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.
Dirt Racing
Lincoln Beats Weather, Macri and Ely Score Wins

ABBOTTSTOWN, PA (April 5, 2025): Lincoln Speedway gambled that an earlier start time would allow for the completion of the fifth event of the season before weather was due to arrive. Anthony Macri and Nash Ely benefited from their roll of the dice, winning the 410 and 358 features, respectively.
Macri explained that he did not feel comfortable riding the rim in turns three and four, which is usually his lane of choice. Instead, he tried to stay on the bottom and bide his time. The strategy worked, albeit aided by some attrition.
Macri also commented that he had a tough time dealing with the lapped traffic. “I was kinda sketchy in traffic. I just didn’t have the confidence.”
Were that not enough weighing him down, Macri was involved in a scuffle coming off turn two that sent his challenger, Dallas Schott, for a tumble midway down the backstretch. “I hope that Dallas is OK,” Macri said apologetically. “I was told that it was just a racing deal. I tried to keep my car down and he came up on me.”
Macri added that, after that incident, he picked up a vibration in his motor. “I smelled oil when I got out of the car,” He could not determine the problem, however, and he was hoping that post-race maintenance would sort things out.
The track’s point average handicapping system was used to set the line-up for this event. Under that scheme, the first three finishers in the heat races are inverted based upon their point averages. The remaining heat transfers fill in based upon their finishing order.
The B Main transfers tag the tail of the field.
So, Cole Knopp was the pole sitter, with J.J. Loss on his right. In row two were Lucas Wolfe and Schott. Kyle Moody and Dylan Norris occupied the third row. Then came Brandon Rahmer and Brock Zearfoss. Macri was inside row five, withFreddie Rahmer, Jr. and his partner. In row six were Mike Bittinger and Tyler Ross.
Further back in the line-up were Jeff Halligan, starting fourteenth, points leader Troy Wagaman, Jr. in fifteenth, last week’s winner Matt Campbell in seventeenth, Chad Trout in nineteenth, and Danny Dietrich in twentieth.
Loss rolled through the middle of turn one to take the early lead over Knopp, Schott, Norris, and Wolfe. Things changed rather quickly, though, when Knopp spun in turn two with two laps completed. During that caution period, Norris pitted, relinquishing his position in the top five.
These changes moved Macri into the top three for the restart. While many observers expected Macri to race into the lead, Loss continued out front when things resumed. Surprisingly, it was Schott who challenged him for the lead.
Schott took control around lap twelve. Loss got another crack at the leader just one lap later. Norris stopped in turn four to bunch the field back up again.
Soon after the restart, Macri moved into second. He was followed by Loss and Moody. Behind them, a good battle was brewing. The Rahmer brothers, Ross, and Wagaman were the contestants.
As the leaders worked their way through traffic, Macri was able to close in on Schott, who was seeking his first career win at the track. Macri’s experience paid off on lap twenty-two as he was able to dive to the low side to overtake Schott. On the next lap around, Schott tried to duplicate the maneuver. He drew up beside Macri, but there was contact coming off turn two. Schott got crossed up and he flipped several times. Fortunately, he was not injured.
Macri thus had the point for the final restart, with Loss and Moody next in line. The Rahmer brothers held fourth and fifth, followed by Wagaman, Ross, Campbell,, Halligan, and Zearfoss.
Macri got away cleanly and led the last seven laps to close out the thirty-lap event. Loss and Moody ran second and third. Behind them, Wagaman continued to struggle with the Rahmer boys. Wagaman climbed to third, but Freddie Rahmer rallied in the closing laps to take that position from him. Meanwhile, Brandon Rahmer began to fall back in the running order.
In the final tally, it was Macri over Loss, Moody, Freddie Rahmer, and Wagaman, Campbell advanced to sixth to claim the hard charger award. Brandon Rahmer held on for seventh. Ross, Halligan, and Zearfoss completed the top ten.
Heat wins for the twenty-nine cars belonged to Schott, Moody, and Wolfe. Trout captured the B Main.
In the 358 Sprint nightcap, fourth generation driver Nash Ely picked up his first career win at the speedway. “It feels like it’s been way too long,” he quipped. “It’s maybe five years since my last win.” Ely admitted that he was not watching the scoreboard to see who was running behind him in the closing laps. “I didn’t look at the board because I didn’t want it to get into my head.” He kept his cool and drove confidently in the waning laps.
The top three heat race finishers re-drew for their starting positions in this one. Jayden Wolf and Cody Fletcher were on the front row for their twenty lapper. Ely lined up in third, beside Adam Best. Olivia Thayer and Austin Reed were in row three. Steve Owings and Jude Siegel came next. Ashley Cappetta and Eli Tuckey held down row five, followed by Michael Smith and Seth Schnoke.
Wolf and Fletcher were battling for the top spot on the first lap. Wolf had a slight advantage entering turn three, but Fletcher drove in too hard, and he spun. Remarkably, there was no contact and Fletcher was able to rejoin the race at the tail of the field.
On the second attempt, Ely rode the rim in turn one to grab the lead over Wolf, Best, Reed, and Owings. Ely set a brisk pace while Wolf was under attack from Best. Best took over second on lap eight.
Best was unable to make any headway, however. A caution with four laps remaining brought Ely back to him. But Ely easily drove away in the closing laps.
At the checkers, Ely prevailed over Owings, who had a good closing charge. Best, Wolf, and Reed completed the top five. Tuckey, Schnoke, Siegel, Fletcher, and Tylar Rutherford took positions six through ten.
Owings, Ely, and Best won their heat races. There was no B Main for the twenty-car field.
Next week, Lincoln Speedway will present a Sprint Car doubleheader consisting of the 410 Sprints and the USAC East Coast 360 Sprints racing sans wings. Then, on Easter Eve, the track will host the twenty-first annual Weldon Sterner Memorial for 410 and 358 Sprints. The final event in April will be for the 410 Sprints and the Limited Late Models.
Dirt Racing
Rain Halts Williams Grove Speedway

MECHANICSBURG, PA (April 4, 2025): The second rain shower of the night stopped the action at the Williams Grove Speedway just five laps into the season-opening 410 Sprint Car feature event. An earlier sprinkle delayed the consolation events.
At the time of the caution, Matt Campbell was leading over Anthony Macri, Danny Dietrich, Jeff Halligan, and Brock Zearfoss, Campbell, who started on the pole, led all five laps contested.
The balance of the top ten at the stoppage were Cameron Smith, Chase Dietz, T.J. Stutts, Lance Dewease, and Troy Wagaman, Jr.
The three heat races for the 410 Sprints went to Ryan Taylor, Smith, and Campbell. Preston Lattomus won the B Main. Twenty-nine cars registered for the event.
In the 358 Sprints, Andy Best, Jacob Galloway, and Jude Siegel won the heat races. Cole Young claimed the B Main. Thirty cars signed in for that division.
The balance of the 410 Sprint Car feature will be added to next week’s program, which will include complete shows for the 410 and 305 Sprints and the Wingless Sportsman Tour. The 358 Sprint feature will be added to the card on April 25. There will be no increase in ticket prices on either night.
Dirt Racing
Dietrich and Fletcher Beat Rain at BAPS

NEWBERRYTOWN, PA (March 30, 2025): Two-time and defending track champion Danny Dietrich, of Gettysburg, picked up his twenty-second career 410 Sprint Car victory at BAPS Motor Speedway. It was his sixth triumph in the last eleven non-sanctioned races held at the venue. In the nightcap. For the 358 Sprint Cars, Cody Fletcher, of East Berlin, held off persistent challenges from Seth Shnoke and, later, Dylan Norris to grab the prestigious win.
Dietrich explained that the key to victory was “being patient, really patient.” That was certainly true in the late stages of the thirty lapper.
However, Dietrich was anything but patient earlier in the contest. In the middle stage of the race, Dietrich and Freddie Rahmer, Jr. waged a spectacular battle, often with the help of Brock Zearfoss, for the third position. That episode lasted for several laps before Dietrich dispatched them both.
Dietrich explained that “Rahmer, Zearfoss, and I ran each other so tight.” Dietrich noted that, during the confrontation with Rahmer, there was a close call in turn three. “We were so tight, we almost drove through Brock and he never knew it.” That was fortunate, as Zearfoss had checked up because a lapped car spun just ahead of him.
Then, in the final laps, Dietrich chased down, and passed, early leader Kyle Moody and his successor, Chase Dietz. To do so, Dietrich switched lanes. “It got dark in the middle, and I figured there was some grip there. I got to it first.”
In conclusion, Dietrich gushed, “Man, that was fun, see you all in two weeks!”
Moody and Dietz had the front row for the feature, which was staged under heavy cloud cover. They were the lucky drivers in the top twelve re-draw. Behind them were Kody Hartlaub, making his first start of the new season, and Jeff Halligan. Dietrich and Zearfoss were in row three. Lucas Wolfe and Rahmer made up the fourth row. A pair of 39s were in row five, with Anthony Macri flanked by Aussie Lynton Jeffrey. Mike Thompson and Austin Bishop were the unfortunate racers when it came to the luck of the draw.
Moody took control at the start of the race and, for several laps, it appeared that he may finally break through for the win. Dietz stayed close as the leaders migrated to the top of the track. They were followed by Halligan, Zearfoss, Rahmer, Hartlaub, Dietrich, Jeffrey, Bishop, and Wolfe.
Bishop spun in turn three on lap five, beginning a disjointed segment of the race. As the officials sorted through additional cautions on the restart lap, and laps seven, eight, and nine, the fans got restless and worried that a downpour could end the day early. While some moisture did begin to fall, it was not enough to stop the race.
Moody led through much of it, but Dietz was able to put together one successful lap, riding the rim to take the lead away from him on lap seven. Moody did try a slider entering turn one on the lap eight restart. Zearfoss continued in third, with the battle for fourth between Dietrich and Rahmer began to heat up.
With Dietz and Moody comfortably ahead, Zearfoss jumped the cushion in turn one, allowing Dietrich and Rahmer to close in on him. Following a lap fourteen restart, the three-cars were swapping positions with great frequency.
The leaders were starting to work through traffic and, soon thereafter, the three contestants for third had to navigate through the slower cars as well. Dietrich was superior to Zearfoss and Rahmer, and he claimed third as the laps were counting down.
The traffic got heavier for Dietz and Moody. Dietrich saw his opportunity when the lapped cars clogged up the bottom groove. He moved up just enough to clear them, and that was where he picked up speed. He closed in on Moody, who was also cutting into Dietz’ advantage.
In the final five rounds, Dietrich maintained his charge. He picked off Moody and Dietz in traffic. In the mad scramble at the end of the race, Zearfoss and Rahmer also worked their way forward. Dietz and Moody remained in the top five.
At the checkers, it was Dietrich over Zearfoss, Dietz, Rahmer, and Moody. Macri, Dylan Norris, Tyler Ross, Cameron Smith, and Wolfe comprised the next five finishers.
The three heat winners were Moody, Halligan, and Dietrich. Gerard McIntyre, Jr. won the B Main.
With a temporary halt to the rain, the 358 Sprints staged for their finale. Fletcher and Shnoke occupied the front row, with Derek Locke and Norris in the Second row. Wyatt Hinkle and Tyler Rutherford put a pair of 19s in the third row. They were followed by Cole Young and Austin Reed, Nash Ely and Jay Galloway took row five as their domain. Adam Carberry and Jacob Galloway completed the redraw for this division.
Fletcher powered into the lead using the low groove, while Shnoke flogged the cushion. Norris, Locke, Hinkle, and Rutherford followed.
Cautions five, ten, and eleven laps into the race bunched te field up again, but there were no changes at the front of the pack despite those opportunities to advance. Carberry did make some forward progress, though, as he reached sixth midway through the twenty-five lapper.
On lap nineteen, the drizzle intensified, requiring a caution to sort things out. The cars continued to circulate, and after several slow laps, the rain relented, allowing the final six laps to be presented.
When the race resumed for the penultimate time, Shnoke increased his pressure on Fletcher. The two ran close, particularly in turns three and four. But Fletcher was good coming off turn four and he was able to maintain his lead.
Shnoke made on last, desperate attempt to drive by Fletcher. He sailed it into turn one in the middle groove, pulling even with Fletcher. But, there was nothing ther for him, and the car began to slide up the track. He made contact with the fence in turn two. He spun at the exit of the corner, a disappointing end to an impressive effort.
On the final restart, Norris attempted the same maneuver. However, he was able to keep his wheels under him. Although he lost a few car lengths to Fletcher, he was able to keep going for second at the finish.
Locke was third, followed by Hinkle and Carberry. Ely, Reed, Rutherford, Young, and Jay Galloway completed the top ten.
Fletcher said in victory lane that he was hoping that track officials would call the race after the rain delay. But, he admitted that it was satisfying that he was able to see the race go the entire distance. “I tried to make the car as wide as possible while racing those guys clean.”
Hinkle, Rutherford, and Carberry took the preliminaries. Andrew Hake won the B Main. Notably, he towed his car to the track on an open trailer behind a U-Haul rental truck!
The next 410 Sprint car event at BAPS Motor Speedway will be held on April 13. Also on the card will be the Limited Late Models and Wingless Sportsmen. The speedway will host the Winged Super Sportsmen on April 5 and 12.