Dirt Racing
Marks, Wagner, and Satterlee Star at Port Royal
PORT ROYAL, PA (July 31, 2021): Brent Marks and Logan Wagner split the feature wins in the 410 Sprint division at Port Royal Speedway on Living Legends Night, and Gregg Satterlee took the top honors in the Super Late Model ranks.
Marks, who earned $10,000 for his victory, lived up to his nickname, “the Myerstown Missle” as he blasted away on the high side of the speedway. “The car was really good on the top, it was on a rail. That was a lot of fun.”
Lance Dewease and the defending track champion, Logan Wagner, had the front row. Danny Dietrich and Marks were in the second row, with Pat Cannon and Anthony Macri in row three. Jeff Halligan danced with Phil Walter in row four, and A.J. Flick was paired off with Mike Wagner in row five. Lucas Wolfe and Tyler Reeser were in row six.
Dewease rolled into turn one with the lead, but Dietrich, Macri, and Logan Wagner were all within striking distance. However, a quick caution led to a single file restart with just one lap in the books. That would prove to be the only stoppage of the race.
When the green light came on again, it remained for twenty-nine laps. Marks shot into second and he started trading sliders with Dewease for the lead. As they were doing that, Dietrich and Macri were likewise trading sliders for third.
Eventually, Marks asserted control and Dewease fell to second. Macri dispatched Dietrich, who then lost fourth to Logan Wagner.
As the laps clicked away, the leaders began to separate. The action was intense in the middle of the pack, though, with Dylan Cisney making the most headway.
In the final five laps, Macri put on a charge. He made a bold pass of Dewease for second in the first turn on the last lap of the race. Halligan also picked off Dietrich in the closing laps.
At the checkers, it was Marks, Macri, Dewease, Logan Wagner, Halligan, and Dietrich. Then came Mike Wagner, Walter, Cisney, and Flick.
In the Super Late Model go, Kyle Lee and Ross Robinson led the field to the green flag. Colton Flinner and Gary Stuhler were in the second row, and Satterlee was beside Dylan Yoder, the current point leader, in the third. Andrew Yoder and Marvin Winters lined up in row four, followed by Jim Bernheisel and Brett Schadel. Dillan Stake and Andy Haus started in row six.
Robinson took charge atthe drop of the green, with Lee, Flinner, Satterlee, and Stuhler following. The first caution came with two complete, and the races would reel off 18 laps under the green when racing resumed.
Robinson continued to lead over Lee, but Satterlee moved into third. On lap four, he took second and then he set his sights on Robinson. It took him just two more rounds to grab the lead.
While Satterlee and Robinson ran ahead of the others, Stuhler, Flinner, and Dylan Yoder put on a show worthy of the fans’ full attention. Stuhler would grab third and hold it through the second caution.
In the final five laps, Dylan Yoder put on a charge, but the crafty veteran, Stuhler, was able to retain the position at the finish.
It was Satterlee, Robinson, Stuhler, Dylan Yoder, and Flinner for the first five. The next quintet consisted of Winters, Trevor Feathers, Lee, Jeff Rine, and Hayes Mattern.
Heat winners for the Super Late Models were Lee, Robinson, Stuhler, and Satterlee. The B Main belonged to Jason Schmidt. The fastest qualifier was Robinson, with a lap of 18.392 seconds.
In the 410 Sprint Car nightcap, the starting line-up was based on the finish of the first feature, subject to an inversion of nine. That put Dylan Cisney on the pole, with Phil Walter beside him. Mike Wagner and Danny Dietrich were in row two. Jeff Halligan and Logan Wagner were in row three. Lance Dewease and Anthony Macri were in row four. Brent Marks and A.J. Flick had row five covered. Pat Cannon and Tyler Reeser were in row six.
Cisney bolted to the lead, with Walter and Logan Wagner battling for second. They tangled on the second lap, and Walter crashed hard in turn one. Logan Wagner kept his car moving and he restarted in the second spot. Dietrich narrowly missed the wreck, and he restarted in third.
The incident did not affect Logan Wagner’s car one bit, and he took the lead from Cisney on lap three. Dietrich began to pressure Cisney for second and he would gain the position on lap seven.
Halligan was gaining speed, but his race to the front ended with a spectacular crash in turn one with nine laps in the books. He was not hurt, but the car was heavily damaged.
When racing resumed, Dietrich began to throw sliders at Logan Wagner in an attempt to gain the lead. Wagner was up to the challenge, though, and soon he began to pull away from Dietrich.
In the middle stage of the race, Dewease caught Dietrich and they battled hard for the second spot. Dewease took control on lap 16, just before the final caution was displayed.
Dewease stayed close to Logan Wagner the rest of the way, but he never had a shot at the lead. Cisney came back to life in the stretch run, and he held third briefly. However, Dietrich would regain the position before the checkers flew.
Cisney finished fourth, with Blane Heimbach chasing him across the line. Marks was sixth after racing as high as fourth at one point in the race. Macri, Mike Wagner, Flick, and Wolfe completed the top ten.
The Sprint Car heat winners were Dietrich, Marks, Cannon, and Halligan, each earning $327 for their efforts. The B Main winner was Dave Blaney. Macri was the night;s fastest qualifier with a lap of 16.506 seconds.
Port Royal will host the 410 and 305 Sprints on August 7, along with the Super Late Models. There will be no racing on August 14 in consideration of the Knoxville Nationals. Racing will return on August 21 with Open Wheel Madness III. Winged fans will enjoy the 410 and 305 Sprints, and the USAC East Coast 360 Sprints will delight the non-wing aficionados. Late Models will take center stage at the end of the month with three days reserved for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series on August 26-28.
MECHANICSBURG, PA (June 5, 2026): Troy Wagaman, Jr. cashed in on the opportunities given to him to win the Lynn Paxton Classic at Williams Grove Speedway. The second win of the season for the defending track champion and current points leader was his first ever with the All Stars Circuit of Champions, which celebrated fifty-five years of competition at the famed oval. Wagaman received $8,000 for his efforts, matching his payday from the Tommy Classic held earlier in the season.
Wagaman benefitted from two miscues by Danny Dietrich, who had led from the start of the non-stop thirty lapper. The first came on lap fifteen, when Dietrich narrowly avoided disaster coming off turn two. The other came ten laps later when Dietrich slid out of the groove between turns three and four.
“I don’t know if I would have gotten him,” Wagaman said modestly.
He was trailing Dietrich by nearly 1.6 seconds in the middle of the race, but Wagaman squeezed between Dietrich, a lapped car, and the backstretch guard rail to take the lead. Preston Lattomus nearly spun at the exit to turn two, Dietrich came up on him quickly, made slight contact, and almost spun as well, but there was just enough room for Wagaman to scoot by. “I thought he missed it, got too close to the lapped car,” Wagaman explained.
Wagaman then built up a slight lead of his own, which evaporated in traffic. Dietrich drove under both Wagaman and the lapped car between turns three and four on lap twenty-four, but Wagaman came storming back on the next lap to regain the lead. Dietrich slid off the bottom in the same area, and Wagaman pounced. “Danny showed me the bottom. I was struggling on the top and I got down to the bottom after that.”
Wagaman, from Hanover, dedicated the win to his ailing grandmother, adding that he will get to see her on Sunday afternoon.
The starting line-up had a last minute shuffle when Lance Dewease got a flat while the cars were getting into formation. Dewease pitted for a fresh tire, but forfeited his second starting position. He rejoined the field for the start, and put in on an impressive drive to fourteenth from the rear of the twenty-six car field.
Dietrich thus moved to the front row, joining the Dash winner, Cale Thomas. Wagaman and Brady Bacon made up the second row, followed by Doug Hammaker and Kasey Kahne. Brock Zearfoss and T.J. Stutts came next. Chase Dietz and Parker Price Miller were in row five, and Austin Bishop was paired with Ryan “Fig” Newton in row six.
Dietrich wasted no time blasting into the early lead up on the cushion in turns one and two. Wagaman used a more conservative line to reach second. Thomas fell into line in third, ahead of Hammaker, Bacon, Stutts, and Kahne.
Dietrich seemed to have the race under control through the first half of the event. However, things changed suddenly on lap fifteen. He avoided a crash, but lost the lead. Dietrich wasn’t done quite yet, though.
Wagaman was still running the top in turns three and four despite having trouble getting past a lapped car. That allowed Dietrich to flash by on the inside to take the lead away. However, Wagaman came back to lead lap twenty-five when Dietrich slid up the track in almost the same place on the track.
Wagaman changed lines for the remainder of the race, and he paced himself off of the lapped cars, figuring that Dietrich would have to drive around them all if he were to make another bid for the win. However, Wagaman took the checkers 1.120 seconds ahead of Dietrich, who was driving his back-up car after crashing at Selinsgrove Speedway the night before.
Bacon, Stutts, and Dietz completed the top five. Zearfoss, Hammaker, Kahne, Price Miller, and Newton were the next five finishers.
J.J. Loss was the hard charger, advancing seven spots to finish thirteenth.
Kalib Henry, the current All Stars points leader and defending series champion, was the highest finisher from the tour, at seventeenth.
Hammaker, Dewease, Dietrich, and Kahne were the heat winners. Freddie Rahmer, Jr. won the B Main. Stutts was the fastest qualifier, lapping in 17.112 seconds in Group A. Dietrich was the best in Group B. His lap was 17.290 seconds. Thirty-eight cars checked in, including ten All Stars points chasers.
Ageless Steve Wilbur added another Wingless Sportsman victory to his resume. He led Tony Jackson for all twenty laps. “Tony’s hard to beat wherever we go, and to hold him off all of those laps was something,” Wilbur said. “It just feels so good to beat Jackson. I didn’t come all the way from Mechanicsburg to get my a$$ kicked,” he added with a laugh.
Wilbur claimed to use an old right rear tire dating back to his days at Silver Spring Speedway, which closed in 2005.
Cliff Brian, Jr. was third, one spot ahead of the hard charger, Brett Perigo. Brandon Shearer, Derek Shaffer, Brian Nace, Scott Smith, Curt Stroup, and John Edkin were fifth through tenth in the non-stop affair.
Jackson and Wilbur split the heat race wins. There was no B Main necessary for the nineteen car field.
Next Friday, Williams Grove Speedway will present fan appreciation night. All in attendance will get to mingle with the 410 and 358 Sprint Car racers in the front pit area before the start of the action. There will be free potato chips and candy during the pit party. Fireworks will also be part of the fun.
FRANKLIN, PA (May 31, 2026): A.J. Flick claimed his third championship in the Western Pennsylvania Speedweek. His first two titles came in 2023 and 2024.
“This whole week is so cool,” he said. He added, “I think consistency is important and I think that helped me.”
Flick started the week out very strongly, with wins at Michaels Mercer Raceway and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. He was fourth at Lernerville Speedway and fifth in the finale at Tr-City Raceway Park. His worst finish of the week was ninth at Sharon Speedway on Saturday night.
Flick was especially happy with his fifth place finish in the final round because he was not very comfortable in the car.
Other race winners during Speedweek were: Dale Blaney, at Lernerville, Logan Wagner, at Sharon, and Brandon Spithaler, at Tri-City.
Flick’s total earnings for the week were $14,750, which included the $3,000 championship stipend.
One other driver earned more than $10,000. That was Spithaler, who grossed $10.175.
Flick was one of sixteen drivers to enter all five events comprising Western Pennsylvania Speedweek. A total of sixty-one racers competed in at least one round of Speedweek.
The top ten drivers in the point standings shared the point fund, as follows:
- A.J. Flick, 452 points, $3,000
- Mark Smith, 412 points, $2,500
- Brandon Spithaler, 406 points, $2,000
- Jeremy Weaver, 393 points, $1,500
- Carl Bowser, 371 points, $1,000
- Michael Bauer, 368 points, $900
- Adam Kekich, 344 points, $800
- Brandon Matus, 338 points, $700
- Ricky Peterson, 320 points, $600
- Jacob Begenwald, 302 points, $500
Interestingly, one driver in the top ten in points missed a show along the way. Ricky Peterson was absent from Sharon because he had another commitment. He won the FAST on Dirt Sprint Car Series event at Skyline Speedway instead.
FRANKLIN, PA (May 31, 2026): Brandon Spithaler saved his best Speedweek performance for the final night of the five race series. The victory at Tri-City Raceway Park, his first of the season, netted the driver from Renfrew, PA a cool $6,000. He also finished third in Speedweek points, adding another $2,000 to his stash. Spithaler’s total winnings for the week amounted to $10,175, second only to the Speedweek champion, A.J. Flick.
Spithaler noted that “2026 hasn’t been very kind to us. We lost a motor, we trashed a car, we switched chassis. I think we’ve hit on something now.”
He added, “I felt like I was better than him, Ricky (Peterson, who finished a distant second). I was worried when he got by Logan (McCandless, the early leader), but I kept plugging away and I got by him (Peterson).”
Spithaler was especially good in traffic. He explained, “I am a fan of traffic. If we get a long run, I like picking my way through.”
Peterson, who held on for second place, had an opposite opinion about the traffic conditions. “I was really good early. I had issues with the lappers. I think I left a lane open for Brandon, and he got away from us.”
Mark Smith put on a strong charge in the second half of the race to grab the third position. He noted that it was a challenging night and that he changed some things around on his car between the heat and the feature. “We got it going, but it was a little too late. Maybe we needed 35 laps.”
The first ten positions in the starting line-up were reserved for the four heat winners and six of the fastest qualifiers.
Logan McCandless drew the pole position. He was joimed on the front row by the professor, Michael Bauer. Matt Farnham and A.J. Flick pulled the second row, followed by Peterson and Spithaler. Smith and Jeremy Weaver landed in row four. Then came Jared Zimbardi and D.J. Christie. Row six belonged to Tim Shaffer and John Jerich.
The initial start was waved off due to a crash between turns one and two, which claimed Jerich and Christie. Both cars tumbled, but neither driver was injured.
When the field was realigned for the start, Shaffer moved to the outside of row five and Bob Felmlee and Cody Bova became the new sixth row.
McCandless surged into the early lead, followed by Farnham, Bauer, Flick, Peterson, Spithaler, Weaver, Smith, Shaffer, Felmlee, and Zimbardi.
McCandless was exceptionally strong through the first half of the race. His lead grew to more than 1.8 seconds over Farnham through the first nine laps. Peterson moved into second position on lap ten. Gradually, he cut into McCandless’ advantage. On lap fifteen, the margin dwindled to just under a half a second.
Moving into the second half of the contest, McCandless began to have difficulty navigating through the traffic. Peterson narrowed the gap even further over the next few laps. On lap eighteen, Peterson drove by McCandless for the lead.
Meanwhile, Spithaler was closing in on both Peterson and McCandless. Spithaler moved ahead of McCandless on lap nineteen. Just one lap later, he passed Peterson in traffic.
In the final ten laps of the race, Spithaler was clearly superior to Peterson. The lead continued to grow with each lap. He was more than four seconds ahead of Peterson by lap twenty-six. The margin reached 5.338 seconds on the final lap.
Smith cracked the top five on lap sixteen. He held fourth from lap sixteen through lap twenty-nine. On the final trip around the big half mile, Smith moved into third.
McCandless held on for fourth, one spot ahead of Flick, who clinched the Speedweek championship with a steady performance. He was in or just outside the top five for the entire race.
Shaffer edged Farnham for sixth. Greg Wilson, Bauer, and Bova completed the top ten.
Flick, Weaver, Zimbardi, and Peterson won the heat races. Tyler Esh copped the B Main.
Brandon Matus was the night’s fastest qualifier. He topped Group A with a lap of 17.622. However, his night went downhill after that. While running in a transfer position on the last lap of his heat race, Matus flipped hard between turns three and four. His crew thrashed to get the car ready for the B Main with assistance from Spithaler and Weaver, among others. However, Matus finished fifth, with only four cars making the A Main.
Spithaler was the fastest member of Group B. His time was 17,796.
Blaze Myers took the lead on lap six of the RUSH Sprint Car feature and he cruised to an easy victory over Luke Mulichak. The early leader, Zach Morrow, finished in third. Brayden Blackshear and Samantha Priest were fourth and fifth. Lucas Roessner, Devon Deeter, Logen Lockhart, Grayson Bayle, and Ricky Tucker, III, rounded out the top ten. Myers and Roessner took the preliminaries.
The nightcap for the Mini Stock division went to Camden Franz. There was a constant three car battle for second throughout the fifteen lapper. Sheriff Tim Callahan prevailed, with Jordan Wheeler and Justin Forsyth following. Fifth went to Andy Thomson. Kevin Dotten, Michael Phillipson, Andrew Thompson, Ben Aley, and Jacob Wheeler were sixth through tenth.
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