By Shawn Brouse
Port Royal – Ryan Taylor of Perkasie led start to finish to record his second Aumiller’s Insurance sprint car feature of the season at Port Royal Speedway Saturday night, besting invader Aaron Ott for the payday on a lightning-quick and satin-smooth surface that drew raves from competitors.
Brian Towsey of Port Royal won for the fourth time this season in the 11th annual Deryl Stong Memorial for the Miller’s Auto Parts pro stocks and strengthened his point lead in a quest for the title.
In the 20-lap AB Auto Glass late model main, Danville driver Jeff Rine overcame an awesome three-car battle for the lead to record his seventh career victory at the Juniata County oval while in 305 sprint action Brian Walker took the victory.
Taylor started on the pole of the sprint feature flanked by Joey Hershey and zoomed into command at the drop of the green and entered the backmarkers with six away followed by Hershey, Ott, Doug Esh, Mike Erdley and 11th starter Chad Layton.
The races first caution flag unfurled with 10 laps down and Taylor found a pair of lapped cars between himself and Hershey for the restart.
Hershey wasn’t able to mount any challenge when action resumed, instead working to fend off Ott while Esh and Layton began working the top three cars.
Wild action at high-flying speeds took center stage as the raced worked past the halfway point with Ott finally getting by Hershey for second with eight laps to go chased by Esh and Layton.
And then one lap later Hershey’s car broke coming down the backchute in front of Esh and Layton causing a three-car calamity that saw Esh all but flip and somehow keep going after making hard contact with Layton while Hershey landed atop the inside backstretch fence. There were no injuries.
With Esh and Layton now retired to the pit area, Taylor had to fend off Ott’s inside lane challenge on the restart to pick up this third career checkers at the track while pulling away.
Ott was second followed by Erdley, Keith Kauffman and Rick Lafferty.
Sixth through 10th went to Todd Shaffer, Cliff Brian, TJ Stutts, Danny Dietrich and Dylan Cisney.
Heats for the 30-car field went to Josh Dressler, Ott and Layton with Derek Sell scoring the consolation race.
Jason Schmidt led the first four circuits of the 20-lap Stong Memorial for pro stocks before fourth starter Towsey took over quickly followed by sixth starter Tim Krape.
Krape battled Towsey door to door for the next 10 circuits before Krape started to slip backwards, giving way to defending champion John Heane.
But once Krape lost his footing, the race was all Towseys to win, which he did gladly in honor of his late friend Stong.
“Deryl and I were friends and I really wanted to win this race before I quit,” Towsey said.
Keith Garman ended up second followed by Derrick Garman, Brad Mitch and Schmidt.
Sixth through 10th went to Devin Frey, Josh Angle, Jason Davis, Dan Berry and Brad Trump.
Heats for the 30-car field went to Heane, Krape and Berry.
A massive clash between the front runners was all the rage in the late model main with point leader Scott Haus of Hamburg taking the early lead from his third starting spot.
But driving into second on the first circuit was Mitch Hack, who had his eyes set on a second 2011 win along with fourth starter Rine.
Together the trio traveled around the speedway three-wide at times with Hack drawing even to Haus on the inside and Rine on the outside while the pilots put on a clinic of professional driving.
But Hack ended up succumbing to Rine’s pressure with seven away and once Rine got rolling there was no holding him back as he set sail in the top groove to power by Haus with 12 laps left to never again be heeded.
The red flag dropped over the field at the halfway point when Hack and sixth starter Mike Hess got together on the backstretch with Hack’s car nearly flipping over after climbing the outside wall.
The return to action saw Rine drive uncontested to the win over Gary Beward, Dylan Yoder, Terry Naugle and Haus.
“Standing here in victory lane, to beat Scott Haus, that’s awesome,” Rine said.
“This surface you guys put down is just awesome. It’s fast,” he told track officials.
“I know what it takes for you guys to put new clay down in the middle of the season and that’s just phenomenal. It’s not dusty and it has grip in it.”
Sixth through 10th went to Chris Casner, Mike Lupfer, Eric Zembower, Tim Wilson and Derrick Casner.
Heats for the 23-car field went to Naugle, Matt Parks and Haus.
Brian Walker wired the field for the win in the 20-lap 305 sprint main over Kody Lehman, Billy Ney, Dusty Shatzer and Matt Mountz.
Sixth through 10th went to Randy Kaylor, Tom Worrick, Erin Statler, Joey Smith and Ryan Lynn.
Heats went to Ney, Walker and Jason Berstresser.
Feature Finishes
August 13, 2011
Sprint cars, 25 laps: 1. Ryan Taylor, 2. Aaron Ott, 3. Mike Erdley, 4. Keith Kauffman, 5. Rick Lafferty, 6. Todd Shaffer, 7. Cliff Brian, 8. TJ Stutts, 9. Danny Dietrich, 10. Dylan Cisney, 11. Mike Wagner, 12. Luke Bowey, 13. Nicole Bower, 14. Curt Stroup, 15. Joey Hershey, 16. Chad Layton, 17. Doug Esh, 18. Derek Sell, 19. Davey Sammons, 20. Josh Dressler, 21. Vince Snyder, 22. Daryl Stimeling, 23. Matt Johnson, 24. Matt Heimbach.