Duke wins fourth PASS feature of 2019
Ken Duke Jr. of Selinsgrove outran fellow front-row starter Jonathan Jones of Irvona for the first-lap lead in Saturday’s PA Sprint Series feature at Port Royal Speedway and made that advantage hold up for the 20-lap distance to score a wire-to-wire victory, his fourth of the 2019 PASS/IMCA season.
The win was Duke’s second of the year at the Port “Speed Palace.” He has finished no lower than sixth in the seven PASS/IMCA features run so far.
Jones chased Duke for the entire race and collected his third straight runner-up finish at Port Royal.
Roger Irvine, also from Irvona, finished third, followed by Doug Dodson of Middletown and Devin Adams of Lebanon, who moved up from 11th starting position.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Johnny Scarborough, Jaremi Hanson, John Fiore, Jake Frye and Zach Newlin.
Newlin, who only qualified for the feature with a last-lap, last-turn pass in the second B-Main, advanced from 24th starting spot to 10th, earning the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Burnin’ Rubber Award for hard charger.
The feature’s only significant incident came when Sweigart tagged the outside wall in turns 3 and 4, ending his night. With 12 straight green-flag laps to the finish, lapped traffic became an issue, but Duke finessed that issue and held his lead to the end.
Heat race winners for the 41-car field were Adams, Scott Ellerman, Nick Sweigart and Dodson, with Cale Reigle and Ron Aurand taking the two B-Main wins.
PIT NOTES – Colton Hoover was in the hunt for a heat race victory until engine problems ended his night with two laps to go in Heat 1. Kassidy Kreitz was due to start B-Main 1 from the pole, but her car would not fire. Erin Statler, whose new car crashed hard during the last PASS/IMCA visit to the Port, was back in action (in a like-new-looking car) and qualified for the feature.
Ben McCall, whose home base of Fayetteville, N.C., is nearly 500 miles from Port Royal, drove overnight to the track after finishing seventh in a Virginia Sprint Series IMCA/RaceSaver event at Dixieland Speedway in Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, then experienced engine problems prior to his B-Main. He and his dad loaded up and headed for home, where Ben was due to work at 8 a.m. Sunday.
PASS/IMCA is now averaging 41 cars per appearance at Port Royal in 2019. Saturday’s event had the starting time moved ahead to beat anticipated rain, and the strategy worked, but with occasional rain drops all night.
Saturday, May 11, Port Royal Speedway PASS/IMCA Results
HEAT 1 – 1. 99A-Devin Adams; 2. 56-Jake Frye; 3. 80-Dave Wickham; 4. 50-Jay Krout; 5. 10-Jake Waters; 6. 69K-Kassidy Kreitz; 7. 59T-Tim Stallings; 8. 72-Dave Guss; 9. 69-Eric Mathiot; 10. 97-Kenny Heffner; 11. 107-Colton Hoover.
HEAT 2 – 1. 8D-Scott Ellerman; 2. 12-Roger Irvine; 3. 67-Ken Duke Jr.; 4. 36-Jaremi Hanson; 5. 26-Ryan Lynn; 6. 99-Cale Reigle; 7. 911-Michael Wenrick; 8. 880-Drew Ritchey; 9. 0-Kyle Ganoe; 10. 13-Kurt Knepper.
HEAT 3 – 1. 8-Nick Sweigart; 2. 12J-Jonathan Jones; 3. 91-John Fiore; 4. 61-Johnny Scarborough; 5. 23-Nathan Gramley; 6. 86-Ron Aurand; 7. 6R-Reed Thompson; 8. 51-Dave Graber; 9. 54K-Mark Zimmerman; 10. 7-Ben McCall.
HEAT 4 – 1. 20-Doug Dodson; 2. 5E-Wally Eshenaur; 3. 3D-Dave Grube; 4. 2-Erin Statler; 5. 53W-Jimmy White; 6. 11X-Robert Garvey; 7. 17K-Kyle Keen; 8. 19-Cruz Kepner; 9. 88-Fred Arnold; 10. 11Z Zach Newlin.
B-Main 1 – 1. 99-Cale Reigle; 2. 911-Michael Wenrick; 3. 880-Drew Ritchey; 4. 72-Dave Guss; 5. 69-Eric Mathiot; 6. 97-Kenny Heffner. DNS – 59T-Tim Stallings; 0-Kyle Ganoe; 69K-Kassidy Kreitz; 13-Kurt Knepper; 107-Colton Hoover.
B-Main 2 – 1. 86-Ron Aurand; 2. 11-Zach Newlin; 3. 17K-Kyle Keen; 4. 51-Dave Graber; 5. 88-Fred Arnold; 6. 19-Cruz Kepner; 7. 6R-Reed Thompson; 8. 54K-Mark Zimmerman; 9. 11X-Robert Garvey. DNS – 7-Ben McCall.
FEATURE – 1. 67-Ken Duke Jr.; 2. 12J-Jonathan Jones; 3. 12-Roger Irvine; 4. 20-Doug Dodson; 5. 99A-Devin Adams; 6. 61-Johnny Scarborough; 7. 36-Jaremi Hanson; 8. 91-John Fiore; 9. 56-Jake Frye; 10. 11Z-Zach Newlin; 11. 99-Cale Reigle; 12. 8D-Scott Ellerman; 13. 10-Jake Waters; 14. 86-Ron Aurand; 15. 53W-Jimmy White; 16. 80-Dave Wickham; 17. 911-Michael Wenrick; 18. 2-Erin Statler; 19. 50-Jay Krout; 20. 8-Nick Sweigart; 21. 23-Nathan Gramley; 22. 3D-Dave Grube; 23. 5E-Wally Eshenaur; 24. 26-Ryan Lynn.