PORT ROYAL, Pa. — In back-to-back years, Sandy Kline has showed up at the Port Royal Speedway’s driver’s meeting with a big announcement for the track regulars.
She arrived to announce that Saturday July 12th would be her late husband’s, Jim Kline’s, tribute race at Port Royal which would see the winner’s share increase from $5,000 to $10,022.
Troy Wagaman Jr. was able to find himself in victory lane at the end of the night, claiming that extra cash.
The 25-lap A-main event saw Mark Smith and Jake Karklin make up the front row with Smith jumping out to the early lead.
Battles would take place around the top five among Troy Wagaman Jr., Brock Zearfoss, Lucas Wolfe and Garrett Bard would all duke it out for the fourth spot within the first 5 laps of the race.
Justin Whittall would take the third spot away from Garrett Bard with 19 laps remaining in the A-main event and would quickly set his sights on the leaders of Mark Smith and Jake Karklin.
Whittall would catch Karklin for the second spot and put a sliding move on Karklin with 17 laps remaining in turn four.
Just one lap later, Whittall would put another sliding move on the leader of Mark Smith in turn 2 to take the lead away and the driver from South Hampton, New Jersey would start to set sail around the half mile.
Whittall would build his lead to as large as 8 seconds over the rest of the field, while Troy Wagaman Jr. and Brock Zearfoss had worked their way into the final two podium positions.
As Whittall took the white flag however, his right-rear tire would explode entering into turn one, sending the car up into the outside wall. Whittall would battle with the car trying to keep in straight until he finally lost control on the middle of the back straightaway and drawing the final caution of the night.
Wagaman Jr. would inherit the lead with just one lap remaining.
On the restart, Zearfoss would keep pace with Wagaman around the race track but couldn’t find enough speed through the corners to mount a pass.
Wagaman Jr. would cross the finish line in first marking his first win at the race track as well as it being worth $10,022.
Zearfoss finished second with Mark Smith third.
Lane Snook won the limited late model feature.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[5]; 2. 8-Brock Zearfoss[6]; 3. 53-Mark Smith[2]; 4. 5K-Jake Karklin[1]; 5. 95-Garrett Bard[3]; 6. 55W-Mike Wagner[13]; 7. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[4]; 8. 55-Logan Wagner[7]; 9. 77-Michael Walter[12]; 10. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[11]; 11. 35-Austin Bishop[15]; 12. 12-Blane Heimbach[21]; 13. 33H-Derek Hauck[17]; 14. 22E-Nash Ely[18]; 15. 53A-Alex Attard[16]; 16. 55M-Domenic Melair[23]; 17. 99-Devin Adams[20]; 18. 47K-Kody Lehman[19]; 19. 69X-Kassidy Kreitz[24]; 20. 67-Justin Whittall[8]; 21. 11T-Mike Thompson[10]; 22. 22-Doug Hammaker[14]; 23. 12D-Lance Dewease[9]; 24. 77K-Derek Locke[22]
