By Shawn Brouse
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (September 17, 2021)Anthony Macri of nearby Dillsburg won the battle and Lance Dewease of Fayetteville won the war in the sprint car races at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night.
Just weeks after getting his long-awaited first career 410 sprint car win at the oval, Macri led from start to finish in a torrid event to pick up a $7,000 payday in the 39th running of the Jack Gunn Memorial sanctioned by the All Stars Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars Series.
And with a second place run in the Gunn Memorial, veteran Lance Dewease clinched his seventh career speedway track title, this time at the wheel of the Don Kreitz Jr.-owned No. 69K.
Macri started on the pole of the 30-lap Gunn Memorial with Chase Dietz to his outside but when the green flag fell only the first half lap could be scored before Matt Campbell flipped in the second turn and onto the backstretch.
The restart saw Macri take command on the cushion around the blistering fast half-mile with Dietz and fifth starter Dewease running in third.
The rear of the field came into play on the sixth lap as Macri hit the backmarkers at a dizzying pace.
This allowed Dietz to drive down a near straightaway advantage held by Macri to a margin of less than one corner before the final yellow flag of the race came out with nine laps in the book.
Brent Marks lined up behind Dewease for the restart and drove to his outside when green reappeared as the pair worked the first and second turns.
Marks pulled alongside Dewease as the pair raced toward the bridge but Dewease made his car wider and wider as the bridge came upon them with Marks backing out and settling into fourth.
Macri again entered the rear of the field at the halfway point carrying a near two-second lead.
By lap 19 the trio of Dietz, Dewease and Marks were all racing under a blanket for second, all within the space of one corner.
Dewease finally made a move for second with nine laps to go and Marks followed him a few laps later.
But Macri again had nearly a two second lead with five laps to go and as Marks battled Dewease for second all the way to the finish, they ended up 2.331 seconds behind Macri at the line.
“Track position was everything tonight,” Macri said.
“I knew starting on the front row, I had to get out front and make 30 clean laps. It got a little sketchy in lapped traffic at times. I knew I had to keep my pace up.”
By virtue of his win, Macri earned a guaranteed starting spot in Saturday night’s All Stars Dirt Classic at Lincoln Speedway.
For his part, Dewease reflected on what was his championship run.
“We’ve been pretty good all year,” Dewease said.
“We can pass race cars even on a track like this. It seems like it didn’t matter where we started, we’d get to the top three, top five.”
“It’s nice to get Donald (Kreitz) and Davey (Brown) a championship. I’m glad it’s over and we can worry about racing again.”
“The car’s been really good here the second half of the year. We can get up through there pretty good. Even on nights like tonight, this isn’t our type of racetrack and we got to second.”
Counting the Gunn Memorial, Dewease started a total of 17 main events at Williams Grove during the season to date and made it to the podium in 15 of the races including four wins, seven seconds and four third place finishes.
Dietz and 13th starter Danny Dietrich completed the top five.
Brian Brown, Zeb Wise, Dylan Cisney, Robbie Kendall and Cory Eliason rounded out the top 10.
Brown set fast time over the 40-car field with a lap of 16.572 seconds.
Chase Dietz, Aaron Reutzel, Robbie Kendall and Cory Eliason won the heat races. Devon Borden won the B-main.
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Contingency Awards/Results: Williams Grove Speedway | Friday, September 17, 2021:
Event: Jack Gunn Memorial | $7,000-to-win
Entries: 40
C&R Racing Hot Laps: Bill Balog | 16.961
Dixie Vodka Fast Qualifier: Brian Brown | 16.572
Ford Performance Heat #1 Winner: Chase Dietz
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2 Winner: Aaron Reutzel
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3 Winner: Robbie Kendall
Mobil 1 Heat #4 Winner: Cory Eliason
Kear’s Speed Shop Dash #1 Winner: Anthony Macri
Elliott’s Custom Trailers and Carts Dash #2 Winner: Chase Dietz
Classic Ink USA B-Main Winner: Devon Borden
Rayce Rudeen Foundation First Non-Transfer: Freddie Rahmer
FloRacing A-Main Winner: Anthony Macri (2)
Hercules Tires A-Main Hard Charger: Zeb Wise (+9)
Floracing All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1
Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Friday, September 17, 2021
Dixie Vodka Qualifying
1. 21-Brian Brown, 16.572[11]
2. 69K-Lance Dewease, 16.607[32]
3. 5C-Dylan Cisney, 16.722[25]
4. 19-Brent Marks, 16.729[4]
5. 39M-Anthony Macri, 16.739[27]
6. 55K-Robbie Kendall, 16.780[23]
7. 11-Spencer Bayston, 16.852[10]
8. 5-Ian Madsen, 16.924[14]
9. 24-Rico Abreu, 16.925[40]
10. 1X-Chad Trout, 16.955[16]
11. 17B-Bill Balog, 16.970[34]
12. 8-Aaron Reutzel, 16.978[15]
13. 26-Cory Eliason, 16.982[35]
14. 48-Danny Dietrich, 17.014[26]
15. 10-Zeb Wise, 17.019[17]
16. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 17.024[5]
17. 39D-Chase Dietz, 17.033[3]
18. 11T-TJ Stutts, 17.033[24]
19. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 17.041[7]
20. 21C-Matt Campbell, 17.042[21]
21. 27-Devon Borden, 17.054[13]
22. 13-Justin Peck, 17.055[37]
23. 1W-Aaron Bollinger, 17.059[30]
24. 51-Freddie Rahmer, 17.077[20]
25. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 17.077[36]
26. 44-Dylan Norris, 17.153[38]
27. 98-Jared Esh, 17.165[19]
28. 07-Skylar Gee, 17.168[6]
29. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 17.189[22]
30. 67-Justin Whittall, 17.191[1]
31. 23-Pat Cannon, 17.212[39]
32. 49H-Bradley Howard, 17.213[31]
33. 11A-Austin Bishop, 17.241[8]
34. 17-Steve Buckwalter, 17.242[29]
35. 99M-Kyle Moody, 17.258[12]
36. 5R-Tyler Ross, 17.309[2]
37. 4R-Doug Hammaker, 17.372[28]
38. 4-Cap Henry, 17.637[33]
39. 12D-Steve Downs, 17.782[18]
40. 23A-Chris Arnold, 17.870[9]
Ford Performance Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 39D-Chase Dietz[1]
2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]
3. 19-Brent Marks[4]
4. 11-Spencer Bayston[3]
5. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[5]
6. 07-Skylar Gee[6]
7. 67-Justin Whittall[7]
8. 11A-Austin Bishop[8]
9. 23A-Chris Arnold[10]
10. 5R-Tyler Ross[9]
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 8-Aaron Reutzel[1]
2. 1X-Chad Trout[2]
3. 10-Zeb Wise[5]
4. 21-Brian Brown[4]
5. 5-Ian Madsen[3]
6. 27-Devon Borden[6]
7. 51-Freddie Rahmer[7]
8. 99M-Kyle Moody[9]
9. 98-Jared Esh[8]
10. 12D-Steve Downs[10]
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 55K-Robbie Kendall[2]
2. 48-Danny Dietrich[1]
3. 39M-Anthony Macri[3]
4. 11T-TJ Stutts[5]
5. 5C-Dylan Cisney[4]
6. 21C-Matt Campbell[6]
7. 17-Steve Buckwalter[9]
8. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[8]
9. 1W-Aaron Bollinger[7]
10. 4R-Doug Hammaker[10]
Mobil 1 Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 26-Cory Eliason[1]
2. 17B-Bill Balog[2]
3. 24-Rico Abreu[3]
4. 69K-Lance Dewease[4]
5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[6]
6. 13-Justin Peck[5]
7. 44-Dylan Norris[7]
8. 4-Cap Henry[10]
9. 23-Pat Cannon[8]
10. 49H-Bradley Howard[9]
Kears Speed Shop Dash #1 (4 Laps)
1. 39M-Anthony Macri[2]
2. 5C-Dylan Cisney[1]
3. 69K-Lance Dewease[3]
4. 55K-Robbie Kendall[4]
5. 11-Spencer Bayston[5]
Elliotts Custom Trailers and Carts Dash #2 (4 Laps)
1. 39D-Chase Dietz[1]
2. 21-Brian Brown[4]
3. 26-Cory Eliason[2]
4. 19-Brent Marks[5]
5. 8-Aaron Reutzel[3]
Classic Ink USA B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 27-Devon Borden[2]
2. 21C-Matt Campbell[1]
3. 13-Justin Peck
4. 07-Skylar Gee
5. 51-Freddie Rahmer[3]
6. 67-Justin Whittall[5]
7. 44-Dylan Norris[4]
8. 17-Steve Buckwalter[6]
9. 4-Cap Henry[10]
10. 11A-Austin Bishop[8]
11. 98-Jared Esh[12]
12. 12D-Steve Downs[18]
13. 4R-Doug Hammaker[17]
14. 99M-Kyle Moody[9]
15. 1W-Aaron Bollinger[11]
16. 23A-Chris Arnold[14]
17. 5R-Tyler Ross[16]
DNS: 55-Hunter Schuerenberg
DNS: 49H-Bradley Howard
DNS: 23-Pat Cannon
FloRacing A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 39M-Anthony Macri[1]
2. 69K-Lance Dewease[5]
3. 19-Brent Marks[8]
4. 39D-Chase Dietz[2]
5. 48-Danny Dietrich[13]
6. 21-Brian Brown[4]
7. 10-Zeb Wise[16]
8. 5C-Dylan Cisney[3]
9. 55K-Robbie Kendall[7]
10. 26-Cory Eliason[6]
11. 8-Aaron Reutzel[10]
12. 24-Rico Abreu[15]
13. 11-Spencer Bayston[9]
14. 1X-Chad Trout[11]
15. 17B-Bill Balog[12]
16. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[14]
17. 27-Devon Borden[21]
18. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[20]
19. 13-Justin Peck[23]
20. 5-Ian Madsen[18]
21. 11T-TJ Stutts[17]
22. 07-Skylar Gee[24]
23. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[19]
24. 44-Dylan Norris[25]
25. 21C-Matt Campbell[22]