It was quite an interesting year for sprint car racing in Central Pennsylvania. We had the leaders in two different categories racing locally.
It was quite an interesting year for sprint car racing in Central Pennsylvania. We had the leaders in two different categories racing locally.
Anthony Macri led the nation with 23 winged 410 sprint car triumphs, while Brent Marks was second in the country with 17 victories.
Marks is the leader in the country for the amount of money won for the year, with no one even close. Brent Marks has won $640,000 with Donny Schatz and Anthony Macri each surpassing $400,000 with Schatz ahead thanks to his season-ending triumphs at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Neither Macri, nor Marks ran a full-time touring series schedule. They both travel around to high-paying shows and try to bring the money back to Pennsylvania. Marks was really good at stealing high-dollar payouts from the World of Outlaws and All Star drivers this year.
The really interesting fact for the year is the podium spots for the two touring series in Central Pennsylvania this year. The World of Outlaws ran nine shows in Central PA with 27 top-three, or podium spots available. Sixteen of those top-three finishes went to Central PA teams with only eight going to World of Outlaws runners.
Those 16 podium spots were taken by only five drivers: Macri, Marks, Lance Dewease, Danny Dietrich and Logan Wagner. The PA teams took six wins with the Outlaws getting two and Kyle Larson grabbing one.
The All Stars faired worse with 15 races in Central Pennsylvania making 45 podium spots available. Thirty-two of those top three spots went to local Pennsylvania teams with only nine going to All Star teams. Four wins went to invaders: Gio Scelzi with two and Brian Brown and Sye Lynch each with one.
Macri claimed 10 of those 32 PA podium spots with seven victories. Justin Peck got three wins with Brent Marks and Lance Dewease getting two trophies each.
Both of these series run a lot of races in Central PA, which gives all of these drivers many chances to go head-to-head against each other on tracks that the Central PA teams are much more familiar with. With 24 races by the two series, 18 victories went to PA drivers. With 72 total podium spots up for grabs among all of these races, 48 went to local PA teams, while 17 were won by World of Outlaws/All Star drivers and seven went to other invaders.
Macri had the most podiums out of all of those shows with 15 podium spots out of the 24 races.
There are a few Central PA drivers who have gotten one step above the traveling teams and many of the local teams at both Williams Grove Speedway and Port Royal Speedway. No All Star driver made it to the top three at Port Royal Speedway all year with only two invaders —Brown and Scelzi — making it in once each.
The winning groove at Port Royal Speedway seems to be at the top bouncing the right-rear tire off the fence and some drivers haven‘t quite figured that line out.
Williams Grove is almost the opposite, where if you can get your car working smoothly through the bottom to the middle you can get to the front.
All of these shows will be back on the schedules again next season and we will have to see if the traveling teams can get their program a little quicker to keep up with the locals.