Duke tops Port Royal for fourth PASS win of season

Results

Ken Duke Jr.’s fourth Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature win of the season came Saturday at Port Royal Speedway.

PORT ROYAL, Pa. (May 11) – Ken Duke Jr. outran fellow front-row starter Jonathan Jones for the first-lap lead in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature at Port Royal Speedway and made that advantage hold up for the 20-lap distance to score a wire-to-wire victory, his fourth of the season. 

The win was Duke’s second of the year at the Port “Speed Palace.” He has finished no lower than sixth in seven IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car features run so far.With 12 straight green-flag laps to the finish, lapped traffic became an issue, but Duke finessed that issue and held his lead to the end.

Jones chased Duke for the entire race and collected his third straight runner-up finish at Port Royal. Roger Irvine, Doug Dodson and Devin Adams completed the top five.

Zach Newlin, who only qualified for the feature with a last-lap, last-turn pass in his “B” main, advanced from 24th starting spot to 10th, earning the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Burnin’ Rubber Award for hard charger. 

PASS is now averaging 41 cars per appearance at Port Royal in 2019. Saturday’s event had the starting time moved ahead to beat anticipated rain, and the strategy worked, but with occasional rain drops all night.

Feature results – 1. Ken Duke Jr.; 2. Jonathan Jones; 3. Roger Irvine; 4. Doug Dodson; 5. Devin Adams; 6. Johnny Scarborough; 7. Jaremi Hanson; 8. John Fiore; 9. Jake Frye; 10. Zach Newlin; 11. Cale Reigle; 12. Scott Ellerman; 13. Jake Waters; 14. Ron Aurand; 15. Jimmy White; 16. Dave Wickham; 17. Michael Wenrick; 18. Erin Statler; 19. Jay Krout; 20. Nick Sweigart; 21. Nathan Gramley; 22. Dave Grube; 23. Wally Eshenaur; 24. Ryan Lynn 

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