From Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, PA – (July 5, 2014) – Lucas Wolfe of Mechanicsburg drove from sixth starting spot to win Saturday night’s PA Speedweek sprint car feature event at Port Royal Speedway worth $5,000, recording his elusive first every victory at the track as well as in the speedweek series itself anywhere by taking the checkers.
It was also Wolfe’s first win for his car owner’s John and Pee Wee Zemaitis since joining the team this season.
Wolfe started out the night by setting a new one-lap track record in qualifying over the 34-car field in attendance, setting the mark at 15.168 seconds, an average speed of 127.381 mph.
Matt Parks of Three Springs won for the first time this season in super late model action while Bill Powell took his third xtreme stock main of the year to close out the night.
With Wolfe aboard the potent Zemco No. 1 sprinter, his starting spot of sixth would prove to be the deepest of any of the 2014 speedweek winners to date.
Dave Blaney started the 30-lap main on the pole and took the lead over second starter Doug Esh when the race began.
The first 20 laps would go non-stop with Blaney entering the rear of the field on the eighth tour with Esh giving chase followed by Logan Wagner and Wolfe.
Wolfe advanced to third on the 13th lap and then riding the rail down low he drove by Esh with 12 laps to go.
Wolfe had run down leader Blaney by the time two-thirds of the race was completed as the Ohio driver worked his way flawlessly to that point through heavy and hectic lapped traffic.
And then with 10 laps to go the caution flag unfurled when Blaney gave up the lead after shredding a right rear tire as he raced down the frontstretch.
Only one more lap could be completed before Logan Wagner’s fine run came to and end when he coasted down the backchute.
Smith had taken second from Esh just before the yellow, thus forcing him back to third when action again began with nine laps left.
Smith got around Esh for second with four laps remaining and although he was able to close in on the leader by the finish Wolfe took the checkers by .588 seconds.
The victory put Wolfe in a tie with Greg Hodnett for the speedweek series title as both drivers ended the night with 895 points and just one show to go on the series schedule.
Esh settled for third followed by 10th starter Hodnett and Curt Michael.
Sixth through 10th went to 13th starter Mike Erdley, Brent Marks, Blane Heimbach, 23rd starter Danny Dietrich and Kyle Reinhardt.
Heats went to Blaney, Kyle Moody, Esh and Nate Snyder with Reinhardt taking the consolation race.
Newport’s Tim Fedder led the first eight laps of the 20-lap late model feature before Parks took control on a lap eight restart.
Parks was in third for that restart, having just lost the spot to Mike Lupfer before the caution, but when action resumed Parks made up for his loss of the second spot by blasting by both the second and first place cars to take the lead with 11 laps to go.
Once in front Parks pulled away to his seventh career checkers at the track by .599 second ahead of Lupfer, who took the spot with six laps to go.
Mitch Hack rode home third followed by Tim Smith Jr. and Justin Kann.
Brett Schadel went to the rear on the first lap and rebounded to cross the line sixth at the finish followed by Fedder, Lindsay Barton, Scott Flickinger and Eric Zembower.
Heats went to Parks, Nick Dickson and Hack.
Powell led all 15 laps of the xtreme stock feature.
He held off Bob Bussey for the entire distance to pick up the win with Bussey staging a final lap charge to steal the victory.
Jason Zook, Mike Goodwin and Craig Dodson rounded out the top five finishers.
Race Results:
7/5/14
410 sprints, 30 laps: 1. Lucas Wolfe, 2. Stevie Smith, 3. Doug Esh, 4. Greg Hodnett, 5. Curt Michael, 6. Mike Erdley, 7. Brent Marks, 8. Blane Heimbach, 9. Danny Dietrich, 10. Kyle Reinhardt, 11. Kyle Moody, 12. Dylan Cisney, 13. Mike Wagner, 14. Chad Layton, 15. Steve Buckwalter, 16. Nate Snyder, 17. Pat Cannon, 18. Austen Wheatley, 19. Ryan Smith, 20. Davey Sammons, 21. Rick Lafferty, 22. Nicole Bower, 23. Logan Wagner, 24. Dave Blaney
DNQ: Aaron Ott, Tyler Bear, Ryan Taylor, Joey Hershey, Curt Stroup, Scott Wilson, Trenton Sheaffer, Dave Hahn, Dustin Baney, Lance Dewease
Late Models, 20 laps:1. Matt Parks, 2. Mike Lupfer, 3. Mitch Hack, 4. Tim Smith Jr., 5. Justin Kann, 6. Brett Schadel, 7. Tim Fedder, 8. Lindsay Barton, 9. Scott Flickinger, 10. Eric Zembower, 11. Pancho Lawler, 12. Trent Brenneman, 13. Dustin Hoffman, 14. Patrick Bryner, 15. Waylon Wagner, 16. Danny Snyder, 17. Jason Schmidt, 18. Tim Gray, 19. Travis Wilson, 20. Nick Dickson. 21. Mike Mort, 22. Tim Wilson, 23. Chuck Haydt Jr., 24. Tim Murphy
Xtreme stocks, 15 laps: 1. Bill Powell, 2. Bob Bussey, 3. Jason Zook, 4. Mike Goodwin, 5. Craig Dodson, 6. Deron Henry, 7. Darien Trego, 8. Johnny Palm, 9. Karl Miller, 10. Floyd Sheetz, 11. Mark Auker, 12. Tyler Amtower, 13. Pete Leister, 14. Matt Wampler, 15. Craig Imes