Macri edges Dewease in Weikert Memorial
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PORT ROYAL -- Anthony Macri outdueled Lance Dewease over the final four laps to win the sprint car feature Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway.
Following a restart, the pair went back and forth trading the top spot multiple times before Macri made the final pass coming off the fourth corner for the checkered flag.
The 22-year-old from Dillsburg earned $10,000 for his fourth Port Royal win of the season and ninth overall this year.
It was the opening night of the Bob Weikert Memorial, sanctioned by the All Star Circuit of Champions, whose Friday night show at Williams Grove was rained out.
It was a tremendous battle between the Hall of Famer and one of the sport's best young racers.
Dewease, of Fayetteville, led the field down for the restart with four laps remaining with Macri in second.
Dewease raced through the middle groove of turns one and two as Macri blasted around the outside. They swapped the top spot in turns three and four and raced nose-to-tail down the frontstretch. Once again, Macri blasted under Dewease for the lead entering turn three Dewease turned his car back under Macri taking it back exiting the corner.
Macri bounced off the fence a few times trying to keep his momentum up on the high side. He tried again only to have Dewease take it back again racing the middle to inside groove.
Macri nipped Dewease at the line with the white flag waving. Dewease shot back under him in turn one surging ahead again. They raced side-by-side down the backstretch into turn three.
Macri slid up and caught the fourth turn cushion. Dewease was in the middle. Macri had just enough momentum off the top to stay ahead of Dewease for the win.
"That was a hell of a race," Macri said.
He tried to keep Dewease guessing over those final laps.
"Lance is pretty smart," Macri said. "He can guess where you're running, and he knows exactly how to take the air off your car. I didn't want to give him any clues on where I was running definitively."
"Anthony is good everywhere here," Dewease said. "I was really good there and I messed the car up under that last caution when we got the lead, I thought I could get a little better and I moved the wing back and then I got too tight and couldn't turn it. I thought when I got back by him the first time, I might be alright, but he was carrying speed like he always does here. It was a good race."
Passing points were used from qualifying and heat races to set the starting lineup. The top 10 in points after qualifying drew for their starting spots. Macri started third and Dewease seventh.
"I think we made the right calls," Macri said about fine-tuning a new car.
"I have all the respect in the world for Lance," Macri said. "He's always raced me clean and I race people how they race me. To be able to pass him for a win here is pretty special."
Danny Dietrich, who was flying the Weikert 29 colors on the Gary Kauffman sprinter, started second and led the first 24 laps before Dewease got by.
Dietrich held on for third after tagging the fence.
"I shouldn't have moved off the bottom on that restart," Dietrich said. "When you're in clean air, the bottom is pretty easy to run. I felt like I could carry more speed. That lap before he passed me, I hit the fence in three and four. When we went into turn one, I plugged the fence trying to get back in front of him. I didn't want to go down without a fight.
Brent Marks, who started 10th, and Justin Peck, who started eighth, completed the top five. Lucas Wolfe was the hard charger finishing sixth after starting 18th. Dylan Cisney, 11th starter Logan Wagner, polesitter Justin Whittall and 14th starter Zeb Wise rounded out the top 10.
Dewease was the overall fastest qualifier with a lap of 16.156 seconds.
With the passing points system in place, the fastest cars started eighth in the heat races, instead of fourth under the traditional All Star format. Tyler Courtney, Jeff Halligan, Wolfe, and Tyler Bear won the heat races for the 41-car field. Dewease earned the most points followed by Dietrich.
The Weikert Memorial finale paying $29,000 to win was set for Sunday night. Due to an early press deadline Sunday, coverage of that race will be included in Tuesday's edition.
Garrett Bard won the 20-lap main event for the 305 sprint cars. Kruz Kepner, Kenny Heffner, Mike Alleman and Doug Dodson completed the top five.
410 sprint cars
1. Anthony Macri, 2. Lance Dewease, 3. Danny Dietrich, 4. Brent Marks, 5. Justin Peck, 6. Lucas Wolfe, 7. Dylan Cisney, 8. Logan Wagner, 9. Justin Whittall, 10. Zeb Wise, 11. Brian Brown, 12. Mike Wagner, 13. Tyler Courtney, 14. Gio Scelzi, 15. Parker Price-Miller, 16. Bill Balog, 17. Jeff Halligan, 18. Cory Eliason, 19. Ryan Smith, 20. Tyler Bear, 21. Scott Boguki, 22. Sammy Swindell, 23. Steve Buckwalter, 24. Ryan Taylor, 25. TJ Stutts, 26. Gerard McIntyre.
305 sprint cars
1. Garrett Bard, 2. Kruz Kepner, 3. Kenny Heffner, 4.Mike Alleman, 5. Doug DodSON, 6. Zach Rhodes, 7. Larry Mcvay, 8. Ian Detweiler, 9. Mike Melair, 10. Scott Frack, 11. Ken Duke, 12. Erin Statler, 13. Domenic Melair, 14. Fred Arnold, 15. Logan Spahr, 16. Nathan Gramley, 17. Owen Dimm, 18. Drew Young, 19. Jason Roush, 20. Jimmy White, 21. Seth Schnoke, 22. Austin Reed, 23. Dave Grube, 24. DJ Cassler, 25. Andrew Boyer, 26. Roger Weaver.