Halligan Logs All Star Top-10 in Kramer Klash at Lincoln Speedway

All season long, Jeff Halligan and the Risser Motorsports team have kept their focus on improving.  Each and every time they hit the track; it has been with purpose.  Not just to win of course, but to work toward the bigger successes.

They have used circled events on their schedule as the milestones.  Measuring sticks of their progress essentially.  When the opportunity arises to work on an area of their program, they do so.  With those things in mind, and with no sprint car event at Port Royal Speedway this past weekend, Halligan and team ventured to Williams Grove Speedway and Lincoln Speedway, not only to take on the All Star Circuit of Champions but to continue preparing for the big season-ending events at both tracks.

August 26:  Jack Gunn Memorial / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA

     [33 cars, Qualifying 7th in Group B, Heat 6th (7), B-main 3rd (4), 1st Twin 20 21st (23), 2nd Twin 20 24th (21)]

Halligan and the Risser Motorsports / TheTreeCenter.com / Victory Auto of Lewistown / EMM Sales & Service / Jake’s Golf Carts / Pine Hill Trailers / Keystone Ag Spraying, No.45 were among 33 teams signed in Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway.

The All Stars’ 4-group format was in effect for the program, meaning teams qualified against their groups and five cars would transfer to the A-main from each of four heat races.  Halligan was the 6th car in Group B to hit the track for qualifying.  When the group was complete, his lap ranked 7th quickest.  

Halligan knew he was going to have a hill to climb to recover from the subpar qualifying result.  The Ephrata, PA driver started 7th in the second heat.  He was able to reach 6th by the finish of the 8-lap race, one spot short of making the show.

Relegated to the 12-lap B-main, Halligan needed to finish among the top four in his last chance to make the main event.  He started 4th and finished 3rd, accomplishing that goal.

The feature format for the Jack Gunn Memorial was Twin 20-lap A-mains.  The starting order for the first was set by the qualifying that had been completed, and the lineup for the second 20-lap feature would be based on the finish of the first feature but with the top six inverted.

Halligan lined up 23rd for the first feature but struggled to make forward progress.  He finished 21st.  In the second feature, Halligan took the green but then retired from the event and was credited with 24th.

“We didn’t time well tonight.  It was hard to recover from that.  We’re still searching here (at Williams Grove).  We haven’t found what works for us consistently here this year.  Nothing to do but keep working.“, Halligan said.

August 27:  Kramer Klash / Lincoln Speedway / Abbottstown, PA

     [39 cars, Qualifying 1st in Group C, Heat 2nd (3), A-main 8th (10)]

An even deeper field of 39 cars registered for action in Saturday’s $7,300 to win Kramer Klash at Lincoln Speedway, a tribute to the late Sprint Car Hall of Famer member, Kramer Williamson.  The car count meant teams would compete under the same format as the previous night.  This time however, Jeff Halligan got things off on a different foot.

Halligan timed in as the 4th quickest in Group C, setting himself up with the 3rd starting spot in heat number three.  On the start, he fell back to 4th and then to 5th on lap four.  A mid-race inadvertent caution flag by series officials when leader Danny Dietrich slowed briefly, bunched the field.  Dietrich restarted 3rd, where he blended in at the time of the caution.

On the restart, the rear axle of new leader Robbie Kendall broke , causing chaos behind him as drivers took evasive actions.  Halligan was able to get through the incident cleanly.

Following a red flag, the race resumed with Danny Dietrich back at the front of the field, followed by Bill Balog and Halligan.  On this restart, Balog made contact with Dietrich’s No.48 and ended up against the turn one wall, stopping action yet again.

Halligan lined up behind Dietrich for what was ultimately the final restart of the eventful heat race.  He challenged Dietrich for the win, which would have earned Halligan a spot in the Dash, but he was unable to make it happen and held on to finish 2nd.

Halligan lined up in the 10th starting spot for the 30-lap A-main.  Over the first dozen laps, he held a solid grasp on the 10th position but had not been able to make any forward progress.

When the field bunched up for a lap twelve restart, Halligan seized the opportunity.  He moved into the 9th spot, then 8th a lap later.  His progress stalled there and held on to finish 8th.

“I’m happy with a top ten against the All Stars.  I think we are close here (at Lincoln).  We’ve been consistent our last few times here.  We had decent speed to start the night and we did a pretty good job of keeping up with the track, so we’re happy about that.“, Halligan commented.

Up Next

Halligan will turn his attention back to Port Royal Speedway for two races over the upcoming holiday weekend.  First up will be the annual Juniata County Fair opener as part of the Butch Renninger Memorial for super late models and limited late models on Saturday night September 3rd.

“It’s all about $55k.“, Halligan said, referring to the winner’s share of the purse for the upcoming Tuscarora 50.  “Every race, every lap at Port (Royal) all season has been about that race.  We will focus on this weekend and not look past it, but we will be there to win and to keep fine tuning our stuff to be ready for The ’50.“

Halligan’s race weekend will wrap up with the 71st Annual Labor Day Classic on Monday afternoon September 5th, then the team will turn their attention to the three day Tuscarora 50 event, which runs September 8th through the 10th.

Season Stats

36 races, 2 wins, 11 top 5’s, 18 top 10’s, 23 top 15’s