Nearly $4,000 contingency cash given to 17 different drivers in successful event
Port Royal – Brent Marks of Myerstown won the biggest sprint car race of his career on Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway by claiming the 8th running of the Living Legends Dream Race.
An emotional Marks pocketed a total of $10,620 including lap money for his non-stop Dream A Main victory plus another $700 for a run in his semi main for a grand total night’s earnings of $11,320.
A revenge draw placed Nate Snyder of Halifax on the pole for the start of the 35-lap Dream A Main and Snyder held off Marks for the first four laps before Marks took over.
Dave Blaney then tussled with Snyder for second for several laps before finally securing the spot on the 11th circuit as the leaders entered the rear of the field.
Greg Hodnett drove into third on the same lap and began his assault on the front of the field.
Blaney closed in on Marks during the mid stages just prior to the halfway point but then just as it seemed Blaney would challenge he began slipping backwards a bit and succumbed to Hodnett with 15 laps to go.
Try as he might, Hodnett could never close in on Marks as the leader worked traffic with a near flawless, pass-at-will performance while running his No. 19M up against the outside wall.
After winning his first ever Port Royal checkers a week earlier, Marks stretched out his advantage over Hodnett late in the event to take the prestigious triumph by 2.309 seconds ahead of the Thomasville flyer.
In doing so, Marks set a new 35-lap track record with a time of 11:16.026.
After claiming the first semi main worth $2,000 to win plus $320 in lap money and another 5K for second in the Dream A, Hodnett went home with a total on the night of $7,320.
Blaney ended the night third in the Dream A and along with his semi run went home with an even $3000.
After starting seventh in the A Main field, Rick Lafferty moved to the front with 13 laps to go, exchanging the fourth spot with Lucas Wolfe on a few occasions while also challenging Blaney for third.
Wolfe finally secured the spot with 10 laps to go and finished the night with a total of $2,800 in earnings including $100 for overall fast time.
Lafferty crossed the line in fifth spot at the finish, taking home a total of $2,100.
Dave Ely was sixth with $1,900, followed by Snyder, $2080; Chad Layton, $1,700; Logan Wagner, $1,500; and defending Dream champion Ryan Taylor, $1,475.
Lance Dewease earned the $250 Hard Charger Award with a run from 20th to 11th.
Dylan Cisney was awarded the fan voted 25th feature starter position.
Lafferty earned a free engine dyno from Don Ott Racing engines as the highest finishing Ott engine.
Hodnett took a Rider Engine dyno as the highest finishing Rider motor while Rodney Westhafer took home a Rider dyno as the lowest finishing Rider eninge.
Hodnett led all 16 laps of the first semi feature, getting by Nate Snyder on the first lap to wire the field over Wolfe, Snyder, Lafferty and Ely.
Mike Erdley was solidly in second with a lap to go when he dropped out of the event.
Ryan Taylor scored $125 hard charger laurels with a blast from 16th to sixth.
The second semi saw Steve Buckwalter take the lead at the start as Aaron Ott gave chase.
On the eighth tour as Ott blasted to Buckwalter’s outside through the fourth corner, the pair made contact on the frontchute, causing Buckwalter to spin with the lead while giving Ott a flat tire.
After Ott crossed the line as the leader of lap eight and then withdrawing, Heimbach inherited the lead and drove to the victory on the restart over Blaney, Marks, Justin Barger and Layton.
Ryan Wilson was the $125 hard charger after running from 20th to 12th at the finish.
Tyler Bear led all 12 laps of the non-qualifiers main event and took home $700 for the win, which also guaranteed him a starting spot in the 2015 Dream A Main.
Bear was chased to the finish by Kyle Moody, Kyle Pruitt, Dan Shetler and Steve Owings.
Trenton Schaeffer copped the $1000-value complete set of Penske Shocks as the highest finishing driver on Penskes.
Lucas Wolfe was the overall fast timer of the night of the 41-car field with a fast lap of 15.709 seconds and as such was the fast qualifier for the odd qualifiers semi main, worth $100.
Doug Esh was the even qualifiers $100 fast timer and second overall on the night with a lap of 16.277 seconds.
Proceeds from the night’s silent auction produced six allotments of $202 to be given to six different drivers via a random fan poll.
The winners of the bonus cash were: Doug Esh, Rodney Westhafer, Ryan Wilson, Curt Stroup, Pat Cannon and Alan Krimes.
A grand total of $3,802 in contingency cash was awarded to a total of 17 different drivers in the event.
Todd Snook and Andrew Yoder split the econo late model 15-lap feature events.
The win was the second of the season for Snook and fourth for Yoder.
Snook took the first race over Troy Miller, Yoder, Tim Krape and Devin Hart.
Yoder’s win came over Krape, Snook, Miller and hart.
Twin heats went to Hart and Snook.
Title and contingency sponsors of the 2014 Living Legends Dream Race are: Slivinski Law Offices, Selinsgrove; Lelands.com; Packer’s Concessions; Hoosier Tires; York County Racing Club; Hoseheads.com; DMI; CRANKWERKZ; Rider Racing Engines; Don Ott Racing Engines; Penske Shocks; Wings Unlimited; Goshorn Racing Supplies; Zemco Speed Equipment; Leach Automotive Service; VRP Shocks; Smith Tire; RE Davidson & Son; Boulevard Car Wash; Moose Blocks; Rebecca Kerstetter Agency and Bryan Imes Auctioneer.
Keep up to date on the latest speedway news and information by visiting the oval’s official website at www. portroyalspeedway.com or by visiting the speedway on its Facebook or Twitter pages.
Race Results: 8/2/14
410 sprints, 35 laps, A Main: 1. Brent Marks, 2. Greg Hodnett, 3. Dave Blaney, 4. Lucas Wolfe, 5. Rick Lafferty, 6. Dave Ely, 7. Nate Snyder, 8. Chad Layton, 9. Logan Wagner, 10. Ryan Taylor, 11. Lance Dewease, 12. Justin Barger, 13. Curt Michael, 14. Ryan Smith, 15. Pat Cannon, 16. Curt Stroup, 17. Mike Wagner, 18. Mike Erdley, 19. Aaron Ott, 20. Davey Sammons, 21. Rodney Westhafer, 22. Joey Hershey, 23. Steve Buckwalter, 24. Dylan Cisney, 25. Blane Heimbach (DNS)
410 sprints, 16 laps, semi main 1: 1. Greg Hodnett, 2. Lucas Wolfe, 3. Nate Snyder, 4. Rick Lafferty, 5. Dave Ely, 6. Ryan Taylor, 7. Ryan Smith, 8. Davey Sammons, 9. Mike Wagner, 10. Rodney Westhafer, 11. Joey Hershey, 12. Kyle Moody, 13. Jordan Givler, 14. Trenton Schaeffer, 15. Scott Wilson, 16. Mike Erdley, 17. Tyler Bear, 18. Dan Shetler, 19. Daryl Stimeling, 20. Kyle Pruitt
410 sprints, 16 laps, semi main 2: 1. Blane Heimbach, 2. Dave Blaney, 3. Brent Marks, 4. Justin Barger, 5. Chad Layton, 6. Logan Wagner, 7. Curt Michael, 8. Pat Cannon, 9. Curt Stroup, 10. Lance Dewease, 11. Aaron Ott, 12. Ryan Wilson, 13. Steve Owings, 14. Dave Hahn, 15. Troy Fraker, 16. Wayne Dadetto, 17. Steve Buckwalter, 18. Dylan Cisney, 19. Nicole Bower
DNS: Doug Esh
410 sprints, 12 laps, non qualfiers main: 1. Tyler Bear, 2. Kyle Moody, 3. Kyle Pruitt, 4. Dan Shetler, 5. Steve Owings, 6. Wayne Dadetto, 7. Jordan Givler, 8. Daryl Stimeling, 9. Ryan Wilson, 10. Nicole Bower, 11. Dave Hahn, 12. Troy Fraker, 13. Scott Wilson, 14. Trenton Schaeffer
DNS: Alan Krimes, Doug Esh
355 econo late models, 15 laps, feature 1: Todd Snook, 2. Troy Miller, 3. Andrew Yoder, 4. Tim Kraper, 5. Devin Hart, 6. Shaun Miller, 7. Jason Nace, 8. Jared Fulkroad, 9. Harold Ranck, 10. Chase Bowsman, 11. Teddy Richardson, 12. Lucas Bryner, 13. Danny Sollers, 14. Curtis Heath, 15. Brett Hockenberry,16. Jason Peachey
DNS: Garrett Gray, Ken Beck, Cody Buterbaugh
355 econo late models, 15 laps, feature 2: 1. Andrew Yoder, 2. Tim Krape, 3. Todd Snook, 4. Troy Miller, 5. Devin Hart, 6. Shaun Miller, 7. Harold Ranck, 8. Jason Nace, 9. Brett Hockenberry, 10. Lucas Bryner, 11. Jared Fulkroad, 12. Teddy Richardson, 13. Chase Bowsman, 14. Danny Sollers, 15. Jason Peachy
DNS: Curtis Heath, Garrett Gray, Ken Beck, Cody Buterbaugh