Steve Buckwater came out on top on Saturday night at Port Royal, the win was worth $5,000 and was his first race of the night.
“My car was really good on restarts,” Buckwalter said. “It stuck like glue. We tried a totally different set-up tonight. We’ve been wanting to do it. I was bouncing between this and the Silver Crown car and I told them just to do it. We rolled the dice and it seemed to be a lot better, so I think we hit on something.”
Leading up to Saturday night’s event at Port Royal Speedway, Justin Grant felt he was getting right back to where he needed to be in the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship hunt.
“It feels like forever since we won a race,” Grant exclaimed. “I had a blast running against the wall; that’s my jam. I was happy up there, but I think I bent the wheel up with two to go there and it was shaking. But it was good to bring it home.”
At Hummingbird Speedway The economods took center stage with a $1,000-to-win special Saturday night. The special at Hummingbird was the second race of a three-race, three-track Economod Mania Weekend. A mini-point fund was set up for drivers that attended all three events as an added incentive to run all the races.
The first race of the weekend was at Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio on Friday, then to Hummingbird on Saturday and concluded at Eriez Speedway in Erie on Sunday. After winning the first race of the weekend at Raceway 7, Dennis Lunger Jr. made it 2 for 2 by taking the checkers at the Bird. In other action, Josh Fields picked up his second win of the season in the pure stocks. Doug Eck became the fourth different winner already in the super late models.
Nick Loffredo took his second trip to victory lane this season in the semi late models. Bruce Hartzfeld continued his perfect streak at the Bird with his third win in his third appearance at the track in the pro stocks. Shawn Hadden wrapped up the racing action with his second win of the season in the four cylinders.
Danny Dietrich’s first win of the season at Lincoln came on Saturday night during the PA Speedweek Tune-up. The last time Dietrich waited until June to score his first win of the season at Lincoln was 2009.
After victory lane festivities were completed Cody Overton’s car was disqualified for not meeting the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek rear suspension rules. That meant that Tyler Emory was the winner of the 35-lap, $4,000 to win feature. After Overton’s disqualification, Emory won with Rick Eckert in second. Dylan Yoder was third and Covert was fourth. Gregg Satterlee completed the top five.
This Saturday, Lincoln Speedway is back in action with PA Speedweek for the 410 sprints with the 24th annual Kevin Gobrecht Memorial. The extreme stocks will also be in action.
Racing starts at 7 p.m.
Mechanicsburg’s Troy Wagaman Jr.’s first Williams Grove start in Mike Heffner’s No. 27 resulted in his first trip to victory lane Friday night. He earned $5,500 for the victory.
Billy Dietrich led the opening lap over Wagaman Jr. and Austin Bishop before a caution slowed the race with three laps completed. T.J. Stutts passed Bishop and then challenged Wagaman Jr. following the restart. Dietrich, meanwhile, opened up a comfortable lead.
Dietrich’s great run came to an end with 10 laps completed as he jumped the cushion and hit the fourth turn fence bringing out the yellow. This handed the lead to Wagaman Jr. for the restart with Stutts second. Heavy traffic was in front of the leaders with five laps to go but Wagaman was nice and smooth through traffic and pulled away to claim his first Grove win.
The 30-lap USAC Eastern Storm main event was up next. Emerson Axsom, of Franklin, Indiana, held on for his first career Grove win and second straight in Eastern Storm action.
A total of 31 USAC National Sprint Cars were on hand for the annual Eastern Storm event. Meseraull set a track record in qualifying time trials with a lap of 19.016. The previous record was 19.509 set by Kevin Thomas Jr on June 15, 2018.
The 33rd annual Pennsylvania Speedweek Series for 410 sprint cars kicks off this Friday night, June 23, with an $8,000 pay day at Williams Grove Speedway. The 10-night 2023 series will visit Williams Grove twice, first for the kickoff on June 23 and then again on June 30 for the $20,000 to win Mitch Smith Memorial. Time trials for the speedweek field will begin at 7:30 p.m. with gates opening at 5:30 p.m.
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