PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Seven days ago, it was “heartbreak hotel” for Justin Whittall as his rear tire exploded while leading at Port Royal Speedway.
On Saturday, Whittall redeemed himself and took home his first win of the season.
Mike Thompson and Dominic Melair would make up the front row of the 25 lap A-main event with Thompson leading the opening circuit.
The first caution of the race would come out after just one lap for the 12J of Derek Hauck who would slow to a stop on the front stretch.
As the race came back to green, Whittall would begin his march to the front, but he would have to get by battling cars of Doug Hammaker and Blane Heimbach.
Whittall would battle those two for the fourth position over the next eight laps before getting by them both and would begin charging down Garrett Bard for the third position.
As he chased down Bard for the third position, Bard would reel in the top two cars as Thompson and Melair were battling for the lead with 12 laps remaining.
Whittall would go past both Bard and Melair for the second position in turn one with 11 laps to go in the race and would have Thompson within an arms reach coming down the backstretch.
Just one lap later, Whittall would throw a sliding pass for the lead on Thompson in turns three and four. He got the car to stick to the track and held on to the top spot and would do so for the remaining nine laps of the feature.
Thompson would hold on for the second spot and Heimbach would steal the third spot away from Bard at the finish line.
Ayden Hare topped the 358 sprint car feature.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 67-Justin Whittall[8]; 2. 11T-Mike Thompson[1]; 3. 12-Blane Heimbach[4]; 4. 95-Garrett Bard[5]; 5. 22-Doug Hammaker[3]; 6. 77-Michael Walter[10]; 7. 45-Jeff Halligan[7]; 8. 55-Logan Wagner[11]; 9. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[19]; 10. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[12]; 11. 22E-Nash Ely[6]; 12. 99-Devin Adams[16]; 13. 98-Ricky Peterson[9]; 14. 35-Austin Bishop[13]; 15. 41-Logan Rumsey[21]; 16. 47K-Kody Lehman[17]; 17. 26-Curt Stroup[20]; 18. 45S-Samuel Miller[22]; 19. 10-Jake Waters[24]; 20. 55M-Domenic Melair[2]; 21. 2-AJ Flick[14]; 22. 5K-Jake Karklin[18]; 23. 24B-Dustin Baney[23]; 24. 12J-Derek Hauck[15]
