ganoe, 8. Kyle Smith, 9. Cale Reigle, 10. Scott Lutz, 11. Josh Dressler, 12. Jay Krout, 13. Mike Alleman, 14. Jraemi Hanson, 15. John Fiore, 16. John Walp, 17. Ryan Lynn, 18. Erin Statler, 19. Colton Hoover, 20. Fred Arnold, 21. Dave Grube, 22. Jeff Miller, 23. Kassidy Kreitz, 24. Ron Aurand, 25. Randy Sterling, 26. Kurt Knepper
DNQ: John Scarborough, Roger Irvine, Reed Thompson, Robert Garvey, Josh Guiher, Dave Guss Jr., Brian Sweitzer, Eric Husick, Scott Ellerman, Kirsten Hess, Stephanie Dodson, Cory Thornton, Matthew Kline
Econo late models, 18 laps: 1. Devi n Hart, 2. Tim Fedder, 3. Eric Irvin, 4. Jared Fulkroad, 5. Todd Snook. 6. Ryan Walls, 7. Derick Garman, 8. Kenny Yoder, 9. Jason Davis, 10. Curt Dunn, 11. Danny Sollers, 12. Derrick Gahagan, 13. Dan Berry, 14. Roger Beason, 15. Tim Krape, 16. Harold Ranck Jr., 17. Shyann Bard, 18. Scott Landis
DNS: Garrett Gray, Ethan Beason\
Econo late models, 18 laps (make up from May 5): 1. 1. Devin Hart, 2. Eric Irvin, 3. Derick Garman, 4. Kenny Yoder, 5. Tim Fedder, 6. Harold Ranck Jr., 7. Curt Dunn, 8. Garrett Gray, 9. Shyann Bard, 10. Scott Landis, 11. Dan Berry
DNS: JR Toner
