Halligan & Risser Motorsports Score First Win of 2022 at The Speed Palace

Fresh off a podium and a top-5 last weekend, Jeff Halligan and the Risser Motorsports team unloaded their No.45 at Port Royal Speedway this past Saturday night looking to maintain that momentum, and hopefully check the one box they had not yet this season:  park it in victory lane.

Mission accomplished on both objectives.

June 4:  Port Royal Speedway / Port Royal, PA

     (17 cars, Heat 2nd, A-main 1st)

The Risser Motorsports / TheTreeCenter.com / Victory Auto of Lewistown / EMM Sales & Service / Jake’s Golf Carts entry was among seventeen 410 sprint cars pit-side June 4th at ‘The Speed Palace’.  Heats lineups for the show were set by pill draw and the feature lineup would be set using the handicapping format based on the season championship point standings.

Halligan was slated to start 7th in the first 8-lap heat race, however he rolled to the green in 6th after one competitor chose to start at the rear of the field.

When the green flag dropped, Halligan served notice immediately that he was up on the wheel.  He stormed into 2nd by the completion of lap one and set his sights on leader Curt Stroup.  He wasn’t able to track down the top spot and came home 2nd. 

The handicapping format set the top four in the season point standings like this to start the 25-lap A-main:  Mike Wagner (4th in points) lined up 5th, Halligan (3rd in points) lined up 6th, Lucas Wolfe (2nd in points) lined up 7th and Logan Wagner (1st in points) lined up 8th.

On numerous occasions this season, Halligan has found himself holding his ground in the early going, then able to come on strong late in a race to gain positions.  He has noted that it’s good to be fast late rather than ‘fall off’, but he and the team have been working to get out of the gate a bit quicker as well.

He was able to accomplish that in the heat race, then showed it was no fluke by moving into 4th by lap one, 3rd by lap two and 2nd by lap five in the feature event.  The team has clearly made progress on that front as well.  Another box checked.

Halligan pursued leader Justin Whittal for the next ten circuits, drawing close on a couple occasions but quite not close enough to take away the top spot.  As the race moved toward the final chapter, fans expected Halligan’s typical late-race push to come and provide an exciting close, but it wasn’t necessary.  Justin Whittall’s right rear tire exploded on the backstretch with ten laps remaining.

Halligan led the field back to the green for the final ten laps with Mike Walter II, Dylan Cisney, Logan Wager and Lucas Wolfe in tow.  He was up to the challenge, pulling away by several car lengths.

A final caution flag appeared with one lap remaining, setting up another opportunity for someone to challenge Halligan.  Logan Wagner moved into second on that restart but the Ephrata, PA wheelman was able to maintain his lead and capture the victory by 0.879 seconds.

“The yellow is last thing you want to see coming through three and four to the checkered, but I wasn’t too worried.  I knew we were pretty good.  I just wanted to get this thing over with.”, Halligan said with a relieved grin in victory lane.

With the win now added to his total, Halligan sits second in the season-long championship point standings, 185 markers behind leader Logan Wagner and 20 ahead of third place Lucas Wolfe.  

“We’ve been fast all year, but everybody talks about Logan Wagner and Anthony Macri.  We’ve progressively  gotten better.  We put a little better motor in last week and it’s making the car drive a lot better.”, Halligan shared.

“The Risser’s put a lot of money into this operation.  We wouldn’t be 410 racing without them, so I really want to thank them.  We definitely couldn’t do this without them.  We rebooted our program for this season.   We switched to Panther Chassis (by Panther Frameworx), which is kind of an unknown, but the car works really well.”

The team plans to focus on Port Royal Speedway over the next few weeks to make sure their equipment is in good shape for PA Speedweek, which hosts several big shows that they have circled on the calendar as their next targets this season.

“The way things are going, I’m ready to get back at it right now.” Halligan said Monday.  “I wish we could race more but we want to make sure we can get to the end of the season.  We’re in good shape right now, but there are a lot of big races late in the season that we didn’t get to race last year, so we want to be smart and make sure we are there with a shot to win those.”   

Up Next

Jeff and the team will return to Port Royal Speedway once again this Saturday night, June 11th on Camera & Autograph Night.  The pits will be open to all ticketholders for one hour prior to the evening’s action.  Please stop by to say hello, get an autograph and get a photo with Jeff!  

Be sure to always look for the Jeff Halligan souvenir trailer on the midway behind the grandstand at Port Royal Speedway where you can pick up a shirt, hoodie or other items to show your support!

Season Stats

16 races, 1 wins, 6 top 5’s, 9 top 10’s, 11 top 15’s