Port Royal, PA — (April 6, 2013) — Rick Lafferty scored the ninth 410 sprint car win of his career at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night, taking the lead from Steve Buckwalter just shy of the halfway point for the victory.
Matt Parks was the winner of the 20-lap late model main that was marred by a violent crash early on that saw one driver airlifted to Hershey Medical Center.
And in the 305 sprint main it was Eric Parker holding off Logan Wagner to open up the season for the division at the track.
Buckwalter started the 25-lap sprint main on the pole and took the lead at the start with third starter Lafferty moving right into second when the initial green flag unfurled.
Buckwalter entered lapped traffic on the seventh circuit just before the races first caution flag unfurled.
Chad Layton and Lance Dewease lined up behind the pair for the restart.
Yellow again fell over the field with 10 laps down for a stopped Davey Sammons and the restart saw Lafferty motor into the lead with a pass off of the fourth corner to complete the 11th tour.
With 10 to go the yellow again regrouped the field, this time for a stopped Layton, while second starter Mike Erdley sat third for the restart.
While Lafferty took off, Erdley began applying heavy pressure to Buckwalter for second and the pair raced closely for the spot until lap 22 when they collided after a low move by Erdley in the third corner ended up pushing both cars across the track and into the outside wall, bringing out the red flag.
With no injuries reported, Blane Heimbach restarted second for the final three laps and ended there ahead of Mike Wagner, Doug Esh and Dewease.
Sixth through 10th went to Dylan Cisney, Cliff Brian, Nate Snyder, Keith Kauffman and Mike Ruttkamp.
Lafferty’s margin of victory was 2.615 seconds.
Heats for the 19 cars entered went to Cisney and Dewease.
On the first lap of the late model main was put in the books before a yellow regrouped the field with Derek Casner leading the field.
The restart saw a six-car crash unfold in the first corner with the brunt of the melee being sustained by all time track winner Scott Haus of Hamburg.
Haus’ car became air born and went above the guardrail before crashing down hard onto the track as well as the other cars involved.
After a lengthy stoppage, Haus was airlifted to Hershey Medical Center but was communicating with emergency personnel.
Casner restarted with the lead over Steve Campbell with sixth starter Parks in third.
Parks took second from Cambpell with seven laps away and then passed Casner on the next loop to take the lead and streak away.
The margin for his fourth career Port win over Casner was 6.445 seconds.
Campbell rode home third followed by Marvin Winters and 24th starter Chad Hollenbeck.
Sixth through 10th went to Trent Brenneman, Mike Lupfer, Sam Schaeffer, Brett Schadel and Terry Naugle.
Heats for the 25 cars went to Haus, Chris Casner and Schadel.
Parker wired the field from the pole for the opener of the 305 sprint division at the oval and earned the win mightily after fending off several challenges on restarts by Logan Wagner.
Wagner stuffed his black and green racer to Parker’s inside as the pair raced into the first corner on more than two occasions only to see a steady and straight Parker stay in control exiting the second turn.
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After finishing second, Wagner gave total credit to Parker for the win, noting that he had thrown all he had at him for the victory but he proved unshakable.
Jason Bergstresser rode home third followed by George Riden and Alex Schanz.
Sixth through 10th went to Scott Ellerman, Nathan Gramley, Steve Kennawell, Lance Newlin and Jeff Miller.
Triple heats for the 27-car field went to Schanz, Mike Wagner II., and Logan Wagner.
April 6, 2013 Feature Finishes:
410 sprints, 19 entries: 1. Lafferty, 2. Heimbach, 3. Wagner, 4. Esh, 5. Dewease, 6. Cisney, 7. Brian, 8. Snyder, 9. Kauffman, 10. Ruttkamp, 11. Dave Hahn, 12. Jim Shuster, 13. Cody Sieber, 14. Steve Buckwalter, 15. Mike Erdley, 16. Chad Layton, 17. Davey Sammons, 18. Vince Snyder
DNS: Jim Campbell Jr.
Late models, 25 entries: 1. Parks, 2. D. Casner, 3. Campbell, 4. Winters, 5. Hollenbeck, 6. Brenneman, 7. Lupfer, 8. Schaeffer, 9. Schadel, 10. Naugle, 11. Scott Flickinger, 12. Patrick Bryner, 13. Mike Mort, 14. Harold Ranck, 15. Jason Schmidt, 16. Eric Zembower, 17. Chris Casner, 18. Scott Haus, 19. Lindsay Barton. 20. Mitch Hack, 21. Bryon Sipe, 22. Denny Fenton, 23. AJ Hoffman, 24. Dan Condo
DNS: Tim Wilson
305 sprints, 27 entries: 1. Parker, 2. L. Wagner, 3. Bergstresser, 4. Riden, 5. Schanz, 6. Ellerman, 7. Gramley, 8. Kennawell, 9. L. Newlin, 10. Miller. 11. Mike Wagner II., 12. John Braim, 13. Andrew Hake, 14. Jack Thornton, 15. Kody Lehman, 16. Joe Zap, 17. Zach Newlin, 18. Mark Watkins, 19. Anthony Fiore, 20. Craig Myers, 21. Reed Thompson, 22. Jim Kennedy, 23. Paul Snyder, 24. Rick Leonard, 25. Tyler Bear, 26. Ian Detweiler
DNQ: Jake Waters