Brad Brickel
September 12th, 2011
Forest Hill, MD – TeamRAACE driver Stevie Smith, scored his second Port Royal Speedway Tuscarora 50 Saturday night, September 10th in convincing fashion. His flag to flag victory in the 44th annual running of the prestigious season-ending event was nothing short of dominant as Stevie scored a clean sweep of the night by claiming his heat race, the dash, and the feature.
The victory was the 11th of Stevie’s career at the track and his second in the Tuscarora 50 after first scoring the event back in 1988. His father, Steve Smith was the Tuscarora 50 champion in 1975.
Stevie earned the pole for the Jake’s Carts/AB Auto Glass Tuscarora 50 by winning the dash and drove into the lead at the start of the race. He was chased from the start by fellow TeamRAACE driver and second place starter Justin Henderson along with the 2007 Tuscarora 50 champion Doug Esh.
The trio entered lapped traffic at the rear of the field on the ninth lap. With Stevie out to a nice sized lead but getting slowed by traffic Justin Henderson was able to drive Smith down while the front three put distance between themselves and the rest of the pack.
While never able to get a nose under Smith for the lead, Henderson did narrow Smith’s advantage to a few car lengths at times with Esh waiting for a mistake just behind. Run in two twenty-five lap segments, the firs caution fell on lap 22 when Port Royal Speedway 2011 point leader Ryan Taylor looped his sprint car at the front of the field shortly after being put a lap down. Taylor kept going and fell back in line. Not good considering he was racing for the 2011 track title with Mike Wagner, who was running seventh at the time.
The restart with three to go in the first half saw Smith jet away to the lap 25 break over Henderson, Esh, eighth-starter Danny Dietrich and Todd Shaffer. Shaffer had lost fifth to Blane Heimbach a few laps earlier but regained the spot before the half-way break thanks to a flattening right rear tire on Heimbach’s racer.
The second 25-laps was all Stevie Smith aboard the Zemco No. 1 as he was never challenged for the victory. As for the 2011 Port Royal Points Championship, Mike Wagner moved into the top-five after getting by Shaffer to finish there and end his night as the 2011 track champion by a scant 15-point margin over Perkasie’s Ryan Taylor.
Danny Dietrich finished second while Justin Henderson was third followed by Esh and 2011 Port Royal Point Champion Mike Wagner. Sixth through 10th went to Todd Shaffer, TeamRAACE driver Daryn Pittman, Lance Dewease, Chad Layton and Greg Hodnett. Heats for the 45-car field went to Stevie Smith, Todd Shaffer, TJ Winegardner, Mike Wagner and Doug Esh. The B Main went to Brent Marks.
Tuscarora 50 for sprint cars, 50 laps: 1. Stevie Smith, 2, Danny Dietrich, 3, Justin Henderson, 4. Doug Esh, 5. Mike Wagner, 6. Todd Shaffer, 7. Daryn Pittman, 8. Lance Dewease, 9. Chad Layton, 10. Greg Hodnett, 11. Fred Rahmer, 12. Mark Smith, 13. Blane Heimbach, 14. Brian Leppo, 15. Steve Buckwalter, 16. Mike Erdley, 17. Dylan Cisney, 18. JJ Grasso, 19. TJ Winegardner, 20. Ryan Taylor, 21. Keith Kauffman, 22. Kevin Nouse, 23. Frank Cozze, 24. Brent Marks, 25. Dan Shetler
For more information on Port Royal Speedway, please visit them on the web at http://portroyalspeedway.com/. For more racing photos please visit WRT Speedworks at http://wrtspeedwerx.com/.
