Godown’s Hail Mary Last Lap Pass Claims Dramatic STSS South Victory at Port Royal & PIT NOTES

Three times was the charm for the Short Track Super Series as they finally were able to open their South Region Modified Points season after experiencing consecutive rainouts at Georgetown and Selinsgrove.   Cool, cloudy, and breezy conditions greeted three division program which featured 49 STSS modifieds, 32 ULMS late models and 25 sprint cars.

Ryan Godown retook the lead on the white flag lap from Mike Gular to take the checkered flag for the STSS South region points opener at Port Royal Speedway and his second consecutive STSS win this season.

Mike Gular led the field to green until Stewart Friesen overtook the lead on lap 9 after a restart.  Friesen pulled away from the field until caution came out on lap 15 and mechanical foes stopped the 44 on the track under caution and ended his night early.  Ryan Godown inherited the lead on the restart with Mike Gular and Mike Mahaney in close pursuit.  Gular moved his 360 small block from the bottom to the middle and took the lead back on lap 26.  Gular was able to maintain the lead over Godown on 4 late restarts for flat tire cautions.   But Godown made his last chance pay off on the back straight away of the white flag lap and he re-took the lead to take the checkered flag and trip into victory lane.

In victory lane Godown noted “I don’t know this is just surreal and we are riding the wave. We didn’t pick so well in the heat race and think we picked the worst number in the pill, but we just kept plugging away.  We weren’t great in the feature and needed to be a little tighter yet and couldn’t roll the middle like Mike could and he was better than us.  I kept getting closer to the wall and if I could get above the hole, I would get a good run.  We got a heck of a run off of the fence on the last lap.  Hate to see it for Mike; he ran a great race and was fighting hard.”

Postrace Gular stated “He throw a Hail Mary and got me. I didn’t really hit a bad lap and I thought I hit a pretty good lap.  He surprised the hell out of me to be honest.”  All in all, a good run, and my best run here at Port Royal.  I can’t wait to get back here in October and hopefully do one spot better for some big money.”

The heat races were won by Mike Mahaney, Mike Gular, Danny Johnson, Ryan Godown and Stewart Friesen.  The last chance races were won by Alex Yankowski and Duane Howard.

STSS South Region Round No. 1 – Port Royal Feature Finish (40 laps):

Winner – RYAN GODOWN, 2. Mike Gular, 3. Michael Maresca, 4. Mat Williamson, 5. Matt Sheppard, 6.Mike Mahaney, 7. Anthony Perrego, 8. Danny Johnson, 9. Ryan Watt, 10. Matt Stangle, 11. Alex Yankowski, 12. Billy Pauch Jr., 13. Danny Bouc, 14. Jordan Watson, 15. Mike Trautschold, 16. Jared Umbenhauer, 17. Ronnie Johnson, 18. Dan Creeden, 19. J.R. Heffner, 20. Marshall Hurd, 21. Jeff Taylor, 22. Joseph Watson, 23. David Schilling, 24. Jessica Friesen, 25. Brandon Grosso, 26. H.J. Bunting, 27. Frank Cozze, 28. Stewart Friesen, 29. Duane Howard, 30. Jimmy Horton, 31. Kevin Hirthler, 32. David Van Horn.

Did Not Qualify: Sammy Martz, Andy Bachetti, Brad Trice, Ryan Krachun, Brett Tonkin, Sean Metz, Ryan Riddle, John Willman, Matt Smith, Jake Dgien, Rick Laubach, Joe Judge, Chris Curtis, Mark Frankhouser, Brett Haas, Dominick Buffalino, Jim Britt.

Pit Notes

To say that Ryan Godown is on fire so far in 2022 may be an understate.  He has raced twice in 2022 and has won both races which happened to be Short Track Super Series events with nearly 50 of the best in the business at both races.  His first win of the 2022 was the inaugural STSS Elite Series race which earned him a $25,000 pay day.  Ryan finished 2021 by winning the Bridgeport Points championship; 10 races at Bridgeport; Grandview’s 76er; 2 STSS Cajun Swing races and the Cajun Swing Points championship. 

Ryan Godown took the lead on lap 15 from his 7^th starting position only to lose the lead to Mike Gular on lap 26 and then proceeded to pass Gular back on the white flag lap to retake the lead and win.  Pass backs are rare in the modified division not to mention a pass back on the final lap to retake the lead for the win.  In his heat race Godown started 10^th but by lap 2 he was already in 3^rd and on his way to take the win in his heat race from the last starting position on the grid.

Mike Gular brought the proverbial knife to a gunfight and was a half of a lap from pulling off a win.  Gular did not have a big block available for this race, so he brought his open small block 360 entry which had surprisingly remarkable success against the big blocks at Port Royal.  Gular lost the lead to Godown and was able retake the lead for a second time with his feisty 360 open small block.  Gular was only half a lap away from an upset victory with the open small block that could.

Mike Maresca finished 3^rd from a 12^th starting position.  Mike commented “I’m really happy with a 3^rd here tonight.  We had a lot of good runs here at Port Royal in the past but have never been able to seal the deal until today.  This is a real good start to the season for us. They (Godown & Gular) had me covered.  I dug myself a hole in heat race and didn’t tighten up enough for the feature.  I’m looking forward to going to OCFG in a couple weeks and trying it again.”

Mike Mahaney is the defending STSS South region champion and was coming off a DNQ at the first Elite race at Cherokee Speedway.  But Mahaney showed he ready to defend his 2021 championship right away by winning the first heat race of the night.  Mike finished a solid 5^th place to start his STSS South region title defense off on the right foot.

 Ryan Watt quietly made a strong run to a 9^th place finish from his 25^th starting position. 

Matt Stangle was a DNQ but was able to secure a provisional for the 32^nd starting position.  Matt finished 10^th from a 32^nd and provisional starting position.  Stangle finished 3^rd in the 200-lap race at Port Royal in October and added another memorable finish by going +22 in the 40-lap feature.

The heat races saw an unusual number of strong back to front runs:

Matt Sheppard 9^th to 3^rd

Danny Bouc 10^th to 5^th

Anthony Perrego 10^th to 3^rd

Ryan Godown 10^th to 1^st

Stewart Friesen from 8^th to 1^st

Stewart Friesen moved into the lead on lap 9 and gained a strong separation from the field in only 6 laps but on a lap 15 caution he came to a stop and his night came to an end while leading the race.  Friesen was pushed to the pits with a mechanical failure which was the same exact fate he suffered two years ago at this race.

Kevin Hirthler made his first visit to Port Royal and a STSS race a good one by qualifying from his heat race for the 32-car field.  In the feature Kevin missed the setup and had to retire to the pits early in his first STSS feature.

With 49 cars on the grounds several cars found themselves in the unusual position of being on the DNQ list for the feature.  Heading the list was Andy Bachetti, Ryan Krachun, Rick Laubach, and Dominick Buffalino.

Next up for the Short Track Super Series is round 2 of the $25,000 Elite Series at Orange County Fairgrounds Speedway on April 2^nd.