DYLAN CISNEY PICKS UP OPENING DAY VICTORY

DYLAN CISNEY PICKS UP OPENING DAY VICTORY

Story By Todd Heintzelman/Port Royal Speedway

Photos By: Dan DeMarco/RacersGuide.com

PORT ROYAL, PA – Dylan Cisney raced by Anthony Macri off the fourth
corner on the final lap stealing the Opening Day Sprint car win
Saturday afternoon at Port Royal Speedway.

In other action, Jason Covert won the United Late Model Series (ULMS)
feature with a late-race pass and Andrew Yoder dominated the Mason
Dixon Shootout Series for the limited late models.

The win for Port Royal’s own Cisney was worth $4,000. It was his first
win since 2014.

“I lost so many races the last couple years here on a last lap pass
it’s good to be on the other side for once,” Cisney said.

The track was just the way he likes it.

“It’s fun,” he said. “That was 25 laps of riding the racecar around
the track and having a good time. You get to be a factor in it a
little bit more. It’s not so much your car. You have to drive it, work
the pedal, work the wheel, the wing, it’s a blast. When I show up here
and the track looks like this that’s what I’m looking for.”

He had to be cautious, but still aggressive, on the slick racing surface.

“You’ve got to be a little bit easy especially with the day time
track,” Cisney said. “You can’t be pitching the car around. Got a
little bit of a divot going into one here, so it’s real touchy how you
drive it. The wind, the slick track, you’ve got to be on your toes
getting the car to where you want to be.”

Cisney already had two races under his belt coming into Port’s opener.

“Our goal is to race around a little bit more this year,” he said.
“We’ve got to get better. We don’t do enough racing and our goal is
going to be to get to more tracks and get more laps under our belt.
That’s the only bad thing about being a one night a week team. We’re
going to try and change that this year.”

“To have two races under my belt already coming into Opening Day makes
a world of difference. I was ready to get after it. The track was
perfect. It was a blast in the car. Two and three-wide, side-by-side.
There was a cushion up top and you could run around the bottom. I’m
glad we could take home the win. We’re just a couple construction
workers and an RV mechanic here with a racecar and we found victory
lane.”

Macri has been a factor in almost every race so far this season, but
hasn’t been to victory lane yet.

“Losing one on the last lap stings, but losing a second is killing me
right now,” Macri said. “The next day it feels awesome that we’re
running up front consistently, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel good
right now.”

Carl Bowser started on the pole of the first 25-lap Weikert’s
Livestock Sprint car feature of the 2019 season at the Speed Palace,
but after a close call on the frontstretch, it was Macri securing the
lead off turn two. Cisney started eighth, but was fifth after one lap.

Macri’s lead was 2.6 seconds as Brock Zearfoss and Bowser raced hard
for second. Zearfoss slipped a little high off turn two allowing
Cisney to drive by on lap eight.

Cisney got by Bowser for second on the frontstretch, but Bowser
returned the pass in turn two. Cisney finally made the pass stick a
few laps later.

Cisney was closing fast as Macri tried to get by the slower cars in
front of him. He finally cleared the cars on lap 19 and had a clear
track in front of him. Cisney cleared the cars as well and began to
run Macri down.

The lead was 1.5 seconds with five laps to go.

Macri caught slower cars on the final lap. He went low into turn
three and Cisney went to the outside. Cisney drove off turn four as
the new leader and took the checkers by .322 over Macri. Zearfoss,
Steve Buckwalter and Cale Conley completed the top five. Lucas Wolfe,
21st starter Logan Wagner, Carl Bowser, Mike Wagner and TJ Stutts
rounded out the top 10.

The non-stop time was 8:28.57.

Mike Wagner, Dylan Cisney and Lucas Wolfe won the Sprint car heats for
the 22 cars.

In the 30-lap River Valley Builders ULMS feature, Dylan Yoder started
on the pole driving into the lead. Max Blair raced into second with a
pass of Gene Knaub.

The first yellow flew with 23 laps to go.

Yoder controlled the restart as Jason Covert passed Rick Eckert and
then Knaub taking over third. Covert went after Blair taking second on
lap 12. The yellow flag flew, however, negating that pass.

A wild restart saw Covert, Eckert and Knaub all pass Blair as Yoder
maintained control. He led by 1.884 at the half-way point.

Defending track champion Jeff Rine pressured Knaub for the fourth spot.

Yoder was working through lapped traffic without much trouble over the
final 10 laps. Eckert challenged Covert for the runner-up spot as
Yoder led by 1.383 with five laps to go.

Yoder was on the bottom, but blocked by slower traffic. Covert went to
the middle groove and made it work taking the lead off turn two with
less than two laps left.

Covert, of York Haven, scored the win by 1.114 over Yoder. Eckert,
Rine and Blair completed the top five. Michael Norris, Gene Knaub,
Michael Maresca, Austin Hubbard and Tyler Bare rounded out the top 10.

In qualifying, Eckert was fastest in Group A with a lap of 20.469 and
Hubbard fastest in Group B with a 20.794. Heat races for the 36 cars
were won by Eckert, Michael Norris, Hubbard, and Knaub. Mike Lupfer
and Alex Ferree won the B-mains.

In the Mason Dixon feature, Selinsgrove’s Andrew Yoder started on the
pole and drove into the lead. As he controlled the pace, Devin Frey
and Devin Hart raced side-by-side for second.

Yoder’s big lead was erased with nine laps to go when a car broke
right in front of him in turn three. He was able to miss the slowing
car as the yellow flag flew.

Yoder pulled away as Hart secured second following the restart.

Yoder’s final margin of victory was 1.955 over Hart. Frey, Frankie
Gordon, and Kenny Yoder completed the top five. Todd Snook, Derick
Garman, Brad McGinnis, Bryan Benton, and Donnie Farlling rounded out
the top 10.

Dillan Stake, Todd Snook and Devin Hart won the heat races for the 27 cars.

Sprint Car Feature (25 laps): Sprint Car Feature (25 laps): 1. Dylan
Cisney. 2. Anthony Macri. 3. Brock Zearfoss. 4. Steve Buckwalter. 5.
Cale Conley. 6. Lucas Wolfe. 7. Logan Wagner. 8. Carl Bowser. 9. Mike
Wagner. 10. TJ Stutts. 11. Ryan Smith. 12. Ryan Taylor. 13. AJ Flick. 14.Blane Heimbach. 15. Jason Shultz. 16. Tyler Reeser. 17. George
Hobaugh. 18. John Garvin. 19. Rick Lafferty. 20. Justin Whittall. 21.
Jared Esh. 22. Brent Shearer.

Late Model Feature (30 laps): 1. Jason Covert. 2. Dylan Yoder. 3. Rick
Eckert. 4. Jeff Rine. 5. Max Blair. 6. Michael Norris. 7. Gene Knaub.Michael Maresca. 9. Austin Hubbard. 10. Tyler Bare. 11. Andy Haus 12. Tim Smith Jr. 13. Ross Robinson. 14. Dillan Stake. 15. Mike Lupfer. 16. Donald Lingo Jr. 17. Alex Ferree. 18. Jim Yoder. 19. Michael Wonderling Jr. 20. Matt Lux. 21. Dave Brouse Jr. 22. Michael Lake. 23. Mike Pehger. 24. Matt Cosner. 25. Al Brewer. 26. Jason Dobson.

Did Not Qualify: Hayes Mattern, Danny Snyder, Chad Myers, John Weaver,
Nick Dickson, Tim Wilson, Tom Decker Jr., Dave Dubois, Tom Decker III,
Amanda Whaley. Did Not Start: Nick Dickson

Limited Late Models (20 laps): 1. Andrew Yoder. 2. Devin Hart. 3.
Devin Frey. 4. Frankie Gordon. 5. Kenny Yoder. 6. Todd Snook. 7.
Derick Garman. 8. Brad McGinnis. 9. Bryan Benton. 10. Donnie Farling.11. James Lichliter. 12. Chuck Schultz. 13. Dillan Stake. 14. Matt
Murphy. 15. Taylor Farlling. 16. Clinton Hersh. 17. Jared Fulkroad 18.Rick Singleton. 19. Steve Kent Jr. 20. Dalton Bigler. 21. Ryan
Zook. 22. Eddie Cornett. 23. Matt Parks. 24. Danny Snyder. 25. Paul
Cursey. 26. Ryan Sager. DNS: Dan Berry.