Port Royal – Greg Hodnett hustled forward from his eighth starting spot to become the first repeat winner in the nine-year history of the Living Legends Dream Race for sprint cars at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night.
It took until late in the 35-lap main for Hodnett to get the lead from Aaron Ott before going on to record the victory by 2.593 seconds, his fifth of the season at the historic oval.
Including his earnings from the second semi feature along with lap money, Hodnett took home $10,820 for his night of work.
His first win in the prestigious dream event was in 2008.
In the 21-lap super late model main, .Dan Stone of Thompson took his first victory of the season at the track, totaling $2,270 for the win including lap money.
The night’s events were run in honor of veteran driver Scott Haus and car owner Ed Powell, both of whom received Living Legend proclamations and lifetime passes to the renowned facility.
Aaron Ott started second in the Dream A Main for sprints with Mike Erdley on the pole and Ott took command at the drop of the green with Brock Zearfoss racing third.
The high-speed travelers entered the backmarkers on the seventh tour of the event shortly before the first caution of the feature appeared with nine laps recorded, finding Hodnett racing fourth in the field after passing Dylan Cisney, Steve Buckwalter, Danny Dietrich and Pat Cannon. .
Buckwalter, a semi main winner earlier in the night, got around Hodnett on the restart and it took the eventual winner another lap or two to reclaim the spot and then track down Zearfoss for third.
Hodnett took third from Zearfoss with 11 laps to go just before another yellow appeared, forcing a stoppage for refueling.
But before the stoppage, Erdley had begun biting into Ott’s advantage, clearly catching the leader on the track while slicing tenths of a second off of the lead with the passing of every lap.
However when action resumed Hodnett jumped to Erdley’s inside in the second corner to take the runner up spot and set his sights on leader Ott.
Ott was running the cushion with Hodnett forced to try to make time on the middle and bottom grooves and the strategy worked as he consistently kept pace with the leader and raced just a few car lengths behind Ott as the race wore on.
With five laps to go Hodnett got serious about his challenges and finally made his move with a run inside the second corner that led to a drag race with Ott down the backchute and into the third corner on the 33rd lap.
Hodnett powered into command at that point and Ott proved no contest over the final two circuits.
Hodnett noted that under the stoppage he noticed that leader Ott seemed to have blistered his tires and indeed Ott agreed in post race interviews, stating that the loss was hard to take but getting a podium with the class of field in attendance was an accomplishment.
Ott finished second, taking home a total of $6,400 on the night including lap money and semi feature earnings.
Zearfoss surged late to steal third from Erdley and pocket a total of $4,410 on the night after claming one of the semi features as well and lap money.
Erdley ended up fourth, going home with $3,190 including lap money.
Finishing fifth was previous Dream winner Ryan Taylor, who pocketed an even $2,000 on the night.
Sixth through 10th went to Steve Buckwalter, Danny Dietrich, Mike Wagner, Lucas Wolfe and Pat Cannon.
Lucas Wolfe earned feature hard chargers laurels worth $150 after winning the consolation race to qualify.
The first semi main was marred with crashes and red flags but was eventually won by Zearfoss over Ott and Cannon.
The first red was on the third lap when Port Royal point leader Lucas Wolfe rolled over in the fourth turn.
The second and final red took place on lap five when Dave Hahn flipped violently out over the third turn rail, landing a considerable distance from the track itself but escaping injury.
Several drivers running at the front dropped out of the event including Blane Heimbach, and Dave Blaney.
Lance Dewease led the first four laps of the second semi before dropping out, handing the lead and win over to Buckwalter with Erdley in second and Dietrich riding home third at the finish.
Hard chargers in the semis earning $100 were Dylan Cisney and Hodnett.
Fast time for the first semi and overall on the night was set by Cannon with a lap of 15.364 while Danny Dietrich was second quick overall with a lap of 15.406.
Rodney Westhafer took home $500 for a victory in the non-qualfiers main to end the night.
Tim Wilson led the first four laps of the 21-lap late model main before dropping out of the event, handing the point to Dan Stone.
Stone had started second in the field with Wilson on the pole.
Stone was all alone out front for the balance of the event with Andy Haus starting ninth in the field to finish second.
Haus got by Trent Brenneman for the spot with 11 laps to go an while at times able to cut into Stone’s advantage, he was never able to consistently closer on the leader, instead finishing second by 4.141 seconds.
Dylan Yoder was racing second and closing on Stone on the eighth tour when he lost power and withdrew from the event.
Matt Parks rode home third after starting eighth in the field.
Brenneman was fourth at the finish followed by Mitch Hack.
Sixth through 10th went to Coleby Frye, Devin Friese, Nick Dickson, Mike Lupfer and Brett Schadel.
Heats worth $33 each went to Haus, Parks and Friese with Andrew Yoder taking the consolation.
Fast time worth $100 was set by Jeff Miller with a lap of 19.028 seconds.
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Race Results:
Feature Finishes
8/8/15
410 sprints, 35 laps: 1. Greg Hodnett, 2. Aaron Ott, 3. Brock Zearfoss, 4. Mike Erdley, 5. Ryan Taylor, 6. Steve Buckwalter, 7. Danny Dietrich, 8. Mike Wagner, 9. Lucas Wolfe, 10. Pat Cannon, 11. Dave Blaney, 12. Ryan Smith, 13. Dave Ely, 14. Curt Stroup, 15. Kyle Pruitt, 16. Kyle Moody, 17. Joey Hershey, 18. Nicole Bower, 19. Logan Wagner, 20. Dylan Cisney, 21. Davey Sammons, 22. Anthony Fiore, 23. Trenton Sheaffer, 24. Doug Esh, 25. Rick Lafferty, 26. Tyler Bear
DNQ: Dave Hahn, Rodney Westhafer, Lance Dewease, Alan Krimes, Tim Glatfelter, Dustin Baney, Daryl Stimeling, Vince Snyder, Bradley Howard, Blane Heimbach
Late models, 21 laps: 1. Dan Stone, 2. Andy Haus, 3. Matt Parks, 4. Trent Brenneman, 5. Mitch Hack, 6. Coleby Frye, 7. Devin Friese, 8. Nick Dickson, 9. Mike Lupfer, 10. Brett Schadel, 11. Tim Smith Jr., 12. Andrew Yoder, 13. Jason Schmidt, 14. Jeff Miller, 15. Scott Flickinger, 16. Waylon Wagner, 17. Eric Zembower, 18. Steve Bailor, 19. Donnie Schick, 20. Steve Axtell Jr., 21. Tim Fedder, 22. Dylan Yoder, 23. Tim Wilson, 24. Derrick Casner
DNQ: Brett Hockenberry, Mike Mort, Larry Baer, Kody Lyter, DJ Troutman