Dewease Tops Port Royal Fallen Heroes Championships
PORT ROYAL, Pa. (May 27, 2017) – Lance Dewease of Fayetteville picked up the prestigious Fallen Heroes Championships for 410 sprints at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night in what was a thrilling, multiple leader 30-lap main event run as part of the Bob Weikert Memorial weekend at the oval.
The $5,000 win for Dewease, his second of the year at the track and 102nd of his career there, came only after he overtook three earlier leaders in Trey Starks, Dale Blaney and Danny Dietrich.
Blaney won the dash to earn the pole for the 410 sprint car feature event with Starks starting the event in second spot.
Starks got the drop on Blaney when the green flag unfurled but only the first lap could be recorded before Trenton Sheaffer brought out the red flag with what was a vicious crash in the first turn that annihilated his car after contact with the outside fence.
Sheaffer flipped wildly into the first turn collecting Carl Bowser in the destruction although both escaped injury.
Starks had Blaney, Steve Buckwalter, Danny Dietrich and Brock Zearfoss chasing for the restart.
Blaney dug hard on the restart and for the next three laps before he was able to muscle underneath Starks for the lead in the fourth corner and take command.
Meanwhile, eighth starter Dewease seemed to be rather stagnant and when a three-car tangle brought out another yellow flag on the eighth tour, the running order was Blaney, Starks, Buckwalter, Dietrich, Zearfoss and Dewease.
Starks took a few jabs for control on the restart but Blaney pulled away as Dietrich flexed his muscle to work into third and then into second on the 12th tour.
Dietrich was very fast during the mid-stages using the topside of the speedway and he was able to catch Blaney at the halfway point as Dewease began gaining speed around the bottom groove.
Gettysburg’s Dietrich, flying the Weikert’s Livestock No. 29 colors as part of the Bob Weikert Memorial weekend races at the track, took the lead from Blaney with 14 laps to go but soon found he couldn’t get away from the field.
By this time Dewease was mowing down his foes around the inside of the speedway, motoring into a challenging third on the 17th lap.
Working through traffic with 10 laps to go, Dietrich did his best to open up an advantage as the leader but Dewease came to second with seven laps to go and then chugged by for control and the win with five laps to go.
Dietrich and Dewease exchanged the lead in the first and second turns on the 25th lap before Dewease went back out in front for good in the third turn to run to the win by 1.259 seconds.
The win puts Dewease just 27 back of Port Royal all time sprint car winner Keith Kauffman on the oval all time win list.
Dietrich rode home second followed by Blaney, Starks and Doug Esh.
Sixth through 10th went to Dylan Cisney, Brock Zearfoss, Greg Hodnett, Aaron Ott and TJ Stutts.
After motoring from 22nd to 11th at the finish, Brent Marks earned the Beer Hill Hard Charger award worth $229 and earned a guaranteed starting spot in the Sunday Weikert Memorial itself.
Heats went to Buckwalter, Starks, Zearfoss and Ott with the consolation going to Tyler Walker while Blaney won the dash.
Dietrich set Packer’s Concession fast time worth $100 with a lap of 15.884 seconds.
Feature Finishes
5/27/17
410 sprints, 30 laps: 1. Lance Dewease, 2. Danny Dietrich, 3. Dale Blaney, 4. Trey Starks, 5. Doug Esh, 6. Dylan Cisney, 7. Brock Zearfoss, 8. Greg Hodnett, 9. Aaron Ott, 10. TJ Stutts, 11. Brent Marks, 12. Mike Wagner, 13. Rick Lafferty, 14. Kody Lehman, 15. Cale Grubb, 16. Tyler Walker, 17. Matt Campbell, 18. Carl Bowser, 19. Blane Heimbach, 20. Steve Buckwalter, 21. Curt Stroup, 22. Danny Holtgraver, 23. Logan Wagner, 24. Trenton Sheaffer
DNQ: Dustin Baney, Joey Hershey, Nicole Bower, Lucas Wolfe, Darly Stimeling, AJ Flick, Tyler Bear
