Anthony Macri Finishes Off Clean Sweep of Bob Weikert Memorial with $29,000 All Star Triumph
Anthony Macri Finishes Off Clean Sweep of Bob Weikert Memorial with $29,000 All Star Triumph
By Justin Snyder
Port Royal Speedway- PORT ROYAL, PA- (May 30, 2022)- Anthony Macri made it a clean sweep of the 2022 Bob Weikert Memorial presented by Packer’s Concessions, LLC. and Folkens Brothers Trucking Saturday night as he held off Brent Marks, Jeff Halligan and the very best the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions had to give.
The win was worth $29,000 and was Macri’s seventh career with the traveling All Stars. It also continued what has been a dominating season at the Speed Palce for Macri with five victories at the track in 2022.
“Brent’s not dumb and I knew he’d catch on to what we were doing on restarts and I just tried to keep him guessing,” said Macri. “I can’t thank Charlie Garrett enough as he builds one hell of a motor and this thing was just awesome.”
Rico Abreu and All Star rookie of the year contender Chris Windom led the field of 25 cars to the green flag and it was Windom getting the early jump to lead his first A-main lap of his rookie All Star campaign.
Current point leader at the Speed Palace, Logan Wagner, was on the move early as he advanced form his 14th starting spiot to ninth by lap two and two laps later it was sixth-place starter Marks making his first stop in on the podium as he advanced to third.
Windom set sail in the opening laps, but Abreu was starting to track him down with five laps completed. However, one lap later his night ended prematurely when he made contact with the outside guardrail and suffered rear end damage and brought out the caution.
Marks inherited the runner-up spot as a result of Abreu’s misfortune and he and Macri were all over Windom following the return to green-flag action. Macri was able to get by Marks for the 2nd position, but Windom stayed steady up front to hold on to the top spot still.
WIth nine laps completed, 19th-place starter Lance Dewease was making himself known to the field as he cracked the top ten. Six laps later Macri drove alongside Windom entering turn three and the Dillsburg, Pa. native drove through the middle outside of Windom through turn 4 to take the top spot with 15 laps to go.
Marks got around Windom for the runner-up spot at the halfway mark of the 30-lap event, while Macri was burried in heavy lapped traffic in front of the field. Current All Star point leader Tyler Courtney moved into a podium position four laps later, but Macri was able to put several lapped cars behind him to keep both Sunshine and Marks at bey.
A caution for a slowing Zeb Wise bunched thefield back together with 7 laps remaining and it was Windom trying to fight back on the restart as he got by Courtney to move back into a podium position. Marks was hot and heavy on the tail tank of Macri for the top spot as well, but another caution flew one lap later for Brian Brown, as the weekend invader pulled off the track with a flat right-rear tire.
Marks tried again on the restarst, but Macri was again able to hold off all attempts to hold onto the top spot. Jeff Halligan seemed to find something on the bottom of the track over the final five circuits as he moved up from his fifth starting position to a podium spot on the white flag lap. He challenged Marks for the runner-up spot, but was unable to grab it.
Meanwhile, Macri was in a league of his own as he came home to the checkered flag with ease for the victory and the coveted steer head trophies awaiting him in victory lane. Marks finished second and earned $10,500 courtesy of Jackson Motorplex, while Halligan earned $8300 for his podium finish courtesy of Huset’s Speedway. Courtney and Justin Peck rounded out the top five.
Logan Wagner, Dewease, Windom, Danny Dietrich and Lucas Wolfe completed the top ten. Wolfe took a provisional to start the A-main all alone in the 13th row and earned the $500 Valley Supply Hard Charger Award for the second consecutive night after advancing 15 positions in the A-main. Bill Balog scored the $1000 J&S Classics Warrior Award via a random draw of finishing spot No. 17 while Gerard McIntyre Jr. earned a $100 bonus via RK Electrical as the first non All Star non-qualifier.
“The history behind the Weikert name and to win it back to back and sweep the whole weekend is pretty damn cool,” said Macri. “I don’t know if that has ever been done, but this is going to take a little while to sink in.”
For Marks, he was happy with a runner-up, but was disappointed he didn’t get a shot at Macri in lapped trafic.
“Anthony did a good job on the restarts and he could just stick the middle really well on the restarts,” said Mark. “They’re the car to beat here right now, but I wish we could have had a shot in lapped trafic as we could run him down, but we’re just not as good in clean air as them.”
Halligan was excited to be on the podium, but just ran out of time.
“I was beting down the fence like everyone else, but went to clean air after that restart,” he said. “This is a great run for this team and I can’t thank my guys enough for getting me here.”
410 Sprint Car Feature Finish: 1. Anthony Macri; 2. Brent Marks; 3. Jeff Halligan; 4. Tyler Courtney; 5. Justin Peck; 6. Logan Wagner; 7. Lance Dewease; 8. Chris Windom; 9. Danny Dietrich; 10. Lucas Wolfe; 11. Mike Wagner; 12. Gio Scelzi; 13. Justin Whitall; 14. Parker Price-Miller; 15. Cory Eliason; 16. Hunter Schuerenberg; 17. Bill Balog; 18. Dylan Cisney; 19. Cap Henry; 20. Tyler Bear; 21. Tyler Reeser; 22. Brian Brown; 23. Freddie Rahmer; 24. Zeb Wise; 25. Rico Abreu.
Steve Wilbur made sure there was a Weikert’s Livestock sponsored sprint car in victory lane on the livestock companie’s namesake’s memorial event as he picked up the Path Valley Wingless Sportsman feature A-main event.
Wilbur started eighth on ther grid and got by front row starters Michael Smith and Brett Perigo mid-race to bring home the victory as part of the Bob Weikert Memorial.
“You just have to go as hard as you can on the track and this is pretty call to do this on Bob Weikert’s night and for everything that family does for racing,” said Wilbur. “To quote Bob Weikert, this ain’t even with our good stuff as we got the good stuff chained up back at the shop at home.
“This staff does so much and invites us to be part of this event and this is just an honor for our series to even be here. I kid the Weikert fanily always that I want a bull head and this is the only track in Central Pa I;ve never won at and it’s just really cool to finally get a win in front of these fans.”
Sportsman Results- 1. Steve Wilbut; 2. Brett Perigo; 3. Michael Smith; 4. Trent Yoder; 5. Eric Jennings; 6. Tony Jackson; 7. Tom Savage; 8. Bob Gutshall; 9. Kevin Gutshall; 10. Jason Failor; 11. Jack Leddick; 12. Graig Perigo 13. Gene Eppley; 14. Dexter Ehrenzeller; 15. Adam Meier; 16. Sam Leonard; 17. Jonatyhan Clay; 18. Ricky Rutt; 19. Joe Gabner; 20. Rohan Beasley; 21. Luke Lenker
Logan Wagner added yet another win at the Speed Palace in 2022 as he picked up the make-up feature event victory for his fourth win of the 2022 racing season. Wagner bested Brent Marks and Dylan Cisney to score the $5000 victory.
Justin Whittall started the race on the pole position and looked to be in contention to score his first career Port Royal victory. However, following a red flag for Tyler Walton in turn one his crew noticed fuel leaking form his 410 powered sprint car on the frontstretch and he was forced to give up the lead to head to the pits to fix the issue.
Marks inherited the lead as a result of Whittall’s misfortune, but it was all Wagner on the restart as he flew to the front of the pack and never looked back. Marks and Cisney put on a spirited battle for the top spot over the final laps of the event, but it was Marks sitting second yet again on the night over Cisney, Halligan and Gerard McIntyre.
“What a cool experience. We wanted to get the Weikert, but I can’t complain with a $5000 victory tonight,” said Wagner. “We just were too balled up on the right rear during the Weikert, but we prevailed and got ourselves a victory.
Wagner shaved his head in victory lane as a result of a promise he made earlier in the week that if he won, he;d shave his head to bring awareness to a young girl named Adley’s fight with Cancer.
410 Make Up Results- 1. Logan Wagner; 2. Brent Marks; 3. Dylan Cisney; 4. Jeff Halligan; 5. Gerard McIntyre; 6. Steve Buckwalter; 7. Lucas Wolfe; 8. Mike Wagner’ 9. Kody Lehman; 10. Justin Whittall; 11. Tyler Bear; 12. Kassidy Kreitz; 13. Tyler Walton; 14. Brock Zearfoss; 15. Rick Lafferty; 16. Ryan Timms; 17. Trenton Shaeffer; 18. Zach Newlin; 19. Ryan Smith; 20. Michael Walter; 21. AJ Flick; 22. Tyler Reeser; 23. Blane Heimbach; 24. Anthony Macri
