This message was edited on
March 20, 2011 at
07:08:52 AM by Smitty51
1. Blane Heimbach (3), 2. Stevie Smith (11), 3. Mark Smith (16), 4. Tyler Walker (10), 5. Lance Dewease (12), 6. Mike Wagner (9), 7. Mike Erdley (21), 8. Ryan Taylor (13), 9. Davey Sammons (4), 10. Daryn Pittman (7), 11. John Brennfleck (18), 12. Brian Ehrenzeller (17), 13. Keith Kauffman (20), 14. Todd Shaffer (6), 15. Lyton Jeffrey (2), 16. Cliff Brian (14), 17. Joey Hershey (8), 18. Bill Jones (15), 19. Rick Lafferty (1), 20. Chad Layton (5), 21. Justin Henderson (DNS) (STARTED)
Opening night at Port Royal for the 2011 season was a COLD one...24 degress colder than it was for the Grove the day before! A decent crowd showed up for the rare 410/358 show...
Hats off to the new management team for their numerous improvements to the speedway grounds and what they have & are doing for the fans & racers! As a fan, the track looked great and to me there was lest dust than I experienced Friday night. I don't complain much about dust, unless I'm at Limaland...but even then, the racing makes up for it.
Port ran 2 heats for the 21 cars on hand and used a draw format to lineup the feature. Henderson got upside down on lap #8 of the 1st heat after something appeared to break on the car in 3 & 4. It was later reported that Justin was transported to a local hospital to be checked out...hope he's ok! Australian Lynton Jeffrey won heat #1 over Lafferty, Sammons, Heimbach & S. Smith.
Brennfleck was supposed to start on the pole of heat #2, but opted for the rear, which put Dewease on the pole for the start, and he then led every lap to win over Walker, Shaffer, Layton & Pittman. For the 3rd race in a row the #7 of Layton had motor problems and barely held off Pittman. Layton would run 1 lap of the feature later & pulled pitside. The 8h of Kauffman wouldn't fire for hotlaps or the heat race...
The feature was lined up by luck of the draw...but looked similar to what a handicapped show may be in a few weeks. The 88 of Shaffer looked fast early taking the lead on lap 2 when a caution came out for a spinning Ehrenzeller. On the restart there was a red flag which involved the cars of Hershey, Brennfleck, Jones & Brian in turns 3 & 4. Heimbach took the lead from Shaffer on lap 7. Shaffer then lost a tire on lap 10. Pittman was on Heimbachs tail on lap 10 however his front wing then collapsed which took him out of contention for the win. Sammons lost & replaced a tire on lap 20 at which time Kauffman pulled pitside. Heimbach then raced to the win with no major challenge from the Zemco car.
Heimbach is a 358 regular however the team decided to drop in a 410 because they did not want to support the 358 division purse. Mark Smith had a nice run from 16th to 3rd and it was great to have him back at Port...wish the team would run there weekly in 2011.
Layton has had motor problems in the Middleswarth car the last 3 races...I hope the team gets the BAD start to 2011 behind them soon!
It seemed the track was dragging their feet with the program prior to the A main...some insisted it was for Kauffman to get his motor running. In hindsight, it was a pretty damn good night for the track considering it was the 1st for the new management team.
There was no sign of any Porn at Port Royal...a Mach 1 got er done...
Pat Cannon started on the front row of the 358 feature & led every lap to win the 2nd night in a row. Another team that should be running a 410 weekly...
http://youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fwatch%253Fv%253D8yif-xdcYoU%2526feature%253Dyoutu.be%2526a&a=&feature=youtu.be&v=8yif-xdcYoU&gl=US
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