MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Williams Grove Speedway announcer Bruce Ellis held up a checkered flag to Brent Marks.

“Do you want to read what that says?” he asked the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series regular.

Marks grabbed the flag and held it eye level. Fixated on the printed logo he earnestly said, “Williams Grove National Open winner.”

“That’s you,” Ellis replied.

Marks won the 57th Champion Racing Oil National Open at Williams Grove Speedway Saturday night — his first win of the season — and pocketed the $65,000 prize.

How did he feel after Ellis proclaimed him the 2019 victor?

“I have no idea,” Marks said. “This is amazing. I’ve been wanting to win this race for a very long time. I grew up here in the infield. This is where I fell in love with sprint car racing. This is awesome.”

Marks described his 2019 season as frustrating. He failed to make four features throughout the year and has said he felt like he let four potential wins slip through his fingers. Not Saturday night. Not in his home state in front of friends, family and local fans.

He showcased his determination for atonement during the final Drydene Heat race of the night. He went from fourth to second in one lap on a restart and put himself in the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash.

He then drew the pole for the second dash of the night and went on to win it — placing him on the outside pole for the 40-lap World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series feature.

At the start of the National Open, Marks and polesitter Brian Brown drag raced down the front stretch toward turn one.

Brown launched ahead of Marks into the corner to hold the lead, but before the two drivers could continue their duel down the backstretch a caution came out.

When it came time to stomp the throttle again, Marks acted quicker than Brown. He rocketed ahead of the FVP/Casey’s General Stores No. 21 and claimed the lead before the first turn. He led two laps before yellow lights flashed around the speed, again.

Marks chose the inside line on the restart and found himself in the same situation Brown did two laps earlier. Brown got the jump on Marks off turn four and charged ahead of him to reclaim the lead. He then began to extend his lead over Marks every lap.

On Lap nine, Brown lost traction in turn one and fought to keep his car pointed straight off turn two. His slip allowed Marks to reel him in. Daryn Pittman, in third, was also closing in on them both.

Three laps later Marks carried the momentum of a strong run off turn four to catch Brown before turn one. When they entered the turn, Marks dove underneath Brown and cleared him for the lead. Brown then lost second to Pittman the next corner.

Marks’ lead was short lived again with the caution coming out on lap 14. After losing the lead to Brown on the last restart by starting on the bottom, Marks chose the high side for his next attempt. However, it didn’t help. Pittman bested him on the start and took the lead down the front stretch.

However, before the lap was completed a caution came out for several cars getting together in turn three – including 2018 National Open winner Lance Dewease, who could not continue.

Marks was ready for Pittman on the restart. He rocketed ahead of the field, pulling away by half of a second when he reached the backstretch.

While Marks pulled away with the lead, Brown, Donny Schatz and Aaron Reutzel brawled for third. The trio used up the entire track for several laps trying to pass each other. Eventually Schatz and Reutzel made their way by Brown to move into third and fourth, respectively.

Traffic became an issue for Marks by the halfway point of the feature. Pittman closed in. And Schatz and Reutzel closed in on Pittman.

Flashbacks of being held up in lap traffic and losing the win at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in June projected in Marks’ head. However, that wasn’t going to be the case this time. He learned. He wasn’t going to let another win slip away.

“I tried to play that whole race as smart as I could,” Marks said. “Tried to drive like a veteran and not get over my head. Just be super patient. Because I lost that race earlier in the year at Nashville. Kind of the same situation, you know running the bottom there with lap cars and I felt like I needed to get by them, made a mistake and lost the lead. I made sure I didn’t want to do that tonight.”

His patience with lap cars turned into car lengths gained on Pittman. Pressure from behind faded as the final laps approached. Marks was on his way to his fourth career World of Outlaws win.

Then, a caution flag. Paul McMahan came to a stop in turn one with a flat tire. Marks had to make two more perfect laps before he could see the checkered flag.

Pittman tried to get a run around the high side of turns one and two, but Marks was too strong on the bottom. By the time the Pennsylvanian finally saw the checkered flag, he had a 1.4 second lead over Pittman. Schatz finished third for the second night in-a-row.

The runner-up finish for Pittman was his fifth time finishing second at the National Open.

“We had a really good Roth Motorsports car for the weekend,” Pittman said. “We kept fine tuning on it, didn’t make any wholesale changes and continued to get better and better.”

For the second night in-a-row Schatz took a big chunk out of Brad Sweet’s points lead over him – with Sweet finishing ninth. Schatz is now 14 points behind Sweet.

Reutzel won the National Open rookie award – finishing fourth – and Brian Montieth earned the KSE Hard Charger award with a stellar performance of charging from 26th to eighth.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

HEUSDEN-ZOLDER, Belgium – The 2019 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series ELITE 2 Division season went in the books Sunday with an outstanding performance by Lasse Soerensen.

The Dane not only won the seventh race of the season, but also completed a huge comeback, grabbing the points lead from Giorgio Maggi’s hands in the last race of the championship.

The 22-year-old Aalborg native is the eighth ELITE 2 Division champion in NWES history.

ELITE 2 Final 2 started behind the safety car due to the rainy conditions at the iconic Circuit Zolder. With 11 laps to go, Soerensen led the field to a single file restart ahead of Maggi.

The Dane and the Swiss were separated by only one point entering Sunday’s race, crowning the one the champion who crossed the finish line first.

Soerensen defended the lead against a charging Maggi on another restart – the safety car was back on track for a contact involving Naveh Talor and Michael Bleekemolen – but wasn’t able to build a gap on the Swiss.

The Hendriks Motorsport driver tried his best to pass Soerensen in the last corners, but the Dane fended off every attack to clinch the ELITE 2 Division title and the Rookie Trophy.

“It’s awesome to be here, we fought for this the whole season long,” said Soerensen, who debuted in Euro NASCAR in the second event of the year at Franciacorta. “We took over the lead of the championship in the last race. I thank my team Dexwet-Df1 Racing and all my sponsors for the hard work they put in this year. I’m super happy right now.”

“It’s a real shame because it was a really short race, since we did several laps behind the safety car,” added Maggi. “I just went out of laps in the end. I was preparing for the last lap and I braked very late but it didn’t work. My plan for next year is for sure to step up in the ELITE 1 Division and fight for the title over there.”

Alessandro Brigatti was a solid third at the wheel of the No. 9 Racers Motorsport Ford Mustang and grabbed his second career podium to close his first NWES season on a high note.

Vittorio Ghirelli ended up fourth ahead of Racing Engineering’s Myatt Snider. Advait Deodhar was sixth followed by Nicholas Risitano, Pol van Pollaert, Pierluigi Veronesi and Jesse Vartiainen.

Soerensen won the championship by nine points on Maggi, scoring seven wins and finishing all 11 races he started inside the top 10.

Vittorio Ghirelli finished third in the overall standings and in the Rookie Trophy. Deodhar took fourth ahead of Risitano and Myatt Snider, who closed his first season racing outside North America in sixth place.

Pierluigi Veronesi, Martin Doubek, Justin Kunz and Jesse Vartiainen completed the 2019 ELITE 2 Division top-10.

By winning the last Legend Trophy round, Ian Eric Waden also grabbed the overall classification dedicated to drivers aged 40 or more from Michael Bleekemolen, who had a troubled ELITE 2 Final 2.

Arianna Casoli, who also secured her second career Lady Trophy, completed the Legend Trophy season podium.

BURIRAM, Thailand – Marc Marquez started the weekend at the Buriram Int’l Circuit with a violent crash, but ended the weekend with a victory and his sixth MotoGP championship.

Marquez, who was transported to the hospital after a crash on Friday only to return for practice later in the day, started Sunday’s race from the third position behind polesitter Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales.

Quartararo got a strong start aboard his Petronas Yamaha SRT, but Marquez was hot on his heels. By lap seven it was just Quartararo and Marquez at the front as the pair traded fast laps.

Marquez shadowed Quartararo for most of the race before making his move on lap 23, getting past Quartararo in turn three only to run wide and give the position right back.

On the final lap Marquez tried again in turn three and this time the move stuck, allowing him to take the race lead. Quartararo tried to keep pace and took one last shot at Marquez in turn 12, regaining the lead.

Marquez didn’t settle for second, slicing back past Quartararo to regain the lead on the run to the finish line to win the race. Quartararo was forced to settle for second, while Vinales finished a distant third.

The victory was more than enough for Marquez to claim his sixth MotoGP title and his eighth world championship overall.

I’m very happy. I’m so happy. When you have an advantage like I had you realise you are so close to the championship but you need to find something to keep you motivated,” Marquez said. “Today it was winning the race and it’s what I did. Fabio was so fast during the race but I never gave up, even during the middle of the race where it looked like he was escaping. It was a beautiful way to win the championship – even if I wasn’t thinking about it on the last lap.

“Arriving in parc ferme with the whole Repsol Honda Team there was fantastic. It’s a dream to do it with the whole fan club and the nice celebration. Every year is special, it’s not easy to keep everything perfect each year to fight for the title and I had a very hard winter with the injury but myself, the team and HRC managed it well. Now we’ll enjoy this feeling a little bit.”

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso finished fourth, with Suzuki’s Alex Rins completing the top-five riders at the checkered flag.

Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has come out in support of returning batsmen Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal after their loss to Sri Lanka in the first T20I. Shehzad and Umar have had a mercurial past with Pakistan, for various reasons, and the revival of their careers in Lahore at the expense of Fakhar Zaman and Haris Sohail drew surprise in some corners.

Umar last played a T20 for Pakistan three years ago, while Shehzad featured in T20Is last year before he was banned for a positive dope test. Both of them made their debuts 10 years ago and though they have made several comebacks, it seemed Pakistan had closed the door on them after they were dropped by not just one head coach (Waqar Younis) but two (Mickey Arthur)

On Saturday, in the T20 against Sri Lanka, Shehzad had a couple of close calls before he was bowled for 13 off 10. Umar bagged a golden duck, his ninth, and the most by a Pakistan cricketer.

ALSO READ: Should Pakistan worry about Sarfaraz Ahmed's form?

"If you talk about previous two [domestic] seasons, they were performers and they were again performers in the PSL," Sarfaraz said after Pakistan's 64-run defeat. "We are trying our fullest to give a complete chance to those who are brought back. There is nothing to worry. Both are experienced players and once they settle in, they will perform. So [I give] my full backing for them as a captain.

"Fakhar and Harris both have been part of the team for some time now," Sarfaraz added. "When we brought back Ahmed and Umar, we intended to make them play in their own positions. Had we played Fakhar, then Ahmed would have been made to play at one down. Me and [coach] Misbah bhai decided to try Ahmed as an opener. With our eyes on the World Cup, if Ahmed is able to settle himself at this [opening] number, we can never find a better player like him.

"Similar with Umar Akmal. We wanted to play him in his number and hence had to drop Harris, who we have seen and have no doubt about his ability. We played six new players in the side without thinking about winning or losing. We wanted to play them and give them confidence because for any player, making a comeback isn't really easy. You do come with performance in domestic but at the international level you take a few innings to get going."

In 2018, Pakistan had won 17 of the 19 T20s they played, including two massive winning streaks - nine matches between July and November and eight matches between January and July. The ICC rates them as the No. 1 side in the shortest format but they haven't quite shown it in 2019 with four losses in five games, including the latest to a second-string Sri Lankan side.

"No team in T20 format is considered weak and we knew on the day their team is strong and they have potential," Sarfaraz said. "They played better than us. They should be given credit but I still back my team. It was a bad day for us and we didn't play good cricket. We will come back and it's going to be more exciting for the spectators as they will get to see more tough cricket.

"Plus it isn't really easy to win all games but we did win 11 [9] games in a row. This is a different time. Some players are making a comeback and it is tough. And there are few who are in the team but trying to get settled. We have all players who are match winners and on their day they can win the game for the team single-handedly."

For a team that has lost a Test by a margin of more than 200 runs, South Africa seem unusually pleased with their performance against India in Vizag. Compare it to the way they played four years ago here, or even 15 months ago in Sri Lanka, and you will understand why.

Before Vizag, South Africa had lost four of their last five Tests in India, including a 3-0 defeat in 2015. Two of those three losses in that series came inside three days, with only the Delhi Test going the distance. South Africa's batting line-up was befuddled by the conditions and opposition spinners as they looked a shadow of the outfit that won in Sri Lanka in 2014 and drew in India in 2010.

After Vizag, South Africa have lost six of their last seven Tests in the subcontinent but they went down fighting. They scored over 400 in the first innings, taking the match well into the fifth day. Two of their batsmen scored centuries and even though they teetered on 70 for 8 in the second innings, they did not crash and burn until the penultimate session of the match. The overall assessment was to take "a lot of confidence" from their efforts and to pat themselves on the back for showing they had learnt lessons and improved from previous trips.

"I'm really proud of the first innings, the way that we batted. That was a real line in the sand for us as a team," Faf du Plessis said. "We've got a lot of confidence in our dressing room because of what happened in the first innings. Dean scored a great 160 and Quinny as well - a great combination of attack and defence. Certainly from the last time we were here, it was tough but we grew as a batting unit and the experience that we got from that tour. I am hoping that the lessons we learnt there will show us we can score runs and compete."

While there is still ample to work to be done among the less experienced players, such as Aiden Markram and Thenis de Bruyn, and questions continue to lurk over when Temba Bavuma will add to his lone Test century, runs are not the only thing South Africa need to challenge their hosts. They were unable to bowl India out in either innings and the composition and quality of their attack will come under scrutiny ahead of the next Test.

South Africa made the bold call of using all three frontline spinners in their squad, though two of them - Dane Piedt and debutant Senuran Muthusamy - appeared to be more useful as batsmen. They chose their senior seamers Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada but Philander's lack of pace reduced him to a containing role and Rabada was unable to make anything happen even when variable bounce came into play. While hindsight may have called on Lungi Ngidi or Anrich Nortje for extra pace, du Plessis is unsure they would have made a difference.

"It was difficult to try and slow the game down. We were bowling a lot of spin so the pace of play was really fast. And when you've got momentum, which they had at that stage, it just felt like it was really difficult to stop. From a combination point of view, it's difficult to say.

"Apart from today, seamers didn't play that much of a role in this Test match. They played a holding role in the first four days. Whether an extra seamer would have made a difference, I am not sure. But definitely day five, we saw that there was huge value in the seam, the up and down, but it is something for us to consider moving into the next Test match."

Du Plessis expects surfaces to turn more in Pune and Ranchi which will leave South Africa with the same conundrum. He has faith his premier slower bowler, Keshav Maharaj, is due something special as the series goes on.

"On wickets that offer a little bit more spin he is just as good as any of the spinners in the Indian team."

Du Plessis was also impressed by Muthusamy's resolve in scoring an unbeaten 33 and 49 in the match.

"You can see technically he is very sound against spin which is something he has worked really hard on. Obviously he bowls a bit as well so that helps. Batting in that No.7 or No.8 position is always something we are looking for as a team. He batted with real maturity in both innings and is making it hard for us to leave him out of the second Test. He is putting the numbers on the scoreboard which is what we want."

All that suggests that Piedt may be the man to miss out as South Africa look to pick a player who can bolster their ability to take wickets without compromising the length of the line-up.

Neither Ngidi nor Nortje fits that role exactly, which will place extra responsibility on Philander, Muthusamy and Maharaj with the bat, but that is the price South Africa have to pay for not having a steady supply of seam-bowling allrounders anymore.

"If we leave out an allrounder then our batting becomes weaker, If we play an extra batter when we don't have enough bowling resources. Someone like Keshav can bowl a lot of overs so he can block up an end the whole day, similar to what Ashwin does with India," du Plessis explained.

"It's about finding the balance, which is our best wicket-taking options. But also, you definitely need to have one element of control in the subcontinent. You can't just have guys running and bowl in fast but not hitting the stumps consistently. Those are the conversation that we will have."

Before South Africa look that far ahead, du Plessis wants the team to concentrate on something entirely different: heads pace. Rather than obsess over technique or team-combination, he wants his men to take the positives from their first innings and put a poor day five at Vizag behind them as they attempt to win a Test on the subcontinent for the first time in five years.

"That will be a big thing for us a team - that we focus on our strong our heads can be. There's not much that you can do in the nets over the next two days to be strong in that next Test match. It's about mentally how we are able to put away the last day that we didn't play well and make sure we are ready to come back for the next, hungry to put in a big performance.

World number one Novak Djokovic beat John Millman to mark his return from injury by winning the Japan Open.

The 31-year-old won 6-3 6-2 in the final in Tokyo to claim a fourth title of the year and a 76th of his career.

It was the Serb's first tournament since he withdrew from the US Open in September with a shoulder injury.

Djokovic needed just 70 minutes to see off 30-year-old Australian world number 80 Millman and did not drop a set throughout the tournament.