PORT ROYAL

 

 Cody Darrah said he wishes he could go to an auto parts store and buy a bag of experience.

 His inexperience didn’t show Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway where he came out on top of the 30-lap 410 Sprint car feature in the seventh night of Cindy Rowe Auto Glass Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek.

 Darrah started fourth in the field and followed Port Royal regular Rick Lafferty for 19 laps before blasting by the New Jersey driver and then holding on despite a final lap yellow flag for his first career Port Royal victory.

 Darrah’s win also moved him to within 28 points of Fred Rahmer for the 2008 Speedweek title. Rahmer watched Darrah’s winning performance from the infield after suffering problems during the race.

 Rahmer has 560 points heading into tonight’s Speedweek finale at Selinsgrove Speedway. Darrah has 522 points followed by Brian Leppo (461), Doug Esh (457) and Greg Hodnett (444). Completing the top 10 in Speedweek points are Jeff Sheppard (438), Mark Smith (412), Chad Layton (376), Todd Shaffer (329) and Stevie Smith (328)

 But this night belonged to the recent Red Lion High School graduate.

 “That was a big payday,” said a speechless Darrah in victory lane after earning his J & K Salvage, Darrah Motorsports team a cool $7,000 paycheck. “The guys work hard all week and Lee Stauffer is the difference in this team. We have just about enough races this year as we did the past two years combined so it’s starting to pay off a little. I just wish I could just buy a bag of experience at an auto parts store.”

 Darrah showed plenty of patience and experience, following Lafferty before making his race winning move. He then worked through traffic like a veteran and hung on following the final lap restart.

 “I’m still thinking about that last restart,” commented Darrah about his nerves with one lap remaining. “We had some trouble tonight and had to change rears after time trials. And these Cappetta motors come to the top when it comes to the feature.”

 Chad Layton’s horrible luck continued with a broken rear axle on lap five for the event’s first yellow flag.

 Lafferty set the pace from his front row starting spot until Mark Smith spun on lap nine.

 Rahmer, who started 10th used the early restarts to his advantage, moving into fourth on lap 10 and then took third on lap 11 before dropping from contention on lap 13.

 Darrah closed on Lafferty on lap 16 and made the race winning move entering the third turn on lap 20.

 A flat tire on Cliff Brian’s car set up a one lap shootout but Darrah was up to the challenge and scored the win, his third win of the 2008 season. He has two wins at Lincoln Speedway.

 Lafferty held off Lancaster’s Doug Esh for second with Thomasville’s Greg Hodnett turning in a great run to finish fourth after starting in the 16th spot. Keith Kauffman rounded out the top five after starting 12th.

 Alan Cole, Todd Shaffer, Sean Michael, Stevie Smith and Mark Smith completed the top 10 finishers.

 Leppo paced the 35-car field in time trials with a lap of 16.400 seconds.

 Jeff Shepard, Rahmer, Mark Smith and Hodnett were heat winners. Brian Montieth was the B-Main winner.