PORT ROYAL
 Lance Dewease wasn’t about to give up a win from the front row Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway.

 The Fayetteville driver lined up on the outside of row one and led all 25 laps of the 410 Sprint car feature for his first win of the season at the Juniata County oval.

  Dewease’s win was his 92nd career win at Port Royal, moving him into a tie for second on the track’s all time win list with Todd Shaffer.

 “I’m a realist and we weren’t that good tonight,” said Dewease after his fourth overall win this season in the Donny and Lisa Owens No. 30c Maxim. “Starting spot is what won us the race. We need to get a lot better.”

 Dewease got the jump on Bob Bennett at the green flag as Daryl Stimeling and Stve Buckwalter brought out the yellow on lap three when they both came to a stop on the track.

 Mark Smith started eighth and moved into second on the restart and set chase on Dewease when the yellow appeared again on lap seven when Craig Robinson spun and was hit by Mike Wagner, who was piloting the Dave Middleswarth sprinter.

 Dewease drove away on the restart as Smith settled into second and Daryn Pittman, making his second start in the Keen Motorsports sprinter raced into third.

 With Dewease pulling away from Smith over the final laps, he would have to work his way through lapped traffic before driving to victory by a three second margin.

 “The drive off was terrible tonight and we just used the speed getting in the corners to drive by the lapped cars,” he said after his $3,000 win. “If I had to start back, I think we would have struggled to pass cars. Starting spot was everything for us tonight. My point average is bad but we had to take advantage of it and get a win.”

 Smith, of Selinsgrove was second with Pittman, of Owasso, Oklahoma third.

 Thomasville’s Greg Hodnett started 11th and made a late race charge to finish fourth with Mike Erdley of Elizabethville finishing in the fifth spot ahead of points leader Todd Shaffer, Rick Lafferty, Dave Ely, Jeff Van Dusen and Bob Bennett.

 Heats for the 21 cars were won by Pittman and Dewease.


PIT STOPS…For the first time in many many seasons, Port Royal’s all time leading winner Keith Kauffman was missing from the field. Kauffman chose not to attend the event after being informed, via email that Chad Layton would drive his car on Friday night at Williams Grove. Kauffman did not show up at the Port and the team asked Wagner to drive the car since it was already in the pit area. No word last night on Kauffman’s future plans in sprint car racing…Port Royal returns next week with the Pete Swarmer Memorial for 410 Sprint cars…