MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Last Friday, Anthony Macri fulfilled a lifelong dream of qualifying for the Knoxville Nationals main event at Knoxville Raceway.
One week later, the 22-year-old obtained the very goal every sprint car racer sets out for in Central Pennsylvania. Macri finally sealed the deal on his first 410 sprint car victory at Williams Grove Speedway, a feat that’s evaded him through the years.
Lance Dewease charged from 13th to second, pushing his top-five streak to 11 races, but once again falling short to a first-time winner at the historic clay oval, 1.438 seconds off Macri’s winning pace
Like his awestruck run on sprint car racing’s biggest stage last week, Macri was left digging deep for summarization.
“I’m kind of speechless right now,” said Macri, who bagged a $5,500 prize. “Just honestly really cool. It means a lot. Obviously, my family has been coming here for a while, and obviously my whole life. To be sitting in the stands, wishing to win here, and to finally put it into action and get it done, it’s pretty cool. I’m just at a loss for words.”
With a slim 18-car field, Macri’s chances to finally add Williams Grove to the 410 wins list became that much greater. But since he had to start ninth — in last — in the first heat because of the track’s handicap system, Macri’s likelihood of winning didn’t come into the fold until 15 laps to go in the 25-lap main event.
Macri raced from last to third in his heat to give him the seventh-starting spot in the main event, where it then only took five laps to get to third.
Started alongside Freddie Rahmer, needed to get in front of him. Settled in once the leaders got to lapped traffic.
The key to the quick start, which ultimately catalyzed the victory, was Macri’s ability to beat Rahmer, lined up to his outside, on the initial start. Once he did that and once he got to third, he settled in, as Dyan Norris and Landon Myers were bound to slow in anticipated traffic.
With 11 laps to go, Myers overtook Norris for the lead on the bottom and Macri followed his guide. Three laps later, Macri overpowered Myers off turn two to take the lead for good.
All he had to do was execute one restart with seven laps to go, shortly after a red flag for Rahmer, who flipped violently over the guardrail.
While Macri set a fine pace on the restart, Dewease snuck to second in the closing laps. Macri noticed the development of the No. 69k, a car that’s outsmarted him too many times in similar situations, on the scoreboard.
“I knew to cut down to the bottom and take whatever air he had,” Macri said. “If he was close enough, to take his air away and kind of slow it through the corner but keep my speed up. I’ve kind of learned from the past experiences of leading races here and losing them late. Luckily, we were able to finish the deal.”
“Coming off last week, qualifying for the Knoxville Nationals, and now winning at Williams Grove, it just kind of has my confidence up,” Macri said. “Obviously I’m going to try to keep it in check so when we go into Port Royal [Speedway on Saturday] we won’t ball a car up, or do something stupid.
“Hopefully, we can keep clicking as a team,” Macri said.
Myers, the polesitter, rounded out the podium in third. Norris settled for fourth and Doug Hammaker finished the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. Anthony Macri. 2. Lance Dewease. 3. Landon Myers. 4. Dylan Norris. 5. Doug Hammaker. 6. Danny Dietrich. 7.Aaron Bollinger. 8. Jared Esh. 9. Devon Borden. 10. Matt Campbell. 11. TJ Stutts. 12. Justin Whittall. 13. Kyle Moody. 14. Ryan Taylor. 15. Alan Krimes. 16. Steve Downs. 17. Freddie Rahmer