Feathers Fast In Port Royal Opener

PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Trever Feathers had the raw speed to carve out a sliver of history Sunday at Port Royal Speedway, but exterior circumstances deflected a run at those honors.

Feathers finished fourth in the 25-lap Opening Day event, just shy of a third-straight season opening win at the half-mile Juniata River Valley clay oval that would have been a Super Late Model track record.

Prior to his first feature event of the season, Feathers was more than three-tenths faster than the nearest competitor in warm-ups and backed that with a two-second win in his heat race.

The 2019 and ‘20 winner of the Opening Day event had to settle for something less this time.

“We were super fast on Sunday … then redrew [the fifth-starting spot] and couldn’t go anywhere,” Feathers said. “We struggled to get going in that feature.”

Feathers started fifth and finished five seconds off Colton Flinner’s winning pace in the No. 20 Larry Royston’s Septic Services / Martins Pumping Service / Feathers & Sons Roofing / Fastenal of Winchester, VA / McFarland Custom Painting & Wall Coverings / Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic / MB Sports Collectibles / Leggett Engine Research / Coffelt Graphics / Larry Royston Properties / Larry Royston Equipment / Bilstein Shocks / Longhorn Chassis.

The Winchester, Va., native would have nudged ahead of Andy Haus and Jason Covert in the Port Royal record books for most Opening Day event wins in a Super Late Model.

Feathers clocked the only 19-second lap in warm-ups, but not nearly enough windows emerged in the feature to cash in on such speed.

“I think if we would have gotten up front first, we would have been OK – held our own in clean air,” Feathers said. “When I was in dirty air, I couldn’t do anything. I would stall out. The way my car was, I needed to use the entire race track to make speed. When you’re racing around other people, you can’t do that.”

In the feature, Feathers ran fifth until back-to-back caution periods on laps 12 and 13 gave Feathers the chance to get to fourth-place.

Over the final 12 laps Feathers hounded Gary Stuhler for the final podium spot but couldn’t find a way by the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member.

“We have to find some more speed,” Feathers said. “What we had up there Sunday when the track got real slow wasn’t working.”

“The track workers did the best they could, it just got a little choppy up [in turns one and two],” Feathers said. “It wasn’t too bad, the first race of the year. It was about what you expect. There was still snow on the side of the road when we went through there. They did the best they could.”

Feathers and crew had initially planned to race the first two weekends at the Speed Palace, but with cold temperatures in the forecast, the team will instead stay home and save resources.

“The tire situation is really scaring me,” Feather said. “I was told a lot of people didn’t show up [Sunday at Port Royal] because of tires. We have enough [tires] to run through March. This weekend is a one-day show, and with the high gas prices, that’s probably $400 to get up there for one show and back.”

In optimal circumstances Feathers would like to squeeze two full races out of a set of tires. This past weekend, however, the team burned through a whole set.

Now the team shifts its focus to a pair of $3,500-to-win United Late Model Series events, also at Port Royal Speedway, on Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20.

“We’re trying to be smart about it and hope the tire situation gets better as the year goes on,” Feathers said.

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