PORT ROYAL, Pa. — The Keith Kauffman Classic at Port Royal Speedway will go down as a race for the ages, as rivals Anthony Macri and Logan Wagner waged an all-out war on Saturday night for the $10,000 crown.
The duo exchanged slider after slider until a final lap block by Macri sealed his winning fate, ultimately securing his second Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 victory in three tries, now with five on his career.
Lining up sixth on the feature grid by way of dash result, Macri was in a hurry right from the start, advancing his way through the running order and poking his nose into a podium position by lap nine.
Meanwhile, feature polesitter and Harrisonville native, Logan Wagner, was the man in charge, setting a quick pace at the front of the field with an empty track and clean air to his advantage. The pace did not hold for long, as lapped traffic would enter the picture on lap seven creating a multi-car roadblock for the four-time track champion.
Taking second from Parker Price-Miller on lap 11, Macri’s aim quickly switched to Wagner, using Port Royal’s extreme outer edge to rapidly reel in the Zemco Speed Equipment No. 1.
By lap 17, Macri was all over Wagner for the race lead, exchanging slide jobs the very next circuit before powering around Wagner coming off of four on lap 19.
Refusing to settle for second, Wagner did everything he could to power back around the “Concrete Kid,” exchanging sliders yet again on lap 24 and 25 before a caution snapped the excitement on lap 26.
The ensuing restart saw the pair pick up right where they left off with Wagner continuing to throw everything he could at Macri. Another slider exchange on lap 29 ultimately resulted in near contact between the two, but Macri persevered.
A final lap block by Macri would seal his trip to victory lane, still with Logan Wagner in tow followed by Lance Dewease, Ryan Smith and Mike Wagner.
“After our incident, Logan and I came to the conclusion that we weren’t going to give each other an inch, and with starting sixth, I knew that I had to make something happen on the start. I really didn’t do the best job at making that happen,” Macri said. “I started to drive aggressively and I think I maybe got too aggressive too soon. The car was a handful in those last few laps and I just tried to get as wide as I could.
“I gotta give Logan (Wagner) credit,” Macri continued. “He could have drove through me when I went to the bottom to block but he didn’t. So I thank him for that. These guys have been giving me an awesome car all year long and it’s been showing.”
“How about these fans…this was an unreal race,” Wagner said. “Anthony (Macri) is good and he drove me clean. He shut the door on me getting into one but I shut the door on him in the last Keith Kauffman Classic…that’s just the way it goes. The best driver won here tonight.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 39M-Anthony Macri [6]; 2. 1-Logan Wagner [1]; 3. 69K-Lance Dewease [10]; 4. 6-Ryan Smith [9]; 5. 55W-Mike Wagner [3]; 6. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [8]; 7. 48-Danny Dietrich [21]; 8. 11-Parker Price Miller [2]; 9. 45-Jeff Halligan [7]; 10. 12-Blane Heimbach [16]; 11. 33-Gerard McIntyre [13]; 12. 4-Cap Henry [4]; 13. 17B-Bill Balog [23]; 14. 19M-Brent Marks [17]; 15. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [12]; 16. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [14]; 17. 19-Chris Windom [22]; 18. 10-Zeb Wise [19]; 19. 7-Scott Bogucki [11]; 20. K33-Dylan Cisney [26]; 21. 26-Cory Eliason [20]; 22. 2-AJ Flick [15]; 23. 13-Justin Peck [25]; 24. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [24]; 25. 28-Tim Shaffer [27]; 26. 19s-Curt Stroup [28]; 27. 67-Justin Whittall [5]; 28. 11T-TJ Stutts [18] Lap Leaders: Logan Wagner (1-18), Anthony Macri (19-30)