Ely wins Juniata Fair Opener for sprints

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From Port Royal Speedway


Port Royal, PA — (September 5, 2015) — Nearly 100 racecars packed the Port Royal Speedway pit area on Saturday night to kickstart the 161st annual Juniata County Fair featuring the annual Butch Renninger Memorial for super late models.


The UFO-sanctioned Renninger Memorial was taken by Selinsgrove’s Dylan Yoder for his second victory of the season at the track and including lap money, Yoder took home just shy of $4,000 for the prestigious victory.


The 25-lap sprint car feature saw Dave Ely outlast Ryan Taylor and Greg Hodnett for the $3,200 payday, which was the third of his career at the track.


In the econo late model main, Andrew Yoder took the win and point lead in the division over Eric Irvin with just two races left in the point season for the stock cars.


And to close the night Corey Kepner scored his second win of the season in the xtreme stock main event.


Yoder started second in the 33-lap Butch Renninger Memorial for the super lates with Bryan Bernheisel on the pole and Yoder took the lead at the drop of the green.


Fourth starter Nick Dickson motored into second on the first lap as Yoder began opening up a lead and eyes turned to ninth starter Coleby Frye.


Frye was up to sixth behind UFO point leader Devin Friese and was challenging for fifth when the pair made contact in the second corner, bringing out the yellow flag for a stopped Friese.


UFO rules forced Frye to the rear due to the contact and a double file restart saw Yoder choose the outside lane for the new green.


However Yoder got a terrible start when action resumed and allowed Dickson to take command and start stretching out an advantage while he slipped to third behind Jeff Miller briefly.


But Yoder was back to second on the seventh tour, trying to catch new leader Dickson.


The leaders entered lapped traffic on the 14th tour with Dickson ahead by nearly a second and Yoder was clearly coming on and was alongside Dickson for the lead when another caution flag slowed the pace on the 19th tour.


Yoder again chose the outside for the restart and this time didn’t falter, instead staying alongside Dickson into the first corner before riding the high line into control.


Yoder was pulling away when a final yellow slowed the pace with eight laps to go and he again stretched it out as the final laps were recorded, taking the win by 5.5 seconds over Dickson.


After starting 11th, Dan Stone raced forward to finish third, taking the spot on lap 21.


Tim Wilson was fourth with Jeff Miller fifth at the line.


Sixth through 10th went to hard charging 21st starter Jeff Rine, Jim Yoder, a rebounding Coleby Frye, Jason Schmidt and Trent Brenneman.


Heats for the 35-car field went to Schmidt, Wilson, Dylan Yoder and Friese.


Twin consolations went to Chad Hollenbeck and Mike Lupfer.


Ely of West Lawn started third in the 410 sprint main with Curt Stroup and Blane Heimbach sharing the front row.


Richfield’s Stroup took the lead at the start with Heimbach second but Ely blasted into the runner up spot on the second tour.


Stroup was holding sway over the pack on the eighth tour when the red flag appeared for a flipped Davey Sammons on the frontchute.


Sammons was running fifth at the time, battling with Greg Hodnett for the spot when he impacted the outside fence as he raced to the outside of Hodnett to defend the spot.


Both Hodnett and Aaron Ott shuffled Heimbach backward on the restart before Heimbach fell out of the race while sixth starter Ryan Taylor advanced around Stroup for second on the 12th lap.


Stroup’s left rear tire exploded on the 13th tour and Hodnett lined up third for the restart.


But Taylor protected his turf for second over the last half of the race as both he and Ely kept ahead of Hodnett.


They leaders entered the rear of the pack with five laps to go but Ely kept up his pace to record the win by 1.166 seconds at the finish.


Taylor was second followed by Hodnett, Ott and 12th starter Brent Marks.


Sixth through 10th went to Dylan Cisney, Lance Dewease, Doug Esh, Lucas Wolfe and Mike Wagner.


Heats for the 30 cars went to Heimbach, Ely and Cisney with Joey Hershey scoring the consolation.


Todd Snook led the first 10 laps of the 18-lap econo late model main before sixth starter Andrew Yoder took over while cruising the outside lane to perfection.


Yoder checked out on the field to the finish, winning by 6.4 seconds over Snook, Devin Hart, Jared Fulkroad and Eric Irvin, who entered the race as the point leader before Yoder took over with this winning run.


Heats went to Dave Leidy and Snook.


Jason Zook controlled the first eight laps of the xtreme stock feature before giving way to Corey Kepner on a lap nine restart.


Kepner then rolled to the win over Zook, Jason Davis, Pete Leister and Deron Henry.

Race Results:

Feature Finishes



410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Dave Ely, 2. Ryan Taylor, 3. Greg Hodnett, 4. Aaron Ott, 5. Brent Marks, 6. Dylan Cisney, 7. Lance Dewease, 8. Doug Esh, 9. Lucas Wolfe, 10. Mike Wagner, 11. Logan Wagner, 12. Mike Erdley, 13. Trenton Sheaffer, 14. Dustin Baney, 15. Curt Stroup, 16. Joey Hershey, 17. Mike Wagner II., 18. Dan Shetler, 19. Blane Heimbach, 20. Anthony Fiore, 21. Dave Hahn, 22. Davey Sammons, 23. TJ Stutts, 24. Carl Bowser


DNQ: Karl Baker, Cory Thornton, Vince Snyder, Wayne Dadetto, Scott Wilson, Justin Barger


Late models, 33 laps: 1. Dylan Yoder, 2. Nick Dickson, 3. Dan Stone, 4. Tim Wilson, 5. Jeff Miller, 6. Jeff Rine, 7. Jim Yoder, 8. Coleby Frye, 9. Jason Schmidt, 10. Trent Brenneman, 11. Mike Altobelli Jr., 12. Mike Lupfer, 13. Chad Hollenbeck, 14. Steve Campbell, 15. Devin Friese, 16. Bryan Bernheisel, 17. Waylon Wagner, 18. Dwayne Tanneyhill, 19. Mike Mort, 20. Scott Flickinger, 21. Jerry Bard, 22. Matt Parks, 23. Tim Smith Jr., 24. Larry Baer, 25. Mitch Hack


DNQ: Andy Haus, Derrick Casner, Patrick Bryner, Hayes Mattern, Steve Bailor, Danny Snyder, Cole Amsden, Steve Stitt, Dave Brouse Sr., Eric Zembower


Econo late models, 18 laps: 1. Andrew Yoder, 2. Todd Snook, 3. Devin Hart, 4. Jared Fulkroad, 5. Eric Irvin, 6. Dave Leidy, 7. Tim Fedder, 8. Shaun Miller, 9. Rod Stroup, 10. Curt Dunn, 11. Chase Bowsman, 12. Garrett Gray


DNS: Jason Davis, Jason Nace, Ken Beck, Harold Ranck

Xtreme stocks, 15 laps: 1. Corey Kepner, 2. Jason Zook, 3. Jason Davis, 4. Pete Leister, 5. Deron Henry, 6. Austin Johnson, 7. Walt Peters, 8. Dustin Snook, 9. Charlie Bryner, 10. Jen Zook, 11. Nathan Henry, 12. Bill Powell, 13. Mike Goodwin, 14. Tyler Amtower, 15. Craig Dodson