BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — For the first time in the facility’s history, Bloomsburg Fair Raceway hosted 410 sprint car competition Thursday night, welcoming the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1.
Defending his home state proudly, Pennsylvania’s Anthony Macri earned top honors in the inaugural event, scoring a $6,000 payday in the process while padding his All Star stat sheet that now includes four series victories.
Impressive enough, Macri has been victorious in his last four sprint car starts, aiming to keep that streak alive in Friday’s Tommy Hinnershitz Classic at Williams Grove Speedway.
Although top dog at the end of the 30-lap program, Macri had his work cut out for him. In fact, a jumped start during the initial green forced Macri to go back a row, commencing the All Star main event from the third position rather than the pole where he was scheduled to start. Despite the setback, Macri eventually rebounded, getting by race leader and All Star full-timer Bill Balog with a bold move through traffic on lap 17.
Macri pulled even will Balog at the exit of turn two, and by the time the duo drag-raced off of four, Macri was the one to lead the pair back to the flagstand.
“The pressure keeps adding up,” Macri said of his consecutive victories. “I guess we have a huge target on our back now. This is pretty remarkable. We’ve won four in a row at Port Royal before, but to win four in a row at four different tracks is pretty incredible. My guys work their butts off and I couldn’t be more proud of them. All I can do is keep trying my best when I’m behind the wheel.”
Scott Bogucki, who inherited the lead when Macri was sent back a row, led the first nine circuits before surrendering his power to Balog. Unfortunately for Bogucki, in his attempt to reclaim the lead from Balog, he made contact with the turn one wall and rolled to a stop; he was OK.
Balog held on to finish second, followed by Justin Peck, Tyler Courtney and Zeb Wise.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 39M-Anthony Macri [1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog [3]; 3. 13-Justin Peck [7]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [5]; 5. 10-Zeb Wise [9]; 6. 11-Parker Price Miller [4]; 7. 55X-Alex Bowman [6]; 8. 19M-Brent Marks [10]; 9. 44-Dylan Norris [11]; 10. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [16]; 11. M1-Mark Smith [8]; 12. 4-Cap Henry [18]; 13. 26-Cory Eliason [15]; 14. 21-Dominic Scelzi [22]; 15. 10X-Ryan Smith [13]; 16. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [21]; 17. 28-Tim Shaffer [23]; 18. 27-Devon Borden [17]; 19. 19-Chris Windom [14]; 20. 39D-Chase Dietz [24]; 21. 9K-Kevin Thomas Jr. [20]; 22. 39-Christopher Bell [19]; 23. 7-Scott Bogucki [2]; 24. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [12]