PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Brent Marks lived up to his nickname — “Myerstown Missile” — Thursday night at Port Royal Speedway, opening the 54th edition of Tuscarora weekend with a FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 with an $8,000 victory.
Blasting ahead from fifth on the grid, Marks took the lead for the first time on lap 11 and never looked back, outdueling full-time All Star and two-time winner in 2021, Bill Balog.
Balog held on to finish second on Thursday night at Port Royal Speedway, followed by Swindell Speedlab’s Daryn Pittman, Rudeen Racing’s Cory Eliason and multi-time Lernerville Speedway champion and early race leader A.J. Flick.
“I was just trying to be as smart as I could,” Marks said. “The track actually turned out great for how much weather we got. I was a little worried early about how it was going to turn out, but it was a lot of fun. It’s been a while since we had a super, super fast track here, so it was definitely different to what we are used to. This car was a ton of fun to drive and I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Kicking things off from the pole, Flick earned the initial advantage, leading the first eight circuits over Balog. Although stretching to a convincing lead, Flick’s momentum came to a halt on lap eight, as lapped traffic entered the picture creating a two-lane roadblock. Balog quickly came to call, sliding by Flick with a move in turn four on lap nine.
Meanwhile, Marks, who had already battled his way to third by lap five, was also in position to pounce, ultimately following Balog by Flick just before the flag stand.
The former full-time Outlaw was able to show his nose to Balog on multiple occasions on lap 10, finally working past Balog on the following circuit.
From that point forward, it was all Marks at the front of the pack, surviving one last literal tangle with heavy traffic, as well as pressure from Balog, before a late-race caution on lap 28 rid the track of slower cars.
“It got pretty wicked there in lapped traffic. Running wide open, I was getting leary on our fuel, so once I got back to traffic, I just tried to be careful,” Marks continued. “All in all, traffic allowed Bill (Balog) to close back in on me, so there’s definitely pros and cons to being careful. Those last three laps, I was just cruising around.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 19-Brent Marks [5]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog [2]; 3. 39-Daryn Pittman [3]; 4. 26-Cory Eliason [4]; 5. 2-AJ Flick [1]; 6. 0J-Lynton Jeffrey [7]; 7. 24-Rico Abreu [20]; 8. 8-Aaron Reutzel [9]; 9. 21-Brian Brown [15]; 10. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [6]; 11. 39M-Anthony Macri [10]; 12. 5-Ian Madsen [8]; 13. 5C-Dylan Cisney [16]; 14. 1-Logan Wagner [11]; 15. 18-Gio Scelzi [21]; 16. 55W-Mike Wagner [13]; 17. 11T-TJ Stutts [23]; 18. 11-Spencer Bayston [12]; 19. 13-Justin Peck [17]; 20. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [22]; 21. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [24]; 22. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [14]; 23. 12-Blane Heimbach [19]; 24. 14T-Tyler Walton [27]; 25. 10-Zeb Wise [26]; 26. 45-Jeff Halligan [25]; 27. 33-Gerard McIntyre [18]; 28. 25-Tyler Bear [28] Leaders: AJ Flick (1-8), Bill Balog (9, 10), Brent Marks (11-30)