By Shawn Brouse
Port Royal – Fans were treated to four fantastic features at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night as they watched Tim Wilson sweep twin late model mains, Rick Lafferty track down Keith Kauffman for the sprint car win and Steve Buckwalter claim the ARDC Midget feature.
The speedway takes a week off on May 12 with no racing slated before returning on May 19 with the 12th annual Deryl Stong Memorial for pro stocks plus a make up pro stock main plus 410 sprints and late models. All students ages 12 – 18 will be admitted free for the program.
Kauffman of Mifflintown drew the pole to start the 25 lap Aumiller’s Insurance sprint car feature with Lafferty taking the green from the outside of the second row.
Early in the race, Lafferty slipped backwards as Jordan Frontz gave chase of Kauffman along with defending champion Mike Wagner.
Wagner secured the second spot with four away and attempted to close on Kauffman but even with a restart with six laps down, was unable to challenge for the win.
Lafferty got by Frontz on that restart and rode around in third for the next several laps before he started to close on Wagner and Kauffman.
With control and a substantial advantage, Kauffman entered the backmarkers with 14 away and it was in traffic that Lafferty began biting into Wagner’s advantage for second.
It seemed as if all of a sudden just past the 10 to go mark, Lafferty’s No. 0 began biting fast to the inside groove, allowing him to chew up Kauffman and Wagner’s lead as he took second with seven laps to go.
Then a caution flag regrouped the field with seven to go as well, placing Lafferty on Kauffman’s bumper for new action.
And when green replaced the yellow, Lafferty promptly drove underneath Kauffman in the first corner to take command and head to the eighth win of his career at Port Royal over Kauffman who was gunning for his 130th at the oval.
Chad Layton drove into third with five to go only to lose the spot to a surging Justin Henderson with two laps left. Layton settled for fourth.
Fifth went to Dave Ely who was followed by Wagner, Blane Heimbach, Davey Sammons, Nate Snyder and Curt Stroup.
Heats for the 27-car field went to Sammons, Frontz and Wagner with Mike Erdley scoring the consolation.’
In the make up AB Auto Glass late model main held over from March 31, McClure’s Tim Wilson started seventh in the field while Bob Dunn took the early lead.
Dunn spun out while leading with four away in the 20-lapper handing control over to Mitch Hack who already had Wilson up to second for the restart.
A thrilling duel for the lead unfolded when action resumed as the front duo of Hack and Wilson raced side by side at times through the turns with Wilson always coming up just short of the lead for some nine circuits before he finally cleared Hack’s No. 7 with seven laps to go.
Hack wouldn’t go away over the final distance and instead stuck with the leader to the finish all the while watching as fifth starter Mike Lupfer zeroed in to make it a three-car race for the win at the end with Wilson prevailing.
Lupfer ended up getting Hack for second in the final two laps. Hack was third followed by Derek Byler and Matt Parks.
Sixth through 10th went to Devin Friese, Scott Haus, Brett Schadel, Andy Haus and Waylon Wagner.
In the regularly slated late model main, Wilson drew the pole for the event but it was Chad Hollenbeck of Montrose who got the drop at the start and rode smooth and steady out front.
Wilson was never really able to challenge until Hollenbeck entered the backmarkers near the halfway point and it was then that Wilson quickly closed it up and capitalized for the win.
For laps prior, Wilson entered the turns on open track with such speed that he would loose ground exiting the corners because he had to slow his car down in order to safely make it out of the turns.
But in traffic, with Hollenbeck slowed up, Wilson moved down from his outside line to work the bottom and that turned out to be the key to his second win of the night as it was with an inside move through the first and second turns that he drove by Hollenbeck for the nonstop win with eight laps left.
In taking the victory, which turned out to be the eighth of this career at the oval after getting his seventh earlier in the night, Wilson sliced nearly a second a lap off of the 20-lap track record and put up a new mark of 7:16.617.
Hollenbeck finished a strong second followed by Brett Schadel, Devin Friese and Mitch Hack.
Sixth through 10th went to Waylon Wagner, Mike Lupfer, Andy Haus, Mike Romig and Lindsay Barton.
Heats for the 28-car field went to Hack, Schadel and Terry Naugle with Matt Parks scoring the consolation.
The ARDC Midget feature was wildly exciting with Dusty Heistand taking the lead from the pole starting spot followed early by Brett Arndt.
Dusty’s brother Drew threatened to take the lead by lap six and eventually did on a restart of the same lap before all eyes turned to Steve Buckwalter of Royersford who started the race in eighth spot.
Buckwalter bolted his midget into second at the halfway point of the 20-lap main and began a crowd-pleasing exhibition of action during the final eight laps of the event.
From laps 14 through 18, Drew Heistand and Buckwalter exchanged the lead at least eight times with each driver one-upping the other in the corners before Buckwalter finally took the lead for good with just two laps left.
Drew Heistand settled for second followed by Brett Arndt, Nick Wean and BJ Buckwalter.
Heats for the 23 midgets went to Arndt and Buckwalter.
May 5, 2012 Feature Finishes:
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Rick Lafferty, 2. Keith Kauffman, 3. Justin Henderson, 4. Chad Layton, 5. Dave Ely, 6. Mike Wagner, 7. Blane Heimbach, 8. Davey Sammons, 9. Nate Snyder, 10. Curt Stroup, 11. Mike Erdley, 12. Dan Shetler, 13. Michael Ruttkamp, 14. Joey Hershey, 15. Jordan Frontz, 16. Mark Coldren, 17. Daryl Stimeling, 18. Nicole Bower, 19. Dave Hahn, 20. Bob Bennett, 21. Bob Howard, 22. John Brennfleck, 23. Brian Ehrenzeller, 24. TJ Winegardner
Lap leaders: Kauffman, 1 – 18, Lafferty 19 – 25
Make up late model feature from March 31, 20 laps: 1. Tim Wilson, 2. Mike Lupfer, 3. Mitch Hack, 4. Derek Byler, 5. Matt Parks, 6. Devin Friese, 7. Scott Haus, 8. Brett Schadel, 9. Andy Haus, 10. Waylon Wagner, 11. Scott Flickinger, 12. Terry Naugle, 13. Eric Zembower, 14. Bob Dunn, 15. Patrick Bryner, 16. Chad Hollenbeck, 17. Mike Mort, 18. Trent Brenneman, 19. Todd Snook, 20. Harold Ranck Jr., 21. Bryon Sipe
Lap leaders: Bob Dunn 1 – 4, Mitch Hack 5 – 12, Tim Wilson 13 – 20
Late models, 20 laps: 1. Wilson, 2. Hollenbeck, 3. Schadel, 4. Friese, 5. Hack, 6. Byler, 7. Lupfer, 8. Andy Haus, 9. Mike Romig, 10. Lindsay Barton, 11. Chris Casner, 12. Parks, 13. Tim Fedder, 14. Wagner, 15. Derrick Casner, 16. Eric Zembower, 17. Steve Stitt, 18. Mort, 19. Trent Brenneman, 20. Naugle, 21. Snook, 22. Bud Barton, 23. Scott Haus, 24. Flickinger
Late leaders: Hollenbeck 1 – 11, Wilson 12 – 20
ARDC Midgets, 20 lap: 1. Steve Buckwalter, 2. Drew Heistand, 3. Brett Arndt, 4. Nick Wean, 5. BJ Buckwalter, 6. Tim Buckwalter, 7. Dusty Heistand, 8. Alex Bright, 9. Brenden Bright, 10. Jimmy Glenn, 11. Steve Craig, 12. Carey Becker, 13. Eric Heydenreich, 14. Dave Shirk, 15. Joe Butera, 16. Brian Gilmore, 17. Trevor Kobylarz, 18. Brett Wanner, 19. Shawn Jackson, 20. Mark Gilmore, 21. Parker Evans, 22. PJ Gargiulo, 23. Steven Drevicki
Lap leaders: Dusty Heistand 1 – 6, Drew Heistand 7 – 17, Steve Buckwalter 18 – 20
PRS 2012 – Racing into a new decade with a new attitude!
Port Royal Speedway