Port Royal Speedway Sprint Car A-Main Captured Saturday By Dylan Cisney

Story By: JUSTIN SNYDER / PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY – PORT ROYAL, PA – Dylan Cisney has been knocking on the door of a win all season at Port Royal Speedway.

After a third on Opening Day and a fourth last week, Cisney finally kicked down the down the door as he claimed the victory Saturday night over Jeff Halligan and Danny Dietrich.

The win was worth $4000 and was Cisney’s fifth of his career at the Juniata County oval that sits only a few blocks from his home. Logan Wagner and Mike Wagner rounded out the rest of the top five.

“I wasn’t sure how this thing was going to play out as it was really fast when we first got here,” said Cisney. “The track was really in between during the heat races and luckily it slicked off. I don’t know how good we were, but ultimately we were good enough to end up in victory lane and I just love this place so much.”

Cisney, driving a number two sprinter owned by Scott Cowman instead of his family owned number five, lined up from the pole position alongside of Jeff Miller and got the early jump to lead lap one.

Seventh-place starter AJ Flick was on the move early as he moved into fifth on the first lap and two laps later he slid into fourth. Ninth-place starter Danny Dietrich also was on the move early as he entered the top-five on lap four.

After dropping back on the initial start, Anthony Macri got hooked up on the top of the speedway and he moved into fourth on lap eight. The following lap he cruised around Flick for third exiting turn two, but he lost a right wheel due to a mechanical issue and spun and collected Flick to bring out the red flag. Flick tipped over on his side as a result of the contact, but was ok. Neither driver would return.

Gerrard McIntyre Jr. slowed on the backstretch on the restart, which caused Blane Heimbach and Tyler Bear to spin in turn in turn two to bring out the second caution. All three drivers returned to action at the rear of the field.

Cisney again jumped out to a lead at the return to green-flag action, while Pat Cannon overtook Miller for the runner up spot down the backstretch. Cisney was pulling away from the field when a third caution flew on lap 11 when Miller made contact made contact with the outside guardrail in turn four and hit Kerry Madsen’s right rear, causing the Australian to lose a tire as well. Madsen had moved from his 13th starting spot to the top-five before the incident and would rejoin the field.

Cisney again got a great jump on the restart and it was 11th-place starter Halligan making his move as he entered the top-five for the first time. Two laps later he moved past TJ Stutts for fourth and the following circuit he used the bottom of turn four to pass Dietrich for third. All momentum was halted the following lap when McIntyre slowed on the front stretch to bring out the final caution of the race.

Continuing to show his dominance, Cisney again took off on the restart, while Halligan cruised around Cannon to move into the runner-up position. Halligan was closing in on Cisney, but with five laps to go Cisney still held a nearly 1.5 second advantage. Dietrich and Halligan soon were battling it out for the second spot, allowing Cisney to stretch his lead over the remaining laps.

When the checkered flag flew, Cisney held a 1.5554 second advantage as he made it three different winners in three consecutive weeks to being the season at the Juniata County oval.

“This is really good, especially getting Scott Cowman a win here in Pennsylvania,” said Cisney. “We can check that off the bucket list. Hopefully he keeps me as a driver and doesn’t retire and say the heck with it because we got him a win too early.”

For Halligan, he believes his team just needs to get more consistent to be sitting in victory lane,

“I’m pretty pleased somewhat, but I just feel like we could be a lot better,” said Halligan. “We’re hitting here, missing there, and just haven’t put a whole night together. We got lucky with a few crashes that put us in position and we took advantage of it.”

Last weeks winner Justin Peck finished sixth, while Cannon, Madsen, Lucas Wolfe and Stutts rounded out the top ten. Logan Wagner earned a $500 hard charger bonus courtesy of Valley Supply Inc. and Mike Cleck paving by advancing 13 positions in the feature while Stutts earned the $1000 Warrior Award bonus courtesy of Jim and Sandy Kline and J&S Fabrication with the ransom draw number coming up 10.

Sprint Car Feature Finish: 1. Dylan Cisney; 2. Jeff Halligan; 3. Danny Dietrich; 4. Logan Wagner; 5. Mike Wagner; 6. Justin Peck; 7. Pat Cannon; 8. Kerry Madsen; 9. Lucas Wolfe; 10. T.J. Stutts; 11. George Hobaugh; 12. Justin Henderson; 13. Blane Heimbach; 14. Matt Farnham; 15. Michael Bauer; 16. Rick Lafferty; 17. Kody Lehman; 18. Tyler Bear; 19. Gerard McIntyre Jr.; 20. Tyler Walton; 21. Jeff Miller; 22. Anthony Macri; 23. A.J. Flick; 24. Lynton Jeffrey.

DNQ: Curt Stroup; Jared Esh; Mike Walter II; Tyler Reeser; Justin Whittall; Anthony Fiore

Jeff Rine capitalized on a lap nine restart to take the lead and claim the $3000 to win River Valley Builders Super Late Model feature over Rick Eckert and Gary Stuhler. The win was Rine’s 26th of his career at the Speedway.

“This is one of the first races that my dad missed and I know he’s watching at home but it’s not the same without him here,” said Rine. “We had some issues in warm ups, but we got it figured out and we beat one of the best late model drivers in Rick, so this is pretty cool.”

Dave Brouse Jr. and Nick Dickson led the field to the green flag and it was Dickson getting the early jump. He was leading comfortably when Ross Robinson slowed on the backstretch to bring out the caution on lap eight.

One the restart, Rine, who started fourth, got underneath Dickson and he took the lead. Sixth=place starter Eckert edged ahead of Dickson for second at the line as well. However, the field was bunched up after a six-car pile up exiting turn two brought out the caution.

With Rine running the middle of the track and Eckert running the top, Eckert was slowly closing in on the leader. He tried the bottom of the speedway in turn’s one and two to pull alongside of Rine, but Rine pulled away down the backstrech.

With five to go, Rine entered lap traffic and Eckert was again trying to mount a comeback. With two laps remaining, Eckert was all over the leader. However Rine remained steady and held off the veteran by an advantage of .438 seconds for the victory. Behind Eckert and Stuhler, who started 10th, Dylan Yoder and Trevor Feathers rounded out the top-five.

“If Rick had gotten to the lead first I don’t know if I’d have passed him honestly,” said Rine. “This surface is just phenomenal and we were able to kind of search around and I’m just glad to be able to hold him off and get the win.”

Max Blair finish in sixth and he also earned the $300 hard charger award courtesy of George’s Used Cars Inc. Colton Flinner, Jason Covert, Robinson and Dickson rounded out the top-ten.

Super Late Model Results- 1. Jeff Rine, 2. Rick Eckert, 3. Gary Stuhler, 4. Dylan Yoder, 5. Trevor Feathers, 6. Max Blair, 7. Colton Flinner, 8. Jason Covert, 9. Ross Robinson, 10. Nick Dickson, 11. Matt Cosner, 12. Andy Huas, 13. Kyle Knapp, 14. Mike Lupfer, 15. Drake Troutman, 16. Tim Wilson, 17. Danny Snyder, 18. Scott Flickinger, 19. Dan Stone, 20. Rent Brenneman, 21. Tyler Bare, 22. Dave Brouse Jr., 23. Hayes Mattern, 24. Kyle Lee

Devin Hart came from the eighth starting position to score the $1200 to win Selinsgrove Ford Limited Late Model victory by a margin of 1.530 seconds over pole sitter Ryan Zook, Todd Snook, Devin Frey and Derrick Garman.

Hart moved into a podium position of lap six and the following circuit he moved into the second spot. Zook, who had led every lap up to this point, hit lapped traffic on lap 11 and Hart began to slowly reel him in.

A late race caution for Andrew Yoder bunched up the field with seven laps remaining and with two to go Hart passed Zook coming to the line. From there it was smooth sailing for Hart as he crossed under the checkers to earn his first victory of the season.

Bob Dunn, Shawn Shoemaker, Kenny Yoder, Mike Smith and Casey Steinhoff rounded out the top-ten.

“I’ve got to give props to Ryan as he ran a really good race, but I’m happy to be standing here,” said Hart. “I was really moving around out there and I showed him the top there on that last restart and it just opened things up for me.”

Limited Late Model Results- 1. Devin Hart, 2. Ryan Zook, 3. Todd Snook, 4. Devin Frey, 5. Derick Garman, 6. Bon Dunn, 7. Shawn Shoemaker, 8. Kenny Yoder, 9. Mike Smith, 10. Casey Steinhoff, 11. Taylor Farling, 12. Steve Todorow, 13. Ethan Beasom, 14. Danny Atherton, 15. Kyle Bachman, 16. Zach Morrow, 17. Andrew Yoder, 18. Donnie Farling, 19. Danny Snyder, 20. Daulton Bigler, 21. Cayden Ranck, 22. John Schoch, 23. Matt Parks, 24. Dillan Stake