Dirt Racing
Macri Sweeps Weikert Weekend
PORT ROYAL, PA (May 29, 2022): After a red-hot start to the 2022 season, Anthony Macri went into a brief dry spell. But, he came out of it in a big way this weekend taking both ends of the Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway. The latest victory for the Concrete Kid was worth $29,000 and his total earnings for the weekend approached $40,000! Macri could have banked a little more, but Friday’s All Stars event at Williams Grove Speedway was washed out and he crashed out early in last week’s feature that was cut short and completed as the last race on a busy holiday card.
Macri, the emerging star from Dilsburg, PA, now has ten wins on the season, four of them being with the All-Star Circuit of Champions.
The make-up 410 Sprint Car race was won by Logan Wagner. Steve Wilbur was victorious in the Wingless Sportsmen race which punctuated the two 410 Sprint Car races.
Once again, Macri took a cerebral approach to the main event. In the opener, he changed up his line several times to keep Lance Dewease guessing in the final four laps of the thriller. This time around, he varied his starting points and corner entry into turn one to keep Brent Marks on his toes. “Brent is not dumb. He will catch on to what we do on restarts. I took away the slider line,” Macri explained about his technique in a pivotal lap 25 restart. Macri nailed it perfectly and that gave him some needed breathing room for the final five rounds of the spacious half mile.
Macri also mentioned two other tricks that helped him pick up the big win. The frist was tire management. “I was trying to keep ahead of my tires, keep them warm and keep them from picking up dirt under the yellow.” The second was the installation of a larger fuel tank for the night. He mentioned that he only had three gallons of fuel left after his battle to the wire with Dewease. He was not sure how much fuel was on board after this win, but he was confident that he had plenty enough to go the distance and to have a reserve if extra laps were called for in this contest.
Marks commented on Macri’s successful restarts. “He did a good job on the restarts.” But Marks made another point in Macri’s favor. “He could really stick the middle. I was good on top, but he was good in the middle, and that made a big difference.” Marks added that Macri’s use of the middle line was particularly effective when they were racing in clean air. ”I wanted to stay in traffic, we just weren’t good enough to stay with him in clean air.”
The luck of the draw for the ten top point getters in qualifications put Rico Abreu and Chris Windom on the front row. Tyler Courtney was paired up with Macri in row two. Jeff Halligan shared row three with Marks. Danny Dietrich was beside Giovanni Scelzi. Brian Brown and Justin Peck made up row five. The best of the rest for the start of the race were Mike Wagner and Hunter Schuerenberg. Lance Dewease was buried in nineteenth as a consequence of a poor time trial effort. Steve Buckwalter was twenty-first, Freddie Rahmer, Jr. was twenty-third, Dylan Cisney was twenty-fourth, and Lucas Wolfe was twenty-fifth.
Buckwalter, Rahmer, and Cisney came through the B Main, while Wolfe used a track provisional to start the race.
Windom rolled around Abreu to take the early lead. The newcomer to winged Sprint Car racing held control to lap ten. Abreu ran second through the first six laps until he hit the turn one fence and damaged the right rear suspension to bring out the first yellow.
That handed the second position to Marks who gave chase for several laps before he was overhauled by Macri. Macri swept into the lead and the battle was on between Windom and Marks for the role of first chaser. Marks secured the position with sixteen laps in the books and he began to close in on Macri as they darted through the traffic.
Meanwhile, Courtney and Halligan began to mix things up with Windom. Courtney assumed third for several laps, but Halligan came on after the lap 25 restart. He shot by both Windom and Courtney, but he could not close in on Marks for second.
Two other racers making moves through the race were Dewease and Wolfe. Dewease advance to thirteenth rather quickly, but his middle stage of the race was not very spectacular. He came on on the final ten laps to move into the top ten. Wolfe was slower to advance in the opening laps, but for the second half of the race his progress was impressive. He reached tenth by the time the checkers flew, which was impressive considering that he started shotgun on the field.
Macri, Marks and Halligan made for an all posse podium again. Courtney and Peck were the first two travelers across the finish line. Then came Logan Wagner, Dewease, Windom, Dietrich, and Wolfe.
Heat winners were Peck, Halligan, Ryan Smith, and Dewease. The B Main belonged to Buckwalter. The evening’s fastest qualifier was Macri with a lap of 16.499 seconds. There were 44 cars registered for the event.
The 410 finale was the final seventeen laps of last week’s feature event.
Justin Whittal led through the red flag for Tyler Walton’s crash in turn one on lap eleven. During the stoppage, it was determined that Whittal was leaking fuel and he had to pit for repairs. Marks was put at the head of the line for the restart, but he never led a lap. Logan Wagner swooped under him in turn one on the restart and led the rest of the distance.
“What a cool experience,” Wagner said enthusiastically. “We wanted to win the Weikert, but this is a good way to close the weekend.”
Following Wagner and Marks were Cisney, Halligan, and Gerard McIntyre. The next five to cross were Buckwalter, Wolfe, Mike Wagner, Cody Lehman, and Whittal.
In the Wingless Sportsmen, the twenty lapper went non-stop. But the race seemed to play out in separate halfs. The first belonged to Brett Perigo, who led from the drop of the green. But the second, and most important, was dominated by Steve Wilbur.
While WIlbur was all alone out front, Brett Perigo was locked in a battle with Trent Yoder and Michael Smith for the second spot. Perigo retained that position, but it was a very entertaining contest. Smith took third, followed by Yoder and Eric Jennings.
Positions six through ten belonged to Tony Jackson, Tom Savage, Bob Gutshall, Kevin Gutshall, and Jason Failor.
The trio of heat races belonged to Wilbur, Brett Perigo, and Kevin Guttshall. There was no B Main. Twenty-one wingless warriors were on hand.
Port Royal will return to action Saturday with the 410 Sprints joined by the Super Late Models and Limited Late Models. The latter will contest double features. It will be Senior Citizens Night, with $10 general admission for that group and dollar dogs for all! June 11 will be 410 Sprint Cars supported by Limited Late Models and PASS/IMCA 305 Sprints. The 305s will run double features. June 18 will be Open Wheel Madness II, featuring two divisions of the United States Auto Club along with the 410 Sprints. The USAC National Sprint Cars will be joined by the Silver Crown Series. There will be no racing on June 25 in recognition of the PA Speedweek Sprint Car event held at Lincoln Speedway.
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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Rough day for Wright at Michigan
Opportunistic Wagaman Wins at Williams Grove
Heim holds off Honeycutt to win Truck race at Michigan
Flick is Speedweek King
Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing win the pole position for the 110th Indianapolis 500
Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward and Romain Grosjean involved in multi vehicle crash during Indy 500 practice
New York Dog wins the Wienie 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR community mourns the loss of champion driver Kyle Busch
