Port Royal "Night Before the 50" Results and Stories

Friday, September 9, 2022
Port Royal SpeedwayPort Royal Speedway 9/9/22

Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, PA

Night Before the 50

All Stars

52 cars

Tyler Courtney set quick time overall for the second night in a row on the half-mile at 16.225 seconds.  He was in the first heat group.  Justin Peck set quick time in the second group, Brent Marks in the third, Brian Brown in the fourth and Gio Scelzi in the fifth.  Problems emerged with the turn one and two wall.  Steve Buckwalter clipped it on his second lap, flattening his right rear tire, as did Mike Walter.  Gerard McIntyre hammered it was well, and then Ayrton Gennetten followed him and caught it as well.  A lengthy delay for fence repair occurred with the latter two drivers getting another crack at qualifying.

Heat one (started): 1. Cory Eliason 11 (1) 2. Courtney 7BC (4) 3. Mike Wagner 55w (3) 4. Cap Henry 4 (8) / 5. Tyler Reeser 17 (6) 6. Justin Whittall 67 (7) 7. Logan Wagner 1 (5) 8. Zach Hampton 35 (10) 9. Chase Dietz 39 (9) 10. Troy Fraker 12w (11) 11. Jeff Halligan 45 (2)

8-lap heats took the top four to the feature, and the winner and fastest qualifier who finished in the top four to the Dash.  Eliason led Courtney, M. Wagner and Halligan early.  That was the status quo until Halligan tagged the turn two wall on lap six and was done for the night.  Henry snatched the final transfer from Reeser on the restart.

Heat two (started): 1. Kasey Kahne 9 (3) 2. Austin Bishop 11A (1) 3. Peck 13 (4) 4. TJ Stutts 11T (2) / 5. Steve Buckwalter 17x (7) 6. Tyler Bear 98 (6) 7. Brent Shearer 12s (9) 8. Devin Brenneman 36D (10) 9. Brie Hershey 97 (8) 10. Devon Borden 23 (5) DNS – Derek Hauck 33

Bishop led Kahne, Stutts and Peck early.  On lap four, Borden became the latest to catch the wall in turn two.  He was also done for the night.  Brenneman came to a stop on the restart, and Hershey also exited with a flat right front.  When Brenneman stopped again (after running out of fuel), he was done.  Kahne surged into the lead past bishop, while Peck captured third.  Stutts held off Buckwalter for the final transfer.

Heat three (started): 1. Lance Dewease 69K (1) 2. Sye Lynch 42 (2) 3. Marks 19M (4) 4. Dylan Cisney 5 (3) / 5. Cale Thomas 49x (6) 6. Scotty Thiel 73 (9) 7. Chris Windom 19 (8) 8. Mike Walter 33w (7) 9. Ryan Smith 6 (5) 10. McKenna Haase 55T (10)

Dewease led the distance and left the rest in the dusty.  Lynch and Marks had a good duel for second.  Thomas never left the rear bumper of Cisney, but fell short at the checkers.

Heat four (started): 1. Danny Dietrich 48 (1) 2. Brown 21 (4) 3. Ayrton Gennetten 3 (2) 4. Freddie Rahmer 8 (6) / 5. Gerard McIntyre Jr. 33M (7) 6. Bill Balog 17B (5) 7. AJ Flick 2 (9) 8. Kyle Reinhardt 91 (8) 9. Landon Myers 1m (10) 10. Lucas Wolfe 5w (3)

Dietrich led the distance in a mostly single-file affair.

Heat five (started): 1. Rico Abreu 24 (2) 2. Scelzi 18 (4) 3. Zeb Wise 26 (3) 4. Blane Heimbach 12 (6) / 5. Hunter Schuerenberg 55 (5) 6. Tyler Walton 14T (7) 7. Ryan Taylor 77 (9) 8. Kyle Moody 99 (8) 9. Cory Thornton 2c (10) 10. Anthony Macri 39M (1)

Abreu slid Macri to lead early with Scelzi and Wise in tow.  On lap two, Macri helicoptered and slammed into the turn two wall.  He kept driving, but the car sustained enough damage to be done.  Abreu sailed the rest of the way, while Heimbach held off Schuerenberg for the final transfer.

C main (started): 1. Hampton (1) 2. Moody (3) / 3. Reinhardt (2) 4. Dietz (5) 5. Wolfe (8) 6. Brenneman (4) 7. Haase (9) 8. Thornton (7) 9. Fraker (11) 10. Myers (6) 11. Hershey (10) DNS – Walter, Borden, Smith, Hauck

The 10-lapper saw the top two transfer to the B.  Hampston led throughout, but a good battle developed early for second between Reinhardt and Moody.  Moody slid by for the spot on lap three.

Dash (started): 1. Brown (2) 2. Scelzi (3) 3. Eliason (1) 4. Kahne (5) 5. Dietrich (8) 6. Courtney (5) 7. Marks (9) 8. Dewease (10) 9. Peck (4) 10. Abreu (7)

The 6-lapper set up the first five rows of the feature.  Eliason led early but got into a good battle with Brown, who passed him with a slider on lap two.  Scelzi followed suit to finish second.

B main (started): 1. Macri (1) 2. McIntyre (4) 3. Schuerenberg (3) 4. Whittall (7) / 5. Reeser (2) 6. Buckwalter (6) 7. Thomas (5) 8. Balog (8) 9. Windom (12) 10. Bear (9) 11. Thiel (10) 12. Flick (13) 13. Walton (11) 14. Hampton (16) 15. Moody (17) 16. Taylor (14) 17. Shearer (15) DNS – L. Wagner, Halligan

The 12-lapper took the top four to the feature.  Macri led wire to wire, ahead of McIntyre and Schuerenberg.  Hampton came to a stop on lap two to ring caution.  Reeser was running fourth, and Thomas won a three-wide battle for fifth.  Thomas used the same line to move into the final transfer spot on the restart.  On lap six, Whittall put a dangerous slider on Thomas in turn two to gain the spot.  If not for some masterful avoidance by Thomas, both would have been in serious trouble.

A main (started): 1. Dewease (8) 2. Brown (1) 3. Scelzi (2) 4. Peck (9) 5. Marks (7) 6. Courtney (6) 7. Cisney (18) 8. Whittall (24) 9. Macri (21) 10. Eliason (3) 11. Abreu (10) 12. Reeser (28, prov.) 13. Windom (27, prov.) 14. Rahmer (20) 15. McIntyre Jr. (22) 16. Henry (17) 17. Heimbach (19) 18. Balog (25, prov.) 19. Schuerenberg (23) 20. Wise (14) 21. Dietrich (5) 22. Kahne (4) 23. Stutts (16) 24. Lynch (12) 25. M. Wagner (13) 26. Bishop (11) 27. Gennetten (15) 28. L. Wagner (26, prov.)


The 30-lapper had Brown leading early over Scelzi and Courtney.  Dietrich grabbed third on lap two, while Marks moved into fifth.  Wise stopped with a flat right rear five laps in.  On lap eight, Dewease started moving, going from sixth to fourth.  On lap ten, he used the low side of turn four to pass Dietrich for third.  Balog suffered yet another flat right rear 11 laps in.  On that restart, disaster struck when Lynch lost a left front wheel, and M. Wagner launched on it, flipping into the turn two fence.  Bishop and Gennetten were also caught in it, and Macri and Balog both visited the work area.  Once back under green, Dewease went to work on Scelzi and passed him on the low side of four on lap 13 to take second.  Dietrich performed the same move at the halfway point to move into third.  On lap 16, Dewease kept it going, passing Brown for the lead low in turn three.  Dietrich followed with the same move a lap later. On lap 22, Dietrich was gaining on Dewease when something broke on the car.  Now Dewease led Brown, Scelzi, Marks and Peck back to green.  Peck would get Marks for fourth with four to go, but Dewease just pulled away from the pack to win by a health margin.  It was his 121st career win at Port.  Whittall was the hard-charger.