Hodnett Becomes First Repeat
Winner In Port Royal Dream Race, Earning $10,820
Spring Grove star tracks
down Ott for victory
Dan Stone Wins Late Model
Dream Main Over Andy Haus
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
8/8/15
Port Royal
Greg Hodnett hustled forward from his eighth starting spot to become the
first repeat winner in the nine-year history of the Living Legends Dream Race
for sprint cars at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night.
It took until late
in the 35-lap main for Hodnett to get the lead from Aaron Ott before going on to
record the victory by 2.593 seconds, his fifth of the season at the historic
oval.
Including his
earnings from the second semi feature along with lap money, Hodnett took home
$10,820 for his night of work.
His first win in
the prestigious dream event was in 2008.
In the 21-lap
super late model main, .Dan Stone of Thompson took his first victory of the
season at the track, totaling $2,270 for the win including lap money.
The nights events
were run in honor of veteran driver Scott Haus and car owner Ed Powell, both of
whom received Living Legend proclamations and lifetime passes to the renowned
facility.
Aaron Ott started
second in the Dream A Main for sprints with Mike Erdley on the pole and Ott took
command at the drop of the green with Brock Zearfoss racing third.
The high-speed
travelers entered the backmarkers on the seventh tour of the event shortly
before the first caution of the feature appeared with nine laps recorded,
finding Hodnett racing fourth in the field after passing Dylan Cisney, Steve
Buckwalter, Danny Dietrich and Pat Cannon. .
Buckwalter, a semi
main winner earlier in the night, got around Hodnett on the restart and it took
the eventual winner another lap or two to reclaim the spot and then track down
Zearfoss for third.
Hodnett took third
from Zearfoss with 11 laps to go just before another yellow appeared, forcing a
stoppage for refueling.
But before the
stoppage, Erdley had begun biting into Otts advantage, clearly catching the
leader on the track while slicing tenths of a second off of the lead with the
passing of every lap.
However when
action resumed Hodnett jumped to Erdleys inside in the second corner to take
the runner up spot and set his sights on leader Ott.
Ott was running
the cushion with Hodnett forced to try to make time on the middle and bottom
grooves and the strategy worked as he consistently kept pace with the leader and
raced just a few car lengths behind Ott as the race wore on.
With five laps to
go Hodnett got serious about his challenges and finally made his move with a run
inside the second corner that led to a drag race with Ott down the backchute and
into the third corner on the 33rd lap.
Hodnett powered
into command at that point and Ott proved no contest over the final two
circuits.
Hodnett noted that
under the stoppage he noticed that leader Ott seemed to have blistered his tires
and indeed Ott agreed in post race interviews, stating that the loss was hard to
take but getting a podium with the class of field in attendance was an
accomplishment.
Ott finished
second, taking home a total of $6,400 on the night including lap money and semi
feature earnings.
Zearfoss surged
late to steal third from Erdley and pocket a total of $4,410 on the night after
claming one of the semi features as well and lap money.
Erdley ended up
fourth, going home with $3,190 including lap money.
Finishing fifth
was previous Dream winner Ryan Taylor, who pocketed an even $2,000 on the night.
Sixth through
10th went to Steve Buckwalter, Danny Dietrich, Mike Wagner, Lucas
Wolfe and Pat Cannon.
Lucas Wolfe earned
feature hard chargers laurels worth $150 after winning the consolation race to
qualify.
The first semi
main was marred with crashes and red flags but was eventually won by Zearfoss
over Ott and Cannon.
The first red was
on the third lap when Port Royal point leader Lucas Wolfe rolled over in the
fourth turn.
The second and
final red took place on lap five when Dave Hahn flipped violently out over the
third turn rail, landing a considerable distance from the track itself but
escaping injury.
Several drivers
running at the front dropped out of the event including Blane Heimbach, and Dave
Blaney.
Lance Dewease led
the first four laps of the second semi before dropping out, handing the lead and
win over to Buckwalter with Erdley in second and Dietrich riding home third at
the finish.
Hard chargers in
the semis earning $100 were Dylan Cisney and Hodnett.
Fast time for the
first semi and overall on the night was set by Cannon with a lap of 15.364 while
Danny Dietrich was second quick overall with a lap of 15.406.
Rodney Westhafer
took home $500 for a victory in the non-qualfiers main to end the night.
Tim Wilson led the
first four laps of the 21-lap late model main before dropping out of the event,
handing the point to Dan Stone.
Stone had started
second in the field with Wilson on the pole.
Stone was all
alone out front for the balance of the event with Andy Haus starting ninth in
the field to finish second.
Haus got by Trent
Brenneman for the spot with 11 laps to go an while at times able to cut into
Stones advantage, he was never able to consistently closer on the leader,
instead finishing second by 4.141 seconds.
Dylan Yoder was
racing second and closing on Stone on the eighth tour when he lost power and
withdrew from the event.
Matt Parks rode
home third after starting eighth in the field.
Brenneman was
fourth at the finish followed by Mitch Hack.
Sixth through
10th went to Coleby Frye, Devin Friese, Nick Dickson, Mike Lupfer and
Brett Schadel.
Heats worth $33
each went to Haus, Parks and Friese with Andrew Yoder taking the consolation.
Fast time worth
$100 was set by Jeff Miller with a lap of 19.028 seconds.
Keep up to date on
all the latest speedway news and information by visiting the tracks official
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Race
Results:
Feature
Finishes
8/8/15
410 sprints, 35 laps:
1. Greg
Hodnett, 2. Aaron Ott, 3. Brock Zearfoss, 4. Mike Erdley, 5. Ryan Taylor, 6.
Steve Buckwalter, 7. Danny Dietrich, 8. Mike Wagner, 9. Lucas Wolfe, 10. Pat
Cannon, 11. Dave Blaney, 12. Ryan Smith, 13. Dave Ely, 14. Curt Stroup, 15. Kyle
Pruitt, 16. Kyle Moody, 17. Joey Hershey, 18. Nicole Bower, 19. Logan Wagner,
20. Dylan Cisney, 21. Davey Sammons, 22. Anthony Fiore, 23. Trenton Sheaffer,
24. Doug Esh, 25. Rick Lafferty, 26. Tyler Bear
DNQ: Dave Hahn, Rodney
Westhafer, Lance Dewease, Alan Krimes, Tim Glatfelter, Dustin Baney, Daryl
Stimeling, Vince Snyder, Bradley Howard, Blane Heimbach
Late models, 21 laps:
1. Dan
Stone, 2. Andy Haus, 3. Matt Parks, 4. Trent Brenneman, 5. Mitch Hack, 6. Coleby
Frye, 7. Devin Friese, 8. Nick Dickson, 9. Mike Lupfer, 10. Brett Schadel, 11.
Tim Smith Jr., 12. Andrew Yoder, 13. Jason Schmidt, 14. Jeff Miller, 15. Scott
Flickinger, 16. Waylon Wagner, 17. Eric Zembower, 18. Steve Bailor, 19. Donnie
Schick, 20. Steve Axtell Jr., 21. Tim Fedder, 22. Dylan Yoder, 23. Tim Wilson,
24. Derrick Casner
DNQ: Brett
Hockenberry, Mike Mort, Larry Baer, Kody Lyter, DJ Troutman
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