Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Well apparently you don't pay much attention to racing because Jason Covert is one of the top Late Model drivers in the country. He travels all over with the various touring series WoO Late Models, Lucas Oil and so on. I think his opinion is a fairly valid one, lol.

Please please please don’t ever, EVER, reply to strawser comments. Just don’t. Let him talk to himself. If everybody literally ignores him, he’ll go away and maybe start commenting elsewhere. Seriously, as a whole, never reply nor reference him in any post. Except this one time, if you are so dis-interested in Port, why were you home watching Port’s Race Monitor instead of being at Selinsgrove? Ok, NOW no more mentions. 

In a related note, Port tweeted they actually started time trials 8 minutes early and completed sprint car time trials for 30 cars in 15 minutes. 

Agreed. Port is a very nice track but it's definitely not close to being on the same level as Knoxville or Eldora. A lot of the stuff you hear drivers saying about Port Royal is a result of an announcer who asks loaded questions every chance he get's to get people to say things of that nature. I've never been to a track that fishes for compliments like they do.

I love Port, and I loved it when it was a dump.

i think the track took too much flak when it was a dump and now gets almost too much praise now that theyve made so many improvement as weird as that is to say. I think people are so sick of the grove making no improvevents that Port has become the track to praise, which has turned into the “best track in the country“ silliness. 

The posted start time was 7:30. They didn't roll the first heat out until almost 8:00. Unless that start time was for time trials in which case, I was mistaken. I assumed that it meant heat races started at 7:30. Either way, once they got going, they did a nice job pushing the show along. They are definitely getting better at running a more efficient program. Since the column (can't remember which one but it was late model oriented) in AARN several weeks back mentioned them always starting late, they have been making a better effort to clean it up. Hopefully the track surface is much better tonight. As of now, I'm an hour west and it's raining pretty hard here so evidently mother nature is trying to help out. 

Wow. I thought I was the only one thinking that but I agree 100%. People are so down on Williams Grove that they put Port a little too high on the pedestal to basically rub it in Williams Groves face that they aren't the premier track in PA anymore. I've seen a few instances lately where I think those compliments have gone to Port Royal management's heads a little too much too. I also loved Port when it was a dump, maybe even more so than now. I don't care what anyone says, there was never a more thrilling experience for a fan than sitting in the first row of the old grandstands going into turn 1. You were literally only a few feet from the track and it was flat out scary. The cars looked like they were coming right at you. Anytime I took a friend from school to the races, we went down there and sat for warm ups. Most of those friends still go with me to this day. If that didn't get you hooked on sprint cars, nothing ever will.

I had the same reaction sitting in those old stands. I tried to relate that to my 28 year old son who was too young to remember when he came with me to a race at Port Royal eariler this year. In my 40 years of going to many different dirt tracks throughout the country there was nothing like that experience.

Mother nature did some excellent track prep. We're just a few minutes from engine starts after a rain delay and the track is looking fantastic. Thankfully, I don't think we'll be seeing a repeat of last night. 

Hodnett goes quick time with a 15.23. Overwhelming majority of cars are under 16 secs.

The heats were actually pretty good. There were some good battles at insane speeds. 

Besides Hodnett's power move at the start of heat 1 and Gravel passing a couple of cars and then getting stalled at third, what were the others? 

I enjoyed the raw speed of the cars. A few guys were running 15.4's. 

Wish was there. Didn't feel like making the drive with the rain at 5:30 and threat of more showers later. The feature line up looks interesting. That invert draw often determines whether there's gonna be a race for the lead.

A

You missed a good one. Track was in perfect shape. At one point, the top 6 were all under a blanket running through heavy traffic running laps in the 16 second bracket. Unfortunately there were several blown tires due to something in the track but it was the most exciting racing I've seen here in quite some time. 

Good racing tonight at high speed. I enjoyed it. 

Yep, the first half of that race is hard to beat regardless of the track or competitors!  Awesome for Lucas winning another Weikert race, but felt terrible for Logan blowing that left rear (Cisney did too)!! Per Dewease in VL, his left rear wasn't good either.  Great track and weekend at the Speed Palace!  Sure nice to see Davis Jr. and K. Jacobs in town!  Memories of the 1980s revisited often!

So who won?

Lucas Wolfe.

First night, track produced very, very good 410 heats, but as I said to my father in law, "I'm a little concerned, because when the heats are this racy, the A usually isn't that good." Sure enough. It was dry and most guys had to cling to the bottom. Lance took off like a jackrabbit and murdered everyone.

Last night with the rain, the track crew did a great job of getting the track run in and it produced some wicked speeds. Heats were high speed parades with a couple of dicey moves thrown in. In the A, the top groove was about halfway up the track and the cars were still turning some fast laps. Cisney led early, got passed by Logan Wagner, who led until he blew a left rear. At one point, the top 5 was under a blanket, due to lapped traffic. It was pretty tight.

Wolfe then took over and led the rest of the way. He broke a left front shock or something in the last two laps, because his front end was bouncing like a sonovabitch. I couldn't hear his explanation in VL.

All in all, two nights of racing, two distinctly different tracks. I enjoyed myself and thought the two car time trials worked well. Hopefully they use that more in the future. They pushed the program through each night, and I think the fans really appreciated that, I know I did.

Really?? Because I'm pretty sure you were spotted walking in, just sayin'.

I too didn't make the trip due to the threat of rain. Here is the difference between a modern day race fan and one from only 7 or 8 years ago. In the old days, I would have heard the weatherman say there is a 30% chance of rain on Sunday night in Port Royal. I used to interpred that to mean there is a 70% chance the races will be run. I would have packed my food, gassed up the car and driven two hours and taken my chances and would not have been upset if the races were rained out. Now I debated for hours on whether to go, looking at my phone for updated, minute by minute, weather reports. I decided not to take a chance and make the 250 mile round trip last night.....and lost out. I was kicking myself for not going as I watched the results on Race Monitor. Ain't new technology just great???? I would not want to be a dirt track promotor in today's modern world.

Lucas broke a torsion stop on the right front.