Halligan In Top 5 Early at Port Royal Before Rain Suspends Race

As we have shared before, Jeff Halligan and the Risser Motorsports team have a handful of key events circled on their schedule.  Every race in between is an opportunity to prepare for those circled dates.

Last weekend presented the final tune-up opportunity at Port Royal Speedway before the upcoming Weikert Memorial, a two-day event on Memorial Day Weekend that is circled on the calendar of many teams.  In preparation, Halligan was ‘in the house’ at ‘The Speed Palace’ to do his homework there, plus he made a Friday night stop at Williams Grove Speedway to try to work through the team’s recent struggles at the famous Mechanicsburg, PA oval.

May 20:  Yellow Breeches 500 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA

     (25 cars, Qualifying 3rd Group 1, Heat 6th, A-main 12th)

Halligan struggled in his first two Williams Grove outings this season, so the team returned for the second consecutive Friday night to work on getting over the hump.  There are big races there later in the season and they want to be ready.  

The Risser Motorsports / TheTreeCenter.com / Victory Auto of Lewistown / EMM Sales & Service / Jake’s Golf Carts, No.45 of Halligan was among 25 teams signed in for $5,000-t0-win, $500-to-start Yellow Breeches 500 event.  

Halligan was the first car to go under the clock for time trials.  His lap of 17.072 was good for 3rd quickest in the first of three qualifying groups.  The special Yellow Breeches format uses a pill draw after qualifying to determine how many cars will be inverted in each heat race group.  Friday night the draw turned up a zero, thus giving the Ephrata, PA driver the 3rd starting spot for heat race number one.

The opening lap of the heat race didn’t go well.  Halligan slid backwards, landing in the 6th position.  He wasn’t able to recover during the 10-lap qualifier and finished 6th, the final transfer spot for the A-main.

Halligan started 16th in the field for the 25-lap finale.  He was able to make some forward progress but spent most of the event just outside the top ten and ultimately finished 12th.  It was certainly an improvement over the team’s first two races at Williams Grove in 2022, but there is still work to be done to get closer to the front of the field.

May 21:  Port Royal Speedway / Port Royal, PA

     (34 cars, Qualifying 3rd Group C, Heat 2nd)

Saturday night brought a solid field of 34 cars to Port Royal Speedway for their group time trial format show.  Teams qualified against the clock in four groups, then within each group the fastest four were inverted to start their 8-lap heat races.  The top five finishers from each group transferred directly to the A-main, with the top two finishers being handicapped based on season point standings.

For those not familiar, a quick explanation of handicapping.  With eight drivers qualified in a handicap position through their heat races, the highest point car among them starts 8th in the feature.  The next highest point car starts 7th, and so on.

Halligan registered a solid 3rd fastest lap in Group C, putting him outside the front row for heat number three.  He was able to hold down the 2nd spot throughout the heat race and capture one of the handicap spots.

Halligan lined up 6th for the 25-lap feature event and went on the attack from the start.  He had navigated his way into the top three briefly and was holding down the 4th spot when the skies opened up and brought a premature end to the action with 8 laps complete and 17 remaining.  The race was suspended and will be resumed at that point following the Bob Weikert Memorial feature event on Sunday, May 29th.

Halligan has had a solid year at Port Royal thus far, consistently running inside the top ten.  Despite being close multiple times, he hasn’t been able to crack the podium yet though.

“We’ve been good but not great at Port Royal.  We’ve struggled other places.  We need to be better if we’re going to compete for wins.  We’re making progress.  We just have to race as much as we can and keep working hard“, Halligan said.

Jeff added, “I want to thank Kyle (Defibaugh) and all my guys.  They have been working really hard to make us better and we are getting closer.  I also want to ask everyone to go out and support our partners.  They support and believe in us.  They make this possible.  We appreciate everyone at TheTreeCenter.com, Victory Auto of Lewistown, EMM Sales & Service, Jake’s Golf Carts and all our partners.“

Up Next

Jeff and the Risser Motorsports team will head to Selinsgrove Speedway for the first time this season for their $5,000-to-win Thursday Night Thunder show on May 26th .

This weekend, they will join the All Star Circuit of Champions for the two day Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway, which offers $10,000 to the winner on Saturday and a whopping $29,000 to the victor in Sunday’s finale in honor of the legendary car owner’s famous No.29.

Season Stats

11 races, 0 wins, 3 top 5’s, 6 top 10’s, 7 top 15’s