Port Royal Set To Open Their 2018 Racing Season This Saturday

Story By: SHAWN BROUSE / PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY – PORT ROYAL, PA – Port Royal Speedway is ready to get the 2018 racing season started, coming up this Saturday, March 10 at 5 pm.

On the opening day racing card will be the Weikert’s Livestock 410 sprints and the River Valley Builders super late models.

The super sprint cars will race in a 25-lap main paying $4,000 to win while the super lates compete for $2,200 to win.

If the weather permits, the late model event will be the first of the season anywhere across the region while the sprint portion of the show will be just the second or third appearance of the division this year in Central Pennsylvania.

Adult general admission gates will open at 3 pm for the 2018 lidlifter with racing action slated for 5 pm.

Adult general admission is $16 with students ages 12 – 18 admitted for just $7.

Last year, Iowa invader Lynton Jeffrey turned away all challengers in the sprint car main to record a popular upset victory at “The Speed Palace.”

The 2017 opening day late model victory went to Jason Covert of York with a last lap pass.

If able to be staged, the March 10, 2018, Port Royal Opener will place it in a tie to be the second earliest track event in recorded history.

The earliest Port Royal opener took place on March 9, 1985 when Keith Kauffman took the opening day sprint car win.

A March 10 opener taken by Dave Kelly was spun off in 1990.

Names that dot the prestigious Port Royal Opening Day sprint car win list include Eddie McCardle, Al Chamberlain, Dick Tobias, Jan Opperman, Mitch Smith, Jay Myers, Keith Kauffman, Lynn Paxton, Steve and Stevie Smith, Bobby Davis Jr., Doug Wolfgang, Jeff Swindell, Lance Dewease, Fred Rahmer, Joey Kuhn, Dave Blaney, Mark Smith, Chad Layton and Greg Hodnett among many others.

No one owns more Port Royal openers than Todd Shaffer of Millerstown, who scored six of the events during his career, coming in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Port Royal returns to action on Saturday, March 17 at 5 pm with another two-division program of 410 sprints and super late models before the late models compete in their first big event of the season, the ULMS Chiller Thriller on March 24.

The Chiller Thriller will pay $3,000 to win on March 24 with 410 sprint and a Mason Dixon Shootout event for 358 late models also on the program.