PORT ROYAL, Pa. — It was a dogfight to the end, but three-time Port Royal Speedway track champion Logan Wagner stood his ground and won Saturday night’s Keith Kauffman Classic featuring the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1.
Forced to outduel Clauson Marshall Racing’s Tyler Courtney, as well as a hard-charging Anthony Macri, Wagner’s victory allowed the Harrisonville-native to bump his All Star win total to two, earning a cool $10,000. Wagner’s previous All Star victory occurred at Lernerville Speedway in 2017.
“This is a weight lifted off of my shoulders for the whole year,” Wagner said. “I mean, we won against the All Stars. I just can’t thank everyone enough who helps get this car to the track. We’ve been really fast lately, just haven’t been able to get that first win until now. What a way to do it.”
Lining up fourth, Wagner’s march to the front initiated quickly. A move around Jeff Halligan on lap five maneuvered Wagner to third, picking off Outlaw invader Jacob Allen for second just two circuits later. In the meantime, Courtney was the man in charge, utilizing his pole position to score the early advantage.
Although Courtney was able to stretch his legs and create some space between himself and the rest of the field, a run-in with traffic on lap ten would create the negative momentum shift that Wagner benefited from.
By lap 14, Wagner was all over the back bumper of Courtney, applying pressure lap after lap and nearly getting by the Indianapolis-native with four consecutive slide job attempts at the exit of turn four. Despite Wagner’s persistence, Courtney held strong, keeping the Zemco Speed Equipment/Zemco Tool and Die/Zemco Headers/No. 1 at bay.
His ability to hold off Wagner was impressive, banging the boards all the way around Port Royal Speedway, but lap 22 would prove to be the end of Courtney’s reign.
In an attempt to split a pair of lappers, Courtney’s momentum faded, ultimately slipping up the surface which opened the door for Wagner to sneak through. Wagner would go on to lead the circuit, now with Courtney, Jacob Allen and Macri in tow.
Macri started 21st, forced to do so after a heat race incident left him to participate in the evening’s B-Main.
A two position jump over Allen and Courtney propelled Macri to second on lap 28, next setting aim on Wagner. Just what the “Concrete Kid” needed, caution flags appeared on the final circuit setting up what would be back-to-back green-white-checkered restarts.
The first restart attempt was called back due to another caution, but the second restart went off as planned. Macri did his best to overtake Wagner, even attempting a slider between turns one and two, but a drag race down the backstretch, and a quick chop into three, would go in Wagner’s favor.
“I had to chop him a little bit, but that’s just the way it goes,” Wagner added. “We were banging wheels a little bit racing down the backstretch. It was a pretty exciting last two laps.”
Macri held on to finish second, followed by Ian Madsen, Allen and Lance Dewease.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Logan Wagner [4]; 2. 39M-Anthony Macri [21]; 3. 11-Ian Madsen [5]; 4. 1A-Jacob Allen [3]; 5. 69K-Lance Dewease [13]; 6. 48-Danny Dietrich [10]; 7. 14-Tony Stewart [7]; 8. 55W-Mike Wagner [14]; 9. 24R-Rico Abreu [9]; 10. 26-Cory Eliason [6]; 11. 17-Steve Buckwalter [19]; 12. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [15]; 13. 13-Justin Peck [20]; 14. 2-AJ Flick [17]; 15. 23C-Pat Cannon [18]; 16. 17B-Bill Balog [22]; 17. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [1]; 18. 10-Zeb Wise [12]; 19. 45-Jeff Halligan [2]; 20. 5-Brent Marks [16]; 21. O7-Lucas Wolfe [24]; 22. 23-Paul McMahan [11]; 23. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [23]; 24. 2C-Dylan Cisney [25]; 25. 12-Blane Heimbach [26]; 26. 24-Kerry Madsen [8] Lap Leaders: Tyler Courtney (1-21), Logan Wagner (22-30)