Logan Wagner Scores Fifth Win of the Season; Kenawell, Bard and Bright Also Earn Open Wheel Madness Wins

Logan Wagner Scores Fifth Win of the Season; Kenawell, Bard and Bright Also Earn Open Wheel Madness Wins

By Justin Snyder

Port Royal Speedway- PORT ROYAL, PA-  (August 21, 2022)-  Logan Wagner held off the field and the rapid loss of air coming from his right-rear tire to claim the victory in Weikert’s Livestock 410 Sprint Car competition Saturday night.

The win was Wagner’s fifth of the season at the Juniata County oval and was worth $5000 as part of the track’s Open Wheel Madness presented by Bobby Rahal Toyota of Lewistown promotion. Dylan Cisney, Blane Heimbach, Mike Wagner and Devon Borden rounded out the top five.

Ryan Taylor and Mike Walter II lined up on the front row for the A-main and it was Taylor leading the field of 24 Sprint Cars to the line at the conclusion of lap one over fourth-place starter Jeff Halligan.

Taylor paced the field early, but gave way to a surging Halligan out of turn four with 19 laps remaining. Taylor stayed within striking distance of Halligan over the following lap, but both their run’s at victory would come to an end before another lap could be completed.

Lapped car, Austin Burke, got turned around in between turn’s one and two and left both drivers with nowhere to go. Halligan nearly slipped by on the outside, but sustained front end damage and Taylor slid sideways into Burke as well. Both cars would not return to the field.

Their misfortune proved to be Walter’s good luck as he was gifted the lead as a result and it was him leading the field back to the green-flag action over Heimbach and Mike Wagner. However, his lead was short lived as it only took three turns for Heimbach to overtake Walter for the top spot and the Selinsgrove, Pa. ace would be credited with leading lap eight.

Walter chased Heimbach over the next six circuits before making a move for the top spot with 11 laps to go. However, as the leaders were also contesting lapped traffic as well, Walter got into the back-end of a lapped car on the backstetch and the contact as a result created front-end damage. He attempted to regain his composure, but the damage caused him to pop a wheelie on the frontstretch and he pulled into the infield as a result while running second.

With Walter off track, sixth-place starting Logan Wagner acquired the runner-up position and he set his sights on Heimbach. Eighth-place starter Dylan CIsney was also on the move and he moved into the final podium position with nine laps to go.

It only took four more laps for Wagner to overtake Heimbach for the top spot and three laps later Cisney followed suit. It appeared the fans might see a repeat of Cisney’s miracle driver forward from a few week’s ago, but a lapped car stalled his momentum on the white flag lap.

The hometown kid gave it the old college try though and he got a huge run down the backstretch coming to the checkered flag. But the run wasn’t enough, as Wagner took the checkered by a margin of .692 seconds. The timing of the final lap proved perfect as Wagner’s tire was going flat as he paced the field and headed to victory lane to celebrate.

AJ Flick, Trenton Sheaffer, Dan Shetler, Tyler Bear and Nick Swiegart completed the top ten.  Sweigart also earned both the $500 Valley Supply Hard Charger Award and the J&S Classics $1000 Warrior Award via a random draw.

410 Sprint Car Results- 1. Logan Wagner, 2. Dylan Cisney, 3. Blane Heimbach, 4. Mike Wagner, 5. Devon Borden, 6. AJ Flick, 7. Trenton Sheaffer, 8. Dan Shetler, 9. Tyler Bear, 10. Nick Sweigart, 11. Ryan Linder, 12. Kassidy Kreitz, 13. Bill Jones Jr., 14. Devin Brenneman, 15. Bryn Gohn, 16. Derek Locke, 17. Tyler Templin, 18. Mike Walter II, 19. Tyler Walton, 20. Jeff Halligan, 21. Ryan Taylor, 22. Austin Burke, 23. Gerard McIntyre, 24. Kody Lehman

Stevie Kenawell and Garrett Bard both scored feature victories in the Penns Valley Meat Market PA Sprint Series 305 Sprint Car division Saturday night. Kenawell’s victory was his first career triumph at the Speedway and came as part of the night’s regularly scheduled event, while Bard’s was part of a make-up feature  event form an earlier season rainout.

Mike Melair led the opening lap of the first feature after starting f0orm the fourth position and he led the opening 10 laps before a caution for a slowing car in turn two halted his momentum.

Kenawell, who started 10th on the grid, moved into the final podium position following the halfway mark restart. However, 12th-place starter Bard had other ideas as he went fourth to second to take over the runner-up spot on the top side.

Kenawell slipped back by Bard for second with seven laps to go, while Melair held a 1.198 second advantage with five laps remaining. It only took two more laps for Kenawell to make the lead disappear as he got by Melair and cruised home for the victory .
 Melair, Bard, Dave Wickham and Kruz Kepner rounded out the top five.

Bard was able to redeem himself in the second feature as he capitalized on a front-row starting spot to bring home the victory as part of the make-up feature event. Austin Reed, Tyler Snook, Ken Duke and Doug Dodson rounded out the top five.

305 Sprint Car Feature 1- Steve Kenawell, 2. Mike Melair, 3. Garrett Bard, 4. Dave Wickham, 5. Kruz Zepner, 6. Justin Mills, 7. Jimmy White, 8. Scott Frack, 9. Drew Young, 10. Logan Jones, 11. Jake Waters, 12. Austin Reed, 13. Tyler Snook, 14. Ken Duke, 15. Roger Irvine, 16. Doug Dodson, 17. Logan Spahr, 18. Josh Spicer, 19. Zach Rhodes, 20. Owen Dimm, 21. Jeff Weaver, 22. Reed Thompson, 23. Mike Alleman, 24. Chad Phillips

305 Sprint Car Feature 2- 1. Garrett Bard, 2. Austin Reed, 3. Tyler Snook, 4. Ken Duke, 5. Doug Dodson, 6. Roger Irvine, 7. Fred Arnold, 8. Owen Dimm, 9. Dave Wickham, 10. Erin Statler, 11. Logan Spahr, 12. Jason Roush, 13. Scott Frack, 14. Mike Alleman, 15. Cale Reigle, 16. Jimmy White, 17. Jake Waters, 18. Matthew Swift, 19. Drew Young, 20. Paul Moyer, 21. Austin Greenland, 22. Kruz Kepner, 23. Josh Spicer, 24. Mike Melair

Alex Bright charged forward form the eighth starting position to eqrn the USAC East Coast Sprint Car feature win over Steven Drevicki and Mark Smith.

Bobby Butler and Smith started form the front row and it was Butler leading at the completion of the opening circuit. Meanwhile, Bright was already on the move as he passed four cars on the first lap to sit on fourth.

Smith got by Butler for the lead on the second circuit, while Bright cracked the podium as well for third. It only took one more lap for Bright to dispatch of Butler for second and two more laps to get by Smith for the lead.

Drevicki, who started 10th on the grid, moved into a podium position on lap eight and two laps later he got by Butler to move into the final podium spot. However, Bright was on a mission up front and maintained a 1.8 second advantage at the halfway mark.
Lapped traffic came into play, but Drevicki would never seriously contend as Bright cruised home for the win. Drevicki, Smith, Briggs Danner and Kenny Miller completed the top five.

USAC East Coast Results- 1. Alex Bright, 2. Steven Drevicki, 3. Mark Smith, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Kenny Miller III, 6. Mike Thompson, 7. Ed Aiken, 8. Joey Amantea, 9. Jason Cherry, 10. Aiden Borden, 11. Bobby Butler, 12. Preston Lattomus, 13. Eric Jennings, 14. Austin Graby, 15. Tommy Kunsman, 16. Bruce Buckwalter, 17. Jonathan Swanson, 18. Joey Toth, 19. Rich Carhathan, 20. David Swanson, 21. Billy Ney