PORT ROYAL — A week ago, a blown tire cost Justin Whittall a sprint car feature win at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal. Whittall rebounded Saturday night as the New Jersey driver picked up his first Port Royal feature win of the season, extending his point lead in the process.

“We’ve had a couple taken away this year,” Whittall said. “Last week sucked. This is the way to rebound.”

The blown tire on the final lap last week was still on his mind.

“I was trying to baby it and stayed away from the walls as much as I could tonight,” Whittall said. “The track was a little different tonight, but we were still ripping the boards.”

He’s been fast all year, but good racing luck has not been on his side.

“This is a whole new car,” Whittall said. “Last week, getting into the wall bent the front end, so we spent all week rebuilding. I can’t thank my guys enough.”

Mike Thompson grabbed the lead in the 25-lap feature. Whittall’s winning charge began from the eighth starting spot. Whittall was racing just behind a good race for third between Blane Heimbach and Doug Hammaker. Thompson had a comfortable lead over Dominic Melair.

Whittall took fifth from Heimbach and then fourth after going back and forth with Hammaker. Melair caught and passed Thompson for the lead as they started lapping slower cars.

Thompson took it back with a turn two pass. Whittall was racing hard with Garrett Bard for third and ducked under him and Melair in turn one. He nearly passed Thompson as well, but settled into second.

Heimbach passed Melair taking fourth as Whittall started lapping cars. Bard challenged Thompson for second.

Whittall grabbed the lead from Thompson as they raced through turns one and two with nine laps to go. He pulled away from there, winning by 4.8 seconds.

Thompson held off Bard scoring his career-best finish. Heimbach nipped Bard at the line for third.

“To put 25 laps together feels so, so good if we finished second or we finished 12th,” Thompson said. “We struggled all year, but the last couple of weeks, we’ve made some strides in our program. This is something to build on.”

“We couldn’t keep up the pace early, but the car was nice at the end,” Heimbach said.

Bard and Doug Hammaker completed the top five. Michael Walter, Jeff Halligan, Logan Wagner, Gerard McIntyre Jr. and Lucas Wolfe rounded out the top 10.

Doug Dodson won the 20-lap feature for the 305 sprint cars. Josh Spicer, Mike Melair, Kruz Kepner, and Braeden Varner completed the top five. Kenny Heffner, Ace Pruitt, Jim Pattock, John Braim and Logan Spahr rounded out the top 10.

Ayden Hare won the 358 sprint car feature. Derek Lock, Bryn Gohn, Cody Fletcher and Tyler Ulrich completed the top five. Tylar Rutherford, Eli Tuckey, Seth Schnoke, Chase Gutshall and Colton Moyer rounded out the top 10.

ANTHONY MACRI WINS KING’S ROYAL

Dillsburg’s Anthony Macri led all 40 laps winning $200,000 in the 42nd

Annual King’s Royal Saturday night at Eldora Speedway in western Ohio. It was the biggest win of the 26-year-old’s young career. He beat race favorites Rico Abreu and Kyle Larson. Brian Brown and David Gravel completed the top five.

Ryan Smith finished sixth in the Kreitz Racing 69K. Carson Macedo

finished second followed by Shark Racing Teammates Ashton Torgerson and Logan Schuchart. Gettysburg’s Danny Dietrich rounded out the top 10.

Kreitz, the 1987 King’s Royal Champion, was the Royal Sovereign for

the race and crowned Macri the King. It’s the second time in the last four races, that the crown and the

big check is coming back to central Pennsylvania. Myerstown’s Brent

Marks won the King’s Royal in 2022.