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Whittall Gets Redemption, Hare Wins 358 Thriller, Dodson Picks Up 305 Win

Port Royal, PA -- 7 days ago, it was "heartbreak hotel" for Justin Whittall as his rear tire exploded while leading at Port Royal Speedway. On Saturday, July 19th, Whittall redeemed himself and took home his first win of the 2025 season.

Mike Thompson and Dominic Melair would make up the front row of the 25 lap A-main event with Thompson leading the opening circuit.

The first caution of the race would come out after just one lap for the 12J of Derek Hauck who would slow to a stop on the front stretch.

As the race came back to green, Justin Whittall would begin his march to the front, but he would have to get by battling cars of Doug Hammaker and Blane Heimbach.

Whittall would battle those two for the fourth position over the next eight laps before getting by them both and would begin charging down Garrett Bard for the third position.

As he chased down Bard for the third position, Bard would reel in the top two cars as Mike Thompson and Dominic Melair were battling for the lead with twelve laps remaining.

Whittall would go past both Bard and Melair for the second position in turn one with eleven laps to go in the race and would have Thompson within an arms reach coming down the backstretch.

Just one lap later, Whittall would throw a sliding pass for the lead on Thompson in turns three and four. He got the car to stick to the track and held on to the top spot and would do so for the remaining nine laps of the feature.

Mike Thompson would hold on for the second spot and Blane Heimbach would steal the third spot away from Garrett Bard at the finish line.

Gerard McIntyre would claim hard charger honors for passing 10 cars and finishing in ninth and Jake Karklin was the night's J&S Classics Warrior Award recipient.

The 358 sprint cars returned to Port Royal Speedway for the first time in 5+ years, and their feature event made up for the lost time. Ayden Hare passed Derek Locke with 2 laps remaining to claim the win on Saturday night.

Eli Tuckey would start alongside Derek Locke on the front row of the 20 lap A-main event with Locke taking the lead early.

Hare, who started in the 5th position, would hold his spot for much of the early race, but would charge to the front late in lapped traffic to set up the winning restart.

Hare, Locke, Bryn Gohn, and Cody Fletcher would all battle for top spots in the final 5 laps of the race in heavy lapped traffic, but a caution with 2 laps remaining would set the stage for the finish.

Hare would charge around the outside of Locke in turn 1, but wouldn't run away with the win. Locke would hang with Hare around the speedway, with the two drivers tapping tires on the backstretch on the final lap, but both able to continue seeing Hare being able to hold on to win and Locke finishing in the runner up spot.

Bryn Gohn would finish in the third position.

Doug Dodson would pick up the win in Penns Valley Meat Market PA Sprint Series 305 sprint car competition.

Dodson would battle with Mike Melair early, with Dodson taking the lead away with 15 laps remaining.

Dodson would open up his lead over 2-seconds over the A-main, but would see it dwindle late in lapped traffic as Josh Spicer and Mike Melair began to close in.

His lead however would be more than enough to hold on for the win and get back to Kish Bank victory lane at Port Royal Speedway.

Josh Spicer would finish in 2nd and Mike Melair would round out the top 3.

Port Royal Speedway will not be in competition on Saturday July 26th as they allow their drivers to take the week off or compete at other tracks.

Port Royal Speedway will be back in action on Saturday August 2nd with Weikert's Livestock 410 sprint cars, Penns Valley Meat Market PA Sprint Series 305 sprint cars, and Zimmerman Truck Repair limited late models.

For more information, visit portroyalspeedway.com or follow along on social media at Port Royal Speedway Trackside Media on Facebook or @PortRoyalSpdway on X/Twitter.

FULL RESULTS:

410 A Feature 25 Laps | 00:10:36.042

1. 67-Justin Whittall[8]; 2. 11T-Mike Thompson[1]; 3. 12-Blane Heimbach[4]; 4. 95-Garrett Bard[5]; 5. 22-Doug Hammaker[3]; 6. 77-Michael Walter[10]; 7. 45-Jeff Halligan[7]; 8. 55-Logan Wagner[11]; 9. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[19]; 10. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[12]; 11. 22E-Nash Ely[6]; 12. 99-Devin Adams[16]; 13. 98-Ricky Peterson[9]; 14. 35-Austin Bishop[13]; 15. 41-Logan Rumsey[21]; 16. 47K-Kody Lehman[17]; 17. 26-Curt Stroup[20]; 18. 45S-Samuel Miller[22]; 19. 10-Jake Waters[24]; 20. 55M-Domenic Melair[2]; 21. 2-AJ Flick[14]; 22. 5K-Jake Karklin[18]; 23. 24B-Dustin Baney[23]; 24. 12J-Derek Hauck[15]

410 B Feature 8 Laps | 00:02:18.059

1. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[2]; 2. 26-Curt Stroup[1]; 3. 41-Logan Rumsey[3]; 4. 45S-Samuel Miller[4]; 5. 24B-Dustin Baney[6]; 6. 10-Jake Waters[5]; 7. 7-Chris Smith[7]; 8. D57-Jeff Miller[8]; 9. 53-Mark Smith[9]; 10. 99Y-Shane Yost[10]

305 A Feature 20 Laps | 00:22:42.575

1. 20-Doug Dodson[4]; 2. 71-Josh Spicer[7]; 3. 36-Mike Melair[1]; 4. 19-Kruz Kepner[8]; 5. 5V-Braeden Varner[3]; 6. 97-Kenny Heffner[5]; 7. 20P-Ace Pruitt[2]; 8. 42-Jim Pattock[16]; 9. 44-John Braim[11]; 10. 5-Logan Spahr[10]; 11. 28R-Jason Roush[6]; 12. 75-Dylan Shatzer[12]; 13. 2-Erin Statler[14]; 14. 4J-Jacob Gomola[13]; 15. 21C-Jarrett Cavalet[21]; 16. 25-Dustin Young[20]; 17. 7H-Kyle Hart[17]; 18. 46-Mike Alleman[18]; 19. 89-Nick Sweigart[26]; 20. 8-DJ Cassler[15]; 21. 15-Alan Rhodes[19]; 22. 8C-Mike Koehler[23]; 23. 89D-Chris Dolan[22]; 24. J9-Jerald Harris[24]; 25. 7-Drew Young[25]; 26. 98-Croix Beasom[9]

305 B Feature 10 Laps | 00:03:10.000

1. 21C-Jarrett Cavalet[3]; 2. 89D-Chris Dolan[1]; 3. 8C-Mike Koehler[2]; 4. J9-Jerald Harris[4]; 5. 7-Drew Young[7]; 6. 89-Nick Sweigart[11]; 7. 12-Roger Irvine[6]; 8. 88-Fred Arnold[12]; 9. 53W-Jimmy White[5]; 10. 1M-Paul Moyer[15]; 11. 07-Landon Tressler[14]; 12. 32B-Ethan Beasom[9]; 13. 32A-Austin Greenland[8]; 14. 1J-Reece Raudabaugh[21]; 15. 47-Benjamin Miklos[10]; 16. 17K-Stevie Kenawell Sr[13]; 17. 80-Dave Wickham[17]; 18. 85-Tyler Schell[20]; 19. 6-Caleb Harris[18]; 20. 01-Timmy Bittner[16]; 21. 25S-Zach Rhodes[19]

358 A Feature 20 Laps | 00:29:26.138

1. 4-Ayden Hare[5]; 2. 77-Derek Locke[2]; 3. 22-Bryn Gohn[6]; 4. 66A-Cody Fletcher[4]; 5. 42U-Tyler Ulrich[11]; 6. 19R-Tylar Rutherford[3]; 7. 22K-Eli Tuckey[1]; 8. 29R-Seth Schnoke[8]; 9. 1A-Chase Gutshall[9]; 10. 14-Colton Moyer[13]; 11. 461-Colton Hendershot[10]; 12. 59-Steve Wilbur[20]; 13. 13-Bo Gordon Jr[16]; 14. 15S-Cole Small[18]; 15. 76-Michael Smith[19]; 16. 39T-Olivia Thayer[23]; 17. 22JR-Brian Wolf Jr[21]; 18. 3-Will Brunson[14]; 19. 34-Andy Best[7]; 20. 70D-Frankie Herr[12]; 21. 54-Brett Wanner[17]; 22. 3E-Ethan Greak[24]; 23. 12-Ashley Cappetta[15]; 24. 17-Cole Young[22]

Photo Credit: Allen Holland

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