"The Jet" Takes Off and Wins Bob Weikert Memorial Event
PORT ROYAL, PA (5-10-08) by Bryan Autullo - All Star PR Director After heavy rains washed out the O’Reilly All Star’s travel plans to Central PA on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway, the series moved on to Port Royal Speedway to take on the tough as nails PA Posse in their own back yard. The Posse and their rabid fans filled the speedway to see their local heroes fend off the invaders. With 32 cars on hand, 10 of which were traveling O’Reilly All Star regulars, the field was stacked with talent adding to the already exciting Central PA brand of winged 410 racing action.
The track was fast when the All Stars lined up for qualifying with Paul McMahan setting the Kistler Engines quick time for the 6th Annual Bob Weikert Memorial event. The invading All Stars showed their teeth in heat race action as 7 of the 10 travelers transferred into the A-main event. Rookie Lee Stark was running in position to transfer when he got sideways in turn two and kissed the inside fence.
The 6-lap O’Reilly All Star Dash win went to last year’s Bob Weikert Memorial winner, Greg Hodnett. Hodnett is always tough in All Star competition and is always a favorite to win at Port Royal Speedway. He led the way in the Dash with Dale Blaney in tow. Lance Dewease, Paul McMahan, Greg Wilson, and Brandon Martin rounded out the finishing order.
The All Star “Pick 6” redraw on the front stretch with six young fans drawing for the driver’s starting spots put Keith Kauffman on the pole next to Jeff Shepard. Row two would see Mark Smith line up inside of Dale Blaney. Row three put Paul McMahan inside of Todd Shaffer. With Dewease, Hodnett, and Wilson in rows four and five the front of the field was stacked and it was anybody’s race, however everyone knew "The Jet" was going to have the car to beat.
 Shepard jumped out to the early lead with Kauffman hot on his heels. Shepard started to pull away from the front pack, but entered traffic on lap 7 as Todd Shaffer was on the move from his 6th row starting position. By lap 13 Shaffer was on Shepard’s bumper when the caution flew for a slowing Mark Smith. On the restart Shepard led over Shaffer, Kauffman, Dewease, Hodnett, Paulus, Michael, Wilson, Wagner, and Martin. Paul McMahan exited the speedway during the caution to make repairs and was able to restart at the tail. Dale Blaney left the race with power steering problems. Mike Erdley hit the restart cone when the green flag dropped bringing out the yellow flag once again. On the following restart, Brian Ellenberger came to a stop on the speedway putting the event past the fuel window for the number of laps run and a quick fuel stop was required. Under the red, Todd Shaffer discovered a broken front shock, but All Star rules allow no adjustments to the car during a fuel stop other than adding fuel or adding air to the tires. Once the green flag flew again, it was non-stop to the checkered flag with Shepard leading the way. Dewease made his way into second place with five laps to go and looked to be the fastest car on the speedway as he began to run Shepard down in traffic. Shepard was able to get through the back markers and go on to victory with Dewease coming home second followed by Greg Hodnett, Todd Shaffer, and Keith Kauffman.
All Star Circuit of Champions Statistics - Port Royal Speedway (5-10-08)
Kistler Engines Qualifying
1. 0-Paul McMahan, 16.110 All Pro Heads Heat #1
1. 20e-Brian Ellenberger; 2. 4-Todd Hestor; 3. w20-Greg Wilson; 4. 6-Sean Michael; 5. 0-Paul McMahan; 6. 28-Brian Paulus; 7. 56r-Ryan Myers; 8. 81-Craig Folmer Engler Machine & Tool Heat #2
1. 30c-Lance Dewease; 2. 1x-Randy Hannagan; 3. 55-Mike Wagner; 4. 1z-Jeff Shepard; 5. 7m-Mark Smith; 6. 28j-Chad Jumper; 7. 16r-Craig Robinson; 8. 16s-Lee Stark Hoosier Racing Tire Heat #3
1. 2h-Dave Hahn; 2. 2-Dale Blaney; 3. 19-Cale Grubb; 4. 22-Greg Hodnett; 5. 7k-Keith Kauffman; 6. 11e-Mike Erdley; 7. 3-Bob Bennett; 8. 44-Joey Hershey Hank's Performance Products Heat #4
1. 16-Cliff Brian; 2. 88-Todd Shaffer; 3. 11m-Brandon Martin; 4. 35-Alan Cole; 5. 45-Bill Brian; 6. 16h-Matt Horst; 7. 4k-Randy Kaylor; 8. 17b-Steve Buckwalter O'Reilly Auto Parts Dash
1. 22-Greg Hodnett; 2. 2-Dale Blaney; 3. 30C-Lance Dewease; 4. 0-Paul Mcmahan; 5. W20-Greg Wilson; 6. 11M-Brandon Martin University of Northwest Ohio B-Main (Top 4 transfer)
1. 17b-Steve Buckwalter; 2. 28-Brian Paulus; 3. 16h-Matt Horst; 4. 11e-Mike Erdley; 5. 3-Bob Bennett; 6. 28J-Chad Jumper; 7. 16-Lee Stark; 8. 56R-Ryan Myers; 9. 81-Craig Fullmer; 10. 44-Joey Hershey; 11. 16R-Craig Robinson MSD Ignition A-Main Starting Position [X]
1. 1Z-Jeff Shepard[2]; 2. 30C-Lance Dewease[8]; 3. 22-Greg Hodnett[9]; 4. 88-Todd Shaffer[6]; 5. 7K-Keith Kauffman[1]; 6. 28-Brian Paulus[12]; 7. 6-Sean Michael[7]; 8. 7M-Mark Smith[3]; 9. 35-Alan Cole[11]; 10. 55-Mike Wagner[14]; 11. 1X-Randy Hannagan[17]; 12. 0-Paul McMahan[5]; 13. W20-Greg Wilson[10]; 14. 11E-Mike Erdley[23]; 15. 11M-Brandon Martin[15]; 16. 4-Todd Hestor[20]; 17. 20E-Brian Ellenberger[16]; 18. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[13]; 19. 16H-Matt Horst[22]; 20. 2H-Dave Hahn[21]; 21. 16-Cliff Brian[19]; 22. 19-Cale Grubb[18]; 23. 2-Dale Blaney[4]; 24. 45-Bill Brian[24] |
O'Reilly Auto Parts is excited to be affliated with the All Star Circuit of Champions and so many other great racing associations throughout all of our market areas. All of these sanctioning bodies celebrate the racers and put O'Reilly Auto Parts deep in the grass roots of racing. These racers and fans are our customers and we are pleased to serve them in our stores. From our roots as a single store in 1957 to our current size of over 3,337 locations and still growing. Stop by on your way to the track. 
The All Stars are one of the premier sprint car sanctioning bodies in the USA. It is owned by Illinois businessman, and now in their 30th year of operation, the All Stars take pride in their reputation of providing highly competitive, fair, exciting racing for outlaw sprint cars with many different winners in a year. About 400 drivers participate in All Star races yearly in front of an average of 5,000 spectators per event. Currently 40+ races are scheduled in numerous states, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Kansas. 
Ohio Sprint Speedweek proves to be one of the most competitive weeks in racing during the 2010 All Star season. Tough battles happened in the 2010 Ohio Sprint Speedweek season, as it included nine straight nights of racing action in the buckeye state, it challenged the best of the best, but young David Gravel- DDR Motorsports was crowned the 2010 champion.