With just 13 races left for the 2026 Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Series season, the tour made its way back to the East Coast following a grueling West Coast swing for the last week and a half. The High Limit Series was visiting Port Royal Speedway for what will be a three-night show beginning tonight and lasting through Saturday night.
Last year’s champion, Rico Abreu, has tons of momentum right now after previously winning two big days out on the West Coast. First, the Californian picked up a $100,072 payday on championship night at Silver Dollar Speedway, and then most recently, Abreu chalked up another big-money win with a $126,000 victory last Saturday night at Skagit Speedway. Coming into tonight, the defending champion has the national points standing lead with a 46-point edge over second-place Aaron Reutzel.
However, at the end of a wild 25-lap feature, it was Ryan Timms who stole the show once again and took home the victory after starting in the sixth position.
“It feels so good, I’m not thinking about anything, just enjoying it,” Timms said in his victory lane interview with Flo Racing. “That’s really unfortunate for Chase (Deitz) there. He’s a great guy and an amazing racer. I hate to win one that way and hate to see what happened to a guy like Chase. Rather be lucky than good, I guess. Super rewarding. I honestly thought we were faster than everybody besides Chase, probably.
“I was just really fortunate there, but gosh dang, it feels good. To start the weekend off with a strong defense, and it’s a lot better start than last year.”
There were 50 Sprint Cars on the entry list for the Thursday portion, which included Timms, Brady Bacon, Dietz, Troy Wagaman Jr., Danny Dietrich, Justin Whittall, Parker Price-Miller, James McFadden, Austin McCarl, and Brian Brown. 28 cars would start the feature.
Feature Race Recap – 25-Laps – $10,000 To Win
Starting on the pole was Abreu thanks to his dash victory, and Dietz alongside the outside pole. Abreu had a great start, taking the early lead. However, Dietz closed in rapidly on the second lap of the feature. He continued to pressure Abreu for the lead by using the high line for momentum. Dietz finally made the move to take the lead with 20 laps to go from Abreu off Turn 2 in a near pass as the two almost made contact.
However, a red flag came out with 17 laps to go for a car flipping upside down in Turn 2, which was Zach Hampton. Meanwhile, the race leader, Dietz, made slight contact with the left-rear tire of Kasey Jedrzejek and was sent spinning around. At the look of the replay, Hampton tried to avoid the two cars and got too high in the turn, which saw him flip moments later.
On the following restart, Justin Peck moved to the second position, and was followed by Timms in the third position while Abreu slipped back to the fourth position. With six laps to go, Timms passed Peck for second using the bottom lane in the middle of Turns 3 and 4. Unfortunately, a vicious flip was seen by McFadden in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. McFadden got sideways and smacked the wall. The red flag was brought out again.
The next restart came with five laps to go, with Dietz, Timms, Peck, Abreu, and Reutzel in the top five. Prior to the restart, Brent Marks was sent to the rear of the field. In a wild turn of events, Dietz blew a right-rear tire and came to a stop on the backstretch with three laps to go. This meant Timms would assume the top spot.
After Timms had a good start, that was all she wrote as he powered away from Peck to take the checkered flag in what was his second career High Limit victory.
Heat Race Recaps – Top Five Transfer – 8 Laps A Piece
With the number of cars entered for Thursday’s portion of the event, there were two different groups of qualifying, which were split into Flight A and Flight B. Ryan Smith topped Flight A with a 15.320 lap time. Kasey Kahne’s Daison Pursley was the quickest following Flight B with a 15.595. Smith was the overall fastest qualifier. Reutzel set the pace in hot laps with a 15.490 seconds.
Heat 1 – Dietz started on the pole. There was some contact near the back of the pack at the start of the heat race. A lap later, with seven laps to go, Brett Strickler and Brent Shearer made significant contact off Turn 4 with each other. Dietz led the first lap prior to the yellow.
Another yellow flag flew again on the second restart for Kasey Kahne and Kody Hartlaub. Both Kahne and Hartlaub also touched in Turn 2. Additionally, a left-rear flat was seen on Bacon’s Sprint Car. Following contact, Kahne’s team changed the right-rear tire and got sent back to the track to rejoin the field. Hartlaub also returned to the race as well and Shearer did too. Bacon did not return to the track to finish the rest of the heat.
The first heat race was a complete restart due to some messy starts. The race saw some limited green-flag laps before a caution again slowed the field with three laps to go due to debris on the frontstretch by the start/finish line.
Deitz managed to go on and win the first heat race. Justin Peck, Logan Rumsey, Kerry Madsen, and Doug Hammaker grabbed the top five transfer spots. Fastest qualifier Smith just missed out on transferring as he finished in the sixth position.
Heat 2 – Timms was on the pole for the second heat. Unlike the first heat, this was caution-free, and Timms easily powered away for the win. Scelzi, Lynch, Reutzel, and Holmes were the transfers.
Heat 3 – McFadden had the No. 1 position in the third heat. Abreu took the lead off the high side on the exit of Turn 2 and secured the heat win. McFadden, Pursley, Lance Dewease, and Wagaman Jr. were in the top five.
After the checkered flag, Jedrzejek was stopped and turned around.
Heat 4 – Tanner Thorson was your top starter for the fourth heat. Brown challenged Thorson early on in the race for the lead, but couldn’t complete the pass. Thorson held on and won the final heat. Brown, Brent Marks, Logan Wagner, and Cameron Smith completed the remaining transfers from the heat races.
Moving on to the seven-lap dash to determine the feature pole were Abreu, Dietz, Thorson, Peck, Pursley, Timms, Marks, and Reutzel. The dash victory went to Abreu, who led every lap to start on pole for the 25-lap feature.
Winning the C-Main was Shearer, and Ryan Smith notched the B-Main win.
If you missed the race, check out the feature highlights below.
Official Race Results Following Night 1 At Port Royal Speedway
- Ryan Timms
- Justin Peck
- Aaron Reutzel
- Rico Abreu
- Doug Hammaker
- Giovanni Scelzi
- Justin Whittall
- Kerry Madsen
- Troy Wagaman Jr
- Tanner Holmes
- Logan Wagner
- Tanner Thorson
- Brian Brown
- Logan Rumsey
- Ryan Smith
- Daison Pursley
- Brent Marks
- Cameron Smith
- Tyler Courtney
- Sye Lynch
- T.J. Stutts
- Kasey Jedrzejek
- Chase Dietz
- Lance Dewease
- James McFadden
- Kody Lehman
- Zach Hampton
- Austin Bishop
Abreu continues to lead the overall championship points standings lead over Reutzel by 43 points.
Up Next – The Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Series will be back for night 2 on Friday night at Port Royal Speedway, live on Flo Racing.
