PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Nothing like racing in the Keystone State against the World of Outlaws, during a heat wave. Temperatures flirting around triple digits, all week. So, can anyone win all three against the outlaws?
Let round one begin. The action kicked off Wednesday with the first ever middle of the week summer stop at the Speed Palace.
The only posse driver to win a heat race was Danny Dietrich. He moved from fourth to a drag race down the front stretch to just edge out Outlaw Brad Sweet. Dietrich wasn't even supposed to race after a nasty wreck at Eldora, but the team threw a brand new car together and they raced four days later.
With the sun beating down on the track, it was wide open as drivers searched for moisture and hammer the top.
Macri and Dietrich battled for the podium positions as the invader, Kyle Larson lead the field by an entire straightway and to picked up his first win in Posseland this year.
“We’ve always been good here. Cool to win an Outlaw race. I think that’s three in a row for us against the Outlaws here. Posse can’t seem to beat me at an Outlaw show here," laughing Larson.
He has a full schedule this week. He won Port Royal Wednesday, won at Linda’s Speedway Thursday during the Hyper Racing 600cc Speedweek, while balancing the NASCAR cup schedule at Pocono. Larson still returned Friday and Saturday to race at Williams Grove for the Summer Nationals.
So, we head to round two of the Posse versus the Outlaws this week.
Battle for the transfer in heat three was beat between Dietrich Freddie Rahmer. After a couple chops by Rahmer, Dietrich hooked Rahmer's bumper and for how hot it was outside, it was even hotter in the pits after that incident.
In the B-Main, with Rahmer not finishing the heat, he had a work work ahead of him. Robbie Kendall edged out Rahmer for the final transfer spot so Rahmer had to use a provisional.
It was the hottest driver and the winningest driver on the front row, Brent Marks and Anthony Macri.
Lap traffic became a problem for the leaders. With eight left, it was a nice sigh of relief, especially for Lance Dewease who was on the move from ninth. You know he loves the bottom, he got by Sweet then stole the lead away from Marks. The legend showed up the young guns and checks off win 106 at the Grove.
“Brent’s such a good racer and I had to make sure I didn’t show him I was down on the bottom, yet. I had a good enough run to get by him before he could get back down in front of me," said Dewease.
All posse podium on the first night of the Summer Nationals.
Round three Saturday night was for $20,000 was delayed nearly 2 hours, first for wind then for showers.
The posse not looking as strong as night one as Dietrich and Deven Borden were the only two in the dash. Sheldon Haudenschild won the dash to start on the pole.
In his 2,000th Outlaw start Donny Schatz went back and forth with Haudenschild for the lead. Then, shuffled back to fourth.
Six laps left, Macri and Carson Macedo get together and collected Larson, who had no where to go to bring out the red flag.
Then, coming to two left, Haudenschild's rear caught the wall. Sweet snuck under to take the lead away.
Dietrich needed another lap or two to pass Sweet. But, long time in the making for Sweet. He finally captured his first win at the Historic Williams Grove.
“It was a fun 30 laps. When you have a car like that, it’s a fun race track. It was nice to finally concur Williams Grove. I can tell you that," said Sweet.
The Flying Ryan Timms getting experience in PA
Drivers never know when their first 410 win will come. It make take years, it may never come. For the Flying Ryan Timms, he's not even old enough for his permit and already has over a half a dozen 410 wins.
The Oklahoma native, Timms and his team trekked across the country to compete against the best, the Pennsylvania Posse.
“These guys, they’re definitely the best in the business and this is the toughest place I think I’ve ever ran," said Timms.
He started to make the transition to 410s last year and has already raced nearly 60 races in 2022.
But, there’s just one problem, he’s currently 15 years old. So, what does that mean? Timms cannot race certain tracks because they follow the strict Outlaws rule of being 16 to race a 410.
The Speed Palace made an exception, and with a few extra signatures from his parents, made his Port Royal debut in May and came back for Pa Speedweek.
“The more we run out here, the better we’ll be back in the Midwest and out west. We’ll just keep running out here and see what we can do," Timms said.
And so far, two top ten finishes in Central Pa and keeps growing the more experience he gets.
“It gets annoying sometimes. I think that it will just make me that much better when I am 16 and I can run wherever," said Timms.
He has over 100 wins in micros, midgets, 360s and 410s combined on his resume. Timms has a month until he turns 16 on August 26th. He doesn't have any plans so far but it just so happens, the Outlaws are racing that day at River Cities Speedway in North Dakota. So, we'll see where the rest of the season and future takes Timms.