PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Sprint car driver Dylan Cisney, is a Port Royal native who now represents his home town on a different level.
These days, he's not just "The Port Royal Kid" on the track -- he's the mayor of the borough.
“As far as getting in there and getting your hands dirty, It wasn’t something I anticipated doing in my life, but things change and here I am," Cisney said. "I’ll just see what I can do and help out."
A job in local politics wasn’t something Cisney was expecting to do. But he was born and raised in Port Royal, and the town is something special to him.
“Ever since I was a little kid, just being involved with my church, especially the church stand at the fair -- that everyone knows," he said. "I can remember working there when I was a little kid and just the whole way through, when I started racing, there seemed like there was always something that someone is asking you to give a little time or bring your car to and help out with the community or kids at schools. It’s something I got used to doing and enjoy doing."
Cisney has always been willing to pitch in, but it goes beyond that. Community members noticed he was trying to help to resolve issues when the fair board and borough council seemed to be at a crossroads.
Then, last September, with his arm in a sling after a fiery crash during the Tuscarora 50, Cisney was appointed the mayor of Port Royal.
"I've been here my whole life," he says. "(I've) been here for 30 years now, and I'm not planning on going anywhere else. It’s my hometown and always will be and if we can make it the best little town it can be, that’s what I’ll be happy to do.”
The track and the fairgrounds are very important to the borough and surrounding areas for revenue.
The Port Royal Fair is in its 168th year, it's about to enter the 85th season of racing. Cisney’s memories of racing start very young -- long before he first jumped into the driver's seat of a sprint car.
To say he grew up at the track is an understatement; the front lawn of his childhood home was the Speed Palace.
“I would sit on our porch swing and I’d just get to watch these racing trailers come in," Cisney recalls. "That’s when the pits were still in the infield.
"So, we’d watch the sprint car feature and I’d come home and lay in my bed. I could look and couldn’t see turns one and two because there used to be a fence with vines but I could see from here (half of the backstretch) down. I was high enough in the air I could see the late model feature and the stock car feature for about half the track.”
On top of working a full-time job and being mayor of the borough, Cisney has a packed racing agenda this season. He plans to hit 75 races this season and to make few trips west.