Anthony Macri outruns the field and Mother Nature to earn Record-Setting Feature Event at Port Royal
Photos by cameron saich, rich watt and Justin Snyder
By- Justin Snyder
Port Royal Speedway – PORT ROYAL, Penn. (April 17, 2022) – On a blistering fast racetrack, Anthony Macri picked up his second Weikert’s Livestock 410 Sprint Car feature event of the season over Dylan Cisney and Steve Buckwalter on York County Racing Club Night.
The win was worth $4000 and came by a margin of 1.146 seconds after starting eighth. Macri also set the new 25-lap track record along the way with the feature events being completed in just Seven minutes and 17 seconds. Brock Zearfoss had been the record holder since August 26, 2017 when he won with a time of 7:22.
“I’m a little out of breath after that one,” said Macri. “When we showed up here tonight I didn’t expect the track we had here tonight, but hats off to the facility and the track crew for giving us a great track and moving things along.”
With rain in the forecast, the track hosted three divisions to the Juniata County oval and were able to complete a total of eight heat races, a non stop feature and warm ups in just under one hour and 45 minutes. There were no cautions throughout the entire night, but it still wasn’t enough to beat Mother Nature completely as the Super Late Model and Limited Late Model features had to the rescheduled after rain hit the Speedway minutes after the 410 Sprint Car feature was completed.
But Macri and company did their best to keep the show moving along prior to the showers. Royersford, Pa’s Buckwalter and Port Royal’s own, Cisney, lined up from the front row for the A-main event and it was Cisney getting the jump off the top of the Speedway to lead the opening circuit
By the completion of lap five, Macri had already made his way to the to-five and within two laps Cisney had already caught the tail end of the field and held a 1.665 second advantage over Buckwalter.
With 15 laps remaining, Buckwalter had cut the deficit more than half and only trailed by .669 of a second. Meanwhile, Macri was hot on pursuit as he moved into fourth on lap 11 and third with 12 laps remaining.
One lap later the Concrete Kid used a slider in turn’s one and two on Buckwalter to take over the runner-up position. Macri tried a slider in turn’s one and two with eight laps to go, but Cisney was able to power back by down the backstretch to reclaim the lead. The duo raced within shouting distance of each other over the next four circuits and Macri used every inch of the track to track down the hometown kid.
Coming to three laps to go Macri banged his right rear off the exit of turn four trying to grab the lead , but he was able to regaan his composure as the two drag raced to the start-finish line with no issues to get the two-to-go sign at the flagstand. Macri was able to use the momentum to slide under Cisney entering turn one and he avoided contact with the lapped car of Kody Lehman to exit turn two with the lead for good.
Buckwalter settled for a podium position over AJ Flick and Jeff Halligan. TJ Stutts, Gerard McIntyre Jr., Justin Whittall, Lucas Wolfe and Blane Heimbach made up the rest of the top ten.
Macri was also the night’s Valley Supply Hard Charger, earning $500 for his efforts, while 14th-place finisher Troy Wagaman Jr. earned the $1000 J&S Classics Warrior Award via random draw.
“It doesn’t really matter what kind of track we have, this car has speed and we’re really good right now,” said Macri. “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully next weekend we can walk out here with $10,000 more in our pocket for the Keith Kauffman Classic against the All Stars.”
For Cisney, it was just a matter of being too good to start the event and not having enough left to hold on.
“We just took off too good and burned the tires off there at the end,” said Cisney. “We’ll take it as we have been struggling all season, but to leave with a second shows we’re on the right rack and we’ll keep moving forward.”
410 Sprint Car Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1. Anthony Macri; 2. Dylan Cisney; 3. Steve Buckwalter; 4. A.J. Flick; 5. Jeff Halligan; 6. T.J. Stutts; 7. Gerard McIntyre; 8. Justin Whittall; 9. Lucas Wolfe; 10. Blane Heimbach; 11. Logan Wagner; 12. Pat Cannon; 13. Sye Lynch; 14. Troy Wagaman; 15. Mike Wagner; 16. Kody Lehman; 17. Curt Stroup; 18. Lynton Jeffrey; 19. Tyler Reeser; 20. Mike Watler II; 21. Jordan Givler; 22. Logan McCandless; 23. Ron Aurand.
