Nouse Wins Thrilling Sprint Car Feature
“This is the nicest facility I’ve been at in Pennsylvania!” ~ Kevin Nouse
Port Royal – Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills scored the $4,000 Late Model Speedweek Charlie Grinestaff Memorial at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night, loosing the lead and retaking it to record his second career oval win in the 40-lapper.
In the 25-lap 410 sprint car feature Lewisberry’s Kevin Nouse won an electrifying main event, holding off Greg Hodnett and Brent Marks for his first victory at the track since 2007.
With a stunning field of 47 super late models on hand, Satterlee drew the pole for the start of the Late Model Speedweek event with Rick Eckert lining up alongside.
But Eckert fell backwards when action began as Mason Zeigler drove into second spot and began pursuing the leader.
Satterlee was cruising the high line around the track with Zeigler challenging on the low side as they entered the backmarkers on the 14th tour.
Zeigler was strong on the bottom and amid heavy and stacked lapped traffic, he was able to muscle by Satterlee for the lead as the pair raced toward the stripe to complete lap 16.
Satterlee regrouped and never fell off the pace after getting passed and instead turned the wick up a notch to drive higher around the speedway and use a blast of momentum off of the fourth turn cushion to draw up on Zeigler and retake command with 19 laps recorded.
Zeigler stayed within striking distance for the ensuing laps and briefly drove back into the lead on the 24th tour only to see a turn two swoop around the cushion by Satterlee allow him to retake the point.
The races only caution flag unfurled with 14 laps to go when a charging Dylan Yoder dropped out of a challenging top five.
Eckert pounced on the restart and drove into second and then took a few stabs at Satterlee for the win only to see his deficit at the finish stand at 1.100 seconds.
Zeigler held on for third followed by Jeff Rine and Kyle Hardy.
Sixth through 10th went to Mitch Hack, Kenny Pettyjohn, Bryan Bernheisel, Jason Covert and Gary Stuhler.
Heats for the stellar field fell to Eckert, Zeigler, Satterlee and Hardy with twin B Mains going to Andy Haus and Matt Parks.
Rine set overall fast time with a lap of 18.762 seconds.
Joey Hershey led only the first lap of the 410 sprint main before fourth starter Kevin Nouse took the lead to begin his jaunt for the win.
Logan Wagner motored into second with five laps away and began his track-down of Nouse while 11th starter Brent Marks was thrilling the crowd with his brazen moves through the pack.
Marks went three wide in the second corner to get around Greg Hodnett in the early stages and just knifed his way through the front of the field, drawing to their inside and outside at will to zoom into third on the seventh circuit.
The leaders entered the rear of the field on the eighth lap as they skated around the thinning topside cushion with Marks pulling a slide job on Wagner for second with 11 laps down.
At the same time, ninth starter Hodnett began coming to the front and for the last 10 laps of the non-stop event the front four cars rim rode around the oval, flirting with the outside wall, all within the total distance of only one turn.
Hodnett began dropping off the cushion for short stints with seven laps to go in an effort to gain ground at the front and he got by Wagner for third before using the same high-speed tactic to secure second on just the final tour.
He then tracked down Nouse by the finish to come up just .446 seconds shy of his third win of the year at Port Royal.
Nouse screamed for joy in victory lane after recently becoming a regular at the track aboard the Will Rose-owned No. 21A machine.
“This is the nicest facility I’ve been at in Pennsylvania right now.” Nouse commented of the revived and refurbished historic oval.
He said he never dreamed he’d win this early with the team.
Brent Marks finished a happy third followed by Wagner and Dylan Cisney.
Sixth through 10th went to Hershey, Lucas Wolfe, Dave Ely, Davey Sammons and Ryan Taylor.
Heats went to Dave Hahn, Hodnett and Sammons.
Pete Leister wired the field for the 15-lap xtreme stock feature victory.
Jason Zook rode home second followed by Deron Henry, Curtis Lawson and Craig Imes.
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Race Results:
Feature Finishes
5/30/15
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Kevin Nouse, 2. Greg Hodnett, 3. Brent Marks, 4. Logan Wagner, 5. Dylan Cisney, 6. Joey Hershey, 7. Lucas Wolfe, 8. Dave Ely, 9. Davey Sammons, 10. Ryan Taylor, 11. Dave Hahn, 12. Curt Stroup, 13. Steve Buckwalter, 14. Nate Snyder, 15. Rick Lafferty, 16. Mike Wagner, 17. Anthony Fiore, 18. Wayne Dadetto, 19. Tyler Bear, 20. Mike Walter, 21. Vince Snyder, 22. Trenton Sheaffer, 23. Ed Aiken, 24. Jack Thornton
DNQ: Doug Esh, Daryl Stimeling
Late models, 40 laps: 1. Gregg Satterlee, 2. Rick Eckert, 3. Mason Zeigler, 4. Jeff Rine, 5. Kyle Hardy, 6. Mitch Hack, 7. Kenny Pettyjohn, 8. Bryan Bernheisel, 9. Jason Covert, 10. Gary Stuhler, 11. Jamie Lathroum, 12. Jerry Bard, 13. Hayes Mattern, 14. Jim Yoder, 15. Austin Hubbard, 16. Justin Kann, 17. Mike Lupfer, 18. Andy Haus, 19. Tim Wilson, 20. Jason Miller, 21. Dylan Yoder, 22. Nick Dickson, 23. Matt Parks, 24. Lindsay Barton, 25. Brian Tavenner
DNQ: Dave Stamm, Jeff Miller, Mike Altobelli, Chris Casner, Patrick Bryner, Coleby Frye, Dan Stone, DJ Myers, Mike Mort, Trent Brenneman, Cole Amsden, Cody Robbins, Kirk Baker, Pancho Lawler, Dave Brouse Sr., Danny Snyder, Eric Zembower, Andrew Yoder, Jason Schmidt, Derrick Casner, Waylon Wagner, Tim Smith Jr.
Xtreme stocks, 15 laps: 1. Pete Leister, 2. Jason Zook, 3. Deron Henry, 4. Curtis Lawson, 5. Craig Imes, 6. Teresa Kepner, 7. Walt Peters, 8. David Swab, 9. Jason Davis, 10. Bill Powell. 11. Corey Kepner, 12. Charlie Bryner