By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Attrition under a full moon dominated the 13^th-annual Small Car Nationals at Hagerstown Speedway, but setting the cautions and red flags aside, fans were treated to some excellent multiple groove racing throughout the night.

Cody Kershner powered past Spike Moore to lead the first lap of the 30 lap Late Model Sportsman portion of the SCN and led the first 19 laps through traffic up high and low, swapping grooves as Moore was in pursuit.

Following a restart, Moore slipped past Kershner into the lead right before another caution came out two laps later.

Going into Turn One following that restart, a multiple car melee and pileup took out over half of the field. All drivers were OK, but all cars weren’t. Moore was able to survive the final restart and pull away from Kershner to take the win.

Robbie Emory finished third, followed by Shaun Miller and Troy Miller in the top five.

Danny Atherton led the way early in the 25 lap Pure Stock feature, but fortunes turned against him after the halfway point after leading at times by over half of a straightway. Following a restart after Lap 17, Rob Nichols slid under Atherton coming off of Turn 2 to take the lead, and took the preferred fast line up top that Atherton was using to his advantage.

The final caution on Lap 19 setup a restart that put Jonathan DeHaven on the rear bumper of Atherton. DeHaven aggressively drove into the rear of Atherton, sending him into a spin that ultimately put Atherton on his roof.

DeHaven was immediately black flagged and disqualified for rough driving. Atherton was uninjured.

Over the last five laps, Nichols battled side by side with Michael Warrenfeltz, but was able to hold off Warrenfeltz to take the win.

Dylan Rutherford finshed third, Jeremy Tinsman brought his battered machine from the rear to finish fourth, and Craig Parrill survived the attrition from his 21^st place start to finish fifth.

A wild Hobby Stock feature event marred by multiple cautions was won by Ryan Leister after numerous side by side battles for the lead. Leister battled Ray Rothfuss early and often over the course of 25 laps, but was able to pull away towards the end to take the win.

Dustin Hoffman, Brady daniels, and Kevin Thomas completed the top five.

The Mid Atlantic Modifieds provided the nightcap with a 20 lap feature event, and racing legend Ken Schrader scored the victory.

Carl McKinney initially took the lead from his pole position before Schrader made a bold move up high coming off of turn two to take the lead on the third lap. Schrader led the next few circuits before a caution bunched the field back up for a restart.

McKinney regained the lead briefly before the duo exchanged sliders for a few laps, and then Schrader took the point for good. Schrader had to survive a one lap shootout after the last restart to pick up the popular win.

McKinney held on to second, while Ray Kable, Cody Williams, and Brad Kling rounded out the top five.

Feature Results

Late Model Sportsman (30 Laps)– 1. 48W-Greg Moore, [1]; 2. 43-Cody Kershner, [2]; 3. 9E-Robbie Emory, [3]; 4. 115s –Shaun Miller, [5]; 5. 115-Troy Miller, [8]; 6. 8F-Taylor Farlling, [10]; 7. 48-Donnie Farlling,[20]; 8. 92-Frankie Gordon, [13]; 9. 44-Shawn Shoemaker, [21]; 10. 88C-Chuck Cox III,[16]; 11. 16-Doug Jones, [18]; 12. 24-Daulton Bigler, [17]; 13. 18A-Dustin Arnold,[24]; 14. 74-Derick Quade, [6]; 15. 88-Marvin Winters, [19]; 16. 8-James Lichliter,[7]; 17. 08-Keith Koontz, [11]; 18. 86-Scott Palmer, [4]; 19. 01-Jim McBee,[15]; 20. 88X-Devin Weyandt, [9]; 21. 28Z-Ryan Zook, [14]; 22. 2-Dan Zechman,[12]; 23. 85-Rodney Walls, [22]; 24. D34-Curtis Dunn, [23]

Pure Stock (25 Laps)– 1. 7-Rob Nichols, [8]; 2. 12-Michael Warrenfeltz, [7]; 3. 11-Dylan Rutherford, [11]; 4. 8-Jeremy Tinsman, [6]; 5. 34C-Craig Parrill,[21]; 6. 57H-TJ Henry, [18]; 7. 2-Randy Zechman, [9]; 8. 3J-Richard Hawkins, [24]; 9. 33-Curtis Lawton, [15]; 10. 75-Marshall McMullen, [13]; 11. X99-Chris Heller, [16]; 12. 44-Charles Rupert, [22]; 13. 19-Danny Atherton, [1]; 14. 88-Brian Weyandt, [17]; 15. 12K-Bryan Kerns, [25]; 16. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [19]; 17. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [5]; 18. 65-Dillon Wilson, [4]; 19. 56-Gregory Laird, [14]; 20. 81J-Jamie Zentmyer, [12]; 21. 3W-Dickie Tharp, [20]; 22. 47-Tike Loizos, [23]; DNS -Joshua Bloom, Mike Desch, DQ –Jonathan DeHaven

Hobby Stock (25 Laps)– 1. 14L-Ryan Leister, [5]; 2. 17-Ray Rothfuss, [1]; 3. 7-Dustin Hoffman, [4]; 4. 76-Brady Daniels, [7]; 5. 03-Kevin Thomas, [2]; 6. 19-Mike Fuller, [3]; 7. 0-Jamie Mills,[14]; 8. 100-Dalton Dillman, [11]; 9. 41-Sam Caravello, [21]; 10. 141-Tom Caravello,[9]; 11. 53-Gregory Morgan, [13]; 12. 14-Codey Breeden, 16]; 13. 99-Hilton Pickeral, [25]; 14. 10-Drew Fertig, [27]; 15. 20-Jeremy Zufall, [17]; 16. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [12]; 17. 35-James Mongan, [22]; 18. 66*-Chet Morris, [20]; 19. 21H-Travis Horan, [6]; 20. 57-Billy Ecton Jr., [26]; 21. 117-Kevin Imes, [15]; 22. 28M-Miranda Minium,[23]; 23. 38M-Matt Mellott, [8]; 24. 52-Ron Benton, [18]; 25. 64-William Crook,[19]; 26. 27-Davey Gross Jr., [10], DNS-John Catlett

Mid Atlantic Modifieds (20 Laps)– 1. 9-Ken Schrader, [2]; 2. 90-Ray Kable, [6]; 3. 6M-Carl McKinney, [1]; 4. 41-Cody Williams, [23]; 5. 11-Brad Kling, [4]; 6. 25-Mike Corbin, [11]; 7. 1$-Dale Smith, [17]; 8. 95J-Justin Cullum, [15]; 9. 7+7-Jeff Solinger, [9]; 10. 55-Alyssa Rowe,[7]; 11. 21H-Kyle Lloyd, [13]; 12. 7H-Josh Hughes, [19]; 13. 0-Haley Kaiser, [12]; 14. 17-Andy Bosley, [24]; 15. 26XJames Sparks, [22]; 16. 80-Keith Reed, [16]; 17. 19-Jacob White, [25]; 18. 2-Michael Pappas, [10]; 19. 44-Frank DiBella, [18]; 20. 8M-Jeffrey McCauley, [14]; 21. 12S-Rusty Pennington, [27]; 22. 5-Jerry Foster, [8]; 23. 13G-David Green, [28]; 24. 26D-Derek Deusenberry, [3]; 25. 76-Ryan Hackett, [29]; 26. 85-Chuckie Johnson, [21]; 27. 59-Doug Stine, [5]; 28. 07-Charlie Summers, [20]; DNS -Matt Wallace

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Jason Covert picked up a big win at Hagerstown Speedway in the first running of the Tex Shaffer Memorial/Turn 5 Turnaround Summer Championship sanctioned by the Ultimate Northeast Super Late Model Series.

Covert picked up $5,046 for his efforts in the 46 lap feature event in honor of the car number of the longtime race team owner. It was his 19^th career win at the Hub City half-mile.

Covert shared the front row outside of pole sitter Jamie Lathroum, but didn’t take the lead until pulling off a slide job coming out of turn two on the ninth lap.

Covert began working traffic on Lap 13. Kyle Lee had just moved around Roy Deese, Jr. , and Alex Ferree into third on Lap 17, when a caution flag waved for Lathroum who was stopped from a flat right rear tire a lap later.

Lee inherited second, and followed Covert from the Delaware-style restart while keeping the leader within sight. Just past the halfway point, Covert was running the cushion through lapped traffic while Lee was working the bottom and top groove to reel in Covert’s lead.

With just ten laps remaining, Lee was within a couple car lengths of Covert before a slight bobble in turn four cost him some momentum.

Covert was able to maintain his distance the rest of the way toward the checkered flag.

A jubilant Covert climbed from his Cameron-Mann No.72 in victory lane, and said: “This is for Tex Shaffer. I came here when I was a kid, and that 46 car was here a lot longer than what I’ve been alive. Just the memory of him, and thanks for all of the fans for coming out. I hope we put on a little bit of show there.”

Lee’s right rear tire went flat just as he crossed the checkered flag to finish second, while Trever Feathers made a late pass of Deese to finish third, and Jared Miley recovered from a spin that brought out a caution and sent him to restart in the rear before the first lap was completed to finish fifth.

After a few cautions and restarts resulting in a green/white/checkered finish, Joey Zambotti returned to Hagerstown Speedway after a lengthy absence and picked up his sixth Pure Stock feature win of the season after leading the whole distance from his outside front row starting spot.

Zambotti beat 2019 track champion Danny Atherton into the corner of turn one and never looked back to claim the $1,000 top prize.

Atherton battled third and fourth place finishers Dillon Wilson and Craig Parrill throughout most of the 15 lap event, while Jonathan DeHaven made a cameo appearance to round out the top five.

Brady Daniels came from ninth, and survived the attrition to take his third Hobby Stock feature win of the season. Davey Gross was second, followed by Sam Caravello, Gene Miller, and Mike Fuller.

Daniels picked up $500 for the win.

Notes: Alex Ferree set quick time over the 22 car field with a best lap of 18.101 seconds. Heat race winners were Covert, Deese, Jr., and Matt Cosner.

With some fresh clay added about a month ago to the racing surface, the track yielded some excellent multiple groove racing with three-wide action racing in all three divisions all night long.

Lee came from 9^th, and Feathers came from 10^th place starts to each claim podium finishes.

Hagerstown Speedway is off the next couple of weekends before the Small Car Nationals on September 13-14.

Feature Results

Super Late Models (46 Laps) – 1. 72C-Jason Covert, [2]; 2. 2T-Kyle Lee, [9]; 3. 20-Trever Feathers, [10]; 4. 05-Roy Deese Jr., [4]; 5. 10-Jared Miley, [5]; 6. 44-Gary Stuhler, [13]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner, [3]; 8. 46-Marvin Winters, [11]; 9. 4-Alex Ferree, [6]; 10. 41-Andy Anderson, [8]; 11. 32J-Shaun Jones, [16]; 12. 8-Matt Sponaugle, [12]; 13. 21-Chad Myers, [15]; 14. 43-Cody Kershner, [22]; 15. 45-Jamie Lathroum, [1]; 16. 08-Keith Koontz, [21]; 17. 86-Scott Palmer, [14]; 18. 5-Brad Omps, [19]; 19. 48-Colton Flinner, [7]; 20. 11-Kirk Baker, [17]; 21. 85-Rodney Walls, [18]; 22. 2J-Justin Weaver, [20]

Pure Stock (15 Laps)– 1. 948-Joey Zambotti, [2]; 2. 19-Danny Atherton, [1]; 3. 65-Dillon Wilson, [5]; 4. 34C-Craig Parrill, [3]; 5. 54-Jonathan DeHaven, [6]; 6. 59X-Ryan Smith, [8]; 7. 11-Dylan Rutherford, [13]; 8. 72M-Russel Shoop, [17]; 9. 75-Marshall McMullen, [4]; 10. 94-Zachary Myers, [7]; 11. 15-Ricky Feltner, [10]; 12. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [12]; 13. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [11]; 14. 56-Gregory Laird, [14]; 15. 47-Tike Loizos, [15]; 16. 59-Mike Desch, [9]; 17. 7-Rob Nichols, [19]; 18. 2-Randy Zechman, [16] DNS-Charles Rupert

Hobby Stock (15 Laps) – 1. 76-Brady Daniels, [9]; 2. 27-Davey Gross Jr., [3]; 3. 41-Sam Caravello, [12]; 4. 11M-Gene Miller, [1]; 5. 19-Mike Fuller, [5]; 6. 0-Jamie Mills, [4]; 7. 14-Codey Breeden, [15]; 8. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [11]; 9. X53-Gregory Morgan, [8]; 10. 35-James Mongan, [14]; 11. 2-Preston Imler, [18]; 12. 10-Drew Fertig, [7]; 13. 64-William Crook, [13]; 14. 75-Bradley Vaughn, [16]; 15. 03-Kevin Thomas, [2]; 16. 141-Tom Caravello, [10]; 17. 00-Charles Noblitt,[6]DNS- Andy Lufkin, Scot Sipes

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Freddie Rahmer picked up the win in exciting fashion during the third edition of the Johnny Grum Memorial on Thursday night’s seventh round of Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek at Hagerstown Speedway.

Robbie Kendall and Lucas Wolfe paced the field from the front row, and Kendall beat Wolfe into turn one and off of turn two to take the lead.

Kendall quickly drove his No. 55k into lapped traffic on the sixth circuit before a Lap 7 caution waved for the stopped car of Brandon Rahmer in turn one.

On the restart, Kendall repeated his original start, beating Wolfe and the field again to remain the race leader. At the halfway point, Kendall led Wolfe by a 1.63 second margin and once again was working through lapped traffic while rim-riding the top groove of the Hub City oval.

Just a few laps later, Wolfe worked the bottom groove underneath Kendall to take the lead coming off of turn two on Lap 19. As Wolfe was leading, a four-car battle for second began between the cars of Kendall, Cory Eliason, Danny Dietrich, and Freddie Rahmer.

Rahmer made the best of the battle, settling into second and began his chase of Wolfe on Lap 23, and worked the low groove to pass Wolfe for the lead on Lap 24.

From then, Rahmer looked poised to pull away until a Lap 28 caution waved for the spun car of Brock Zearfoss on the backstretch.

This setup a two-lap dash to the finish, but Rahmer was too strong at the end, and took the checkered flag.

The win for the Salfordville, Pennsylvania driver in his Leffler Energy No.51 was the first of his career at Hagerstown.

“I don’t know how good I was at the end, but it was good enough to hold them off. It’s pretty cool to get my first win at Hagerstown.  I always love coming here. I wish we could race here more. The track flows perfect for Sprint Cars and Late Models. It’s all good racing.”, praised Rahmer in victory lane.

Wolfe held onto second, followed by Eliason, Dietrich, and fifth-place finisher Anthony Macri.

The win put Rahmer into the points lead at the time for the PA Sprint Speedweek championship with two races remaining.

Notes: 22 cars signed into the pit area on the July 4^th holiday race. Notably absent was Lance Dewease, whose team elected to take the night off. Dewease’s streak of three consecutive wins at Hagerstown came to an end.

Rico Abreu set quick time with a lap of 15.601 seconds, falling short of Mark Kinser’s pre-weight limit best of 14.945 set back in 1999.

Heats were won by Wolfe, Dietrich, and Kendall.

Feature Results

410 Sprints (30 Laps) – 1. Freddie Rahmer, 2. Lucas Wolfe, 3. Cory Eliason, 4. Danny Dietrich, 5. Anthony Macri, 6. James McFadden, 7. Rico Abreu, 8. Robbie Kendall, 9. Dylan Cisney, 10. Logan Wagner, 11. Tony Stewart, 12. T.J. Stutts, 13. Mike Wagner, 14. Chad Trout, 15. Jared Esh, 16. A.J. Flick, 17. Justin Whitall, 18, Brock Zearfoss, 19. Troy Fraker, 20. Chase Dietz, 21. Carl Bowser, 22. Brandon Rahmer