Gio Scelzi Picks Up 1st High Limit Win of 2026 Worth $100K in Bob Weikert Memorial Finale

Port Royal, PA -- Giovanni Scelzi entered the Bob Weikert Memorial presented by Greencastle Livestock Market weekend 3rd in Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing points but still searching for his first visit to Whiskey Myers victory lane with the series. On Sunday night, the drought would come to an end with Scelzi taking his Spire Motorsports machine to the front of the field and earning his team a $100,000 payday.

Brent Marks and Tyler Courtney would lead the field to green in the 40-lap A-main event with Courtney taking the early advantage and Chase Dietz jumping from outside the 2nd row up to the 2nd spot.

The driver nicknamed "Sunshine" would lead the field over the opening 4 circuits but Dietz would quickly run him down and take the race lead.

Dietz has the most wins in winged 410 sprint car competition in 2026 leading the country with 17 triumphs to his tally, so it would be easy to think that once he got out front it could be all over, but the other 3 cars within the top 4 never let him out of their sights and would battle for the top spot over the next 15 laps.

Courtney would fight his way back to the front and lead lap 11 before Dietz would take it right back on lap 12 all the while Brent Marks was close enough in tow to also get by Courtney for the runner up spot. Giovanni Scelzi remained close to the leaders in the 4 spot setting up his winning moves to come.

The field would come to a halt at the midway point of the feature event with Dietz leading the way, Marks in 2nd, Courtney in 3rd, Scelzi in 4th and Danny Dietrich rounding out the top 5.

The caution and red flag would come out together at this planned point set by race officials to allow the teams to refuel their machines for the distance they were traveling around the half mile while also allowing them to make some minor adjustments to their machine if they fault necessary.

With the field coming back to green, Dietz would get out in front on the restart and it would be Scezli in the Spire Motorsports 77 being the car to watch as he would overtake Courtney for the 3rd position and quickly go to work on Marks for the runner up spot.

Scezli, with Marks not far behind him, would not allow Dietz to get too far out in front and with 13 laps remaining, would make his move for the race lead in the 6-figure paying race.

The leaders would start to navigate lapped traffic over the final 10 laps and Scelzi was able to do just enough to keep Dietz and Marks at an arms' reach and find his machine crossing the finish line in 1st for the 1st time in 2026.

Chase Dietz would settle for the 2nd spot and Tyler Courtney would round out the top 3 of the Bob Weikert Memorial.

Ryan Smith would earn the Ramsey's Car Wash Hard Charger in impressive fashion passing 19 cars for a top-5 finish and an extra $500 to his payday.

Lance Dewease earned an extra $1,000 with the 14 pill being drawn in victory lane for the J&S Classics Warrior Award.

Port Royal Speedway will take the next week off and will be back in action on Saturday August 8th with Weikert's Livestock 410 sprint cars, Penns Valley Meat Market 305 sprint cars, and River Rock Campground and RV Park limited late models.

The night will also serve as the track's First Responders Night which will offer 1st responders $10 general admission price with proper ID. Pennian Bank will also put on the annual Kids' Money Scramble. The whole program will be presented by Fleet Reps.

For more information, visit portroyalspeedway.com or follow along on the track's social media channels.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Zarfos Photography

FULL RESULTS:

A Feature 40 Laps | 00:25:45.643 | Interstate Batteries

1. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 2. 23-Chase Dietz[4]; 3. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]; 4. 19-Brent Marks[1]; 5. 69K-Ryan Smith[24]; 6. 29-Danny Dietrich[6]; 7. 9-Daison Pursley[5]; 8. 39M-Anthony Macri[14]; 9. 26-Justin Peck[9]; 10. 87-Aaron Reutzel[18]; 11. 71-Parker Price Miller[20]; 12. 55W-Logan Wagner[7]; 13. 13-Tanner Holmes[13]; 14. 8-Lance Dewease[12]; 15. 42-Sye Lynch[8]; 16. 17GP-Brock Zearfoss[17]; 17. 1A-Cameron Smith[16]; 18. 9R-Chase Randall[19]; 19. 24D-Danny Sams III[10]; 20. 11-TJ Stutts[23]; 21. 21-James McFadden[21]; 22. 47K-Kody Lehman[11]; 23. 24-Rico Abreu[25]; 24. 55-Kerry Madsen[27]; 25. 10-Matt Campbell[15]; 26. 5K-Jake Karklin[22]; 27. 11T-Mike Thompson[26]; 28. 11A-Austin Bishop[28]

B Feature 15 Laps | 00:06:53.595 | Winters Performance

1. 21-James McFadden[1]; 2. 5K-Jake Karklin[3]; 3. 11-TJ Stutts[2]; 4. 69K-Ryan Smith[6]; 5. 24-Rico Abreu[8]; 6. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[4]; 7. 67-Justin Whittall[5]; 8. 11A-Austin Bishop[7]; 9. 5-Brenham Crouch[11]; 10. 71R-Logan Rumsey[14]; 11. 11T-Mike Thompson[9]; 12. 22H-Doug Hammaker[16]; 13. 77K-Kody Hartlaub[12]; 14. 66-Ryan Newton[15]; 15. 99-Devin Adams[10]; 16. 17-Mark Smith[13]

C Feature 8 Laps | 00:02:39.442 | Driven2SaveLives

1. 17-Mark Smith[2]; 2. 71R-Logan Rumsey[6]; 3. 66-Ryan Newton[1]; 4. 22H-Doug Hammaker[4]; 5. 88-Tanner Thorson[9]; 6. 35-Buddy Schweibinz[10]; 7. 17X-Owen Dimm[5]; 8. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[7]; 9. 27S-Dylan Cisney[13]; 10. 55M-Domenic Melair[12]; 11. 33W-Michael Walter[3]; 12. 55-Kerry Madsen[8]; 13. 39-Lucas Wolfe[11]

   
   

Article Credit: Brad Strawser