85 Cars Take Part In Holiday Racing Program
Port Royal – Steve Buckwalter of Royersford drove to the $5,000 payday in Saturday night’s 25 lap Fallen Heroes Championship for 410 sprints at Port Royal Speedway to record his second oval victory of the 2015 season.
In the companion 25-lap Fallen Heroes Championship for super late models, Selinsgrove’s Jim Yoder wired the field for the $2,000 win, which was the fourth of his career at the oval.
And in the 305 sprint main, Tyler Reeser scored his second win in as many days on the 305 circuit.
Brock Zearfoss and Davey Sammons shared the front row for the start of the 410 sprint main with Zearfoss taking the lead at the start.
Third starter Buckwalter drove around Sammons and into second on the second tour and was stalking Zearfoss with Aaron Ott racing third when the races first caution unfurled with five laps completed.
Buckwalter challenged Zearfoss on the restart but the Jonestown driver was able to stay ahead for a little while longer.
Buckwalter was strong however and as the pair raced toward the completion of the seventh tour, he muscled his No. 17B to Zearfoss’ inside in the fourth corner to take control.
Eighth starter Greg Hodnett motored into fourth on the same lap as the lead change took place but the field was strung out around the track by that point.
With 10 laps down, 11th starter Brent Marks broke into the top five however he would not be a factor.
Another caution flag with nine laps to go regrouped the field with numerous lapped cars separating the front runners and Buckwalter rocketed away on the restart.
However Ott and Hodnett began biting into the lead with five laps to go and during the final pair of laps they drew to within the same set of turns but ran out of time.
Buckwalter took the victory by 1.023 seconds over Ott, Hodnett, Zearfoss and Marks.
Sixth through 10th went to Dylan Cisney, Lucas Wolfe, Doug Esh, Ryan Taylor and TJ Stutts.
Heats for the 28-car field went to Hodnett, Buckwalter and Ott with Rick Lafferty taking the consolation
Wolfe set fast time in group time trials with a lap of 15.773 seconds.
Jim Yoder rode his pole starting position all the way to the finish in a raced that was riddled with caution flags, taking place on laps three, six, 12 and 18.
Several heavy hitters fell out of contention during the event including Dylan Yoder, Tim Wilson and Dan Stone.
Wilson was running a challenging fourth, trying to take third from Trent Brenneman when the pair connected due to close quarters as they raced hard into the third corner for the spot.
Yoder sliced a tire and fell out of a surging top eight position and Stone likewise withdrew while racing fifth and moving forward.
With six laps to go in the 25-lapper, Greg Satterlee of Rochester Mills began blasting toward the front after starting 12th.
He circled the top of the track with lightning speed and took second from Justin Kann with two laps to go before rapidly closing on leader Yoder.
However the clock was not Saterlee’s friend as he ran out of time to produce a win, instead crossing the line just .958 seconds behind and closing at the finish.
Kann was third followed by Andy Haus and Derrick Casner.
After starting 22nd, Mike Lupfer clawed his way to the front to finish sixth followed by Nick Dickson, Mitch Hack, Coleby Frye and Dave Zona.
Heats went to Jim Yoder, Wilson and Dickson with Zona scoring the consolation for the 30 cars in action.
Matt Parks set quick time with a lap of 18.478 but failed to make the feature event.
Tyler Reeser led the entire way in the 25 lap main for the 305 sprints in another race that was hampered by cautions and a red flag on the 11th lap.
A six-car melee on the frontstretch brought out the red however there were no injuries.
Erin Statler gave up the second spot to Jeff Miller on the fourth lap but Miller ended up crashing out of the event when he plowed into a spun car on the ninth circuit.
Statler mounted a challenge on Reeser for the lead after the red flag but after that Reeser stretched it out to the checkers.
Nathan Gramley, Scott Ellerman and Zach Newlin rounded out the top five followed by Darren Miller, Ryan Lynn, Jon Haegele, Bill Jones Jr. and Tom Worrick.
Heats went to Miller, Haegele and Statler.
Race Results:
Feature Finishes
5/23/15
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Steve Buckwalter, 2. Aaron Ott, 3. Greg Hodnett, 4. Brock Zearfoss, 5. Brent Marks, 6. Dylan Cisney, 7. Lucas Wolfe, 8. Doug Esh, 9. Ryan Taylor, 10. TJ Stutts, 11. Logan Wagner, 12. Davey Sammons, 13. Mike Wagner, 14. Blane Heimbach, 15. Trenton Sheaffer, 16. Nate Snyder, 17. Rick Lafferty, 18. Tyler Bear, 19. Joey Hershey, 20. Ed Aiken, 21. Curt Stroup, 22. Kevin Nouse, 23. Justin Barger, 24. Dave Hahn
DNQ: Dustin Baney, Vince Snyder, Daryl Stimeling, Jim Campbell Jr.
Late models, 25 laps: 1. Jim Yoder, 2. Greg Satterlee, 3. Justin Kann, 4. Andy Haus, 5. Derrick Casner, 6. Mike Lupfer, 7. Nick Dickson, 8. Mitch Hack, 9. Coleby Frye, 10. Dave Zona, 11. Brian Tavenner, 12. Trent Brenneman, 13. Chad Hollenbeck, 14. Hayes Mattern, 15. Lindasay Barton, 16. Patrick Bryner, 17. Andrew Yoder, 18. Eric Zembower, 19. Meade Hahn, 20. Dan Stone, 21. Dylan Yoder, 22. Tim Wilson, 23. Tim Smith Jr., 24. Jason Schmidt.
DNQ: Jeremy Ohl, Cody Robbins, Mike Mort, Dave Brouse Sr., Cole Amsden, Matt Parks
305 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Tyler Reeser, 2. Erin Statler, 3. Nathan Gramley, 4. Scott Ellerman, 5. Zach Newlin, 6. Darren Miller,7. Ryan Lynn, 8. Jon Haegele, 9. Bill Jones Jr., 10. Tom Worrick, 11. Jason Bergstresser, 12. Derrick Bowersox, 13. Dave Graber, 14. Mike Alleman, 15. Dave Guss, 16. Randy Kaylor, 17. Reed Thompson, 18. John Martin, 19. Cale Reigle, 20. James Pryde, 21. Jeff Miller, 22. Jim Kennedy, 23. John Fiore, 24. Geoff Gill, 25. Jonathan Jones
DNQ: John Bott, Jake Waters