Wolfe Wins Second Straight Weikert Memorial

By rscaife
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Updated: June 4, 2018

BY DREW PELLMAN

PORT ROYAL — The annual Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway is one of the biggest sprint car races of the spring season in Central Pennsylvania. If you think back to last year, you may recall that Lance Dewease scored the opening Fallen Heroes Championship event before Lucas Wolfe took home the top prize in the finale. This year? Well, let’s just say a similar script was followed.

Saturday night saw 30 410s signed in for competition with a format of qualifying time trials, passing points in four heat races, and a B-main to set the 24-car field. After points were tallied, the top overall driver would pull an invert pill to set the lineup for a 30-lap feature event paying $5,000-to-win. On this night, that driver was Lance Dewease — who was driving a replica of Walt Dyer’s No. 461 the entire weekend. Dewease drew a three, putting Wolfe and World of Outlaws’ regular David Gravel on the front row.

To say it didn’t take long for Dewease to power from third to the lead would be an understatement. In fact, he used the low line in turns one and two to set up his eventual race-winning move on the very first lap. The event was halted on lap 13 for a spinning Danny Dietrich — who was showcasing the famous Weikert’s Livestock No. 29 colors — in turn one. Aaron Ott clipped him on the way by, sending his No. 58 flipping and erasing a big lead that Dewease had built up. Ott wasn’t injured. On the ensuing restart, Dewease regained control of the field en route to a relatively easy victory — his 109th at Port Royal — by more than four seconds. Gravel settled for second, Greg Hodnett drove up to third, Wolfe faded to fourth and Brock Zearfoss was fifth. T.J. Stutts, Logan Schuchart, Brent Marks, Dylan Cisney and Trey Starks rounded out the top ten. The incredibly competitive heat races were won by Joey Hershey, Blane Heimbach, Dewease and Jacob Allen. A.J. Flick took the B-main. Wolfe was fast timer on the night with a lap of 16.490 seconds.

Any notes that the race teams had from Saturday were virtually useless on Sunday, as rain hit the speedway for nearly an hour right before the racing program was set to begin. If you’re new to dirt-track racing, the extra moisture in the surface makes for an extremely tacky speedway, which allows for a ton of grip and blistering fast speeds throughout the night. If anyone had any doubts that speeds would be up, Hodnett put an end to that in time trials with a 15.234 — more than a second quicker than Wolfe’s quick time the night before. Using the same format as Saturday, Hodnett would go on to be the high-point driver after all qualifying events and drew an invert of seven for the main event. That put two Port Royal regulars on the front row — Cisney and Logan Wagner — with a common goal of parking it on the stage with a $10,000 check in hand for their first win of 2018.

Cisney — the Port Royal resident — got the initial jump, but the yellow flag was displayed in just four laps for a slowing Anthony Macri. Wagner tried to make a move on the ensuing restart, but to no avail at the time. In addition to making the track lightning fast, it was also a bit narrow, so it seemed as if the entire bunch of leaders were in the same corner as they were approaching slower traffic. By lap 14, Wagner finally got himself in position to slide by Cisney for the top spot exiting the second turn. Three laps later, the race was stopped for the second time for a slowing Cory Haas on the backstretch. As Wagner went back to work on the restart, he started to drive away from the field and it sure looked like the time was right for him to score his first victory behind the wheel of the famous Zemco No. 1. Fate, however, had other plans and the left-rear tire exploded on the 22nd lap, handing the lead to Wolfe who had driven by Cisney a few laps prior. Coincidentally, Cisney had the exact same tire issue four laps later, dropping him out of a podium spot as well. That handed the runner up spot to Dewease, but he was no match for Wolfe on this night, as the Mechanicsburg driver crossed under the checkered flag in his No. 24 for his eight career 410 win at Port Royal by more than 1.2 seconds. Gravel followed Wolfe and Dewease to take third, Zearfoss finished fourth and Ryan Smith was fifth. Dietrich, Hodnett, Starks, Marks and Freddie Rahmer took positions six through ten. Four heats for the 31 cars at the Juniata County half-mile on Sunday were won by Mike Wagner, Cisney, Steve Buckwalter and Dietrich. Jared Esh won the B-main.

Late models were also on the agenda both nights, and both programs were dominated by Pennsylavania native and World of Outlaw late model regular Rick Eckert. On Saturday, he won by more than 4.7 seconds over Gary Stuhler, Dylan Yoder, Jeff Rine and nine-time World of Outlaw sprint car champion Donny Schatz. On Sunday, it was an even larger margin of victory, and he was followed to the line by Rine, Ross Robinson, Kyle Lee and Schatz.

THIS WEEK
Port Royal roars back to life Saturday night with the 410 sprint cars, super late models and xtreme stocks on the card. Racing will begin at 7 p.m.

OTHER AREA SPRINT CAR WINNERS
Friday — Williams Grove Speedway — 410s: Steve Buckwalter, 305s: Austin Bishop.
Saturday — Lincoln Speedway — 410s and 358s: Rained Out
Saturday — Selinsgrove Speedway — 360s: Davie Franek