PORT ROYAL, Penn. — Anthony Macri used a late race pass to his advantage and held off Lance Dewease to score the Night One victory during the All Star Circuit of Champions Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night.
The win was Macri’s fourth of the season at the Juniata County oval and was worth $10,000.
“We all had to sit down and scratch our heads and I think this shows we made the right calls,” Macri said. “I have a lot of respect in the world for Lance and to be able to race with him and pass him for a win is pretty darn special.”
Justin Whittall and Danny Dietrich led the field of 26 cars to the green flag and it was Dietrich getting the early jump on the field to lead the opening lap. Fourth-place starter Steve Buckwalter got by Macri for the final podium spot on the opening lap while seventh-place starter Dewease had already cracked the top five.
Buckwalter continued his march toward the front four laps later when he got by Whittall for the runner-up position.
One lap later, Macri followed suit as he regained third. He briefly overtook Buckwalter for second as they came to the line, but Buckwalter was able to power back by entering turn one to regain the position.
Dewease got by Whittall for fourth on the following lap and within three laps, the top four were all within striking distance of each other while weaving through lapped traffic.
After multiple laps of battling back and forth, Macri got by Buckwalter for the runner-up position on lap 12 and made it stick. One lap later, it was Dewease sliding into the third position.
Using his patented high line in the turns, Macri continued to bang the boards all around the racetrack trying to track down Dietrich. The contact nearly ended his night early on lap 16 when he hit hard in turn’s three and four to hand over the second spot to Dewease.
However, Macri quickly regrouped and was all over Dewease for the runner-up spot when the caution flew for Ryan Taylor in turn four with 10 laps remaining.
Brent Marks, 10th-place starter, was the man on the move when the field went back to green as he moved into the fourth position. Meanwhile, Dietrich was fighting hard to hold off a surging Dewease.
Dewease slid Dietrich for the lead in turn’s three and four until Dietrich slapped the outside guardrail at both ends of the speedway. After the contact, Dietrich fell to third behind Macri.
The final caution of the event fell a few laps later when Buckwalter came to a slow on the frontstretch while running in sixth position.
With four laps remaining, all eyes were up front on Dewease, Macri and Dietrich.
Macri used a power move to the bottom of turn’s three and four following the restart to briefly take the lead from Dewease coming to the line, but Dewease was able to cut back under for the lead with three laps to go.
Macri went right back to the top and the pair exited turn’s three and four nearly side by side, coming to the line with Dewease still ahead by mere feet.
This time, Macri used the momentum to his favor.
As the two raced side by side down the backstretch, Macri cut to the bottom and was able to take the lead exiting turn four to take the white flag as the leader.
Dewease used a slider in turn’s one and two on the final circuit to pull even with Macri down the backstretch and it appeared that he might steal one from the “Concrete Kid.”
However, Macri was just too good off the top in turn’s three and four. His momentum off the exit powered him ahead to take the checkered flag in front of a frontstretch of standing fans.
Dietrich, Marks and Justin Peck round out the top five. Lucas Wolfe charged forward from 18th to finish in sixth and earned the $500 Valley Supply Hard Charger. Dylan Cisney, Logan Wagner, Whittall and Zeb Wise rounded out the top 10.
Ryan Taylor earned the $1000 J&S Classics Warrior Award with a random draw of 24 in victory lane.
“Lance is pretty smart and I didn’t want to give him any clues where I was running definitively, so I threw him a few sliders and tried to shake him up,” Macri said. “That was one hell of a race and I hope everyone here liked that.”
For Dewease, he thought he had a car capable of winning, but made the wrong adjustments under the yellow when trying to hold off Macri.
“Anthony is good everywhere here and I just messed up the car under that caution,” Dewease said. “I thought when I got back by him we might be ok, but it was a good race and I hope everyone enjoyed it. We’ll be back tomorrow night.”
For Dietrich, it was a disappointment not to grab the win after leading so many laps.
“I guess I should not have got off the bottom there after that first restart, but I thought maybe we could carry more speed up top,” Dietrich said. “I plugged her in the fence trying so hard to get back in front of him and I think we’re lucky to even be standing here on the podium.”
410 Sprint Car Results: 1. Anthony Macri, 2. Lance Dewease, 3. Danny Dietrich, 4. Brent Marks, 5. Justin Peck, 6. Lucas Wolfe, 7. Dylan Cisney, 8. Logan Wagner, 9. Justin Whittall, 10. Zeb Wise, 11. Brian Brown, 12. Mike Wagner, 13. Tyler Courtney, 14. Gio Scelzi, 15. Parker Price-Miller, 16. Bill Balog, 17. Jeff Halligan, 18. Cory Eliason, 19. Ryan Smith, 20. Tyler Bear, 21. Scott Boguki, 22. Sammy Swindell, 23. Steve Buckwalter, 24. Ryan Taylor, 25. TJ Stutts, 26. Gerard McIntyre.
305 Results: 1. Garrett Bard, 2. Kruz Kepner, 3. Kenny Heffner, 4.Mike Alleman, 5. Doug DodSON, 6. Zach Rhodes, 7. Larry Mcvay, 8. Ian Detweiler, 9. Mike Melair, 10. Scott Frack, 11. Ken Duke, 12. Erin Statler, 13. Domenic Melair, 14. Fred Arnold, 15. Logan Spahr, 16. Nathan Gramley, 17. Owen Dimm, 18. Drew Young, 19. Jason Roush, 20. Jimmy White, 21. Seth Schnoke, 22. Austin Reed, 23. Dave Grube, 24. DJ Cassler, 25. Andrew Boyer, 26. Roger Weaver.
Keyword: Macri Outduels Dewease To Win Night One Of Bob Weikert Memorial