Todd Shaffer’s favorite sprint-car races occur during the Juniata County Fair at Port Royal Speedway. And the veteran from Millerstown would like nothing more than to park Gary and Patty Beam’s car in victory lane on Saturday night following the 43rd Annual Tuscarora 50.
The atmosphere surrounding the event with the fair operating in the background makes it one of a kind in sprint-car racing.
Shaffer said his favorite race is the Labor Day Classic, which he has won six times.
“It’s the best atmosphere,” Shaffer said following a fifth place on Labor Day. “Probably my second favorite race is this weekend.”
Shaffer’s last win in the late-summer classic was 1995, but he’s been close since then.
“I think we’ve won the night before three times in the last eight years,” Shaffer said “We’re always second, third, fourth in the Tuscarora 50. We were real good here Saturday night and today we tried some things to get prepared for the 50 and got a little too tight right at the end. We’re looking forward to it.”
Shaffer knows things will have to go just right in order to win the race for the fourth time in his career.
“You’re going to have to be able to run off the curb and Saturday night we could,” Shaffer said. “We thought we could get better and tried some things today and actually took a step back. Everybody’s going to be depending on the curb and the guy that can move off of it will win.”
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