Port Royal – Greg Hodnett became the third and final leader of the 25-lap 410 sprint car feature at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night to record his second oval win of the season worth $3,200 in what was an eventful feature
In an action packed 22-lap super late model main Matt Parks of Three Springs emerged as the victor after a messy incident that netted him the top spot.
In the econo late model main point leader Eric Irvin of Petersburg scored his second win of the season in the division while Jason Zook scored the xtreme stock feature.
Brock Zearfoss and Dave Ely charged down the frontchute off of the front row when the green flag unfurled in the sprint car feature and by the time the pair got to the start finish line things were going awry.
Contact between the pair sent Zearfoss careening around in a ring and backwards in front of the field as the entire pack went scrambling and bolting into the first corner in an attempt to avoid what would be hard contact.
Zearfoss ended up sustaining relatively minor damage while the rest of the field wasn’t nearly as lucky.
A total of six cars were collected in the corner as the red flag flew with Tyler Bear, Trenton Schaeffer, Davey Sammons, Joey Hershey and Nate Snyder also involved.
Doug Esh restarted the race on the pole but it was Dave Ely who took control to lead the race with Esh following along with Hodnett and Brent Marks.
Ely would lead until the 11th tour when Esh finally powered around to take control after dogging Ely for numerous circuits.
Hodnett followed suit on the same lap and immediately began challenging the new leader.
But low or high, Esh’s car was working nearly to perfection and he repeatedly knocked back Hodnett’s advances using both sides of the speedway.
However with seven laps to go disaster struck Esh when he exploded a right rear tire as he raced down the front stretch, surrendering the point to Hodnett.
One lapped car separated Hodnett from Marks on the restart but Marks wasn’t able to muster any challenge as Hodnett instead powered to his 38th career victory at the historic oval.
And instead of Marks getting second, fifth starter Mike Wagner came on strong late in the race to blister by Marks on the inside to record the runner up finish.
Marks was third followed by point leader Lucas Wolfe and Dave Ely.
Sixth through 10th went to Steve Buckwalter, Kevin Nouse, Blane Heimbach, Kyle Reinhardt and Ryan Taylor.
Heats for the 26-car field went to Esh, Zearfoss and Ely with Taylor taking the consolation.
Local driver Trent Brenneman took control of the super late model feature at the start over third starter Matt Parks.
After winning the first three late model features of the season in a row, Mike Lupfer started fifth in the field and was working well to get himself up to third on the second lap.
And then on lap six Lupfer took second from Parks and immediately began gaining on the leader.
Lupfer cruised by Brenneman on the eighth lap with Parks following him into second.
And with Parks getting a huge run off of the fourth corner onto the frontstretch he was able to draw inside Lupfer as the pair raced into the first corner.
However Lupfer didn’t give an inch and when he turned the car to work into one the pair made hard and violent contact with Lupfer’s car careening head-on into the outside wall.
Parks never stopped and went on to assume command with veteran Gary Stuhler racing fifth for the restart.
Both Stuhler and last week’s winner Jason Schmidt were running well and Stuhler drove into third on the 17th lap with Schmidt working the outside lane behind him.
And then as the pair blasted onto the backchute on the 18th lap Schmidt drew to Stuhler’s outside and the pair made contact with Stuhler spinning backwards into the third turn before getting plowed by a surging Dylan Yoder who was taking a page out of Schmidt’s high line groove.
With both of those cars also out for the night, Parks went on to pick up the win over Mitch Hack, Schmidt, Brenneman and Bryan Bernheisel.
Sixth through 10th went to Tim Smith Jr., Brian Tavenner, Tim Wilson, Derrick Casner and Andy Haus.
Heats for the 29 cars in action went to Yoder, Parks and Hack.
Devin Hart started on the pole of the econo late model feature and held sway for the first 10 laps of the 18 lap main before giving up the point to point leader Eric Irvin.
Hart struggled late in the race and fell to third at the finish while Andrew Yoder was second.
Troy Miller and Tim Fedder completed the top five.
Heats went to Andrew Yoder and Shaun Miller.
Fourth starter Jason Zook drove into the lead of the 15-lap xtreme stock main at the start and was followed by Deron Henry.
But previous winner Jason Davis had designs on the victory and took over second on the fifth lap before pressuring for the win.
He fell short however with Pete Leister finishing third followed by Bill Powell and Henry.
Keep up to date with all the latest speedway news and information by visiting the oval’s official website at www.portroyalspeedway.com or by visiting the track on Facebook or Twitter.
Race Results: Feature Finishes 5/9/15
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Greg Hodnett, 2. Mike Wagner, 3. Brent Marks, 4. Lucas Wolfe, 5. Dave Ely, 6. Steve Buckwalter, 7. Kevin Nouse, 8. Blane Heimbach, 9. Kyle Reinhardt, 10. Ryan Taylor, 11. Curt Stroup, 12. Rick Lafferty, 13. Dave Hahn, 14. Dylan Cisney, 15. Doug Esh, 16. Dustin Baney, 17. Davey Sammons, 18. Joey Hershey, 19. Wayne Dadetto, 20. Anthony Fiore, 21. Brock Zearfoss, 22. Tyler Bear, 23. Nate Snyder, 24. Trenton Schaeffer
DNQ: Daryl Stimeling, Karl Baker
Late models, 22 laps: 1. Matt Parks, 2. Mitch Hack, 3. Jaosn Schmidt, 4. Trent Brenneman, 5. Bryan Bernheisel, 6. Tim Smith Jr., 7. Brian Tavenner, 8. Tim Wilson, 9. Derrick Casner, 10. Andy Haus, 11. Eric Zembower, 12. Lindsay Barton, 13. Colton Flinner, 14. Tyler Horst, 15. Patrick Bryner, 16. Jeff Miller, 17. Waylon Wagner, 18. Kirk Baker, 19. Gary Stuhler, 20. Dylan Yoder, 21. Cole Amsden, 22. Mike Mort, 23. Mike Lupfer, 24. Jimmy Andrews
DNQ: Justin Kann, Coleby Frye, Scott Flickinger, Nick Dickson, Steve Stitt
355 econo late models, 18 laps: 1. Eric Irvin, 2. Andrew Yoder, 3. Devin Hart, 4. Troy Miller, 5. Tim Fedder, 6. Shaun Miller, 7. Harold Ranck, 8. Jared Fulkroad, 9. Corey Kapner, 10. Bobby Ballantine, 11. Jason Nace, 12. Garrett Gray
Xtreme stocks, 15 laps: 1. Jason Zook, 2. Jason Davis, 3. Pete Leister, 4. Bill Powell, 5. Deron Henry, 6. Teresa Kepner, 7. Tyler Amtower, 8. Charlie Bryner