Before Rick Eckert could turn a lap in Saturday’s Selinsgrove Ford Appalachian Mountain Speedweek opener at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, his miniseries title chances virtually went by the wayside.

The Hall of Fame driver had to replace the transmission after hot laps, which caused him to miss qualifying and therefore start at the rear of a tough heat race that included Kyle Hardy, Dan Stone, Derick Quade, Dale Hollidge and Dylan Yoder.

Finishing seventh in the heat, Eckert had to rely on a provisional for the feature where he climbed from 26th to 15th, but not without stumbling across more malfunctions.

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“It was so hard to pass, the racetrack was hard to pass with all the rain. Just makes it hard to pass,” the 59-year-old Eckert said. “The feature there, I guess with the transmission breaking, the motor laid down and it got a piston or something. It had smoke in there at the end, got real flat.”

Eckert discovered a valve cover on one of the gaskets “blown out, so that means it broke a piston or blew a valve.” He’ll make an engine swap before Tuesday’s miniseries race at Path Valley Speedway in Spring Run, Pa., the event he’s reigning winner of. He’s hoping that’s the last of his mechanical gremlins.

“Another night like that, we’ll take the rest of the week off,” said Eckert, who’s nearly an entire event behind Satterlee at 266 points back in the standings (the max points a driver can get per race is 285).

It’s another frustrating Appalachian Mountain Speedweek start for Eckert, who just can’t seem to start on the right foot in the miniseries. In 2023, he was sixth in miniseries points through five of seven races and in 2024, finishes of 22nd, ninth and seventh the opening three races left him 10th.

He did win two consecutive miniseries races last season at Path Valley and Selinsgrove, but then lost an engine in the penultimate event at Lincoln. Winning again at Path Valley and finishing out the week smoothly would put him back on a track in what’s otherwise been a stellar five-victory season.

“We start terrible at this freaking Speedweek,” Eckert said. “Hopefully this is the only one that gets us.”

Trevor Collins Set For Minitour

Trevor Collins of Seaford, Del., had a successful miniseries opener Saturday at Port Royal by starting from the front row and posting a fifth-place finish.

Of course, the full-time auto mechanic “would’ve loved to” say up front longer and battle for the $5,000 victory, but he gladly takes pride in his opening night top-five at the half-mile he’s admittedly not the best at.

“We’re usually terrible here,” Collins said. “We got a good start tonight, kept it rolling.”

Residing 15 minutes from Georgetown (Del.) Speedway, Collins doesn’t consider any of the tracks on the miniseries schedule in his wheelhouse. In fact, of the five remaining races left, Bridgeport (N.J.) Motorsports Park is the only track where he’s competed.

“It’s going to be a learning experience for the rest of them, so we’ll see,” said Collins, who added that a successful week would be top-five finishes the rest of the way, “but if we get top-10s, these guys are tough.”

Contesting every Speedweek event is "the plan right now” for Collins, who’s taken the week off from his full-time job to earn some miniseries cash. Before Saturday, his best AMS finish had been 16th at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway in 2023.

Collins, the two-time RUSH Crate winner so far this year at Georgetown, is encouraged with his “really good car” that has “a good balance.”

“I’m tickled with that,” Collins said of his top-five. “We’ll try to keep the momentum going for the rest of these things and finish out strong.”

Lance Dewease In A Late Model Again?

National Sprint Car Hall of Fame driver Lance Dewease of Fayetteville, Pa., whose 379 wins in Central Pennsylvania are second all-time to Fred Rahmer’s 419, said he “wouldn’t mind” getting in a Late Model again some day.

The 59-year-old made his one and only fendered start in June 2022’s Frank Sagi Tribute at Hagerstown, where he started 16th and finished 19th in a feature that still leaves him bitter because he knocked the deck out of the Tyler Horst-owned machine on the opening lap.

Without the misstep, Dewease still thinks he could’ve battled for a top-10 in his Late Model debut. Dewease finished second in Saturday’s accompanying 410 feature at Port Royal.

Odds And Ends

• The Juniata Valley that sits as Port Royal Speedway’s picturesque backdrop beyond turns one and two was hazed-over during Saturday’s miniseries opener as lingering smoke from Canadian wildfires affects air quality. The National Weather Service had deemed air quality unhealthy for sensitive groups. Although air quality should improve, it’s something air-sensitive folks should monitor. Tuesday’s air quality forecast at Path Valley is “generally acceptable for most individuals,” but Thursday at Selinsgrove, there’s expected to be “a high level of pollution and is unhealthy for sensitive groups” and to “reduce time spent outside if you are feeling symptoms such as difficulty breathing or throat irritation.”
• Rain is probably bigger threat this week. While Path Valley should be in the clear weather-wise, Selinsgrove has a 45 percent chance throughout the day, with those odds worsening in the evening.
• Hall of Fame driver Gary Stuhler, 70, is planning to make his first-ever start at quarter-mile Path Valley in his 50 years of racing. Stuhler finished 11th on Saturday at Port Royal.
• Justin Weaver of Williamsport, Md., plans to contest every Speedweek race. He’s getting used to “a new engine package” this week, which he attributes to his slow start at Port Royal where he qualified 10th in 20-driver Group A and had to transfer through a B-main to finish 16th in the feature.
• Saturday’s eighth-place finisher Jeff Rine of Danville, Pa., plans more miniseries events at Selingrove and Bedford.
• After finishing sixth in the standings when he ran every Speedweek event last year, Hayes Mattern of Beavertown, Pa., doubts if he’ll run them all again. Saturday’s sixth-place finisher at Port Royal has Path Valley and Selinsgrove on his schedule.
• Mechanicsville, Md.’s Dale Hollidge might be done for the week after Saturday’s rear-end failure on lap 28 of 35. Hollidge started 19th and ran as high as 15th before retiring from the feature with seven laps to go.