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Thornton Sweeps Mid-Atlantic Weekend with Port Royal Triumph

PORT ROYAL, PA (April 28, 2024) – Ricky Thornton Jr. swept the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Mid-Atlantic swing, winning on Friday night at Georgetown Speedway in Delaware and Sunday night at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway.

Thornton led every lap of the Battle in the Borough to score his 33rd career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win. With the weekend sweep Thornton becomes the first driver to go over $100,000 in season earnings after picking up the $10,000 victory at Port Royal.

It was not easy at Port Royal for Thornton as Mike Marlar stayed within striking distance throughout the race. Marlar ended up in the runner-up spot at the checkers; 1.538 seconds behind the winner. Garrett Alberson earned his second straight Big River Steel Podium finish by taking third. Jonathan Davenport and Devin Moran, who dropped back as far as 15th rallied to round out the top five.

“I felt like my stuff was really good there,” said Thornton who was in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fifth time in 2024. “I was trying to play it a little in one and two, but I think I let Mikey get a little closer to me. Luckily the yellow came out because I think maybe he would have won. I have got to thank whoever brought out that yellow because it put me back out front. It was starting to get a little treacherous there up top, but I figured if you were going to win you had to be up there.”

“I have a little bit of body damage. I had to settle back down a little bit after I saw Mikey there. You go so fast down the straightaways here it’s easy to overshoot the top and that will get you in trouble. I knew I had to calm down; like I know we have a good car, so I didn’t want to mess it up. For the most part most the traffic was patient, and they left me a lane around the top.”

Marlar tried several times to pull even with Thornton in turns one and two but could never muster enough to clear him to officially lead a lap. “That’s just how it goes sometimes. Ricky should have won the race here last year, but broke. That’s part of the comings and goings in racing. I’m just glad we were able to race him good. We were horrendous on Friday night. We got rained out last night, so it feels good to head back to Tennessee on a good note. This track is unbelievable. You can race 10 different ways here into the corner. I felt like I drove the car good there and felt like I made good decisions. I got by him, but it didn’t work out.”

Alberson earned his third, third-place finish of the season - inching closer and closer to his first career series win. “Hats off to the track crew; that thing was really fun; you could move all over the place. I think we needed to stay green there because they [Thornton and Marlar] started dicing there in lapped traffic and I kind of had a lane that they weren’t running in. I think it could have gotten really good. I am just super stoked to drive this car and I love these big tracks.”

The winner’s Todd and Vickie Burns, SSI Motorsports ,Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Big River Steel, Hoker Trucking, Coltman Farms, Dyno One Inc., West Side Tractor Sales, Bilstein Shocks, EMD Wraps, and Sunoco Race Fuels.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Max Blair, Mason Zeigler, Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb, and Carson Ferguson.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Battle in the Borough
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA

Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | 18.054 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Mike Marlar | 18.782 seconds

Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 3. 1-Tim McCreadie[3]; 4. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 5. 15K-Jensen Ford[5]; 6. 2J-Justin Weaver[9]; 7. 45-Kyle Hardy[8]; 8. 66-Justin Kann[6]; 9. 17SS-Brenden Smith[7]; 10. 18*-Dylan Cecce[11]; 11. 21-Chad Myers[10]; 12. 25K-Kody Lyter[12]

Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[2]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[4]; 5. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[5]; 6. 6-Clay Harris[9]; 7. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[6]; 8. 4-Gary Stuhler[8]; 9. 48-Colton Flinner[7]; 10. D19-Dillon Stake[11]; 11. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[10]; 12. EZ1-Ron Fink[12]

Earnhardt Technologies Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O'Neal[2]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 5. 93F-Carson Ferguson[5]; 6. 22*-Max McLaughlin[8]; 7. 1Z-Logan Zarin[9]; 8. 24-Dylan Yoder[7]; 9. 32J-Shaun Jones[10]; 10. 9M-Hayes Mattern[6]; 11. 93-Cory Lawler[12]; 12. 11H-Keith Jackson[11]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 2. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[1]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 4. 7T-Drake Troutman[6]; 5. 22-Gregg Satterlee[2]; 6. 0-Rick Eckert[7]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner[5]; 8. 2T-Kyle Lee[8]; 9. 3-Timothy Wilson[11]; 10. B2-Brian Booze[10]; 11. 99B-Boom Briggs[9]

Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[2]; 2. 2J-Justin Weaver[3]; 3. 6-Clay Harris[4]; 4. 15K-Jensen Ford[1]; 5. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[6]; 6. 4-Gary Stuhler[8]; 7. 66-Justin Kann[7]; 8. 18*-Dylan Cecce[11]; 9. 21-Chad Myers[13]; 10. 25K-Kody Lyter[15]; 11. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[14]; 12. 45-Kyle Hardy[5]; 13. D19-Dillon Stake[12]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 15. (DNS) 48-Colton Flinner

UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 93F-Carson Ferguson[1]; 2. 22-Gregg Satterlee[2]; 3. 22*-Max McLaughlin[3]; 4. 0-Rick Eckert[4]; 5. 1Z-Logan Zarin[5]; 6. 32J-Shaun Jones[9]; 7. 9M-Hayes Mattern[11]; 8. 24-Dylan Yoder[7]; 9. 2T-Kyle Lee[8]; 10. 66C-Matt Cosner[6]; 11. B2-Brian Booze[12]; 12. 3-Timothy Wilson[10]; 13. 93-Cory Lawler[13]; 14. 99B-Boom Briggs[14]; 15. (DNS) 11H-Keith Jackson

Battle in the Borough Feature Finish (40 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 47
Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Lap Leaders: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 1-40)
Wieland Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Arizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: n/a
Brandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/a
Margin of Victory: 1.538 seconds
Dave Warren Powersports Cautions: Brandon Sheppard (Lap 16); Cory Lawler (Lap 17); Gregg Satterlee (Lap 34)
Series Provisionals: Boom Briggs; Brenden Smith
Fast Time Provisional: n/a
Series Emergency Provisionals: Cory Lawler
Track Provisional: Rick Eckert
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Mike Marlar, Garrett Alberson
Penske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Mike Marlar, Garrett Alberson, Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran
Todd Steel Buildings Hard Charger of the Race: Rick Eckert (Advanced 15 Positions)
Wilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Mason Zeigler
Deatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Drake Troutman
MD3 Most Laps Led: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (40 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Carson Ferguson
Coltman Farms Fastest Lap of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Lap 2 – 19.633 seconds)
Slicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Garrett Alberson
Miller Welders Hard Luck Award: Cory Lawler
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Anthony Burroughs (Ricky Thornton, Jr.)
ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn Chassis
Dirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (18.226 seconds)
Time of Race: 24 minutes 18 seconds

Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:

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