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Pellman: Cisney steals Port 2019 Opener

Cisney Steals Port Royal’s 2019 Opener
By DREW PELLMAN
PORT ROYAL — Dylan Cisney was adamant that he and his race team needed to race more to increase their success rate. His familiar No. 5 has been a regular at Port Royal Speedway for several seasons now, but it wasn’t often that you saw it at other area speedways. To start 2019 though, Cisney has already attended the track openers at both Lincoln Speedway and Williams Grove Speedway. It may very well be paying off.

The Port Royal native started in the eighth position on Saturday afternoon and began picking off cars one by one until he found himself in the runner-up spot behind race-long leader Anthony Macri near the midway point of the 25-lap feature. The problem, however, was that Cisney was entering some heavy lapped traffic — cars that Macri had already disposed up. It wasn’t until there were five laps to go in the event that Cisney cleared all the traffic in front of him, but time was quickly running out despite the fact that he was visibly gaining ground on Macri’s No. 39M machine. As the duo took the white flag, it looked as if Cisney was simply going to run out of time. But as Macri hit the low side of the speedway in turns three and four, Cisney took to the cushion and had just enough of a run to power past Macri exiting turn four on the way to the checkered flag. It was Cisney’s third Port Royal victory, and first since the 2014 season. This one came in a non-stop feature that lasted just under eight-and-a-half minutes, while the final margin of victory was just more than three tenths of a second.

Macri settled for second ahead of Brock Zearfoss, Steve Buckwalter and Cale Conley. Lucas Wolfe crossed sixth, defending track champion Logan Wagner came from the last row to finished seventh, Carl Bowser was eighth, Mike Wagner took ninth and T.J. Stutts completed the top 10. There were 22 410 sprints in the pit area for Saturday’s opening day, and the three heat races were won by Mike Wagner, Cisney and Wolfe.

It was another thrilling finish in super late model action, where veteran driver Jason Covert passed Dylan Yoder with just two laps to go to win the United Late Model Series main event at the Juniata County oval. With Yoder on the bottom of the speedway, Covert powered his way through the middle on his way to a 1.114-second triumph — the fourth of his career at Port Royal.

Yoder settled for second while Rick Eckert, defending track champion Jeff Rine and Max Blair completed the top five. Sixth through tenth went to Michael Norris, Gene Knaub, Michael Maresca, Austin Hubbard and Tyler Bare. Heat races for the 37 super lates were won by Eckert, Norris, Hubbard and Knaub. Mike Lupher and Alex Ferree won a pair of B-mains. Eckert set the pace in time trials with a fast time of 20.469 seconds.

The limited late models in the Mason Dixon Series finished up the afternoon, and it was pole sitter Andrew Yoder who picked up the victory. Devin Hart, Devin Frey, Frankie Gordon and Kenny Yoder also finished in the top five. They were followed to the checkers by Todd Snook, Derick Garman, Brad McGinnis, Bryan Benton and Donnie Farling. Heats for the 27 cars were won by Dillan Stake, Snook and Hart.

NEXT WEEK:
Williams Grove (3/29): 410 sprints, ULMS late models
Port Royal (3/30): 410 sprints, super late models, limited late models
Lincoln (3/30): 410 sprints, 358 sprints
Selinsgrove (3/30): Open practice for any division
Trail-Way (3/30): Open practice

LAST WEEK AREA WINNERS:
Williams Grove — Canceled
Lincoln — 410 sprints: Alan Krimes; 358 sprints: Troy Wagaman Jr.

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