Dave Blaney is no stranger to dirt track racing or a winged sprint car as his resume includes the 1984 USAC Silver Crown Series Championship, 1995 World of Outlaws Championship, 1997 Knoxville Nationals Winner, and 70 career World of Outlaws wins which puts him eighth all-time.  He then headed off to the NASCAR ranks where he has now started 400+ NASCAR Sprint Cup races and has earned one NASCAR Nationwide Series win.  For the 2013 season Blaney decided that he would design and build his own #10 sprint car to campaign when his NASCAR schedule would allow.  Over the weekend Port Royal Speedway in the heart of “Pennsylvania Posse” territory held its season opener with a strong group of sprint cars including Dave Blaney on hand to do battle.

The 25-lap A-Main was an action packed race as Cliff Brian and Mark Coldren led the field to the green flag but a red flag would come out before the first lap could be completed.  On the second attempt at a clean start Coldren would hit the inside wall right after crossing the stripe to complete the first lap.  The contact with the wall sent Coldren across the track where he made hard contact with Mike Erdley and then the outside wall.

Mark Coldren Goes Airborne After Contact with Mike Erdley (Photo Source: Tim Shumaker Photo)

Thankfully, Coldren emerged from the mangled sprint car under his own power after a long red flag.  Brian would hold onto the lead for another four laps before the red waved again for defending opening day winner Greg Hodnett whose night ended in the outside wall after touching wheels with another car.  After another restart on lap 12 it was Lance Dewease who moved into the second spot and began to put the pressure on Brian for the lead.  Dewease would shred a right rear tire going into turn one on lap 19 which would put an end to his night.  On the restart it was Brian in the lead with Rick Lafferty and Dave Blaney in tow.  With three laps to go Brian’s car would jump out of gear which slowed Lafferty as well and allowed Blaney to slide by them both for the lead.  “The Buckeye Bullet” would streak away to the victory from there by 2.822 seconds with Lafferty in the runner-up spot, Blane Heimbach in third from his 20th place starting spot, Chad Layton in fourth, and Brian would round out the top-five.  The $3,300 win was actually Blaney’s second career opening day victory at Port Royal after he won the opening day race in 1984.