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Grant, Seavey top USAC mains at Port Royal

By Richie Murray, USAC Media (Port Royal, PA) -- Logan Seavey didn’t quite need to showcase the same level of dramatic flair this time around during Saturday night’s USAC Silver Crown main event at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway.

PHOTO CREDIT: Julia Johnson

One year after fence-banging his way to a last lap victory, the Sutter, Calif. native settled this score as early as possible en route to his second consecutive victory at the half-mile, retaining his undefeated 2-0 record in USAC Silver Crown competition at Port Royal.

Seavey tracked down his championship nemesis during the last couple of seasons, Kody Swanson, on the 22nd lap, then proceeded to construct a substantial lead that was eradicated by a late caution. The circumstances couldn’t touch Seavey nor could the competition as he completed the final four-lap stint with his first series victory of the season in his Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing/STIDA.com – CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone/DRC/Felker Chevy.

Seavey’s sixth career USAC Silver Crown triumph tied him for 19th on the all-time list alongside, Tom Bigelow, Russ Gamester, Kenny Irwin Jr., Jason Leffler, Ken Schrader and Al Unser, all of whom are USAC national champions, including Seavey himself, the 2018 USAC National Midget titlist.

Furthermore, Seavey’s prowess on the half-mile dirt ovals with the series is supreme. His five career half-mile dirt track scores rank second all-time, only behind the great Jack Hewitt. In fact, Seavey seemingly has the field in a stranglehold on these particular circuits, having won five of the past seven dating back to 2021, making him the one to beat as the early series championship leader by a 39-point margin.

“This car is by far the best right now,” Seavey praised. “I’m just cruising around here, and it’s so fun to drive when you’ve got good racecars. The team is doing a good job with the car and we’re putting full nights together. I’m qualifying a little bit better and making my nights a little bit easier too.”

Seavey qualified fourth for the event, putting him on the outside of the second row for the start of the feature while Mitchel Moles occupied the pole position in what was just his second career series appearance. Moles endured quite an eventful qualifying run to start things out for the evening.

After eclipsing the one-lap USAC Silver Crown track record on his qualifying run, following the checkered flag, Moles slid in the outside turn one guardrail, thus sustaining severe damage to his Hans Lein machine. The crew gave it an all-out effort to make repairs and get him back on track in time for the feature.

Moles did lead the field to green, but soon developed a major handling issue as his front wheels began bouncing like basketballs at full song down the straightaways. Moles remained relatively competitive throughout the distance, but ultimately dropped to the wayside five laps from the finish line while running ninth.

Instead, it was Kody Swanson who stepped up to the plate and led the opening 21 circuits. However, trailing just behind him was Seavey who disposed of Moles for the third spot on the 13th lap, then took second from May Belleville (Kan.) High Banks winner Brady Bacon in turn three on lap 16. Chase Dietz, a regular in winged sprint car competition across Pennsylvania, followed suit to third past Bacon a lap later in what was Dietz’s debut Silver Crown run.

Seavey continued to hustle, and on lap 22, he had caught up with Kody Swanson for the race lead, diving to the bottom of turn three before sliding up to secure the position just a few laps shy of the halfway point of the 50-lap affair. Seavey was strong, and he knew exactly the kind of piece he had on this particular evening.

“I knew my car could maneuver,” Seavey admitted. “What I kind of struggled with last year was cutting through the middle, so I stayed down in the middle pretty early just trying to make sure I could get down there and turn the middle and drive off good. Once I got settled about eight to 10 laps in, I moved up to the top of three and four and really got some speed going. It’s not really my style to float around the middle. I really wanted to get up there and run the wall, and we were able to do that.”

Meanwhile, right behind Seavey, the Chase Dietz story continued to develop. After being retaken by Bacon, Dietz began another ascent toward the front, going topside around Bacon for third on lap 35, then to second place on the inside line of turn three by Kody Swanson on lap 37. However, he remained a distant 5.167 seconds behind race leader Seavey who was gonzo at that point in time.

Another spectacular surge was simultaneously taking place for veteran Pennsylvania racer Carmen Perigo who entered the top-five with an outside pass of 2020 series champion Justin Grant on lap 44, and he’d ultimately wind up fourth after diving under Kody Swanson four laps from the finish line to earn a career best series result.

Seavey continued to trounce his opponents with a 5.7 second edge, but a yellow flag on lap 46 for Trey Burke (17th) and Mario Clouser (18th) stifled his comfort cruise, erasing his substantial margin and forcing him to navigate one final restart for the win.

Undeterred, Seavey maintained his high line presence and put the final touches on a splendid performance after conferring with his team under the final yellow flag period.

“We talked about it,” Seavey acknowledged. “I could tell late in the run that (Dietz) was gaining or keeping up with us, but I also knew I could run into three harder. When you have a big lead, you’re not always pushing as hard as you can, so I knew that, for a few laps, if I just rolled into three with more speed and kind of hit the guardrail a little harder, we’d be fine. I wasn’t worried about it. I knew my pace wasn’t where it could be, but that’s how these races go. When you’re leading, you’re never really pushing as hard as you can. In the end, it doesn’t matter how much you beat them by as long as you keep them behind you.”

Seavey’s final margin of victory was 1.242 seconds as he crossed the stripe with Dietz, Bacon, Perigo and Kody Swanson trailing him across the line.

Chase Dietz (York, Pa.) and car owner Bruce Lee formed a brand-new driver/team combination that hit full force straight out of the box at Port Royal in their Karma Industrial Services – Chop Designs – Pancho’s Racing Products/DRC/Claxton Chevy. With his runner-up finish, Dietz became the first driver to finish inside the top-two in his Silver Crown debut since Tyler Roahrig at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2021. Dietz is the first to accomplish the feat on dirt with the series since David Gravel scored second at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2020.

“I’ll be damn honest; we had no clue what was going on,” Dietz said with a wry smile. “We were coming out to have some fun and we learned a lot, I thought. After only having a couple laps of practice and qualifying, we really didn’t know what to expect, but it was fun, a lot more fun than even the winged sprints. I’m looking forward to the rest of them.”

In just their second ever USAC Silver Crown race together, Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and the Chris Dyson Racing team have collected a first (Belleville) and now a third (Port Royal) in their Concord American Flagpole – Macri Concrete – Racer Magazine/Maxim/Ott Chevy.

“We had been good on the short runs all race, and I thought we might be able to have something, but we just didn’t really have anything for the first two,” Bacon lamented. “Everybody was pretty much the same speed, but they were a little bit better than us, and we just couldn’t get fired off at the end. On the long runs, they were better, but after the first couple of cautions and the start, we were good. I thought we might have a chance, but it didn’t quite work out. We were just a tick off, and when the track’s that slick, it doesn’t take much to make a big difference.”

In what was his first series start in nearly five seasons, Steve Buckwalter (Royersford, Pa.) earned hard charger honors for his 20th to 14th run in the USAC Silver Crown feature. Buckwalter also captured a victory earlier in the night at Port Royal in the winged 410 Sprint Car A-Main.

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 17, 2023 – Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – Open Wheel Madness

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: (Top-16 locked into the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 97, Lein-20.899 (New Track Record); 2. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-20.918; 3. Chase Dietz, 86, Lee-21.017; 4. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-21.362; 5. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-21.397; 6. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-21.437; 7. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.759; 8. Mario Clouser, 92, Kazmark-21.771; 9. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-21.779; 10. Jake Swanson, 10, DMW-21.817; 11. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-21.834; 12. Matt Westfall, 81, BCR-21.883; 13. Shane Cottle, 74, Hodges-21.910; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 19, Legacy-21.997; 15. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-22.082; 16. Alex Bright, 24, Haggenbottom-22.124; 17. Wayne Johnson, 12, Two C-22.254; 18. Trey Burke, 11, Hamilton-22.388; 19. Ryan Thomas, 118, Wingo-22.475; 20. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-22.559; 21. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott-22.609; 22. Steve Buckwalter, 53, FTM-22.717; 23. Mark Bitner, 4, Yeska-22.780; 24. Taylor Ferns, 555, Ferns-22.856; 25. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-23.026; 26. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams-23.373; 27. Tom Paterson, 111, Paterson-23.468; 28. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-24.889; 29. Tim Simmons, 3, Simmons-24.998; 30. Mark Smith, 01, L & M-NT

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-8 transfer to the feature) 1. Wayne Johnson, 2. Russ Gamester, 3. Trey Burke, 4. Steve Buckwalter, 5. Ryan Thomas, 6. Mark Smith, 7. Mark Bitner, 8. Gregg Cory, 9. Dave Berkheimer, 10. Taylor Ferns, 11. Tom Paterson, 12. Tim Simmons, 13. Travis Welpott, 14. Chris Fetter. NT

FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (4), 2. Chase Dietz (3), 3. Brady Bacon (6), 4. Carmen Perigo (9), 5. Kody Swanson (2), 6. Justin Grant (7), 7. Matt Westfall (12), 8. Shane Cottle (13), 9. C.J. Leary (5), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (14), 11. Chase Stockon (11), 12. Jake Swanson (10), 13. Alex Bright (16), 14. Steve Buckwalter (20), 15. Wayne Johnson (17), 16. Mario Clouser (8), 17. Mark Smith (22), 18. Kaylee Bryson (15), 19. Travis Welpott (26-P), 20. Ryan Thomas (21), 21. Mark Bitner (23), 22. Gregg Cory (24), 23. Taylor Ferns (25-P), 24. Mitchel Moles (1), 25. Trey Burke (19), 26. Russ Gamester (18). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Kody Swanson, Laps 22-50 Logan Seavey.

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-198, 2-Kody Swanson-159, 3-Brady Bacon-134, 4-Justin Grant-133, 5-Matt Westfall-124, 6-Taylor Ferns-121, 7-Shane Cottle-110, 8-Kaylee Bryson-109, 9-C.J. Leary-106, 10-Chase Stockon-105.

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-97, 2-Logan Seavey-57, 3-Chase Stockon-52, 4-Justin Grant-51, 5-Matt Westfall-47, 6-Carson Garrett-38, 7-Brady Bacon-37, 8-Thomas Meseraull-37, 9-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 10-Emerson Axsom-33.

NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 24, 2023 – Madison International Speedway – Oregon, Wisconsin – 1/2-Mile Paved Oval – Bytec Dairyland 100

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Kody Swanson (21.182)

Honest Abe Roofing / Lauver’s Concessions Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (20.899)

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Qualifying Race Winner: Wayne Johnson

Hard Charger: Steve Buckwalter (20th to 14th)

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GRANT SPRINTS TO PORT ROYAL USAC EASTERN STORM SCORE

By Richie Murray, USAC Media (Port Royal, PA) -- Leading up to Saturday night’s event at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, Justin Grant felt he was getting right back to where he needed to be in the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship hunt.

After a unsavory trend of five finishes of 13th or worse in a six-race stretch that reached from early May and endured into the beginning of USAC Eastern Storm earlier this week, Grant settled in with a ship-steadying third place result on Thursday at Big Diamond followed by a fourth on Friday at Williams Grove.

On Saturday, during the penultimate round of Eastern Storm at Port Royal’s half-mile dirt oval, Grant came full circle back to victory lane for the first time in more than six weeks in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Bow Foundation – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.

“It feels like forever since we won a race,” Grant exclaimed. “I had a blast running against the wall; that’s my jam. I was happy up there, but I think I bent the wheel up with two to go there and it was shaking. But it was good to bring it home.”

For the Ione, Calif. native, it was his fourth career Eastern Storm score and the 37th overall in his USAC National Sprint Car career, tying him for 11th all-time alongside fellow series champions Robert Ballou and Sheldon Kinser.

Grant’s latest triumph also came during a momentous occasion with it being the 2,000th USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event ever held dating back to the organization’s infancy in 1956.

Rolling off third on the grid, Grant gave chase to early race frontrunners Emerson Axsom and Brady Bacon. Axsom, winner of the two most recent series races at Big Diamond and Williams Grove, jetted out to the initial lead from the pole position and was gunning to become the first driver to win three consecutive Eastern Storm features since Robert Ballou in 2015.

By lap four, Axsom had already positioned himself as the commander by a 1.369 second margin. Meanwhile, Grant was in hot pursuit and ably powered past Bacon for the second spot on the bottom of turns three and four on lap five.

From there on, Grant began inching his way forward toward Axsom, gradually sneaking up on the race leader, and eventually, had stripped his deficit to within a second as the race neared the halfway mark of the 30-lap venture. Axsom's lead shrank even further moments later, to a mere two car lengths with Grant reeling him in on the high side while Axsom occupied the middle groove.

On lap 16, Grant propelled himself into the race lead, utilizing the top side to fly around the outside of Axsom for the top spot in the narrow alley between Axsom’s right side wheels and the outside wall at the exit of turn four.

Axsom didn’t burn out nor did he fade away in the ensuing aftermath after dropping to second in the pecking order. On a restart following the stoppage of first time USAC National Sprint car feature starter and 19th running Ed Aikin on lap 18, Axsom caught his second wind and made a resurgence at the forefront of the pack.

On the lap 18 restart, Axsom used the bottom/middle byways to advance past the high-riding Grant in turn two and retake the spot. The two waged an epic side-by-side battle that lasted the duration of two entire laps around The Speed Palace with Axsom in front before Grant picked his way back past Axsom to reclaim his place at the top of the leaderboard with a back straight pass that led him to the stripe a mere half car length ahead of Axsom at the conclusion of lap 20.

Grant’s resurgence came by the virtue of a bit of patience, at least initially, and later paid its share of dividends when Grant needed something to get ahold of in the final stanza.

“We finally got the top cleaned off up there,” Grant noted. “I was riding around, and just kept looking, waiting for it to clean up to where we could get up there right against the wall.”

Riding clean rather than dirty, Grant began to edge away from Axsom, building his interval to three-quarters of a second with the checkered flag finally within his reach. Grant grasped the warm embrace of victory for the third time overall during the 2023 USAC National Sprint Car season by a 0.841 second margin with Axsom second, Daison Pursley third, Bacon fourth and Chase Stockon fifth.

Additionally, the Port Royal round had a bit of an extra incentive for Grant as it was round five of the Bubby Jones Master of Goin’ Faster Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment event, a 10-race series honoring Grant’s father-in-law, and a series in which he is the defending champion.

“These races are all about big racetracks and about sacking up and getting it done,” Grant explained of the miniseries. “We’ve been terrible; I don’t think we’ve even finished one so far this year. To get in victory lane for the family and everybody is awesome and I’m just grateful.”

Axsom’s second place result in his Clauson Marshall Newman Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy essentially locked up the Eastern Storm title for the Franklin, Ind. racer who now owns a 31-point advantage entering Sunday’s finale at Kutztown, Pennsylvania’s Action Track USA. With Sunday’s event being an appearance points only event, all Axsom must do is push off for hot laps and the title is all his. Axsom’s Eastern Storm record thus far has been impeccable with a pair of wins at Big Diamond and Williams Grove, plus runner-up finishes at both Grandview and now Port Royal.

For Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.), it was yet another stirring, hard-charging effort, one that moved him up to second in the Eastern Storm points in his KO Motorsports/Hutson John Deere – S & C Machine – Peterbilt/Flea RC/J & D Chevy. Pursley’s charge on this evening in his debut Port Royal run took him from 10th to 3rd in the main event. Earlier in the evening, the recent high school grad set fast time during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying and also won the semi-feature, setting a new 10-lap track record in the process of 3:39.34.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 17, 2023 – Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm – Open Wheel Madness

HONEST ABE ROOFING/LAUVER’S CONCESSIONS QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-18.834; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.960; 3. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-18.979; 4. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.074; 5. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.079; 6. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-19.090; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-19.175; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.181; 9. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-19.256; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.298; 11. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.301; 12. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-19.305; 13. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-19.388; 14. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-19.416; 15. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-19.446; 16. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-19.455; 17. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-19.465; 18. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-19.550; 19. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-19.552; 20. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-19.561; 21. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-19.765; 22. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2x, 2B Racing-19.805; 23. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner/Hummer-19.830; 24. Preston Lattomus, 23B, Lattomus-19.892; 25. Ed Aikin, 7, Aikin-20.119; 26. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-20.145; 27. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Mario Clouser, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Daison Pursley, 7. Ed Aikin, 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9. Shane Cottle. 2:38.14

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Joey Amantea, 9. Alex Bright. 2:44.77

T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Max Adams, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Tom Harris, 7. Matt Mitchell, 8. Preston Lattomus. 2:49.15

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Alex Bright, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Preston Lattomus, 6. Ed Aikin, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 8. Tom Harris, 9. Joey Amantea, 10. Matt Mitchell. 3:39.34 (New Track Record)

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (3), 2. Emerson Axsom (2), 3. Daison Pursley (10), 4. Brady Bacon (1), 5. Chase Stockon (11), 6. Steven Drevicki (8), 7. Kyle Cummins (7), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Jake Swanson (5), 10. Briggs Danner (12), 11. Matt Westfall (18), 12. Robert Ballou (4), 13. Logan Seavey (14), 14. Carson Garrett (15), 15. Charles Davis Jr. (13), 16. Kevin Thomas Jr. (19), 17. C.J. Leary (9), 18. Mario Clouser (16), 19. Preston Lattomus (21), 20. Max Adams (17), 21. Ed Aikin (22), 22. Alex Bright (20). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-15 Emerson Axsom, Laps 16-17 Justin Grant, Laps 18-19 Emerson Axsom, Laps 20-30 Justin Grant.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-933, 2-Jake Swanson-902, 3-Kyle Cummins-877, 4-Justin Grant-876, 5-Brady Bacon-857, 6-C.J. Leary-828, 7-Mitchel Moles-777, 8-Chase Stockon-743, 9-Daison Pursley-740, 10-Robert Ballou-677.

USAC EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-299, 2-Daison Pursley-268, 3-Justin Grant-264, 4-Jake Swanson-242, 5-Kyle Cummins-212, 6-Briggs Danner-211, 7-Chase Stockon-209, 8-Thomas Meseraull-205, 9-Robert Ballou-202, 10-Mitchel Moles-198.

BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-342, 2-Mitchel Moles-337, 3-Emerson Axsom-331, 4-C.J. Leary-305, 5-Brady Bacon-299, 6-Kyle Cummins-284, 7-Daison Pursley-283, 8-Chase Stockon-259 9-Justin Grant-254, 10-Matt Westfall-223.

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-97, 2-Logan Seavey-54, 3-Chase Stockon-52, 4-Justin Grant-50, 5-Matt Westfall-42, 6-Carson Garrett-38, 7-Thomas Meseraull-37, 8-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 9-Brady Bacon-34, 10-Emerson Axsom-33.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 18, 2023 – Action Track USA – Kutztown, Pennsylvania – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Mitchel Moles (18.786)

Honest Abe Roofing / Lauver’s Concessions Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (18.834)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: C.J. Leary

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Steven Drevicki

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Daison Pursley

Hard Charger: Daison Pursley (10th to 3rd)

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