(Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
9/10/26
Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, PA
High Limit and PASS 305’s
50 High Limit
20 PASS
High Limit
Tonight began the Tuscarora 50 weekend, culminating with Saturday’s finale. Tonight had no bearing on that.
The 50 cars were split into two qualifying groups. Ryan Smith (2nd car out to time) set quick time on the half-mile in the first group at 15.320 seconds. Aaron Reutzel (18th car out) was second quick, followed by Chase Dietz (11th), Ryan Timms (8th) and Logan Rumsey (9th). Daison Pursley (12th car out) set quick time in the second group at 15.595 seconds. Brent Marks (4th car out) was second quick, followed by James McFadden (24th) in his first night in the Macri car, Tanner Thorson (3rd) and Rico Abreu (13th). Brock Zearfoss flipped and scratched for the night. Lance Dewease had a throttle linkage problem in hot laps, but had it remedied before he went out to time.
Heat one (started): 1. 23-Chase Dietz[1]; 2. 26-Justin Peck[3]; 3. 71R-Logan Rumsey[2]; 4. 55-Kerry Madsen[5]; 5. 22-Doug Hammaker[10] / 6. 69K-Ryan Smith[4]; 7. 4-Kasey Kahne[9]; 8. 9R-Chase Randall[6]; 9. 27S-Dylan Cisney[13]; 10. 12-Brent Shearer[7]; 11. 77K-Kody Hartlaub[11]; 12. 20-Brady Bacon[8]; 13. 19M-Brett Strickler[12]
8-lap heats took the winner and the top qualifier (starting fourth), who transferred in the top five to the Dash. The top five finishers went to the feature. This one was a rough one to get going. B. Strickler and Shearer contacted before a lap could be completed. B. Strickler retired. On the second try, Kahne (flat right rear), Hartlaub and Bacon made contact and had issues. Bacon would retire for the night. Once green, Dietz shot out to the lead over Peck, Rumsey, R. Smith and Randall. Madsen took the final transfer from Randall on lap three. A caution for debris with three laps to go set up a restart that saw Dietz leading Peck, Rumsey, R. Smith and Madsen. Madsen quickly took fourth from R. Smith, putting him on the bubble. Hammaker was on a mission from row five. He slid by R. Smith to take the final transfer, and held him off by just .05 of a second at the line. Smith’s misfortune allowed Peck a spot in the Dash.
Heat two (started): 1. 10-Ryan Timms[1]; 2. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 3. 42-Sye Lynch[2]; 4. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]; 5. 13-Tanner Holmes[7] / 6. 67-Justin Whittall[6]; 7. 11-TJ Stutts[5]; 8. 71-Parker Price Miller[10]; 9. 1K-Kelby Watt[9]; 10. 39-Lucas Wolfe[8]; 11. 20T-Ryan Taylor[12]; 12. 67X-JJ Loss[11]
This was a more conventional heat. Timms led the distance and was gone. Whittall was running fourth early, but Reutzel and Holmes powered by on lap two to gain the last two transfers.
Heat three (started): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 2. 39M-James McFadden[1]; 3. 9-Daison Pursley[4]; 4. 8-Lance Dewease[7]; 5. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[3] / 6. 24D-Danny Sams III[5]; 7. 6-Zach Hampton[8]; 8. 35-Buddy Schweibinz[9]; 9. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[6]; 10. 10C-Matt Campbell[10]; 11. 47K-Kody Lehman[11]; 12. 48-Danny Dietrich[12]; DNS - 17GP-Brock Zearfoss
Rico led the distance. Dewease had a tremendous first lap to jump from row four to fourth.
Heat four (started): 1. 88-Tanner Thorson[1]; 2. 21-Brian Brown[2]; 3. 19-Brent Marks[4]; 4. 55W-Logan Wagner[6]; 5. 1A-Cameron Smith[5] / 6. 11A-Austin Bishop[3]; 7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[9]; 8. 17-Mark Smith[8]; 9. 88W-Austin McCarl[10]; 10. 66-Ryan Newton[7]; 11. 98-Ricky Peterson[12]; 12. 17GP-Brock Zearfoss; 13. 38-Jordan Strickler[11]
Thorson led wire to wire. C. Smith snatched the final transfer from Bishop on lap two.
C main (started): 1. 12-Brent Shearer[1]; 2. 66-Ryan Newton[4] / 3. 10C-Matt Campbell[2]; 4. 19M-Brett Strickler[8]; 5. 98-Ricky Peterson[6]; 6. 67X-JJ Loss[7]; 7. 38-Jordan Strickler[9]; 8. 39-Lucas Wolfe[3]; 9. 47K-Kody Lehman[5]; DNS - 77K-Kody Hartlaub; 20T-Ryan Taylor; 20-Brady Bacon; 48-Danny Dietrich; 17GP-Brock Zearfoss
The 8-lapper took the top two to the B. Shearer led the distance. Matt Campbell was second early, but Newton cruised by on the second lap for the final transfer. Campbell and Wolfe battled back and forth for third, but Wolfe dropped out late.
Dash (started): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 2. 23-Chase Dietz[2]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[4]; 4. 88-Tanner Thorson[3]; 5. 9-Daison Pursley[5]; 6. 10-Ryan Timms[6]; 7. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]
The 7-lapper determined starting spots in the first four rows of the feature.
B main (started): 1. 69K-Ryan Smith[1]; 2. 67-Justin Whittall[3]; 3. 11A-Austin Bishop[2]; 4. 6-Zach Hampton[6] / 5. 4-Kasey Kahne[5]; 6. 71-Parker Price Miller[11]; 7. 24D-Danny Sams III[4]; 8. 11-TJ Stutts[7]; 9. 9R-Chase Randall[9]; 10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 11. 17-Mark Smith[12]; 12. 1K-Kelby Watt[14]; 13. 88W-Austin McCarl[15]; 14. 66-Ryan Newton[17]; 15. 12-Brent Shearer[16]; 16. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[13]; 17. 35-Buddy Schweibinz[10]; DNS - 27S-Dylan Cisney
The 12-lapper took the top four to the A. R. Smith led Bishop, Whittall and Hampton early. Whittall used the low side to gain second from Bishop on lap 7. Schweibenz was running fifth with three to go when he went up in smoke on the frontstretch. There were no changes in the top four the rest of the way. A. McCarl received a random drawing of $1,000 from Sandy Kline.
A Feature (started): 1. 10-Ryan Timms[6]; 2. 26-Justin Peck[3]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]; 4. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 5. 22-Doug Hammaker[17]; 6. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[9]; 7. 67-Justin Whittall[22]; 8. 55-Kerry Madsen[15]; 9. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[18]; 10. 13-Tanner Holmes[19]; 11. 55W-Logan Wagner[16]; 12. 88-Tanner Thorson[4]; 13. 21-Brian Brown[12]; 14. 71R-Logan Rumsey[11]; 15. 69K-Ryan Smith[21]; 16. 9-Daison Pursley[5]; 17. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 18. 1A-Cameron Smith[20]; 19. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[25, prov.]; 20. 42-Sye Lynch[13]; 21. 11-TJ Stutts[26, prov.]; 22. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[27, prov.]; 23. 23-Chase Dietz[2]; 24. 8-Lance Dewease[14]; 25. 39M-James McFadden[10]; 26. 47K-Kody Lehman[28, prov.]; 27. 6-Zach Hampton[24]; 28. 11A-Austin Bishop[23]
The 25-lapper saw Abreu take the early lead over Dietz, Peck, Timms and Thorson. Dietz stalked the leader and squeezed between Abreu and the wall high in turn two on lap six to the take the lead. He was in traffic a lap later. On lap eight, he got into the provisional car of Jedrzejek and did a 360. He kept it going and Hampton flipped into the wall. Because Dietz kept it going, he kept his lead. Hampton was uninjured. Dietz chose the inside line on the restart over Abreu, Peck, Timms, Thorson and Reutzel. Peck got by Abreu on the restart for second, while Timms sailed into third and Reutzel fifth. Soon after, McFadden came from row five to the top five. On lap 17, McFadden passed Abreu for fourth. Three laps later, Timms took second from Peck, before the fourth running McFadden flipped into the turn one wall. He was unhurt. The restart erased a five second lead for Dietz, ahead of Timms, Peck, Abreu and Reutzel. Reutzel gained fourth on the restart. With three to go, disaster struck for Dietz when he blew his right rear tire, surrendering a sure win. Timms pounced on the opportunity and held them all back to take the popular win. Pursley was the recipient of $1,000 randomly from Sandy Kline. Hammaker continued to impress with a late top five finish. Whittall earned $500 for hard-charger.