DAVE DARLAND TOPS IN PORT ROYAL USAC SPRINTS EASTERN STORM,
Buckwalter Jr. and Garman also winners
Port Royal – National sprint car veteran Dave Darland of Lincoln, Ind., turned in a flag to flag performance in Saturday night’s 30-lap USAC Sprint Eastern Storm feature event at Port Royal Speedway, worth $6,000 for the win.
In the 20-lap ARDC Midget feature, Bruce Buckwalter Jr. scored the victory while Derrick Garman out-dueled Tim Krape for his second win in the division in as many weeks.
Darland started outside the front row in the USAC feature alongside polesitter Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Ind.
And when the green flag unfurled Darland took off aboard his Phillips Motorsports No. 71P never to look back on his way to the win while Clauson fell backward in his Tony Stewart-owned No. 20.
Instead in second at the completion of the races first lap was third starter Chase Stockon with Daron Clayton racing third.
The first 24 laps of the 30-lapper went non-stop with Darland entering lapped traffic on the 14th tour.
The leader threaded his way through the backmarkers with ease, working high, low and through the middle, never skipping a beat in his run at the front.
Meanwhile, a three-way race for second developed by the halfway point between Stockon, Clayton and a rebounding Clauson.
The trio raced under a blanket for second for numerous laps throughout the mid stages of the event, pulling slide job after slide job for the spots on one another before the No. 92 of Sikeston, Missouri’s Clayton finally took second just before the yellow unfurled with six laps to go.
Darland was separated from Clayton by three lapped cars for the return to action and by that time 12th starter Brady Bacon had worked his way up to fifth for the restart.
Both Clauson and Bacon disposed of Stockon over the final loops but the pair was still no match for the fleet running Darland who ended up crossing the finish line 3.003 seconds ahead of Clayton.
Clauson ended up on the podium in third followed by Bacon and Stockon.
Sixth through 10th went to fast timer Tracy Hines, Levi Jones, Kevin Thomas Jr., Hunter Schurenberg and Shane Cottle.
“Tonight was a tough race track, but I like to run the high line,” winner Darland said.
“I was just concentrating on my entries, especially getting into turn-one. The restart wasn’t what I wanted to see, but I knew I had some lapped cars and just made sure I ran into one hard enough,” Darland said.
Clayton’s second gave him a 12-point lead in the “Eastern Storm” standings going into Sunday’s mini-series finale at Susquehanna Speedway.
“On a track like this was tonight, I’ll take a second behind Darland anytime. I couldn’t get into the corner on the cushion the way I wanted to, without throwing the nose, and I didn’t wanna stick it in the fence,” Clayton noted.
“We got a little better, and I got a good restart at the end behind Darland, but then I saw where he was entering and I just couldn’t get my car to enter up there like him. It might have been me, but we’ll say it was the car,” Clayton said with a laugh.
Clauson’s late-race slide-job in turn-three to capture the final podium spot made him Clayton’s nearest competitor in “Eastern Storm” points.
“I started on the bottom and was trying to get to the top and had the little mishap with Daron (Clayton) there, and we were really pretty lucky to keep going after that. We gathered it up, and I think our group of cars were about as good as each other,” Clauson said of his close race for second during the middle of the race.
“Stockon went away a little bit at the end and Clayton beat us by him. Tonight is probably not my best kind of race track, but tonight was another strong showing for us, and we’re happy to click off a couple podiums and hopefully start to find a rhythm,” Clauson said.
Heats for the 26-car field went to Levi Jones, Darland and Clayton. Bacon took the B Main.
Hines of New Castle, Indiana, set fast time with a lap of 21.120 seconds.
Bruce Buckwalter Jr. started fourth in the ARDC Midget main and took the lead from Brenden Bright on the second lap.
After that Buckwalter drove to the win in the 20-lap non-stop affair by 1.715 seconds to score his second overall win of the season in the division.
Bright finished a season best of second in the race after leading the first lap.
Third-starter Steve Drevicki finished where he started followed by Ryan Greth and Drew Heistand.
Sixth through 10th went to Tony Dimattia, PJ Gargiulo, Brett Arndt, Kyle Lick and Billy Pauch Jr.
Twin heats went to Bright and Drevicki.
Fifth starter Tim Krape powered into the lead on the first lap of the 15-lap pro stock main and tried to run off with another win on the season but a yellow flag with seven laps down proved his undoing.
Last week’s winner Derrick Garman was up to second for the restart and the regrouping of the field played to his advantage.
Rather than let Krape get away when action resumed, he pressured the veteran for the next three laps before being scored the leader with five to go.
Once in front, Garman was able to get away from Krape for the victory.
Krape crossed in second followed by Tim Fedder, Dave Bowsman and Kyle Rapp.
Twin heats went to Krape and Fedder.
June 8, 2013 finishes:
USAC sprints, 30 laps, 26 entries: 1. Dave Darland, 2. Daron Clayton, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Tracy Hines, 7. Levi Jones, 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9. Hunter Schuerenberg, 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Robert Ballou, 12. Chris Windom, 13. Mark Smith, 14. Kyle Moody, 15. Tyler Courtney, 16. Billy Pauch, Jr., 17. Dalten Gabbard, 18. Tim Glatfelter, 19. Mark Bitner, 20. Landon Simon, 21. Joey Biasi, 22. Nick Drake.
DNQ: JR Berry, Denny Gross, Trevor Utt, Curt Stroup
Time Trials: 1. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-21.120; 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher/RW/TriStar-21.212; 3. Daron Clayton, 92, Clayton-21.225; 4. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-21.406; 5. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-21.504; 6. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-21.600; 7. Levi Jones, 39, Walker-21.663; 8. Robert Ballou, 5, Baldwin-21.715; 9. Shane Cottle, 65, Franckowiak-21.905; 10. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-21.962; 11. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-21.973; 12. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-22.006; 13. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-22.008; 14. Landon Simon, 41, Stensland-22.279; 15. Joey Biasi, B1, Biasi-22.642; 16. Kyle Moody, 99M, Moody-22.701; 17. Trevor Utt, U2, Utt-22.909; 18. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney/Anderson-22.966; 19. Mark Bitner, 15, Bitner-23.149; 20. Billy Pauch, Jr., 175, Pietrofitta-23.233; 21. Tim Glatfelter, 50, Strausbaugh-23.238; 22. Dalten Gabbard, 77, Gabbard-23.272; 23. J.R. Berry, 74, Berry-23.924; 24. Mark Smith, 1M, Smith-NT; 25. Denny Gross, 2, Gross-NT; 26. Curt Stroup, 33, Ehrenzeller-NT.
ARDC Midgets, 20 laps, 18 entries: 1. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 2. Brenden Bright, 3. Steve Drevicki, 4. Ryan Greth, 5. Drew Heistand, 6. Tony Dimattia, 7. PJ Gargiulo, 8. Brett Arndt, 9. Kyle Lick, 10. Billy Pauch Jr., 11. Nick Wean, 12. Trevor Kobylarz, 13. Jason Rice, 14. Brian Gilmore, 15. Joe Butera, 16. Jamie Spears, 17. Steve Buckwalter
DNS: Shawn Jackson
Pro stocks, 15 laps, 12 entries: 1. Derrick Garman, 2. Tim Krape, 3. Tim Fedder, 4. Dave Bowsman, 5. Kyle Rapp, 6. Dan Berry, 7. Scott Landis, 8. Andrew Shoop, 9. Nate Fisher, 10. Chase Bowsman, 11. Dave Berry
DNS: Nate Stroup