Stevie Smith takes $5,000 from Port Royal Speedway during Night Before The Tuscarora 50, Tuscarora weekend continues Saturday with Tuscarora 50 finale
Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / ALL STAR SERIES MEDIA
Photos By: DAN DEMARCO / RACERSGUIDE.COM
PORT ROYAL, PA. -September 9, 2016 – For the first time in 2016 and for the fourth time in his career, the “Black Bandit” Stevie Smith is a main event winner against the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions at Port Royal Speedway, this time scoring the Night Before The Tuscarora 50 victory to officially kick-off Tuscarora weekend at the “Speed Palace.” Smith, who started third on the feature grid, took command for the first time on lap 12, eventually holding back Greg Hodnett and Lucas Wolfe by nearly 2.5 seconds to score the $5,000 top prize. It was Smith’s 17th career victory with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions, equalling his father’s total on the all-time Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions win list.
“I am really happy to be out here tonight,” Stevie Smith said in victory lane. “I’ve always really enjoyed racing at Port Royal and I like winning at Port Royal. Although, I have to be truthful, I like winning at any track. It seems like it gets harder and harder to win every year. This track is putting on a great show for us here this weekend. I can’t thank everyone enough. They are the real reason why we are out here.”
Pole sitter Greg Hodnett took command during the initial Night Before The Tuscarora 50 main event start, leading Brock Zearfoss and Stevie Smith by the flag stand for the first time. Despite Hodnett’s ability to quickly extend his advantage at the front of the field, reaching a near-two second lead by lap 5, it was Lance Dewease who was creating the most noise.
Within two circuits, sixth starting Lance Dewease was already putting pressure on Stevie Smith, Brock Zearfoss, and Greg Hodnett, ultimately stealing third from Smith at the completion of lap two, and second from Zearfoss on lap three. The Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, native locked himself down on the bottom of the speedway, erasing Hodnett’s near-two second lead by lap eight, eventually driving under the familiar No. 27 on lap nine during a battle in traffic.
Unfortunately for the pilot of the Don Kreitz-owned/No. 69K, the dominance would soon come to an end, unexpectedly pulling to a stop on the backstretch on lap 11. This would allow Greg Hodnett to inherit the lead once again, followed by Stevie Smith and now Dale Blaney.
Greg Hodnett’s campaign at the front of the field would only last a single circuit, eventually overtaken by Stevie Smith with a textbook slide job between turns three and four on lap 12. That move would prove to be the winning move with Stevie Smith surviving the remaining 18 circuits of the 30 lap main event to earn his place on the coveted Port Royal Speedway victory lane stage, crossing under the final checkers nearly 2.5 seconds ahead of Greg Hodnett and Lucas Wolfe, who worked his way back to a podium finish by lap 13.
“We were just so tight at the beginning. It took us half of the race to really get going,” Stevie Smith explained. “Lance (Dewease) was really good tonight. I’m not sure how we would have ended up if he wouldn’t have broke. I just had to go where the car told me to go and where I thought the car was right. It hasn’t been right a lot this year, but it paid off tonight.”
The 49th running of the Tuscarora 50 will cap off a full weekend of competition for the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions at Port Royal Speedway, awarding a minimum of $12,000 after 50 laps of green flag competition on Saturday night, September 10. The Tuscarora 50 finale, a show-up points event for the Arctic Cat All Stars during their third and final Port Royal Speedway appearance of 2016, will also award lap money on top of the five-digit payday, which will be accumulated during the entire main event.
Port Royal Speedway will open Tuscarora 50 pit gates and main gates at 4:00 pm on Saturday, September 10. A mandatory drivers meeting will be held at 5:45 pm, followed by hot laps at 6:30. For more information, please visit Port Royal Speedway live on the Web at www.portroyalspeedway.com.
Contingency Awards/Results: Port Royal Speedway – Friday, September 9, 2016:
Event: Night Before The Tuscarora 50
EMi Driver’s Meeting: 41 Entries
State Water Heaters Warm-Ups: Lucas Wolfe – 15.972 seconds
Lincoln Electric Fast Qualifier: Danny Holtgraver (2nd Quick) – 16.291 seconds
Kistler Racing Products Heat #1: Sheldon Haudenschild
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2: Lucas Wolfe
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3: Brock Zearfoss
EMi Heat #4: Dave Blaney
JE Pistons Dash: Greg Hodnett
Daido Engine Bearings Main Event Winner: Greg Hodnett (2nd)
MSD Performance Hard Charger Award: Ryan Smith (+9)
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 5th Place Finisher: Danny Dietrich
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 10th Place Finisher: Doug Esh
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 15th Place Finisher: Ryan Smith
(Lincoln Electric, Daido Engine Bearings, MSD Performance, Outback Steakhouse: Need decal to qualify for contingency award)
Qualifying
1.1Z-Lucas Wolfe, 16.202; 2.70-Danny Holtgraver, 16.291; 3.69K-Lance Dewease, 16.365; 4.25-Aaron Ott, 16.407; 5.51S-Stevie Smith, 16.411; 6.21-Cap Henry, 16.474; 7.27-Greg Hodnett, 16.521; 8.19m-Brent Marks, 16.545; 9.1-Dale Blaney, 16.556; 10.13-Tim Shaffer, 16.575; 11.12-Blane Heimbach, 16.577; 12.3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 16.578; 13.75-Nicole Bower, 16.599; 14.93-Sheldon Haudenschild, 16.615; 15.88-TJ Stutts, 16.630; 16.71m-Dave Blaney, 16.650; 17.O7-Doug Esh, 16.654; 18.5-Dylan Cisney, 16.668; 19.48-Danny Dietrich, 16.688; 20.17B-Steve Buckwalter, 16.729; 21.10H-Chad Kemenah, 16.733; 22.29-Jason Shultz, 16.736; 23.55-Mike Wagner, 16.758; 24.57X-Andrew Palker, 16.767; 25.25B-Tyler Bear, 16.773; 26.94-Ryan Smith, 16.783; 27.7W-Logan Wagner, 16.797; 28.40-Caleb Helms, 16.860; 29.44-Joey Hershey, 16.877; 30.81-Lee Jacobs, 16.883; 31.8M-TJ Michael, 16.904; 32.91-Anthony Fiore, 16.969; 33.49H-Bradley Howard, 17.000; 34.60-Kory Crabtree, 17.035; 35.33-Curt Stroup, 17.139; 36.19G-Cale Grubb, 17.169; 37.24B-Dustin Baney, 17.200; 38.11K-Kraig Kinser, 17.253; 39.75L-Kody Lehman, 17.333; 40.55W-Michael Wagner II, 17.397; 41.15-Vince Snyder, 99.008;
Heat 1, Group A – (8 Laps)
1. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[2] ; 2. 70-Danny Holtgraver[4] ; 3. 88-TJ Stutts[1] ; 4. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[5] ; 5. 75-Nicole Bower[3] ; 6. 55-Mike Wagner[6] ; 7. 57X-Andrew Palker[7] ; 8. 44-Joey Hershey[9] ; 9. 8M-TJ Michael[10] ; 10. 25B-Tyler Bear[8]
Heat 2, Group B – (8 Laps)
1. 1Z-Lucas Wolfe[4] ; 2. 1-Dale Blaney[1] ; 3. 19m-Brent Marks[2] ; 4. O7-Doug Esh[5] ; 5. 21-Cap Henry[3] ; 6. 7W-Logan Wagner[7] ; 7. 94-Ryan Smith[6] ; 8. 19G-Cale Grubb[10] ; 9. 49H-Bradley Howard[9] ; 10. 91-Anthony Fiore[8]
Heat 3, Group C – (8 Laps)
1. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[1] ; 2. 51S-Stevie Smith[2] ; 3. 69K-Lance Dewease[4] ; 4. 25-Aaron Ott[3] ; 5. 10H-Chad Kemenah[5] ; 6. 29-Jason Shultz[6] ; 7. 40-Caleb Helms[7] ; 8. 81-Lee Jacobs[8] ; 9. 24B-Dustin Baney[10]
Heat 4, Group D – (8 Laps)
1. 71m-Dave Blaney[1] ; 2. 27-Greg Hodnett[4] ; 3. 48-Danny Dietrich[6] ; 4. 12-Blane Heimbach[2] ; 5. 5-Dylan Cisney[5] ; 6. 11K-Kraig Kinser[8] ; 7. 13-Tim Shaffer[3] ; 8. 75L-Kody Lehman[9] ; 9. 33-Curt Stroup[7] ; 10. 55W-Michael Wagner II[10]
Dash 1 – (6 Laps)
1. 27-Greg Hodnett[2] ; 2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[1] ; 3. 51S-Stevie Smith[3] ; 4. 1-Dale Blaney[5] ; 5. 25-Aaron Ott[4] ; 6. 69K-Lance Dewease[6] ; 7. 1Z-Lucas Wolfe[8] ; 8. 70-Danny Holtgraver[7]
B-Main 1 – (12 Laps)
1. 55-Mike Wagner[3] ; 2. 7W-Logan Wagner[7] ; 3. 29-Jason Shultz[2] ; 4. 94-Ryan Smith[6] ; 5. 57X-Andrew Palker[4] ; 6. 40-Caleb Helms[8] ; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser[16] ; 8. 8M-TJ Michael[11] ; 9. 81-Lee Jacobs[10] ; 10. 91-Anthony Fiore[12] ; 11. 75L-Kody Lehman[17] ; 12. 19G-Cale Grubb[14] ; 13. 24B-Dustin Baney[15] ; 14. 33-Curt Stroup[13] ; 15. 55W-Michael Wagner II[18] ; 16. 44-Joey Hershey[9] ; 17. 13-Tim Shaffer[1] ; 18. 25B-Tyler Bear[5] ; 19. 49H-Bradley Howard[19] ; 20. 60-Kory Crabtree[20]
A-Main 1 – (30 Laps)
1. 51S-Stevie Smith[3] ; 2. 27-Greg Hodnett[1] ; 3. 1Z-Lucas Wolfe[7] ; 4. 1-Dale Blaney[4] ; 5. 48-Danny Dietrich[13] ; 6. 71m-Dave Blaney[10] ; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[2] ; 8. 25-Aaron Ott[5] ; 9. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[9] ; 10. O7-Doug Esh[15] ; 11. 10H-Chad Kemenah[19] ; 12. 21-Cap Henry[18] ; 13. 12-Blane Heimbach[16] ; 14. 5-Dylan Cisney[20] ; 15. 94-Ryan Smith[24] ; 16. 55-Mike Wagner[21] ; 17. 88-TJ Stutts[11] ; 18. 11K-Kraig Kinser[25] ; 19. 29-Jason Shultz[23] ; 20. 75-Nicole Bower[17] ; 21. 70-Danny Holtgraver[8] ; 22. 19m-Brent Marks[12] ; 23. 7W-Logan Wagner[22] ; 24. 69K-Lance Dewease[6] ; 25. 75L-Kody Lehman[26] ; 26. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[14]
Current Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Standings (September 9, 2016):
1. Dale Blaney – 4756
2. Chad Kemenah – 4734
3. Sheldon Haudenschild – 4700
4. Cap Henry – 4430
5. Danny Holtgraver – 4372
6. Kraig Kinser – 4364
7. T.J. Michael – 4182
8. Caleb Helms – 3996
9. Lee Jacobs – 3856
10. Andrew Palker – 3784
Additional Arctic Cat All Star Series Info:
Those seeking additional information regarding the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions ??should visit their official online home at www.allstarsprint.com. Series updates and breaking news will be posted regularly on the official Twitter account of the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions: https://twitter.com/ASCoC. Find full text results from each and every event, as well as an up-to-date schedule, online at www.allstarsprint.com/schedule/.
About the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions:
All Star Enterprises, LLC, wholly owned by Tony Stewart, d/b/a the All Star Circuit of Champions, is a winged sprint car series. The All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series is one of the oldest traveling 410 sprint car organizations and is a staple of grassroots, open-wheel racing. Formed in 1970 by Bud Miller, the series has largely been considered the first ‘outlaw’ Sprint Car organization of the modern era. After a 10 year stint as owner of the All Stars, Miller passed control of the series to Bert Emick in 1980; a reign that would continue through 2002. Guy Webb then purchased the series from Emick in the summer of 2002 and served as the series President for the next 12 years. Motorsports entrepreneur Tony Stewart agreed to terms with Guy Webb to become the sole owner of the original winged sprint car tour in January of 2015.
