Anthony Macri continues his roll, lands fourth win of the season at Port Royal

PORT ROYAL, Pa.: Anthony Macri continues to build momentum and gain confidence in his sprint car racing career.

Coming off of his first career start in the Knoxville Nationals A-Main last weekend, Macri scored his first career Williams Grove win Friday night and backed that up with his fourth win of the season at Port Royal Speedway Saturday night. The win was worth $4,000.

“Definitely can’t complain,” Macri said. “I’m a firm believer that whenever I go out on the road with the Outlaws, it tunes me up to come back home. Out on the road, you have to drive different and that mentality stays with you when you come back home.

“I drive way harder, and it seems like I’m more mentally sharp when I come home, and I can give Jim (Shuttlesworth) a better idea of what the car’s doing, and I can do more with the car throughout the race and move around and do a better job driving.”

It wasn’t easy for the 22-year-old from Dillsburg, Pa., as he had to track down Curt Stroup and deal with a vision problem after being struck by a clump of mud.

“We weren’t terrible, but we weren’t good in the beginning of the race,” he said. “I knew some fuel had to burn off and then we’d be better.”

The feel-good story of the 25-lap main event was Stroup, who led from the drop of the green. Macri started ninth and was fifth for a restart with 12 laps to go.

“We were stagnant there, and the yellow came out,” Macri said. “I played with the wing a little bit and got a half-decent restart and got into third.”

Point leader Logan Wagner lined up behind Stroup, who led the field down very slowly. Wagner had struggled all night with fuel pick-up issues, and his car stumbled on the restart.

This mixed up the top five, as Wagner struggled to get going. Pat Cannon passed Wagner and Steve Buckwalter, who then returned the pass on Cannon.

Macri drove by Wagner and then Cannon, taking over third. Stroup was ahead by two seconds when Macri raced by Buckwalter and into second.

“I moved around and found the top and it was pretty fast and ran the 19 down and tried to find a way to pass him,” Macri said.

Macri was closing, but what we didn’t know at the time was he had been struck by a clump of mud and his vision was impaired.

“I got within three or four car lengths of him going into one and he got into the curb and a huge chunk of mud came back and hit my shield and pushed my helmet down, so I really couldn’t see for five or six laps,” Macri said.

“Then, the red came out, and I was able to fix my helmet and shield and finish the deal. It was pretty scary. I didn’t really want to run the top, but I knew that was the place to be, and I kind of sucked it up.”

He’d grab the lead with an inside move through turns three and four with four laps to go. He didn’t get away as Stroup kept pace.

With one lap to go, Wagner stopped on the backstretch to bring out the yellow. As the field paced under caution, a very strange crash occurred in turn four. Jeff Halligan attempted to keep heat in his tires, but his car veered into the fence and crashed stopping the race with a red flag. He was okay.

Macri was able to get his vision situation fixed under the red. He controlled the restart and the final lap. Buckwalter passed Stroup for second spot. Stroup finished third.

“Curt was better than us,” Buckwalter said. “It was unfortunate that something happened there, but I’m glad he held on for third. I’ve got to get off the corners better. My car owner’s in the hospital, I don’t know if he’s watching or not, but we tried our best.”

Said Stroup, “I thought tonight was going to be the night. I’m getting older, and it plays you out when you’re on the wheel like that. I don’t know what happened down the backstretch. I thought maybe the left front arm fell off. We’re not sure what happened. I couldn’t keep it up the track, and I thought we were going to miss the podium.”

Gerard McIntyre Jr. won a late-race battle with Cannon for fourth. Mike Wagner, Blane Heimbach, Justin Whittall, Dylan Cisney and Ryan Smith rounded out the top 10.

Heat races for the 29 cars went to Heimbach, McIntyre and Cannon with Kody Lehman winning the consolation.

Dave Grube won the 305 Sprint car feature, and Briggs Danner the USAC East Coast wingless 360’s.

410 Sprint Car Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1. Anthony Macri; 2. Steve Buckwalter; 3. Curt Stroup; 4. Gerard McIntyre; 5. Pat Cannon; 6. Mike Wagner; 7. Blane Heimbach; 8. Justin Whittall; 9. Dylan Cisney; 10. Ryan Smith; 11. Jared Esh; 12. Jason Shultz; 13. A.J. Flick; 14. Kody Lehman; 15. Connor Leoffler; 16. Trenton Sheaffer; 17. Tyler Reeser; 18. Mike Walter II; 19. Drew Ritchey; 20. Logan Wagner; 21. Jeff Halligan; 22. Tyler Bear; 23. Tyler Walton; 24. Dan Shetler.

360 Non-Wing Sprint Car Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1. Briggs Danner; 2. Alex Bright; 3. Christian Bruno; 4. Tommy Kunsman; 5. Eric Jennings; 6. Kenny Miller III; 7. Nash Ely; 8. Bruce Buckwalter; 9. Ed Aiken; 10. Mike Thompson; 11. Mark Bitner; 12. Damon Paul; 13. Colin White; 14. Aiden Borden; 15. Rich Carnathan; 16. Tom Savage; 17. Jason Cherry; 18. Troy Fraker; 19. David Swanson; 20. Jermain Godshall; 21. Billy Ney; 22. Jonathan Swanson; 23. Joey Amantea.

305 Sprint Car Feature Finish, 20 Laps: 1. Dave Grube; 2. Domenic Melair; 3. Kenny Heffner; 4. Will Brunson; 5. Fred Arnold; 6. Larry McVay; 7. Nathan Gramley; 8. Steve Kenawell; 9. Roger Irvine; 10. Austin Reed; 11. Mike Melair; 12. Nick Sweigart; 13. Garrett Bard; 14. Erin Statler; 15. Logan Spahr; 16. Tyler Snook; 17. Jeff Weaver; 18. Doug Dodson; 19. Jared Zionkowski; 20. Mikell McGee; 21. Andrew Boyer; 22. Branston Shue; 23. Todd Lynn; 24. Jake Waters; 25. Kassidy Kreitz; 26. Devin Adams; 27. Rowdy Heffner; 28. Jerald Harris.