By Bert Wojcik
Photo By Jesse Carberry
Port Royal, PA - It took an extra day to get the 4th race of the 2023 season underway. On the 4th of July fireworks lit up the sky all around the Port Royal Speedway. On the track Mertztown's, Josh Weller would provide his own fireworks holding off Derek Locke and Anthony Macri for his 23rd United Racing Club feature event win of his career.
“Holy S**t, we had a great car.” Weller said in victory lane. “ We were on a rail tonight. The car went wherever I wanted it to. Us old guys have been around for a while and we’re really meshing well right now especially on the big tracks.”
20 cars signed in to the Port Royal Speedway. 18 would take the green following a wreck that would see both Chase Gutshall and Brandon McGough flip on lap one of heat 1. Weller took the lead off of pole sitter Anthony Macri after Macri’s 20 car did not want to go on the initial restarts as Macri would say they had the car a little rich and it was something Macri struggled with the entire feature event. Macri would fall back to third behind Weller and Tyler Walton.
First caution would come out when South Onondaga, NY Shawn Donath would make heavy contact with the wall off of turn four causing major damage to the right rear. On the restart Weller and Walton would drag race into turn two. Macri would go three wide in turns three and four between Derek Locke and Devon Borden. Macri would settle into the third spot before getting a run on Walton for the second spot in turns three and four.
Racing would be hot and heavy between Locke, Borden and Joe Kata for 4th,5th,and 6th before the red flag would be displayed on lap 7 for Jason Shutlz got airborne in turn three and then hit by Jacob Balliet which would end both drivers' night. Shultz was charging from the 18th starting spot and was in 8th when the accident happened. Shultz would be credited with the 15th spot and would get a gift certificate from DMI Rear Ends contingency prize thanks to Dave Ely via a random draw before the feature.
Restart would come with another bad restart for Macri. Macri Locke and Walton would go three wide off of turn number four for second. Macri and Locke would pull away. Then on the way down the back stretch Macri and Locke would make contact and break something on the front end. Meanwhile in three and four Matthew Swift and Zack Burd would come together. Burd’s night would end. “ I put myself in a position to get run over.” Macri would say post race. ”No one faults but myself. But we rebounded. Third is better than a torn up race car but could have had more.” Macri would go to the work area and rejoin.
Restart on lap 10 Weller and Locke would battle side by side into turn one and two. Weller would pull away and Locke would nearly make contact with Walton off of turn number 4. Walton would be passed by Borden at the halfway point for the third spot. Meanwhile at this point Macri would move up to the 7th spot after restarting at the tail of the field. While Kata and most recent winner Tyler Reeser battle for 5th. JT Ferry would break something in the front end and make contact with the wall ending his night. Hayden Miller's Night would end as well with broken rear gears. During the caution Macri would pull along side Devon Borden to signal Borden had a right rear down. Borden would not rejoin as his crew did not make their way to the infield work area.
Restart would come on Lap 15 with Weller pulling away from the field. Lap 18 would see Macri pull a slider from hell two for one special and Macri would slide into the 3rd spot and settle in for the third spot for the remainder of the feature. Meanwhile Weller would pull away from Locke after Weller’s nose wing collapsed. The nose wing would come off in turns three and four but it did not matter as Weller would collect his second win of 2023 and his first at the Port Royal Speedway. " It broke around 8 laps to go." Weller said. " Was hoping it would hold on and really glad we didn't have to redo the final lap. I'm not sure what would of happened."
Locke was credited with second, Macri third, Tyler Reeser fourth and Joe Kata rounding out the top 5.
Heat Race Winners Josh Weller & Devon Borden both received $50 each from Specialty Rigging Inc.
The United Racing Club will be back in action in a special nonpoints 410/360 Challenge at Clinton County July 14th.
Next Points race will be on Saturday July 15th at The Orange County Fair Speedway
Results for 7/4/2023 at Port Royal Speedway - Port Royal, PA
URC 360 Winged Sprint Cars 20 Entries
A Feature 1 25 Laps
- 63-Josh Weller[2]; 2. 77-Derek Locke[6]; 3. 20-Anthony Macri[1]; 4. 7-Tyler Reeser[10]; 5. 10-Joe Kata[8]; 6. 66A-Cody Fletcher[13]; 7. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[19]; 8. 11T-Mike Thompson[7]; 9. 03-Matthew Swift[18]; 10. 14T-Tyler Walton[4]; 11. 23-Devon Borden[5]; 12. 18J-JT Ferry[12]; 13. 11H-Hayden Miller[9]; 14. 5Z-Zack Burd[16]; 15. 35-Jason Shultz[20]; 16. 22B-Jacob Balliet[14]; 17. 53-Shawn Donath[3]; 18. 7G-Austin Graby[11]; 19. 669-Brandon McGough[15]; 20. 1A-Chase Gutshall[17]
Heat 1 10 Laps
- 63-Josh Weller[2]; 2. 20-Anthony Macri[6]; 3. 77-Derek Locke[7]; 4. 11T-Mike Thompson[1]; 5. 11H-Hayden Miller[3]; 6. 7G-Austin Graby[4]; 7. 66A-Cody Fletcher[5]; 8. 669-Brandon McGough[8]; 9. 1A-Chase Gutshall[9]; 10. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[10]
Heat 2 10 Laps
- 23-Devon Borden[4]; 2. 14T-Tyler Walton[8]; 3. 53-Shawn Donath[9]; 4. 10-Joe Kata[7]; 5. 7-Tyler Reeser[10]; 6. 18J-JT Ferry[6]; 7. 22B-Jacob Balliet[3]; 8. 5Z-Zack Burd[2]; 9. 03-Matthew Swift[5]; 10. 35-Jason Shultz[1]
- Robert Wojcik on Jul 06, 2023
- Article Date: 7/5/2023 by Bert Wojcik