Port Royal, PA - June 1st, 2024 - It had been nearly a year since Logan Wagner visited victory lane at Port Royal Speedway, and he ended that drought on June 1st in exciting fashion.
Devin Adams and Gerard McIntyre would lead the field to green in the 25-lap A-main event, and it would be McIntyre who would lead the opening lap.
Lance Dewease, who started in the 3rd spot, would put pressure to McIntyre over the opening 6 laps and would take the lead in turns 3 & 4 with just 18 laps to go.
Logan Wagner, after starting 7th, would find himself 6th when Dewease took the lead, and at this point in the race was when "The Pilot" started to hit his stride.
Wagner would work the top side of the corners to build momentum around the speedway, and over the next 7 laps would pick off cars to find himself in the runner-up spot.
While battling through lapped traffic, Dewease's 3 second lead would be eaten up by Wagner, and Wagner would dispatch of the track's 2nd all-time leading winner with 8 laps remaining.
A caution caused by Derek Hauck with 5 laps remaining would give Dewease one more shot at the lead, but Wagner would continue working the top side of the track to hold on for the $5,000 payday.
"Tonight was all about pulling the trigger and going for it," said Wagner in victory lane. "Tonight I said, we're going back to the way I used to drive this place and just go for it."
Lance Dewease and Chase Dietz would round out the podium. Gerard McIntyre would win the J&S Classics Warrior Award given to a driver who finishes a bit further back in the field decided by pill draw, and Mike Walter would win the night's hard charger courtesy of Valley Supply for driving from 22nd starting spot to 11th.
In super late model competition, Rick Eckert charged from the 9th starting spot to pick up the $4,000 win as well as an extra $300 for winning from 9th or further back per the speedway's rules.
Andrew Yoder and Justin Weaver would make up the front row in the 25 lap A-main with Yoder taking the lead in the opening lap.
Eckert would start to weave his way through the field on lap number 7 when he would pass 3 cars between turn 1 and turn 4 to get to the 6th spot.
Andrew Yoder would open up to a 3 second lead over the first 11 laps but a caution for Chris Casner who spun in turns 1 & 2, would draw the field back together over the next 14 laps.
Over the next 6 laps, the top 5 cars would become Andrew Yoder, Logan Zarin, Justin Weaver, Dylan Yoder and Rick Eckert, and they would all be within a 1-second margin of each other.
Coming to the line with 7 laps to go, Rick Eckert was able to turn on the boosters, getting by both Dylan Yoder and Justin Weaver to move into the top 3 and 3 laps later he would over take Andrew Yoder for the lead.
Once out in front, Rick Eckert would build up to just under a 3-second lead and go on to win the Selinsgrove Ford super late model feature event.
"I felt like I was better than the cars in front of me, but I wasn't sure," said Eckert, "Andrew Yoder started on the front row and that kid is really good. He's got a lot of talent, and he does a great job. I figured in clean air, he'd be gone. The cautions probably worked in my favor to catch him."
Andrew Yoder and Dylan Yoder would round out the podium and Colton Flinner would would the Lauver's Concessions hard charger for going from 21st to 11th.
For the Penns Valley Meat Market 305 sprint car feature event, Austin Reed would start 12th and charge to the front over the course of a 20-lap race to pick up the win.
Owen Dimm would lead the opening 18 laps of the race after starting on the pole. He would be closely challenged by Mike Melair who started to his outside throughout the feature, but while they battled, Austin Reed was charging his way to the front.
With just 2 laps remaining, coming off of turn 2, Reed would charge by both Dimm and Melair, and go on to win.
Dimm and Melair would round out the rest of the top 3 in the 305 A-main event.
Port Royal Speedway will be back in competition on June 8th for Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek which will pay the super late models $5,000 to win, with Weikert Livestock 410 sprint cars and Zimmerman Truck Repair limited late models also on the card.
For more information regarding Port Royal Speedway, go to portroyalspeedway.com or follow along on social media on Facebook at Port Royal Speedway Trackside Media or on X/Twitter @PortRoyalSpdway.
Results:
410 A Feature 25 Laps | 00:14:12.027
69K-Logan Wagner[7]; 2. 12D-Lance Dewease[3]; 3. 1-Chase Dietz[8]; 4. 35K-Jake Karklin[4]; 5. 55-Mike Wagner[5]; 6. 47K-Kody Lehman[12]; 7. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[2]; 8. 5-Dylan Cisney[13]; 9. 23-Devon Borden[6]; 10. 45-Jeff
Halligan[10]; 11. 77-Mike Walter[22]; 12. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[20]; 13. 69X-Kassidy Kreitz[21]; 14. 99-Devin Adams[1]; 15. 95-Garrett Bard[19]; 16. 0-Rick Lafferty[9]; 17. 11T-Mike Thompson[18]; 18. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[23]; 19. 17K Kyle
Keen[24]; 20. 24B-Dustin Baney[16]; 21. 33H-Derek Hauck[11]; 22. 35-Austin Bishop[15]; 23. 97-Brie Hershey[14]; 24. 10-Jake Waters[17]; 25. (DNS) 14-Todd Allen; 26. (DNS) 86-Ron Aurand; 27. (DNS) 23M-Michael Millard; 28. (DNS)
88C-Chad Miller; 29. (DNS) 55S-Chris Smith
SLM A Feature 25 Laps | 00:12:25.972
0-Rick Eckert[9]; 2. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[2]; 3. 24-Dylan Yoder[8]; 4. 2J-Justin Weaver[1]; 5. 1Z-Logan Zarin[3]; 6. 2T-
Kyle Lee[10]; 7. 20-Trever Feathers[16]; 8. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[4]; 9. 9-Hayes Mattern[6]; 10. 4-Gary Stuhler[5]; 11. 48-Colton Flinner[21]; 12. 22-Gregg Satterlee[7]; 13. 24Y-Jim Yoder[20]; 14. 86-Austin Berry[12]; 15. 32J-Shaun
Jones[13]; 16. 75-Jared Miley[22]; 17. 66-Justin Kann[14]; 18. 15-Scott Flickinger[24]; 19. C33-Chris Casner[19]; 20. 72-Tyler Emory[11]; 21. 5-Chad Julius[18]; 22. 121-Larry Neiderer[15]; 23. 11-Jason Schmidt[23]; 24. 63-Nathan
Long[17]; 25. (DNS) 05-Roy Deese Jr; 26. (DNS) EZ1-Ron Fink; 27. (DNS) 112-Brandon Little; 28. (DNS) 06-Mike Lupfer; 29. (DNS) 25K-Kody Lyter; 30. (DNS) 118-Sean Merkel; 31. (DNS) 21-Chad Myers; 32. (DNS) D19-Dillan Stake; 33.(DNS) 61T-Kenny Trevitz; 34. (DNS) 3-Tim Wilson
305 A Feature 20 Laps | 00:14:24.733
34-Austin Reed[13]; 2. 17-Owen Dimm[1]; 3. 36-Mike Melair[2]; 4. 20-Doug Dodson[10]; 5. 89-Nick Sweigart[7]; 6. 31Z-Zach Rhodes[17]; 7. 67-Ken Duke Jr[16]; 8. 12-Roger Irvine[4]; 9. 28R-Jason Roush[3]; 10. 71-Josh Spicer[8]; 11.
19-Kruz Kepner[21]; 12. 01-Timmy Bittner[14]; 13. 44-Dave Brown[22]; 14. 97-Kenny Heffner[20]; 15. 15T-Matt Tebbs[11]; 16. 85-Josh Beamer[12]; 17. 32A-Austin Greenland[19]; 18. 98-Croix Beasom[15]; 19. 19A-Tim Iulg[6]; 20.
53W-Jimmy White[24]; 21. 46-Mike Alleman[18]; 22. 7-Drew Young[25]; 23. 25-Dustin Young[26]; 24. 21-Andrew Boyer[27]; 25. 2-Erin Statler[5]; 26. 88-Fred Arnold[23]; 27. (DNS) 29R-Seth Schnoke; 28. (DNS) 19B-Danny Buccafusca; 29. (DNS) 6-Caleb Harris; 30. (DNS) J9-Jerald Harris; 31. (DNS) 7H-Kyle Hart; 32. (DNS) 54M-Todd Lynn; 33. (DNS) 83-Larry McVay; 34. (DNS) 47-Benjamin Miklos; 35. (DNS) 1M-Paul Moyer; 36. (DNS) 69P-Landon Price; 37. (DNS) 19AR-Alan Rhodes; 38. (DNS) 9R-Mariah Romig; 39. (DNS) 5-Logan Spahr; 40. (DNS) 5J-John Walp; 41. (DNS) 4W-Kasey Weaver; 42. (DNS) 5W-Kolby Weaver; 43. (DNS) 80-Dave Wickham; 44. (DNS) 11W-Donald Wise
Article Credit: Brad Strawser
Submitted By: Brad Strawser
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