PORT ROYAL — Jeff Halligan survived a wild finish to win the sprint car feature Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway.

For Halligan, of Ephrata, his second speedway win of the season was worth $4,000.

It appeared hometown racer Dylan Cisney was headed for victory, but a blown tire ended his night in a hard third-turn crash. He was okay.

A chaotic restart saw three-wide racing off the second corner result in contact with point leader and four-time winner Logan Wagner crashing, along with early race leader rookie Derek Hauck. Halligan was part of the three-wide and narrowly missing becoming involved. The restart saw Mike Wagner leading until Halligan blasted under him and slid into the lead. Halligan pulled away from there, leading the final five laps.

“We struggled during Speedweek and made a lot of changes this week,” Halligan said. “We were better in the heat race than we were in the feature. In clean air, I could really get the car to work, but in dirty air, it felt like the car was up out of the race track.

“I’ve never had multiple wins in a season in a 410, so I definitely wanted this one. I’m so proud of this team. It takes so many people to put a fast car on the race track. We put a ton of work in this week because we weren’t very good last week.”

Hauck started from the pole and raced into the lead of the 25-lap main event. Fifth starter Cisney passed Oklahoma teenager Ryan Timms and Trenton Sheaffer taking second in the opening laps. Timms also passed Sheaffer for third.

Hauck blasted around the cushion with a comfortable lead as Cisney and Timms raced hard for second. Cisney secured the spot and turned up the wick racing inside of Hauck for the lead. In traffic on lap 12, Cisney made the pass off turn four taking the lead and Timms followed him by Hauck. Halligan was racing fourth and ninth starting Logan Wagner fifth.

A clean, non-stop feature was about to take a wild turn as the first yellow flew with eight laps to go when Timms stopped in turn four with a blown right rear tire. His crew changed the tire and he rejoined.

The restart saw Halligan and Wagner duck under Hauck. Halligan was on the very bottom, Wagner in the middle and Hauck on the top as they raced through turns one and two. They ran out of racing room off the second turn. Contact between the trio sent Wagner and Hauck crashing down the backstretch and bringing out the red flag. All drivers were okay. Halligan escaped without becoming involved.

Cisney had the top spot for the ensuing restart. Halligan blasted under him on the restart, but Cisney had just enough room to maintain the lead off the second-turn cushion. Halligan slid in front of Cisney in turn three, but Cisney drove back by off the fourth turn. Halligan scrubbed some speed allowing Mike Wagner to pass him for second racing into turn one.

Cisney appeared headed for victory until blowing a tire and crashing hard in turn three with five laps to go. He walked to the ambulance under his own power and was checked out.

Wagner went low and Halligan high on the restart.

“I knew he was going to go to the bottom,” Halligan said. “I knew if I was going to make the top work, I had to go as hard as I could.”

Halligan got a great run off turn two and down the backstretch passing Wagner into turn three. He pulled away from there scoring the win over Wagner, Michael Walter II, Ryan Taylor and Sheaffer.

For Wagner, it was his third runner-up finish of the season.

“We were going decent before that last red,” Wagner said. “I thought we’d be alright, but I didn’t get a good enough restart and I should have run the top. He was a little bit better than me on the restart. Maybe we’ll get a win soon.”

Gerard McIntyre Jr., Kassidy Kreitz, Timms, Justin Whittall and Tyler Bear rounded out the top 10. Heat races for the 22 sprint cars went to Halligan, Taylor and Cisney.

Andrew Yoder won the 20-lap feature for the limited late models. Dillan Stake, Matt Parks, Devin Hart and Daulton Bigler completed the top five.

Jared Miley won the 25-lap make-up feature for the late models earning $3,000. Gary Stuhler, Chad Myers, Kyle Lee and Colton Flinner completed the top five.

In the regular 25-lap late model feature, it was Jeff Rine picking up the $3,000 win over Stuhler, Miley, Austin Berry and Tyler Emory.

The next sprint car race at Port Royal is Wednesday night, July 20, when the World of Outlaws come to town. The track hosts professional motorcycle racing weekend and is dark on July 23.  

The Living Legends Dream Race rounds out July on July 30 featuring the sprint cars and late models.

Sprint cars

1. Jeff Halligan, 2. Mike Wagner, 3. Mike Walter II, 4. Ryan Taylor, 5. Trenton Sheaffer, 6. Gerard McIntyre, 7. Kassidy Kreitz, 8. Ryan Timms, 9. Justin Whittall, 10. Tyler Bear, 11. Alex Bright, 12. Nick Sweigart, 13. Bill Jones Jr., 14. Ron Aurand, 15. Dylan Cisney, 16. Derek Hauck, 17. Logan Wagner, 18. Dan Shetler, 19. Tyler Walton, 20. Lucas Wolfe, 21. Austin Burke, 22. Rick Lafferty.