A Pair of 1st Time Winners At Port Royal Speedway

COLUMN BY: Brad Strawser / PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY – PORT ROYAL, PA  – It was a night of firsts at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night. With racing across the country drawing the interests of many central PA regulars, there were many competitors at the track shooting for their first win. Key among them, Doug Hammaker, piloting the famed J&S Classics 22, Hammaker would drive from his 6th place starting spot to the win, marking his 1st career win behind a 410 sprint car.

Derek Hauck and Dominic Melair would comprise the front row of the 25-lap A-main event with Melair leading the opening circuit.

Hammaker would quickly jump his way to the front contenders, getting by 3rd running Kody Lehman on the opening lap to get into a podium position. He would do the same to 2nd place car Derek Hauck with just 5 laps completed to get into the runner up spot and set his sights on race leader Dominic Melair who had built up a two and a half second lead.

Over the next 11 laps, Hammaker would slowly cut into Melair’s lead through lapped traffic and pull alongside him for the top spot in turn 1 with 9 laps remaining.

Coming out of turn 4 was where Hammaker would make his winning move, squeezing by the 55M of Melair with just inches between himself, the wall and Melair.

Over the final 8 laps, Derek Hauck and Melair would go to battle for the runner up spot, allowing Hammaker to stretch his lead and hold on for his first career 410 sprint car win.

“I think it’s pretty cool to put the 22 back in victory lane,” said Hammaker during his victory lane interview. “I never thought I’d get here but here we are.”

Hammaker not only joins the historic rank of drivers who have won a race at Port Royal Speedway, but a list of historic drivers like Greg Hodnett and Jason Johnson who were able to drive the Kline owned 22 to victory.

Sandy Kline is able to notch the victory off as the first for her as a sole owner of a 410 sprint car.

Kline said in victory lane, “Being a woman, I really felt I had something to prove. I knew if I put Doug in the car, we would get where we needed to.”

Derek Hauck would go on to finish in the 2nd spot and Logan Wagner would round out the top 3.

Ryan Smith would take home an extra $1,000 courtesy of J&S Classics as the 8 pill was drawn in victory lane for the weekly Warrior Award.

Buddy Schweibinz would claim the Ramsey’s Car Wash Hard Charger honors for going +11 on the night from 18th starting spot to finish in 7th.

In River Rock Campground Limited Late Model competition, Lane Snook would go on to claim his 3rd victory at Port Royal Speedway in 2026 marking the 7th of his career at his home track.

Snook would start in 4th and run in that position over the opening six laps before a caution for a stopped car in turn 4 would reset the field and allow Snook to strike.

On the ensuing restart, Snook would pass both the 3rd and 2nd place cars of DJ Myers and Eric Irvin respectively before reeling in Andrew Yoder for the top position.

With 10 laps remaining, Snook would duck to the inside of Yoder making close quarters in the first two corners, and would drive by for the top spot and never look back.

Snook would go on to win, with Andrew Yoder finishing in 2nd and DJ Myers rounding out the top 3.

In Penns Valley Meat Market 305 sprint car compeition, Chris Dolan would lead all 20 laps to pick up his first career winged sprint car win.

Dolan would start on the pole and work his way through lapped traffic to hold off a charging Timmy Bittner who would finish in 2nd and a quick Colton Hendershot who would finish in 3rd.

Port Royal Speedway will be back in action on Saturday June 20th with the USAC Eastern Storm which will feature the USAC National Sprint Cars, USAC Silver Crown cars, and Weikert’s Livestock 410 sprint cars presented by Levan Machine & Tool.

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 | 00:07:49.402

1. 22-Doug Hammaker[6]; 2. 12J-Derek Hauck[1]; 3. 55-Logan Wagner[7]; 4. 55M-Domenic Melair[2]; 5. 47K-Kody Lehman[4]; 6. 11A-Austin Bishop[5]; 7. 35B-Buddy Schweibinz[18]; 8. 6-Ryan Smith[8]; 9. 8-Lance Dewease[19]; 10. 11T-Mike Thompson[3]; 11. 77-Michael Walter[9]; 12. 22E-Nash Ely[15]; 13. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[12]; 14. 11-TJ Stutts[22]; 15. 5-Dylan Cisney[11]; 16. 28-Tyler Brehm[21]; 17. 17-Mark Smith[17]; 18. 7-Chris Smith[10]; 19. 45S-Samuel Miller[24]; 20. 2C-Cory Thornton[20]; 21. 88J-Joey Amantea[13]; 22. 19-Tyler Esh[23]; 23. 10-Jake Waters[16]; 24. 99-Devin Adams[14]

410 B Feature 8 Laps | 00:03:20.319

1. 8-Lance Dewease[3]; 2. 2C-Cory Thornton[1]; 3. 28-Tyler Brehm[2]; 4. 11-TJ Stutts[6]; 5. 19-Tyler Esh[5]; 6. 45S-Samuel Miller[8]; 7. 22M-Matt Miller[4]; 8. D57-Jeff Miller[7]; 9. (DNS) 9-Ryan Linder

LLM A Feature 20 Laps | 00:17:32.580

1. 23-Lane Snook[4]; 2. 2-Andrew Yoder[2]; 3. 70J-DJ Myers[3]; 4. 85-Gunnar Walls[8]; 5. 56R-George Dixon[11]; 6. 62-Devin Frey[16]; 7. 11-Jaxton Garman[12]; 8. 87-Eric Irvin[1]; 9. 22-Casey Steinhoff[14]; 10. 15K-Treyton Lee[9]; 11. 000-Dale Murphy[17]; 12. 58M-Maddox Smith[5]; 13. 14-Lucas Adams[13]; 14. 11R-Sam Rial[19]; 15. 22F-Arden Fedder[15]; 16. 21M-Matt Murphy[10]; 17. 63-Nathan Long[22]; 18. 462-Keith Walls[7]; 19. 7H-Meade Hahn[6]; 20. 28-Dylan Pryor[18]; 21. 68B-Brayden Plunkert[21]; 22. 27-Bucky Zeger[20]; 23. (DNS) 126-Kenneth Summers

305 A Feature 20 Laps | 00:11:38.458

1. 89D-Chris Dolan[1]; 2. 01-Timmy Bittner[9]; 3. 46C-Colton Hendershot[2]; 4. 36-Mike Melair[6]; 5. 25-Dustin Young[3]; 6. 85-Tyler Schell[5]; 7. 21C-Jarrett Cavalet[4]; 8. 56-Tyler Snook[17]; 9. 90-Ken Duke Jr[14]; 10. 75-Dylan Shatzer[10]; 11. 25H-Chris Meleason[12]; 12. 97-Kenny Heffner[13]; 13. 20-Doug Dodson[19]; 14. 7-Drew Young[16]; 15. 11M-Mikell McGee[18]; 16. 26-Ryan Lynn[23]; 17. 5V-Braeden Varner[22]; 18. 5W-Kolby Weaver[25]; 19. 46-Mike Alleman[8]; 20. 7H-Kyle Hart[20]; 21. 19B-Tyler Ulrich[26]; 22. 88-Fred Arnold[21]; 23. 53W-Jimmy White[11]; 24. 71-Josh Spicer[15]; 25. 0Z-Zach Rhodes[7]; 26. 1J-Reece Raudabaugh[24]

305 B Feature 10 Laps | 00:03:20.319

1. 88-Fred Arnold[1]; 2. 5V-Braeden Varner[2]; 3. 26-Ryan Lynn[3]; 4. 19B-Tyler Ulrich[6]; 5. 1J-Reece Raudabaugh[8]; 6. 5W-Kolby Weaver[4]; 7. 2-Erin Statler[7]; 8. 21-Andrew Boyer[16]; 9. 69P-Landon Price[10]; 10. 80-Dave Wickham[5]; 11. 28R-Jason Roush[9]; 12. 07-Landon Tressler[14]; 13. 8-DJ Cassler[13]; 14. 2PA-Denny Gross[12]; 15. 4J-Jaxon Raudabaugh[11]; 16. (DNS) 61D-Cole Dewease