PORT ROYAL — Rico Abreu dominated the 57th Annual Tuscarora 50 for the sprint cars Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway for his first career win in the prestigious event.

He grabbed the lead on lap 15 from seven-time Tuscarora 50 champion Lance Dewease and never looked back. Drivers were faced with challenging track conditions as the bottom and middle grooves were the only options for most of the race. His right rear tire was bald as his car sat in victory lane.

Abreu made no mistakes, kept his car under him, and survived the 50 laps earning the $57,000 base pay, plus $875 in lap money and another $1,500 in bonus money as the third starting spot was the dice roll driver for the High Limit Racing Series.

Abreu won over $100K in the Skagit Nationals in Washington last weekend, but lost the engine in the team’s hauler coming across the country to Port Royal.

Abreu, of St. Helena, Calif., has been coming to Pennsylvania for 13 years now, and finally got a Port Royal win in the biggest race of the season.

“It was tricky; race management wise,” Abreu said. “I knew it was aggressive on tires. I was trying to be disciplined with lapped traffic and my foot on the throttle pedal, and not over-drive it into the corners. I could feel it wearing off.”

Abreu has been working with Hall of Fame mechanic Ricky Warner, of Carlisle, for a few seasons now. This season has been the best of Abreu’s career.

“At the end of the day, it’s the chemistry of our team,” Abreu said. “This is our third year working together. I’ve got the best guys in the business preparing these racecars, and fine-tuning them when it counts.”

Abreu has been in position to win the T50 before, but couldn’t seal the deal until now.

“You have to finish these races and race the race track,” Abreu said. “We had to be careful and not over-tighten the car, and understanding the balance of the car. You have to allow these races to play out. Fifty laps is a long race for us.”

A nasty flip by Corey Day in turn four brought the field under red on the opening lap. He was okay.

Dewease started on the pole and beat TJ Stutts on the restart to take the lead. Third starting Abreu passed Freddie Rahmer for second off turn four. Stutts fell to fourth.

Abreu drove right to Dewease’s bumper, but couldn’t make the pass. The bottom was the only option for the drivers in turns three and four. Abreu did make the cushion work in turns one and two as Dewease led.

They started lapping slower cars with 10 laps completed. Abreu continued to search around the track for grip. Dewease worked the middle to low grooves through the corners.

Meanwhile, Anthony Macri squeezed inside of Rahmer taking over fourth.

On lap 15, Dewease went to the very bottom lane in turns three and four, while Abreu went to the middle. He’d drive by Dewease and into the lead off turn four.

Abreu quickly started lapping cars and pulled away as Stutts and Macri both passed Dewease.

The race was stopped with 25 laps completed and teams were allowed a few minutes to refuel and make minor adjustments. Due to the track conditions, tire wear was a big concern.

Abreu streaked away on the restart as passing became nearly impossible on the locked-down racing surface. His lead was over five-seconds at one point during the second half.

Macri challenged Stutts throughout the final laps, but couldn’t move off the bottom. Dewease gave up fourth when he blew a tire with three to go.

It was all Abreu as he’d score the win. Stutts earned $20,000 for second and Macri $10,000 for third.

“We were so horrible (Friday), we went home and built another car,” Stutts said. “I watched guys win this race on tires. I went as slow as I possibly could and not get run over. We’ve still got tread and Rico’s got cords hanging out, so I guess I should have run a little harder, but I didn’t think those guys would make it.”

“I wasn’t getting off the bottom no matter how much the race paid,” Macri said. “The top was a dead zone. I was going to try and push the issue with TJ but third is better than another trashed racecar.”

Logan Wagner and Justin Whittall completed the top five. Rahmer, 15th starter Parker Price-Miller, 14th Justin Peck, Chase Dietz and Friday night winner Aaron Reutzel, who started 20th, rounded out the top 10.

Tyler Courtney set quick time in Group A and overall at 17.204. Lucas Wolfe was quickest in Group B at 17.565. Stutts, Dietz, Rahmer, Dewease, Wagner and Abreu won the heat races. Chris Windom won the C-main and Troy Wagaman Jr. the B-main.

Dom Melair won the non-qualifiers race.

With sunny and windy conditions after a bit of morning rain, the track surface was extremely dry right from the start and surprisingly, no track work was done prior to the 50-lap feature.

FRIDAY NOTES

Mike Wagner held on to win the sprint car track championship by 90 over Logan Wagner and 105 over Chase Dietz. Aaron Reutzel won the feature.

A mechanical failure ended Rick Eckert’s chances of a second-straight late model track championship. Instead, Dylan Yoder’s finish was enough to propel him to the third title of his career, this one coming without a trip to victory lane. Yoder won by 65 points over Eckert. He had nine top 10 finishes in 10 features. Kyle Lee dominated the Butch Renninger Memorial leading every lap for the $8,333 win.