PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Dylan Cisney threw everything he had at Jeff Halligan, but Halligan never flinched, holding back Cisney by .061 seconds for his first career Weikert’s Livestock sprint car win Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway.
Cisney slid Halligan in turns one and two, but Halligan stayed on the gas on the cushion maintaining the lead off two. Halligan had the bottom working in turns three and four while Cisney stayed on the top.
Cisney cleared him twice, but Halligan turned back under Cisney retaking the lead off turn two each time. Cisney had a great run around three and four on the final lap, with the pair side-by-side down the frontstretch, but Halligan nipped him at the line and earned $4,000.
“I was pressing my luck, especially the one time I snuck in by him,” Halligan said. “I knew I was pressing my luck. He could have easily closed the door on me and screwed me up big time. I knew if he was going to keep doing it, eventually he wasn’t going to leave that little hole open, so I started cutting down. The first 19 laps, we were getting such great drive off the corners especially four, but after that, I was really struggling. It’s awesome that we won. We did a lot to the car this week and our hard work paid off.”
“I didn’t think there was room for a car, but he kept sticking it in there,” Cisney said. “I tried to drive in there a little deeper and a little faster and clear him and it took me a couple times to do it. It was good, hard, clean racing. That was a lot of fun sliding back and forth with each other.”
Halligan was fast from the start.
“We were good all night,” Halligan said. “I knew if we could hit it tonight in this feature, we’d have a shot at driving past the cars in front of me because you had to get your race car good, and we were good when we had this car here the last time we got second. At the end, coming off of four, I wasn’t getting the drive I was getting before. I had the wing all the way trunked. It was just enough.”
A five-car crash in the first turn marred the start of the sprint car main event. Kevin Nouse and Logan Wagner made contact and slid across the track, collecting Lucas Wolfe and crashing hard.
Kyle Reinhardt and Landon Myers had nowhere to go and got tangled up as well. All drivers were reported okay. Reinhardt and Myers made repairs and returned.
Steve Buckwalter grabbed the lead when the feature resumed. Halligan grabbed the runner-up spot from Ryan Taylor as Cisney and Brent Marks traded sliders for third spot.
Halligan closed and took the lead from Buckwalter with an inside pass of turn four on lap 10. He pulled away.
Halligan began lapping slower cars as Cisney and Marks tried to settle third spot, but Buckwalter slowed with six to go bringing out the yellow.
Cisney took second from Marks on the restart. The next time into one, Cisney tried a slider, but Halligan stayed on the cushion and never lifted. They were closer yet the next time around.
With a few to go, Cisney cleared the slider, but Halligan turned his car back under Cisney’s maintaining the lead off two. The final lap Cisney got a great run, but Halligan found just enough speed off the bottom of four to nip him at the line.
Marks, Anthony Macri and Taylor completed the top five. AJ Flick, Tyler Reeser, Kody Lehman, Mike Wagner and Robbie Kendall rounded out the top 10.
Heat races for the 30 cars in the 410 sprint pits were won by Flick, Halligan, Cisney and Marks. Anthony Fiore won the B-main, but his car wouldn’t fire for the A-main.
The finish:
Sprint Car Feature (25 laps): 1. Jeff Halligan, 2. Dylan Cisney, 3. Brent Marks, 4. Anthony Macri, 5. Ryan Taylor, 6. AJ Flick, 7. Tyler Reeser, 8. Kody Lehman, 9. Mike Wagner, 10. Robbie Kendall, 11. Tyler Walton, 12. TJ Stutts, 13. Tyler Bear, 14. Kyle Reinhardt, 15. Kyle Smith, 16. Jason Shultz, 17. Rick Lafferty, 18. Curt Stroup, 19. Steve Buckwalter, 20. Landon Myers, 21. Logan Wagner, 22. Kevin Nouse, 23. Lucas Wolfe, 24. Anthony Fiore.