By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor

Egypt’s Hania El Hammamy avoided a shock exit on day two of the CIB PSA Black Ball Open as she overcame Scotland’s tenacious Lisa Aitken in a thrilling five-game battle at Cairo’s Black Ball Sporting Club.

World No.5 El Hammamy, 20, was a runner-up at this PSA World Tour Platinum tournament back in December, while she claimed her maiden Platinum title by winning the CIB Black Ball Open in March, 2020.

However, her strong run of form at this venue was under threat as she struggled to see off a determined Aitken, who battled away and made a series of impressive retrievals to send the match to a fifth game.

El Hammamy’s quality was evident in the fifth as she put her opponent under relentless pressure and she eventually closed out the win by an 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7 margin to set up a third round clash with India’s Joshna Chinappa.

“It was definitely a tough match today,” El Hammamy said. “Lisa took me by surprise, to be honest. I wouldn’t say I played my best but I am glad to get through. All credit to Lisa, she is very talented and she really played well today.

“I managed to push to the end. I didn’t give up at some points when Lisa was really in control and I was behind her. She had a very good plan and the positive thing was that I found a way to get through it. With the pressure and playing five-gamers in the first round, it gave me the feeling of playing in the final, but it was slightly different.”

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Earlier in the day, USA’s World No.33 Olivia Fiechter booked her spot in the third round of a Platinum event for the first time in her career after she overcame France’s Melissa Alves in an enthralling five-game contest.

It was a gargantuan contest between the two, with Fiechter squandering two match balls in the third as World No.31 Alves dug in and took the match to a deciding game.

It was Fiechter’s turn to fight back from the brink in the fifth game as she saved three match balls to finally get the upper hand in the fixture and she soon struck a fatal blow to win it.

“She’s a huge fighter and I’m just so pleased to pull that out, it really came down to the end there,” said Fiechter.

“I was literally just trying to focus on my breathing and trying to make sure that I hit shot-by-shot. I was trying to take it step-by-step and break it down rather than trying to think about finishing the match.”

Fiechter will play defending champion Sarah-Jane Perry for a place in the quarter-finals after Perry dispatched Egypt’s Mariam Metwally in straight games.

Perry, who won the most recent Black Ball Open in December, said: “I have won a couple of other tournaments after winning them the previous year and I am taking that for this one as well because they are different calendar years, even though it is literally the next tournament, so it is a bit different.

“Obviously everything is different with the COVID rules but the PSA have done a great job, so I am just trying to tick all the boxes with my preparation and then see what I can do on court.”

World No.1 Nour El Sherbini also began her tournament with a hugely impressive dismantling of USA’s No.3 Sabrina Sobhy, which saw the two-time runner-up win 3-0 in just 22 minutes.

“Every time I come here, I always want to put my name on the trophy but it never happens,” said El Sherbini.

“I will do my best this week and let’s hope I do so. It wasn’t a good one for me last time so it is hard for me mentally to come back and to play the same opponents as well. I am working hard on my mental game.”

El Sherbini will play Belgium’s Tinne Gilis next after she got the better of Wales’ Emily Whitlock, while there were also wins for Joelle King and Nadine Shahin, who beat the higher ranked Yathreb Adel in five games.

Women’s 2021 CIB PSA Black Ball Squash Open, Black Ball Club, Cairo, Egypt.

Second Round (Top Half):
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt Sabrina Sobhy (USA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-4, 11-5 (22m)
Tinne Gilis (BEL) bt Emily Whitlock (WAL) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 (30m)
Olivia Fiechter (USA) bt Melissa Alves (FRA) 3-2: 4-11, 11-9, 11-2, 12-14, 15-13 (62m)
[5] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt Mariam Metwally (EGY) 3-0: 11-2, 12-10, 11-6 (30m)
[7] Joelle King (NZL) bt Danielle Letourneau (CAN) 3-0: 11-7, 11-9, 11-4 (37m)
Nadine Shahin (EGY) bt Yathreb Adel (EGY) 3-2: 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 15-13 (59m)
Joshna Chinappa (IND) bt Hana Ramadan (EGY) 3-1: 11-6, 4-11, 11-8, 11-8 (43m)
[4] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt Lisa Aitken (SCO) 3-2: 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7 (76m)

Second Round (Bottom Half):
[3] Camille Serme (FRA) v Mayar Hany (EGY)
Hollie Naughton (CAN) v Zeina Mickawy (EGY)
Millie Tomlinson (ENG) v Farida Mohamed (EGY)
Julianne Courtice (ENG) v [6] Amanda Sobhy (USA)
[8] Salma Hany (EGY) v Nele Gilis (BEL)
Sana Ibrahim (EGY) v Rowan Elaraby (EGY)
Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) v Olivia Clyne (USA)
Alison Waters (ENG) v [2] Nouran Gohar (EGY)

Third Round (Top Half, March 15):
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v Tinne Gilis (BEL)
Olivia Fiechter (USA) v [5] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
[7] Joelle King (NZL) v Nadine Shahin (EGY)
Joshna Chinappa (IND) v [4] Hania El Hammamy (EGY)

Pictures courtesy of PSA

Saturday's win against France was a lightbulb moment for England.

There is a lot that came together that England have obviously been working on for a while.

It needed a slight change of attitude and for the stars to align - and they did. England deserve the credit for it.

The players showed a lot of personal pride in the way that they played the game. It looked like everybody had had a long, hard look in the mirror for two weeks after losses to Scotland and Wales.

Each person looked at what they bring to the England environment, then they went out and showed it against France.

Now it is whether they have the confidence and the mental capacity to be able to do that every single game, to bottle up whatever it took to get them to that mindset against France. I think they do.

I felt for England fans because the roof would have been off Twickenham if they had been there, but hopefully they still loved watching it from home.

It was sensational rugby. If that is how games are going to be for the next couple of years going towards the 2023 World Cup then we are in for a great time.

'England's superstars gave superstar moments'

England's superstar players gave them superstar moments. It was Mako and Billy Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Tom Curry, little breaks from Ben Youngs, George Ford up in the face of the opposition.

Owen Farrell's intensity in defence and general work-rate was impressive. Anthony Watson gave little moments of momentum. You can see them galvanising the team into how they should be playing.

This is how they want to play for England. They don't want to be box-kicking the whole time and waiting for a counter-attack. They want to be a bit more harum scarum.

Youngs in particular looked like someone had poked him with a cattle prod. I am sure it was partly because everyone had been talking about France scrum-half Antoine Dupont all week.

He also would have been looking over his shoulder and seeing that Elliot Daly and Jamie George had been demoted to the bench.

It is going to be very easy to say the game is moving away from Youngs, but he has always had the skills, eye for a gap and a great engine.

'Changed style difficult to fault'

The intensity, the discipline and the manner in which England wanted to play looked so free-flowing and enjoyable.

It is difficult to fault because France are a quality team and matched fire with fire.

England went behind, bounced straight back and got control of the game. Then they came from behind at the death to win with Itoje's late try.

They have proved to us that that squad is able to run games strategically.

England players and coaches have realised that teams have very quickly cottoned on to their style of play.

They now know that if a team competes up front, England are going to struggle because before they did not have that mindset to really go out and play from anywhere.

England have got the capacity to do that. I think for me the mistake was head coach Eddie Jones thinking his side needed to go to the traditional English strength of forward dominance.

Now he has realised we have got fantastic backs as well.

What was really impressive was how England changed styles during the match. In the first half, both sides were throwing the kitchen sink at it and playing from everywhere.

Then England realised in the second half that France were starting to tire and they went more for the power game.

They were testing whether France still had that accuracy with 20 minutes to go. France did start to make a few errors and England did not overdo it.

They kicked their goals, they did not hesitate. They played in the opposition 22.

Their decision-making around the gameplan and the pace at which they wanted to play varied in the second half.

Whereas the first half was absolute flat-out trying to run France ragged, the second half was more about doing whatever it takes to win.

'Wales should win the Grand Slam'

England may have highlighted for everybody else how to play against France with the way they mixed it up tactically and how they dealt with Dupont.

You are never going to be able to stifle them but they applied the right type of pressure to France's key decision-makers - particularly in the second half.

That could help Wales as they look to complete a Grand Slam in Paris next weekend. That is going to be an unbelievable game.

France have got plenty to play for. With their postponed game against Scotland yet to be played, they are still in control of their destiny as far as winning the Championship goes.

I was very impressed with Wales' victory in Rome earlier on Saturday. I know it was against Italy but they looked really slick.

Wales could match France in the first half like England did. They have that killer instinct and the confidence to do it. So I am probably going to edge towards Wales winning the Grand Slam.

Matt Dawson was speaking to BBC Sport's Becky Grey.

Watch Robbie Henshaw score Ireland's opening try in their Six Nations match against Scotland as Johnny Sexton's kick bounces kindly for the centre at Murrayfield.

FOLLOW LIVE: Scotland v Ireland - watch live plus in-play clips, radio & text

WATCH MORE: Highlights: England 23-20 France

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Watch as Finn Russell scores for Scotland after a try review confirms Stuart Hogg's kick comes off his own chin and causes havoc in the Irish back line at Murrayfield.

FOLLOW LIVE: Scotland v Ireland - watch live plus in-play clips, radio & text

WATCH MORE: Henshaw pounces to score Ireland's opening try

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WICHITA FALLS, Texas — On a cold and windy evening at the Monarch Motor Speedway on Friday, Rodney Sanders gave race fans a spectacular show as he captured the win in the first event for the new American Racer USRA Modified Series presented by Day Motor Sports.

Polesitter Nathan Smith of Anthony, New Mexico, grabbed the lead when the green flag waved at the quarter-mile semi-banked dirt oval outside of Wichita Falls, Texas, but fourth-starting Max Eddie Thomas of Quinlan powered into the lead on the third lap and paced the race for the next 16 circuits before Sanders took control.

Cautions plagued the main event between laps three and five with four yellow flags that included Smith going to the tail after contact on a restart with Kale Westover that saw Westover’s night end early, and a red flag after Kenny Gaddis performed a single roll-over after tagging the wall in turn three.

Tyler Davis found himself running third in just seven laps after rolling off 14th while Sanders, who hails from a town called Happy in West Texas, found himself starting 13th on the grid after a dismal heat race but slowly picked his way through the field as he advanced toward the front.

The four-time USMTS National Champion broke into the top-10 on the third lap and climbed all the way to fourth place by the seventh lap. He took third from Davis four laps later and snuck by Flower Mound’s Kevin Rutherford for second with 16 laps complete.

With two lapped cars separating Thomas and Sanders, the race’s sixth caution with nine laps to go erased a healthy advantage for the leader and Sanders capitalized on his good fortune. After searching for a way around the high-flying leader for three laps, Sanders slid by on lap 20 and battled Thomas back to the flag stand.

Sanders was able to hang on for the win and pocketed the $2,000 top prize plus an additional $500 from GPW Transportation of Belton, Texas, after passing 12 cars to earn hard charger honors. Originally earmarked for a $500-to-win dash, that race was scrapped in order to speed up the program with threatening weather forecasted for later in the evening.

Thomas took home a $1,500 consolation prize while Davis, who passed 11 cars, earned $1,000 for finishing third. Rutherford recorded a fourth-place finish and Midlothian’s Chris Huckeba completed the top five.

Smith rebounded to score a sixth-place paycheck with David Tanner, Sean Gaddis, Kevin Rowland and James McCreery rounding out the top 10.

Rutherford, Tanner and Casey Fowler pocketed an extra $100 each when their names were randomly drawn at the drivers meeting prior to hot laps. Beginning with the second event for the series, officials will draw three random names that will win a $100 cash bonus during the drivers meeting. The winning driver(s) must attend the drivers meeting and have competed in the previous series event.

In other Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series action Friday night, Trevor Foley collected the win in the USRA Limited Mod main event while Stephen Torrez found himself in the winners circle following the Sunoco USRA Factory Stock feature. Colton Mooney topped the 15-lap USRA Tuner nightcap.

The finish:

Rodney Sanders, Max Eddie Thomas, Tyler Davis, Kevin Rutherford, Chris Huckeba, Nathan Smith, David Tanner, Sean Gaddis, Kevin Rowland, James McCreery, Ron Gould Jr., Mark Smith, Scott Edwards, Casey Fowler, Michael Walker, Kenny Gaddis, Kale Westover, John Henry.

MONROE, La. — The echoing roar of the standing-room-only crowd said it all.

Making their debut appearance at The Rev , the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series delivered a race of the year candidate on Saturday night.

It was an emphatic return to the state of Louisiana — first race since 2004 — capped by a non-stop 30-lap feature that saw three different leaders, six official lead changes and 13 total passes for the top spot.

David Gravel and Brad Sweet were the stars of the show, squaring off in an exhilarating duel. Ultimately, three-tenths of a second is all that separated the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 and the Kasey Kahne Racing No. 49 at the checkered flag, as Gravel held secured his 59th career World of Outlaws victory and his first off the season.

“That was freaking badass,” Gravel shouted in victory lane. “If you didn’t like that, I don’t what you’d like. That was amazing! This is what sprint car racing is all about. Brad raced me clean and I raced him clean, but it was hard racing. We passed each other so many times. Damn, I earned that one!”

Kasey Kahne won his heat and the dash and started on the pole. He led the opening circuit, but Gravel slid by him on the second lap to take his first lead of the season. Fourth-starter Sweet entered the picture and brought his NAPA Racing machine into contention on lap 12 when lap traffic forced a mistake on Gravel, allowing Sweet to race by, albeit for only one lap.

Gravel came dashing back to re-claim the lead on lap 13 and held it firmly for another nine laps before the duo went side-by-side for almost three consecutive laps.

They exchanged the lead at least four-to-five times on the 22nd circuit alone and eventually Sweet was back on top for lap 23. However, with each of Sweet’s strikes, Gravel had a counter offer. Gravel never let the two-time and defending World of Outlaws champion lead more than one lap a time.

Sneaking away and surviving one last-lap effort, Gravel became the sixth different winner through six races with the World of Outlaws sprint cars, joining Sweet, Logan Schuchart, Carson Macedo, Aaron Reutzel and Sheldon Haudenschild.

“That was so much fun,” Gravel said. “That’s why I got out of the car and went right over to him, I mean we passed back and forth like four or five times. This was such a great race track, and a great debut for the World of Outlaws. Hopefully this can be an early-season trip for years to come. I’m so happy to finally get that first win for this new team. We’ve been ‘there,’ but haven’t been right in the feature. We made all the right calls tonight, though, and that gives us a lot of confidence moving forward.”

Even Sweet couldn’t help but smile following his runner-up effort, which marked his fifth top five finish through six races this year.

“I hope you fans enjoyed it,” Sweet said. “From the driver’s seat that was a blast. Trading the lead back and forth like that is so much fun, and it was clean, hard racing too. I feel like we went back and forth like ten times or something. We were really dicing through traffic there, that really amped it up. I felt like at times I had the better race car, but at other times he just outdrove me.”

Schatz finished third in the the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing No. 15.

“All you can do is be in the mix,” Schatz said. “I thought we had a shot there, but we were too good early and faded at the end. The race track was really great tonight, though. You could rip the top if you needed tom, you could kind of slide through the middle, and run down on the bottom. It’s great to see a full house here tonight.”

Schuchart and Haudenschild rounded out the top five.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

Upon Michael Shank’s graduation from high school, his parents made him a deal concerning the money they’d been saving for his future.

He could either use it to go to college, or he could use it to further his racing career.

He chose the latter, bought a transporter and concentrated on racing.

His decision has paid off, although not the way he thought it would. Rather than making headlines as a driver, the 54-year-old Shank is earning championships as a team owner.

Shank’s willingness to learn to crawl before running and being open- minded enough to join forces with some of his competitors to share expertise and resources, and with his talent to attract both sponsors and investors, his team has blossomed into a factory-backed powerhouse competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the NTT IndyCar Series.

Michael Shank Racing, now known as Meyer Shank Racing after the 2018 addition of co-owner Jim Meyer, has come a long way. Meyer is the chief executive officer of SiriusXM.

The team has new digs to reflect its accomplishments, too. Last September, it broke ground on a $5 million, 40,000-square-foot headquarters in Pataskala, Ohio, which is about 20 miles east of Columbus. The facility houses both the sports car and Indy car programs.

Chosen by Acura as the factory GTD team to debut the new Acura NSX GT3 in 2017, last November the team secured its second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech Championship with that car.

The 2019 title came with drivers Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher. Running with Curb-Agajanian Performance Group, in 2020 the team not only won the team and drivers’ championships with Farnbacher and Matt McMurry, but also gave Acura its first GTD manufacturers’ championship.

The championships came after working hand in hand with Honda Performance Development and a team of engineers to develop an “Evo” update for the Acura NSX in 2019 with an upgraded aero package.

Changes were made to the splitter, the rear bumper and the diffuser, which increased cooling but limited drag, resulting in more speed.

Beginning with the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the team moved to the IMSA Prototype class with the Acura ARX-05 DPi. Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla are the full-season drivers, while A.J. Allmendinger and Juan Pablo Montoya joined them for Daytona.

Last October, MSR announced Liberty Media Corp.’s Formula One Group had made a minority equity investment in the team, which allowed MSR to expand its IndyCar Series program to a two-car operation with drivers Jack Harvey and three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves.

Harvey returns and will do the full season, as he did for the first time last year.

Castroneves is scheduled to compete in six races, including the Indianapolis 500.

It’s not the first time Castroneves has driven for Michael Shank; he raced a prototype for MSR in the 2007 Rolex 24 at Daytona. He should be an ideal teammate for Harvey, who had six top-10 finishes in 2020 and seems poised for a breakout season.

The team has three Dallara IndyCar chassis heading into the season, which opens April 18 at Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park, including one purchased last fall from DragonSpeed.

Michael Shank Racing was born in 1989 when Shank was still a driver; he won the SCCA Ohio Valley Region’s Novice Driver of the Year award that season. He also earned the 1996 Player’s/Toyota Atlantic C2 Championship.

Shank ran one Indy car race, the Las Vegas 500 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the 1996-’97 season, finishing 13th with Neinhouse Motorsports. He has one start in the Rolex 24 At Daytona as a driver, which came in 1999 before he decided to concentrate on team ownership.

Shank was the car owner for Kenny Wilden when he finished second in the 1999 Toyota Atlantic championship and for Sam Hornish Jr., who won that series’ rookie-of-the-year award the same season.

Shank was named Formula Atlantic team owner of the year twice before he decided to concentrate on endurance sports car racing as a team owner in 2004 with drivers Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Burt Frisselle in the Daytona Prototype class.

The team led the first race it entered and finished on the podium in the second.

In 2006, Shank’s team won at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah and finished second both overall and in the Daytona Prototype class in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with drivers Justin Wilson, Allmendinger, Negri and Mark Patterson.

The team finished eighth in points in both 2006 and ’07 with John Pew becoming Negri’s co-driver. It was a consistent top-10 team and improved even more when it won the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona with Allmendinger, Wilson, Pew and Negri as co-drivers.

In December 2013, Michael Shank Racing set a speed record when Colin Braun turned the fastest lap ever recorded on the Daytona Int’l Speedway oval in the team’s Ford EcoBoost-powered Daytona Prototype. The 222.971 mph, 40.364-second lap was enough to secure a spot in the record books.

The effort also set records for both 10 kilometers and 10 miles from a standing start.

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LUXEMBURG, Wis. – The Luxemburg, Wis., race track is like many others, located at a fairground, covered grandstands, third-mile clay oval, and races on a particular night of the week. But there is something that sets the track apart from others.

The track called The ‘Burg Speedway has a group of five promoters who run the track for free.

The five also hold other jobs with a wide variety of professions. Joe Orsini is a production supervisor for a company that manufactures industrial air dryers. Andrew Stenard travels around the country, mostly in the winter, setting up networks for various companies. Lydia Kaye works at an accounting firm. Jordan and Britney Parma handle the family farm. But during racing season, they add running a race track to their schedule.

“At the end of the 2019 season the county opened the contract up for bids,” explained Orsini. “It sounded like there wasn’t anybody who was going to step up with a bid. The five of us had helped out at the track in 2019 just trying to keep the track alive because it was our favorite race track. Lydia kind of reached out to all of us and asked if we were interested in keeping the track open and doing the promoting.

“We put in a bid for running the track, and there wasn’t really any other interest, and we ended up signing a one year contract to promote the races in 2020. The track has seen dwindling car counts, and even worse, dwindling fan counts for a few years. But 2020 was a successful year and we ended up signing a three year extension.”

Fan count had dropped to 200 or less, but the group had about 1,000 per race last year.  They averaged 132 cars each night, much higher than the prior year’s weekly turnout.   That is an amazing turnaround and Orsini explained some things they did to lead to the improvement.

“The big change is we moved racing from Friday nights to Sunday nights,” said Orsini. “Historically the track had run on Friday, but in 2019 when the track was without a promoter, the track in Seymour switched from Sunday nights to Friday. That made three tracks in the area running on Friday nights with Gravity Park in Chilton. As a group, we felt the only way the track could be healthy and survive was change to Sunday nights and that helped a ton.

“We’re the only track running on Sunday nights now and we also reached out to the drivers and solicited their input on what we could do to make it better. We listened to what they had to say and we just try to make a fast moving program. Even towards the end of the season when we were getting 140 cars we were done at 8:30 with a five o’clock start time.”

All five of the promotional team have roots in dirt track racing. Jordan Parma has raced IMCA hobby stock and street stocks and is moving up to an IMCA stock car.  Kaye’s husband, Matt, races street stocks and Stenard’s brother raced street stocks and his brother is the promoter at the Sturgeon Bay, Wis., track. Orsini raced hobby stocks and is building a stock car.

At a racing show in the area in January of 2020 the promotion team met with drivers and explained how they don’t have a big budget but are just trying to keep racing alive in Luxemburg. They asked the drivers to give them a chance and support them. There were some early season issues.

“We had some struggles early in the season,” Orsini admitted. “The biggest problem was track prep which was something new to all of us. We changed who was doing the track prep four weeks into the season and things turned around. Drivers told us they wanted to see us succeed. It’s long been one of the best tracks in Wisconsin and has such a good history. Luxemburg was one of the hardest to win a feature at, one of the hardest to win a championship.”

On race night, each of the five promoters has a particular duty. Stenard handles the scoring and helps with sign in, Orsini announces and helps with track prep, Kaye works the concession and front gate areas, Britney Parma is in charge of pit concessions and the kitchen, and Jordan Parma helps with tech and is the race director.

“We talked about doing this and there was a lot of apprehension, but we decided we all loved that track so much we didn’t want to see it wither away and we thought we were the best chance to see it survive,” Orsini said. “We’re not doing this to make any money. Any profit the track made last year we are putting back into the track for better equipment and improvements. We were able to get a new water truck after last season and we’re looking at a packing vehicle that will do the job faster. We’re doing this because we love racing and we love that track.”

Luxemburg, Wis., is lucky to have the five promoter team. They are doing something that is never easy, the track improved dramatically last year, and to top it off, they do it all for free.

PORT ROYAL, Pa. – A shot at winning and one spot behind the second winningest driver in Port Royal Speedway history isn’t a bad way to the year for Kerry Madsen and his new team.

On opening day at Port Royal on Saturday, Madsen led eight laps and finished second to Lance Dewease, a strong showing in his debut in the Michael Barshinger No. 24.

It’s a much better outing than the team’s debut last week at Lincoln Speedway, where he limped home to finish 11th with a broken right rear w-link. Most importantly, it’s something Madsen and his team can improve on, having gone head-to-head against one the best in Dewease.

“That was a great run for us,” Madsen said. “Solid car all night for us. It’s definitely something to build off.”

Madsen led the opening eight laps, powering to the lead from fourth on the race’s initial start. It was the first laps the Barshinger No. 24 led since July 12, 2019, when Lucas Wolfe won at Williams Grove Speedway.

The 49-year-old found a nice rhythm, but could never get comfortable in turns three and four, typically the drier end of the track. So, when the caution flag waved on lap seven and bunched the field, Madsen knew he needed to find it quickly or he’d leave the door open for Dewease.

Unfortunately for Madsen, Dewease passed him two laps after the ensuing restart. Off went the National Sprint Car Hall of Famer while Madsen was left searching.

“You needed a really nice line in [turns] three and four, and I couldn’t quite get it figured out,” Madsen said. “Especially as long as the run went, I couldn’t get the line. I tried everything I could think of.”

Madsen is a renowned punisher of the cushion, a large reason for his nickname “The Mad Man.” Most of the top, the top is the preferred route in turns one and two at Port Royal. But in turns three and four at Port Royal, it can be dry, slick, and a whole different ball game.

“I’ve always been strong in [turns] one and two,” Madsen said. “[Turns] three and four, when there’s no cushion like that, it’s pretty technical. We definitely have some things that we could be better for.

“I feel like I know the place,” Madsen added. “We just have to make our package a little better.”

Madsen isn’t going to be a weekly regular at Port Royal, but he will run the track on most Saturday nights, hoping desirable results like opening day lead to more.

“It’s great,” Madsen said. “It’s a great group of guys. I fit right in. Hopefully it’s going to be a great summer.”