Halligan Bounces Back with Runner Up Finish at The Speed Palace

The past few weeks have taken Jeff Halligan and the Risser Motorsports team through the highs and lows of sprint car racing.

In late July he recorded a 6th place finish against the World of Outlaws at his home track, Port Royal Speedway, then in the very next race there struggled to disappointing finishes of 16th and 21st in non-sanctioned twin 20 lap features.

Saturday night brought Jeff and Risser Motorsports back to ‘The Speed Palace’, and they were determined to show which version of their team was the real one.

August 6:  Port Royal Speedway / Port Royal, PA

     [31 cars, Heat 2nd (3), A-main 2nd (9)]

The hot and humid Central PA summer afternoon saw a very solid car count of 31 entries register and draw a pill to get their starting spot in one of four 8-lap heat races.  The top five finishers from each heat would transfer directly to the A-main.  The remainder of the field would be relegated to the B-main, from which the top four finishers would fill out the feature field.  

Halligan lined up inside the second row in heat number two and immediately went to work to make sure he secured one of the valuable top three spots, which would be handicapped in the feature lineup.

On lap five, Halligan was able to wheel the Risser Motorsports / TheTreeCenter.com / Victory Auto of Lewistown / EMM Sales & Service / Jake’s Golf Carts / Pine Hill Trailers / Keystone Ag Spraying, No.45 into the runner-up position.  He held on to finish a comfortable 2nd.

Last week, Halligan had uncharacteristically gone backwards from his starting spot in the track’s twin twenty lap features.  It left the team with a bad taste in their mouth and determined to not repeat that type of performance.  They spent the week going over the car with a fine tooth comb, making sure everything was as it was supposed to be and replacing components as needed, and now it was time for their work to be tested.

Halligan took the green for the 25-lap feature event from the 9th starting spot and moved up to 7th on the opening lap.  The initial progress continued and turned into a pattern.  

Halligan had built up significant momentum and rhythm.  He climbed to 6th by lap six, 5th by lap nine and 4th by lap ten when the red flag appeared for Devon Borden’s crash in turn two.

Restarting 3rd, Halligan seemed to stall over the next dozen laps.  The caution lights flashed on after leader Gerard McIntyre took the white flag with Blane Heimbach and Halligan in tow. 

On the ensuing restart, Halligan wrestled 2nd away from Heimbach and flashed under the checkered flag in the runner up position, completing a run that was much more in character for the Ephrata, PA resident and his team during the 2022 season.

“I think tonight showed a lot about our team.  You often see teams get into an extended rough stretch or on a hot streak.  It’s a big deal to me that we had one bad week and were able to do what it took to get right back to the type of performance we know we’re capable of.“, Halligan shared.

“We might have even had a little more for them if the yellow hadn’t come out.  We were really rolling at that point, but the car wasn’t quite as good after the restart.  We are all feeling pretty good, but we know we still have work to do to be where we want to be for the Tuscarora 50.  It’s only a month away now.  There are only a few races remaining for us to prepare.“

Up Next

With Port Royal Speedway shut down this weekend, Halligan and Risser Motorsports will venture to the 3/8-mile Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville, PA on Friday night August 12th, then they will return to Lincoln Speedway on Saturday night.

“I’m excited for this weekend.  It’s a chance for us to just go race with nothing at stake.  We can just focus on learning and improving while we have some fun.  Racing at a variety of tracks makes a team better in the long run.“, Halligan commented.

Season Stats

30 races, 2 wins, 10 top 5’s, 16 top 10’s, 21 top 15’s