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PORT ROYAL – One of sprint car racing’s crown jewel events takes place
Saturday at Port Royal Speedway with the 59th running of the Tuscarora
50 with the champion taking home at least $59,000.
The weekend is sanctioned by the High Limit Racing Series and they are
making a 2,700-mile cross-country trek to Port Royal after racing at
Skagit Speedway, located in northwestern Washington state, last
weekend.
Racing begins Thursday night and a final chance to fine-tune their
machines on Friday night before Saturday’s finale. The Thursday and
Friday night winners are guaranteed starters Saturday night.
Invaders have won five of the last eight races, including three
straight, Brian Brown, Rico Abreu and last year, Oklahoma teenager
Ryan Timms shocked the sprint car world with a win.
Ryan Smith will be one of the favorites to stop that streak driving
the Kreitz Racing 69K. Smith won the Labor Day Classic on Monday, and
a race back in April.
Chase Dietz leads the nation in 410 sprint car wins with 19 and two of
those at Port Royal. He’ll be one to watch as well. His crew chief,
Tommy Carl, has several T50 wins and is a master at keeping a car fast
to the end of long races.
Lance Dewease won his seventh T50 in 2020, Logan Wagner in 2021 and
Brent Marks in 2022. Aaron Reutzel won in 2019, and Donny Schatz in
2018 when the September race was rained out and it was held in October
and sanctioned by the World of Outlaws.
Dewease won in 2016 and 2017 in the Kreitz Racing 69K. Brent Marks won in 2015.
Dewease has seven wins in the race with five different car owners.
Walter Dyer in 1994, Joe Harz in 2001, Al Hamilton in 2002, Pete
Postupak in 2005, and Donnie Kreitz in 2016, 2017 and 2020.
Dewease would like to add car owner Rich Eichelberger’s name to that
list on Saturday. Dewease sat out the Labor Day Classic after a hard
crash at Lincoln Sunday. He’s expected to be back for the 50.
Kreitz, himself, won the race three times, including 1993, 1999, and 2013.
Mitch Smith won the first three Tuscarora 50’s 1968, ’69 and ’70.
Smokey Snellbaker, Lynn Paxton and Kenny Weld won the next three and
Paxton won again in 1974.
Doug Wolfgang dominated the race winning four straight from 1984 to 1987.
Timms, Abreu, Brown, Reutzel and Marks all will be in the field. Abreu
and Reutzel are both having very good seasons with the High Limit
Series, and will be in contention to add a second Tuscarora 50 win.
James McFadden will drive the Macri Motorsports 39M as Anthony Macri
continues to recover from a broken collarbone suffered in a crash at
Knoxville in August. Macri won the T50 in 2022. McFadden has the
experience and car to get the win on Saturday night.
Over $302,000 in total purse money is on the line over the three days
with $174,800 in the Tuscarora 50 purse alone. Just making the T50
earns the driver $2,000.
Racing begins at 7:30 each night. The 172nd Annual Juniata County Fair
operates each day as well.
Port Royal is one of the few tracks that still race during the county
fair making it one of the most unique settings in all of racing.
The sprint car, limited late model and 305 sprint car track champions
will be decided.
Five-time champion Logan Wagner leads the sprint car points, but
Smith’s Labor Day Classic helped him close to within 50 points. Both
Thursday and Friday are point races, but the T50 itself is not.
The 305 sprints join the sprint cars Thursday night. Kenny Heffner
leads MIke Melair by 105 points.
The limited late models race Friday night with DJ Myers leading Jaxton
Garman by only five points.