Dewease Triumphs Again Over All-Star Sprints

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: April 17, 2019

By DREW PELLMAN
PORT ROYAL — When Tony Stewart’s All-Star Circuit of Champions invade Juniata County, recent history is telling us there’s a good chance that Lance Dewease will be sitting on Port Royal Speedway’s stage at the end of the night. That was the case again on Saturday night, as 2018’s most dominant local sprint car team earned its first victory of 2019 — Dewease’s 38th career win with the traveling series. It was also his 111th win at Port Royal, which now includes six of the last seven appearances by the All-Star sprints.

This one, however, didn’t seem like it was going to play out the right way for the familiar Kreitz Racing No. 69K. With just two laps to go, the caution flag flew due to a flat tire on Brock Zearfoss’ machine — a fortunate turn of events for Dewease which gave him one last opportunity at race leader Danny Dietrich. With the green flag back in the air, Dietrich hit the bottom of the speedway, forcing Dewease off the assumed preferred line in the process. But the veteran driver from Fayetteville had no problem moving up one lane and racing side-by-side to the white flag where he managed to surge ahead and stay there for the last half-mile on his way to the checkered flag.

Before the 23rd-lap caution, the race was stopped only one time on lap eight for an accident involving the front two cars at the time — Dietrich and Anthony Macri. Macri — who had briefly taken the lead from Dietrich one lap earlier before being passed back — had a run on the top side coming off the second turn. Dietrich, who was exiting the turn on the bottom with the lead, drifted up the track halfway down the backstretch and connected with Macri with his left-rear Hoosier tire. The contact shot Macri across the track with a broken front end. His No. 39M took a hard hit against the inside wall before flipping over —nearly collecting the third-place running car of Dewease. Macri was uninjured.

After Dewease and Dietrich, Logan Wagner, Aaron Reutzel and Dale Blaney completed the top five. Sixth through 10th went to Lucas Wolfe, Ryan Smith, Dylan Cisney, Freddie Rahmer and Steve Buckwalter.

Earlier in the night, Paul McMahan set quick time in time trials with a lap of 16.178 seconds. Blaney, Blane Heimbach, Reutzel and Macri won the four heat races for the 36 410s in the pits. A pair of dashes were won by Dietrich and Macri — putting them both on the front row for the feature event. Cisney won the B-main.

After four Port Royal races so far in 2019, Wolfe leads the track point standings by 55 points over Logan Wagner — the 2018 champion.

In Mason Dixon limited late model action, Andrew Yoder crossed the finish line in second but was awarded the victory after post-race inspection revealed a carb spacer problem in Devin Hart’s race-winning car. Todd Snook was second, Shaun Miller took third, Kenny Yoder crossed fourth and Chad Myers rounded out the top five. Sixth through 10th went to Dillan Stake, Derick Garman, Matt Cohran, Joe Westerman and Eric Hohol.

NEXT WEEK:
Williams Grove (4/19): 410 sprints, Super sportsman
Trail-Way (4/19): 358 sprints, 600 micros, Street stocks, Limited stocks
Port Royal (4/20): 410 sprints, Super late models, Limited late models, Xtreme stocks
Lincoln (4/20): 410 sprints, 358 sprints, Central PA legends
Selinsgrove (4/20): URC 360 sprints, Super late models, Pro Stocks, Roadrunners

LAST WEEK AREA WINNERS:
Williams Grove — All-Stars PPD to September 20th (rain)
Lincoln — 410 sprints: Alan Krimes; 358 sprints: Doug Hammaker
Selinsgrove — 360 sprints: Jason Schultz
Trail-Way — Canceled (rain)