Logan Wagner’s $10K Richer After All Star Sprint Keith Kauffman Classic Win At Port Royal

Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / ALL STAR CIRCUIT OF CHAMPIONS – PORT ROYAL, PA – It was a dogfight to the end, but three-time Port Royal Speedway track champion, Logan Wagner, stood his ground and prevailed on Saturday evening at the “Speed Palace,” eventually capping the annual Keith Kauffman Classic featuring the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 as the main attraction on the Port Royal victory lane platform.

Forced to outduel Clauson Marshall Racing’s Tyler Courtney, as well as a hard-charging Anthony Macri, Wagner’s Keith Kauffman Classic victory allowed the Harrisonville-native to bump his All Star win total to two, earning a cool $10,000 in the process. Wagner’s last visit to All Star victory lane occurred at Lernerville Speedway in 2017.

“This is a weight lifted off of my shoulders for the whole year,” Logan Wagner said in victory lane. “I mean, we won against the All Stars. I just can’t thank everyone enough who helps get this car to the track. We’ve been really fast lately, just haven’t been able to get that first win until now. What a way to do it.”

Lining up fourth on the main event grid, Wagner’s march to the front initiated quickly. A move around Jeff Halligan on lap five maneuvered Wagner to third, picking off Outlaw invader, Jacob Allen, for second just two circuits later. In the meantime, 2021 All Star Rookie of the Year contender, Tyler Courtney, was the man in charge, utilizing his pole position to score the early advantage.

Although Courtney was able to stretch his legs and create some space between himself and the rest of the field, a run-in with traffic on lap ten would create the negative momentum shift that Wagner benefited from. By lap 14, Wagner was all over the back bumper of Courtney, applying pressure lap after lap and nearly getting by the Indianapolis-native with four consecutive slide job attempts at the exit of turn four. Despite Wagner’s persistence, Courtney held strong, keeping the Zemco Speed Equipment/Zemco Tool and Die/Zemco Headers/No. 1 at bay.

His ability to hold off Wagner was impressive, banging the boards all the way around Port Royal Speedway, but lap 22 would prove to be the end of Courtney’s reign. In an attempt to split a pair of lappers, Courtney’s momentum faded, ultimately slipping up the surface which opened the door for Wagner to sneak through. Wagner would go on to lead the circuit, now with Courtney, Jacob Allen, and Anthony Macri in tow.

Macri started 21st, forced to do so after a heat race incident left him to participate in the evening’s B-Main.

A two position jump over Allen and Courtney propelled Macri to second on lap 28, next setting aim on Wagner. Just what the “Concrete Kid” needed, caution flags appeared on the final circuit setting up what would be back-to-back green-white-checkered restarts. The first restart attempt was called back due to another caution, but the second restart went off as planned. Macri did his best to overtake Wagner, even attempting a slider between turns one and two, but a drag race down the backstretch, and a quick chop into three, would go in Wagner’s favor.

“I had to chop him a little bit, but that’s just the way it goes,” Wagner added. “We were banging wheels a little bit racing down the backstretch. It was a pretty exciting last two laps.”

Anthony Macri held on to finish second, followed by Ian Madsen, Jacob Allen, and Lance Dewease.

Moving ahead, the All Star Circuit of Champions will conclude their four-race stretch with the $6,000-to-win Johnny Grum Classic at Bedford Speedway on Sunday, April 18.

Contingency Awards/Results: Port Royal Speedway – Saturday, April 17, 2021
Event: Keith Kauffman Classic
Entries: 44
C&R Racing Hot Laps: Ian Madsen – 15.903
Dixie Vodka Fast Qualifier: Anthony Macri – 15.605
Ford Performance Heat #1 Winner: Cory Eliason
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2 Winner: Rico Abreu
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3 Winner: Jeff Halligan
Mobil 1 Heat #4 Winner: Jacob Allen
Kistler Racing Products Heat #5 Winner: Kerry Madsen
Kear’s Speed Shop Dash #1 Winner: Tyler Courtney
Elliott’s Custom Trailers and Carts Dash #2 Winner: Jeff Halligan
Classic Ink USA Screenprinting & Embroidery B-Main Winner: Anthony Macri
Rayce Rudeen Foundation First Non-Transfer: Jared Esh
FloRacing A-Main Winner: Logan Wagner
Hercules Tire A-Main Hard Charger: Anthony Macri (+19)

Qualifying

Group (A)
1. 14-Tony Stewart, 15.726; 2. 11-Ian Madsen, 15.730; 3. 48-Danny Dietrich, 15.740; 4. 26-Cory Eliason, 15.793; 5. 25-Tyler Bear, 16.266; 6. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 16.340; 7. 35H-Zach Hampton, 16.357; 8. 20-Alex Bright, 16.395; 9. 55s-Dallas Schott, 16.403

Group (B)
1. 39M-Anthony Macri, 15.606; 2. 17B-Bill Balog, 15.737; 3. 10-Zeb Wise, 15.752; 4. 24R-Rico Abreu, 15.875; 5. 5-Brent Marks, 15.891; 6. 12-Blane Heimbach, 15.939; 7. 13-Justin Peck, 16.035; 8. 4-Cap Henry, 16.165; 9. 47K-Kody Lehman, 16.517

Group (C)
1. 23-Paul McMahan, 15.824; 2. 69K-Lance Dewease, 15.944; 3. 45-Jeff Halligan, 15.976; 4. 2-AJ Flick, 16.048; 5. 98-Jared Esh, 16.065; 6. 42-Sye Lynch, 16.079; 7. 2c-Dylan Cisney, 16.171; 8. 35s-Jason Shultz, 16.568; 9. 880-Drew Ritchey, 16.657

Group (D)
1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 15.930; 2. O7-Lucas Wolfe, 15.960; 3. 1A-Jacob Allen, 15.962; 4. 55w-Mike Wagner, 16.010; 5. 23c-Pat Cannon, 16.212; 6. 40-George Hobaugh, 16.218; 7. 11T-TJ Stutts, 16.511; 8. 35-Tyler Reeser, 16.625; 9. 6-Ryan Smith, NT

Group (E)
1. 1-Logan Wagner, 16.137; 2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 16.180; 3. 24-Kerry Madsen, 16.259; 4. 29-Michael Bauer, 16.497; 5. 33-Gerard McIntyre, 16.631; 6. 17-Steve Buckwalter, 16.668; 7. 8M-TJ Michael, 16.805; 8. 91-Kyle Reinhardt, 16.834

Heat #1 – Group (A) (8 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 26-Cory Eliason [1]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich [2]; 3. 11-Ian Madsen [3]; 4. 14-Tony Stewart [4]; 5. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [6]; 6. 35H-Zach Hampton [7]; 7. 25-Tyler Bear [5]; 8. 55S-Dallas Schott [9]; 9. 20-Alex Bright [8]

Heat #2 – Group (B) (8 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 24R-Rico Abreu [1]; 2. 10-Zeb Wise [2]; 3. 5-Brent Marks [5]; 4. 13-Justin Peck [7]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog [3]; 6. 12-Blane Heimbach [6]; 7. 4-Cap Henry [8]; 8. 47K-Kody Lehman [9]; 9. 39M-Anthony Macri [4]

Heat #3 – Group (C) (8 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 45-Jeff Halligan [2]; 2. 69K-Lance Dewease [3]; 3. 2-AJ Flick [1]; 4. 23-Paul McMahan [4]; 5. 98-Jared Esh [5]; 6. 42-Sye Lynch [6]; 7. 35S-Jason Shultz [8]; 8. 2C-Dylan Cisney [7]; 9. 880-Drew Ritchey [9]

Heat #4 – Group (D) (8 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 1A-Jacob Allen [2]; 2. 55W-Mike Wagner [1]; 3. 23C-Pat Cannon [5]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [4]; 5. O7-Lucas Wolfe [3]; 6. 11T-TJ Stutts [7]; 7. 35-Tyler Reeser [8]; 8. 40-George Hobaugh [6]

Heat #5 – Group (E) (8 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 24-Kerry Madsen [2]; 2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [3]; 3. 17-Steve Buckwalter [6]; 4. 1-Logan Wagner [4]; 5. 29-Michael Bauer [1]; 6. 33-Gerard McIntyre [5]; 7. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [8]; 8. 8M-TJ Michael [7]

Dash #1 (4 Laps)
1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [1]; 2. 1A-Jacob Allen [2]; 3. 11-Ian Madsen [4]; 4. 14-Tony Stewart [3]; 5. 24R-Rico Abreu [6]; 6. 23-Paul McMahan [5]

Dash #2 (4 Laps)
1. 45-Jeff Halligan [2]; 2. 1-Logan Wagner [1]; 3. 26-Cory Eliason [4]; 4. 24-Kerry Madsen [5]; 5. 48-Danny Dietrich [3]; 6. 10-Zeb Wise [6]

B-Main (12 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 39M-Anthony Macri [1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog [2]; 3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [5]; 4. O7-Lucas Wolfe [3]; 5. 98-Jared Esh [4]; 6. 42-Sye Lynch [8]; 7. 11T-TJ Stutts [10]; 8. 33-Gerard McIntyre [11]; 9. 35H-Zach Hampton [9]; 10. 35S-Jason Shultz [14]; 11. 25-Tyler Bear [13]; 12. 2C-Dylan Cisney [17]; 13. 35-Tyler Reeser [15]; 14. 29-Michael Bauer [6]; 15. 4-Cap Henry [12]; 16. 8M-TJ Michael [20]; 17. 880-Drew Ritchey [21]; 18. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [16]; 19. 12-Blane Heimbach [7]

A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 1-Logan Wagner [4]; 2. 39M-Anthony Macri [21]; 3. 11-Ian Madsen [5]; 4. 1A-Jacob Allen [3]; 5. 69K-Lance Dewease [13]; 6. 48-Danny Dietrich [10]; 7. 14-Tony Stewart [7]; 8. 55W-Mike Wagner [14]; 9. 24R-Rico Abreu [9]; 10. 26-Cory Eliason [6]; 11. 17-Steve Buckwalter [19]; 12. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [15]; 13. 13-Justin Peck [20]; 14. 2-AJ Flick [17]; 15. 23C-Pat Cannon [18]; 16. 17B-Bill Balog [22]; 17. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [1]; 18. 10-Zeb Wise [12]; 19. 45-Jeff Halligan [2]; 20. 5-Brent Marks [16]; 21. O7-Lucas Wolfe [24]; 22. 23-Paul McMahan [11]; 23. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [23]; 24. 2C-Dylan Cisney [25]; 25. 12-Blane Heimbach [26]; 26. 24-Kerry Madsen [8] Lap Leaders: Tyler Courtney (1-21), Logan Wagner (22-30)