9/8/23
Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, PA
Night Before the Tuscarora 50
All Stars
48 cars
Drivers were divided into five heat groups for qualifying. The track did not go away with Zeb Wise, the 47th car out to time setting quick time in the fifth group and overall at 16.600 seconds on the half-mile. Cory Eliason (16.831) set quick time in the first group, Parker Price-Miller (16.911) in the second, Devon Borden (16.660) in the third and Tyler Courtney (16.633) in the fourth. Cory Thornton did not get a time in, and Ryan Smith got just one.
Heat one (started): 1. Lance Dewease 39m (1) 2. Kerry Madsen 55 (2) 3. Danny Dietrich 48 (5) 4. Eliason 11 (4) / 5. Mike Wagner 55w (6) 6. Freddie Rahmer 51 (3) 7. Kody Lehman 47K (8) / 8. Jeff Halligan 45H (7) 9. Brent Shearer 12s (9) 10. Cory Thornton 2c (10)
8 lap heats took the heat winner, and the group’s quickest qualifier (if they didn’t win the heat) to the Dash. The top four locked into the feature, and fifth through seventh to the B. All the rest went to the C. Dewease led the distance with Madsen in tow. Eliason was third early, ahead of Dietrich and Rahmer. M. Wagner passed Rahmer for fifth on lap two. Thornton slowed to bring a caution at that point. Dietrich snatched third from Eliason on the restart. M. Wagner was also pressuring Eliason for the final transfer, and passed him with three to go. Eliason came back, however, in a good battle.
Heat two (started): 1. Price-Miller 9P (4) 2. Steve Buckwalter 17B (2) 3. Justin Peck 13 (1) 4. Ryan Smith 6 (6) / 5. Ryan Taylor 20 (5) 6. Conner Morrell 28m (3) 7. Blane Heimbach 12 (9) / 8. Brie Hershey 97H (8) 9. Devin Adams 99 (10) 10. Devin Brenneman 36D (7)
Peck was penalized on the initial start for jumping. Price-Miller had an exceptional start and shot to the lead from outside row two at the outset. Buckwalter, Peck and Smith followed. Brenneman suffered a flat right rear two laps in.
Heat three (started): 1. Aaron Retuzel 8 (1) 2. Dylan Cisney 5 (2) 3. Borden 23 (4) 4. Sye Lynch 42 (3) / 5. Garrett Bard 95 (7) 6. Lucas Wolfe 5w (6) 7. Kyle Reinhardt 45 (5) / 8. Jonathan Preston 21P (8) 9. Zach Hampton 35 (9) 10. Cole Young 17 (10)
The track had plenty of character and multiple grooves. Cisney led most of the way with Reutzel trying everything to get by for good. Reutzel finally snuck by on the outside in the last corner to win it and head for the dash. You could throw a blanket over Borden, Lynch and Reinhardt for third through fifth.
Heat four (started): 1. Courtney 7BC (4) 2. Brent Marks 19 (1) 3. Hunter Schuerenberg 1 (2) 4. Anthony Macri 71 (5) / 5. Kraig Kinser 70 (7) 6. Derek Hauck 33 (9) 7. Austin Bishiop 35B (3) / 8. Lynton Jeffrey 77 (8) 9. Jarrett Cavalet 98 (6)
Courtney dominated, shooting to the lead right away from outside row two. Marks closed late, however, and fell just shot of catching him.
Heat five (started): 1. Logan Wagner 69K (2) 2. Wise 26 (4) 3. TJ Stutts 11T (6) 4. Gerard McIntyre Jr. 33m (7) / 5. Brian Brown 21 (1) 6. Chris Windom 4 (3) 7. Sam Hafertepe Jr. 15H (5) / 8. Brandon Spithaler 97 (8) 9. Carl Bowser 29 (9)
Brown was penalized a row on the initial start. L. Wagner led Wise, Stutts, Brown and McIntyre early. McIntyre threw a slider on Brown in turn four on lap three to take the final transfer. Spithaler got into the wall on lap three to bring the only caution.
C main (started): 1. Halligan (1) 2. Preston (3) / 3. Spithaler (2) 4. Adams (9) 5. Shearer (10) 6. Jeffrey (5) 7. Bowser (7) 8. Hampton (8) 9. Cavalet (6) 10. Brenneman (11) 11. Young (12) 12. Thornton (13) 13. Hershey (4)
The 10-lapper saw the top two transfer to the B. Halligan led the distance. Preston passed Spithaler for the second transfer on lap two.
Dash (started): 1. Reutzel (1) 2. Wise (4) 3. Eliason (2) 4. Courtney (6) 5. Price-Miller (8) 6. Borden (5) 7. Dewease (7) 8. L. Wagner (3)
The 6-lapper set up the first four rows of the feature. Reutzel led early over Eliason, while Wise and Courtney battled tooth and nail for third. Wise eventually won that battle, and passed Eliason for second.
B main (started): 1. Brown (1) 2. M. Wagner (3) 3. Kinser (6) 4. Taylor (4) / 5. Bishop (2) 6. Heimbach (15) 7. Wolfe (9) 8. Hafertepe (12) 9. Rahmer (7) 10. Reinhardt (13) 11. Preston (17) 12. Lehman (14) 13. Halligan (16) 14. Windom (8) 15. Hauck (11) 16. Morrell (10) 17. Bard (5)
The 12-lapper sent the top four to the feature. Brown led the distance with M. Wagner in tow. Taylor grabbed third from Biship on lap two. Kinser followed him into the final transfer on lap six, and then passed Taylor for third with two to go.
A main (started): 1. Courtney (4) 2. Dewease (7) 3. Wise (2) 4. L. Wagner (8) 5. Eliason (3) 6. Price-Miller (5) 7. Dietrich (15) 8. Marks (9) 9. Cisney (11) 10. Madsen (10) 11. McIntyre (19) 12. Stuffs (16) 13. M. Wagner (22) 14. Halligan (26, prov.) 15. Peck (14) 16. Lynch (18) 17. Brown (21) 18. Smith (20) 19. Buckwalter (12) 20. Kinser (23) 21. Reinhardt (27, prov.) 22. Taylor (24) 23. Schuerenberg (13) 24. Borden (6) 25. Reutzel (1) 26. Macri (17) 27. Lehman (28, prov.) 28. Windom (25, prov.)
The 30-lapper saw Wise lead early over Courtney, Reutzel, Eliason and Borden. Price-Miller got Borden for fifth on lap five. Wise hit lapped traffic on lap eight. Reutzel worked by Courtney for second on lap nine. Borden got going again and moved from sixth to fourth by lap 10. On lap 11, a three-way battle for the lead was intense. Reutzel and Courtney worked by Wise at that point. L. Wagner worked into the top five by lap 12. Wise dueled Courtney for the second spot on lap 14. The halfway point saw Schuerenberg with a flat right rear bringing caution. The restart saw Reutzel ahead of Wise, Courtney, Borden and L. Wagner. The restart saw Macri get into the turn four wall. He was done. Courtney had passed Wise, but that was negated by the caution. He would make that pass on the low side on lap 17. L. Wagner passed Borden for fourth on lap 18. Courtney reeled in Reutzel and passed him low in turn four with ten to go to take the point. L. Wagner passed both Wise and Reutzel for second on lap 24 as he flexed his late muscles. Meanwhile, Dewease was on fire and out of nowhere as well. He snatched second from Wagner with four to go when a caution flew for the fourth running Reutzel, who blew his right rear tire and collected the sixth running Borden. Both were done. Courtney was able to hold off Dewease for the win and a lock into Saturday’s Tusky.