Brad Strawser

June 16, 2024 — Port Royal, PA — Open Wheel Madness at Port Royal Speedway drew a lot of competition on Saturday June 16th. 3 divisions of open wheel racing saw plenty of passing and excitement for the fans of the Speed Palace.

The USAC National Sprint Cars would kick off the night and saw pole sitter Briggs Danner take the lead. Danner would be followed closely on the opening lap by 4 starter Brady Bacon, and that theme would continue throughout the opening 27 laps of the 35 lap A-main event.

Danner and Bacon would gap the field over the first portion of the race before the battle and pressure for the lead would mount up seeing Danner go hard into the outside wall in turns 1 and 2. Danner would end up bending a radius rod and would result in him drawing a caution and bringing his night to an end.

Bacon would inherit the lead with just 8 laps to go and hold on to win with the USAC National Sprint Car series with CJ Leary and Alex Bright rounding out the podium.

“I was just going to have to stay there and pressure him until he did make a mistake,” said Bacon in victory lane when talking about his strategy of running down Briggs Danner. “He was getting through lap traffic well. He just got into that cushion a little hard a few times and went up into the wall.”

In Weikert Livestock 410 sprint car competition, pole sitter Justin Whittal would wire the field and pick up his second career win at the Speed Palace.

Just under a month before, Whittall was in a terrible accident that would result in him leaving Port Royal by ambulance. Come Saturday night, Whittall would be leaving the track $5,000 richer.

“I was on edge the whole night,” said Whittall in victory lane, “I was nervous all night.”

Michael Walter would finish in the runner-up spot and Kody Lehman would finish in third after starting 18th also winning him an extra $500 for being the Valley Supply Hard Charger.

Steve Buckwalter would take home an extra $1000 on top of his 13th place finish courtesy of the J&S Classics Warrior Award pill drawing his number after the race.

For the USAC Silver Crown division, there would be 3 lead changes in the A-main, with the most important one taking place in the 4th corner of the last lap. Daison Pursley would cross the finish line in first earning his first career USAC Silver Crown win.

Brady Bacon and Pursley would lead the field to the green for the 50 lap A-main with Bacon taking the early advantage.

Justin Grant, who started in 4th, would find himself in a 3-way battle for the lead with Bacon and Pursley 15 laps in to the feature event, and would take away the 2nd spot from Pursley with 34 laps remaining.

Grant would continue to battle with Bacon over the next 13 laps before officially taking the lead with a slider in turns 1 and 2. Daison Pursley would use the same move in turns 3 and 4 with just 18 laps left.

Pursley would use the top side of the race track to run down Grant over the final 18 laps while continuously banging into the cushion and the outside wall, but still keeping the car running.

With lapped traffic playing a heavy factor in the final laps in the race, Pursley would make his move, a slider in turns 3 and 4, to try and take the lead. Grant would turn his car back down the hill a bit to stay alongside Pursley with the two cars banging tires coming down the front stretch.

Grant would continue to be the leader into turns 1 and 2 on the white flag lap, but in turns 3 and 4 Pursley would use the top side of the track to mount momentum to get by Grant for the win.

“I feel like there were a lot of scary moments there,” explained Pursley in victory lane. “It’s Port Royal. If you want to win, you have to do stuff like that.”

Justin Grant would finish in 2nd and Brady Bacon would round out the podium for the night.

Port Royal Speedway will be back in action on June 22nd with Weikert Livestock 410 sprint cars, Selinsgrove Ford super late models and Penns Valley Meat Market 305 sprint cars.

For more information about Port Royal Speedway and upcoming events visit www.portroyalspeedway.com or follow along on social media at Port Royal Speedway Trackside Media on Facebook or @PortRoyalSpdway on X/Twitter.

Full Results:

410 Sprints – Winged 30 Entries
410 A Feature 25 Laps | 00:28:29.659

  1. 67-Justin Whittall[1]; 2. 77-Michael Walter[5]; 3. 47K-Kody Lehman[18]; 4. 1-Chase Dietz[9]; 5. 11-TJ Stutts[4]; 6. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[3]; 7. 45-Jeff Halligan[2]; 8. 55-Mike Wagner[19]; 9. M1-Mark Smith[15]; 10. 95-Garrett Bard[11]; 11. 5-Dylan Cisney[7]; 12. 99-Devin Adams[10]; 13. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[14]; 14. 12-Blane Heimbach[20]; 15. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[16]; 16. 35-Austin Bishop[13]; 17. 55S-Dallas Schott[21]; 18. 10-Jake Waters[22]; 19. 12J-Tyler Esh[17]; 20. 17K-Kyle Keen[24]; 21. 29-Dan Shetler[23]; 22. 35K-Jake Karklin[6]; 23. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[12]; 24. 23-Devon Borden[8]; 25. (DNS) 14-Todd Allen; 26. (DNS) 24-Dustin Baney; 27. (DNS) 25-Tyler Bear; 28. (DNS) 23M-Michael Millard; 29. (DNS) 11Z-Zach Newlin; 30. (DNS) 11T-Mike Thompson

410 B Feature 10 Laps | 00:05:06.000

  1. 55-Mike Wagner[6]; 2. 12-Blane Heimbach[3]; 3. 55S-Dallas Schott[2]; 4. 10-Jake Waters[8]; 5. 29-Dan Shetler[5]; 6. 17K-Kyle Keen[9]; 7. 14-Todd Allen[10]; 8. 24-Dustin Baney[7]; 9. 23M-Michael Millard[12]; 10. 11T-Mike Thompson[1]; 11. 11Z-Zach Newlin[11]; 12. (DNS) 25-Tyler Bear

410 Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:55.000

  1. 1-Chase Dietz[1]; 2. 11-TJ Stutts[4]; 3. 35K-Jake Karklin[6]; 4. 99-Devin Adams[3]; 5. 35-Austin Bishop[8]; 6. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[7]; 7. 11T-Mike Thompson[5]; 8. 25-Tyler Bear[9]; 9. 24-Dustin Baney[2]; 10. 14-Todd Allen[10]

410 Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:02:57.000

  1. 77-Michael Walter[3]; 2. 5-Dylan Cisney[1]; 3. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[4]; 4. 95-Garrett Bard[7]; 5. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[6]; 6. 12J-Tyler Esh[2]; 7. 55S-Dallas Schott[8]; 8. 29-Dan Shetler[9]; 9. 10-Jake Waters[10]; 10. 11Z-Zach Newlin[5]

410 Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:54.000

  1. 67-Justin Whittall[4]; 2. 45-Jeff Halligan[2]; 3. 23-Devon Borden[3]; 4. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[1]; 5. M1-Mark Smith[5]; 6. 47K-Kody Lehman[10]; 7. 12-Blane Heimbach[7]; 8. 55-Mike Wagner[9]; 9. 17K-Kyle Keen[6]; 10. 23M-Michael Millard[8]

410 Hot Laps | 00:03:49.000

  1. 35K-Jake Karklin[16]; 2. 95-Garrett Bard[20]; 3. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[11]; 4. 11-TJ Stutts[10]; 5. 11T-Mike Thompson[13]; 6. 24-Dustin Baney[4]; 7. 77-Michael Walter[8]; 8. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[19]; 9. 1-Chase Dietz[1]; 10. 5-Dylan Cisney[2]; 11. 35-Austin Bishop[22]; 12. 67-Justin Whittall[12]; 13. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[17]; 14. 55S-Dallas Schott[23]; 15. 25-Tyler Bear[25]; 16. M1-Mark Smith[15]; 17. 12-Blane Heimbach[21]; 18. 12J-Tyler Esh[5]; 19. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[3]; 20. 23-Devon Borden[9]; 21. 10-Jake Waters[29]; 22. 14-Todd Allen[28]; 23. 45-Jeff Halligan[6]; 24. 55-Mike Wagner[27]; 25. 29-Dan Shetler[26]; 26. 47K-Kody Lehman[30]; 27. 99-Devin Adams[7]; 28. 17K-Kyle Keen[18]; 29. 11Z-Zach Newlin[14]; 30. 23M-Michael Millard[24]