By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Justin Weaver may have started on the pole position, but he didn’t lead every lap and had to battle his way to victory to take the honors in winning the very competitive Late Model Sportsman portion of the Hub City 100.

The 3-time LMS track champion from Williamsport, Maryland had to battle Bunker Hill, West Virginia’s Andy Anderson early and often as Anderson took the lead at the start and the second lap.

On the third circuit, Weaver drove his familiar No.2j back around Anderson’s Bruce Kane owned No.25 to lead before a caution for the broken driveshaft of Dan Zechman brought the first of two immediate caution flags.

The next caution happened on the restart as a five car pileup brought the field back on the yellow flag.

Once the feature resumed, Anderson passed Weaver to regain the lead coming off the second corner to lead the fourth lap. Anderson held off Weaver until near the halfway point before the pair swapped the lead at laps 15 and 16.

As they approached traffic, they stayed side-by-side for a few more laps before Weaver nosed past Anderson to lead the twentieth lap. Weaver was then able to place a distance of a quarter straightaway over Anderson, and maintained that distance through heavier traffic until the checkered flag flew at Lap 35.

The win was worth $2,000 and was Weaver’s 28^th LMS career win.

“Yeah, he (Anderson) was pretty good there in the beginning, and I knew we had a good piece. I didn’t know if I had a good enough piece to get back by him, but we kept working that bottom…..It just all worked out. I think Andy wore his stuff out there at the end, and we just had a good piece at the end”, Weaver stated in victory lane.

Finishing behind Anderson in third was Dillan Stake, while Spike Moore and Marvin Winters made up the top five.

The 25 lap Pure Stock featured numerous battles for the lead with several lead changes amongst a few drivers. But it began with a quick caution for the spun car of Wayne Hawbaker that setup a complete restart.

That restart came at a cost to eight competitors in a massive pileup coming to the green flag that led to red flag and lengthy delay to clear the wreckage. All those involved were uninjured.

Craig Parrill lead the way for five laps before yielding the position to Jasen Geesaman. Geesaman was strong as Parrill faded back, while Rob Nichols entered the picture. Nichols battled past Parrill on Lap 9 into second place, then Jeremy Tinsman made his presence known.

Tinsman worked his way around Michael Warrenfeltz and Geesaman into second, and was hounding Nichols for the lead before Parrill stopped on the track in turn four to bring out the caution on Lap 17.

On the restart, Nichols passed Geesaman to lead Lap 18, and another caution flag waved. Geeseman then lost a few spots as this put Tinsman on the hunt for Nichols.

With just three laps to go, Tinsman passed Nichols, then Nichols returned the favor racing door-to-door to reclaim the lead briefly before breaking with two laps remaining.

This put Jason Stoner on Tinsman the final restart with a side by side battle to the finish with Tinsman taking the win by just a car length in a thrilling finish.

Warrenfeltz  held on to third, while Joshua Bloom quietly came from mid-pack to take fourth, and Hawbaker made up for his earlier miscue to finish fifth.

The Hobby Stock nightcap will be best remembered for the finish as two young drivers battled for the same piece of real estate coming to the checkered flag reminiscent of Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch in 2003 at Darlington Raceway.

Last week’s winner Brady Daniels took the lead from Tom Caravello on the fifth lap, and led at the tenth lap when a caution flag setup the last five laps and a wild finish.

Codey Breeden, driving a borrowed car moved into second, and began his chase of Daniels. With a lap to go, Breeden closed in Daniels’ bumper. Coming to the checkered flag, Breeden got underneath Daniels off of turn four, and made contact enough that squeezed Daniels into the outside wall and enough to squeak by to claim his first career win.

Cody Sumption, Sam Caravello, and Kevin Boyer completed the top five.

Notes: Another great turnout of entries in the pit area for the Hub City 100 showed up as there were 53 Late Model Sportsman, 29 Pure Stocks, and 24 Hobby Stocks in action.

Weaver set fast time with a lap of 19.380 seconds in LMS time trials. Unofficially, practice times in hot laps eclipsed the official track record lap times in the LMS and PS divisions.

It was a typical “full moon” night that was long, but saw plenty of action. However, because of an impending curfew time, track officials made the decision to cut the laps of the LMS and HS features to 35 and 15 laps from 50 and 25 laps, respectively.

Feature Results

Late Model Sportsman –  1. 2J-Justin Weaver[1]; 2. 25-Andy Anderson[2]; 3. D19-Dillan Stake[4]; 4. 48W-Greg Moore[3]; 5. 88-Marvin Winters[8]; 6. 74-Derick Quade[5]; 7. 21-Chad Myers[19]; 8. 23-Tyler Emory[7]; 9. 33K-Devin Hart[9]; 10. 82-Andy Fries[16]; 11. 86-Scott Palmer[10]; 12. 43-Cody Kershner[11]; 13. 44-Shawn Shoemaker[17]; 14. 6D-Wayne Dillman[21]; 15. 08-Keith Koontz[12]; 16. 92-Walter Crouch[22]; 17. 15K-Bruce Kane[18]; 18. 72D-Dale Murphy[24]; 19. 5X-Brad Omps[23]; 20. 88X-Devin Weyandt[6]; 21. 48-Donnie Farlling[14]; 22. 8-James Lichliter[13]; 23. 2-Dan Zechman[15]; 24. 33T-Trent Brenneman[20]

Pure Stock – 8-Jeremy Tinsman[8]; 2. 21-Jason Stoner[3]; 3. 55-Michael Warrenfeltz[1]; 4. 00-Joshua Bloom[7]; 5. 6-Wayne Hawbaker[18]; 6. 28-Ethan Ours[19]; 7. 83-Bryan Kerns[21]; 8. 11-Dylan Rutherford[11]; 9. 3J-Jerry Jenkins Jr[14]; 10. 54-Delmer Grady[24]; 11. 7N-Rob Nichols[9]; 12. 81-Jasen Geesaman[4]; 13. 3W-Branson Woodward[5]; 14. 34C-Craig Parrill[2]; 15. 47-Anastasios Loizos[23]; 16. 129X-Jimmy Combs[6]; 17. 21W-Will Walls[13]; 18. 65-Dillon Wilson[10]; 19. S7-Kory Sites[12]; 20. 22-Jamey Swank[16]; 21. 19-Danny Atherton[15]; 22. 214-Kyle Sizemore[20]; 23. 2-Randy Zechman[17]; 24. 69-Dwayne Snyder[22]

Hobby Stock – 1. 03-Codey Breeden[6]; 2. 76-Brady Daniels[3]; 3. 20-Cody Sumption[9]; 4. 41-Sam Caravello[4]; 5. 22-Kevin Boyer[5]; 6. 100-Dalton Dillman[12]; 7. 38M-Matt Mellott[13]; 8. 15-Scot Sipes[15]; 9. 17-Randy Linaburg[2]; 10. 04-Dakota Moreland[18]; 11. ZR1-Zack Reid[16]; 12. 45-John Catlett[19]; 13. 28-Brad Umbrell[14]; 14. 62-Dylan Beavers[11]; 15. 141-Tom Caravello[1]; 16. 75-Justin Rosenberger[8]; 17. 00-Charles Noblitt[10]; 18. 19-Mike Fuller[7]; 19. (DNS) 12LC-Laura Chamberlain; 20. (DNS) 5-Charlie Clise; 21. (DNS) 64-William Crook; 22. (DNS) 51-Seth Jones; 23. (DNS) 03-Craig Kline; 24. (DNS) 0-Jamie Mills

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Kyle Lee drove from his seventh-place start to the Super Late Model victory in an exciting 73^rd season opener at Hagerstown Speedway. It was the third career SLM win for the former track champion out of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania behind the wheel of his D & D Auto Recycling No.2t.

Nick Dickson and Andy Anderson paced the field at the start, with Anderson taking the top spot on the backstretch to lead the first circuit. While Anderson and Dickson were out front, Trever Feathers quickly moved into third from his fourth row start.

Anderson had a five car length advantage over Dickson in the Bruce Kane Racing No.25 by the tenth lap, and raced into traffic by the halfway mark. By this point, Feathers began hounding Dickson for second place, and then Lee entered into the fold moving past Feathers.

A caution for debris erased Anderson’s lead and setup a wild restart on Lap 17. Anderson’s car didn’t fire off the corner well on the restart. Dickson regained the top position for a lap while a four car battle jumbled off of turn two for third.

Logan Roberson moved from sixth to third, and then Lee moved around Dickson for the lead the next lap before the caution waved for Anderson, who went pitside.

On the final restart of the 25 lap main event, Lee charged away from Dickson and Roberson as Feathers moved in to second over the last few laps. But Feathers couldn’t mount a serious challenge as Lee drove away to victory.

“The fans come to see a race and I think that’s what they seen”, said Lee in his winner’s interview with Richard Newcomer. “I know everybody’s anxious to come out and watch the races, and I was anxious to get back to a local track. The track was great tonight. It’s the raciest I’ve seen Hagerstown in a long time, and I hope it’s a good start to the year”.

Dickson was third, followed by Roberson, and Justin Weaver rounded out the top five.

Brady Daniels resumed his winning ways in picking up the first Hobby Stock feature win of the 2020 season. It was his fourth career win.

Daniels picked up the lead on Lap 9, passing pole sitter Cody Sumption, who led the opening laps of the 15 lap feature event.

Tom Caravello also passed Sumption into second place on Lap 9, and battled Daniels briefly for the lead, but the recent high school graduate from Harrisonvile, Pennsylvania held Caravello off the rest of the way.

Sumption finished third in his Ford Thunderbird amongst a field of GM products. Finishing fourth and fifth were Andrew Fertig and Codey Breeden.

Joey Zambotti repeated opening night wins as he made the long tow from Kittanning, Pennsylvania worth the trip to score his seventh career triumph at Hagerstown in the15 lap Pure Stock feature. Zambotti dominated the race, but had to hold off Michael Warrenfeltz on a late race restart to take the win.

They were followed by Dylan Rutherford, Randy Zechman, and Wayne Hawbaker at the finish.

Notes: A great turnout of cars showed in the pit area, and a great show of support in the grandstands was on hand for the season opener.

Each feature winner respectively won their qualifying heat race, but neither of them started on the pole.

Daniels and Zambotti each earned guaranteed starts in next weekend’s Hub City 100.

Kenny Moreland had a great drive in the SLM feature to finish seventh after winning the B-main to earn the 19^th spot on the feature grid. Numerous drivers made advances from their starting spots proving how good the racing and track conditions were.

Feature Results

Super Late Models –  1. 2T-Kyle Lee[7]; 2. 20-Trever Feathers[6]; 3. 17D-Nick Dickson[1]; 4. 17-Logan Roberson[8]; 5. 41-Justin Weaver[10]; 6. 46-Marvin Winters[5]; 7. 24-Kenny Moreland[19]; 8. 4-Gary Stuhler[11]; 9. 05-Roy Deese Jr[9]; 10. 14-Tyler Horst[14]; 11. 86X-Austin Berry[4]; 12. 11B-Brian Booze[13]; 13. 2-Dan Zechman[15]; 14. 21-Chad Myers[3]; 15. 8F-Taylor Farlling[20]; 16. D19-Dillon Stake[17]; 17. 08-Keith Koontz[23]; 18. 11-Kirk Baker[12]; 19. 8-Matt Sponaugle[16]; 20. 48-Donnie Farlling[21]; 21. 93-Cory Lawler[24]; 22. 25-Andy Anderson[2]; 23. 86-Scott Palmer[22]; 24. (DNS) 13D-Jonathan DeHaven

Pure Stock – 1. 948-Joey Zambotti III[4]; 2. 55-Michael Warrenfeltz[2]; 3. 11-Dylan Rutherford[10]; 4. 2-Randy Zechman[8]; 5. 6-Wayne Hawbaker[9]; 6. 28-Ethan Ours[19]; 7. 83-Bryan Kerns[11]; 8. 00-Joshua Bloom[15]; 9. 21-Jason Stoner[3]; 10. 65-Dillon Wilson[13]; 11. 34C-Craig Parrill[5]; 12. 19M-Bobby Meixsell[12]; 13. 19-Danny Atherton[1]; 14. 7N-Rob Nichols[20]; 15. 69-Dwayne Snyder[23]; 16. 3J-Jerry Jenkins Jr[7]; 17. 3W-Branson Woodward[16]; 18. 62-Danny Beavers Jr[21]; 19. 88-Khi Swanger[22]; 20. 47-Tike Loizos[24]; 21. 15-Michael Carter[14]; 22. S7-Kory Sites[6]; 23. 70-Bobby Franklin[17]; 24. 56-Gregory Laird[18]

Hobby Stock – 1. 76-Brady Daniels[5]; 2. 141-Tom Caravello[4]; 3. 20-Cody Sumption[1]; 4. 10-Andrew Fertig[2]; 5. 14-Codey Breeden[8]; 6. 100-Dalton Dillman[3]; 7. 45-John Catlett[15]; 8. 5-Charlie Clise[7]; 9. 41-Sam Caravello[17]; 10. 64-William Crook[21]; 11. 28-Kyle Deneen[16]; 12. 04-Dakota Moreland[20]; 13. 39-Dalton Ritchey[14]; 14. 16B-Bryce Broadwater[18]; 15. 62-Dylan Beavers[19]; 16. 9-Jason Wilkins[6]; 17. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain[13]; 18. ZR1-Zack Reid[10]; 19. 00-Charles Noblitt[22]; 20. 19-Mike Fuller[9]; 21. (DNS) 03-Joe Rodgers; 22. (DNS) 12-Chad Brill; 23. (DNS) 11M-Gene Miller