By Brett Rose
HAGERSTOWN, MD – Jason Covert held off a hard charging Gregg Satterlee over the final half of the 40 lap portion of the Hub City 100 to pick up a victory in the Ultimate Northeast Super Late Model Series season finale at Hagerstown Speedway. The York Haven, Pa. pilot of the Cameron-Mann No.72 Rocket scored his first UNSLMS win of the season, and first with the series.
Covert inherited the lead after the ninth circuit as pole sitter and race leader Kyle Lee spun while entering lapped traffic. Covert had to contend with the challenges of Allen Brannon and Satterlee before settling with the lead after a 3-way battle for the top spot.
Covert survived a few restarts as Satterlee valiantly tried to get by, but to no avail. Covert drove on to the win, worth $5,000.
“Well, there was ten to fifteen cars here that could’ve won tonight with no issue. Competition is tougher now than it has ever been, I’m just tickled to win a race”, said Covert in his winner’s interview.
Following Covert at the finish were Satterlee, Dylan Yoder, 2018 UNSLMS champion Jared Miley, and Brannon.
During time trials, Satterlee shattered the track record turning a lap of 17.089 seconds that computes to an average speed of about 110 mph around the Hub City half-mile.
2018 Late Model Sportsman track champion and Mason Dixon Shootout Series point leader Justin Weaver powered past fellow front row starter Michael Walls off of turn two to take the lead on the first lap, and never looked back the rest of the way to take the 25 lap win worth $2,000.
As Weaver wandered through traffic, the action was heavy behind him as Cody Kershner and Ralph Morgan battled for second place. Morgan briefly settled into second, but he jumped the cushion in turn four, allowing Kershner to move to within five car lengths of Weaver’s lead.
That advantage was wiped out with a final caution that setup a two lap dash to the finish, but Weaver was too strong on the restart and went on to the victory.
Kershner, Morgan, Frankie Gordon, and Shaun Jones completed the top five.
Dillon Wilson picked up the 20 lap Pure Stock feature after a spirited battle for the lead that saw several exchanges for the top spot.
Bob Egley and Mike Desch paced the field at the start, but Jamey Swank quickly entered into the foray for the lead as he moved around Desch for second place, and around Egley for the lead on Lap 2. Swank and Egley battled side by side, and Egley was the leader at the halfway point.
Swank reclaimed the lead on lap 13 after a restart, but a caution a lap later bunched up the field and setup a series of cautions in the closing laps. Within those restarts, Wilson put himself into position to challenge for the lead and passed Swank on Lap 16.
Wilson survived one final restart as the leader, and withstood a shuffling of positions behind him to take the $500 winner’s check.
Jamie Zentmyer came through at the end to finish second, while Swank, Egley, and Doug Hoffman finished fifth.
Jamie Mills put $500 in his pocket, winning the 15 Hobby Stock feature that was caution-marred, using caution laps to count toward the time-shortened affair. He was followed at the finish by Drew Fertig, Brady Daniels, Dylan Rutherford, and Chuckie Johnson.
Notes: 146 race cars overfilled the pit area as over 20 teams had to be parked outside the track near the quarter midget facility.
17 cars timed quicker than the former SLM track record of 17.866 seconds that was set by Kenny Moreland in August. Dylan Yoder first broke the mark with a 17.201 before Satterlee cranked out his lap to reset the record on the very fast track surface.
Covert’s win came at the final SLM appearance of the season at Hagerstown, just as it did in 2017.
Justin Weaver pulled double duty racing in both the UNSLMS and MDSS feature events. The MDSS winner also pulled a solid 7th place finish in one of his few starts in the Coleman No.72 SLM.
Feature Results
UNSLMS – 1. Jason Covert, 2. Gregg Satterlee, 3. Dylan Yoder, 4. Jared Miley, 5. Allen Brannon, 6. Kyle Hardy, 7. Justin Weaver, 8. Trever Feathers, 9. Kyle Lee, 10. Matt Cosner, 11. Ross Robinson, 12. Darryl Hills, 13. Steve Axtell Jr., 14. Scott Palmer, 15. Kirk Baker, 16. Tyler Bare, 17. Roy Deese Jr., 18. Andy Anderson, 19. Gene Knaub, 20. Mark Pettyjohn, 21. Dan Stone, 22. Kyle Lear, 23. Jamie Lathroum, 24. Ryan Montgomery
MDSS – 1. 2J-Justin Weaver, 2. 43-Cody Kershner, 3. 44X-Ralph Morgan Jr., 4. 92-Frankie Gordon, 5. 32J-Shaun Jones, 6. 99-Michael Walls, [1]; 7. 62-Devin Frey, 8. 42-Jim Yoder, 9. 2-Andrew Yoder, 10. 87-Billy Beachler, 11. 33K-Devin Hart, 12. 94-Jonathan DeHaven, 13. 48W-Greg Moore, 14. 000-Paul Cursey Jr., 15. 72D-Dale Murphy, 16. 22*-Ryan Sager, 17. 19W-Drew Weisser, 18. 11-Joe Westerman Jr., 19. 8-Taylor Farlling, 20. 1S-Brandon Seibert, 21. 88-Madaline Miller, 22. 48F-Donnie Farlling, 23. K20-Kadden Smith, 24. 12-Bobby Beard, 25. 21M-Matt Murphy, 26. 177-Brian Shuey, 27. 88D-Devin Weyandt, 28. 24X-Daulton Bigler
Pure Stock – 1. 65-Dillon Wilson, 2. 81J-Jamie Zentmyer, 3. 22-Jamey Swank, 4. 30-Bob Egley, 5. S7-Doug Hoffman, 6. 22X-Jesse Snyder, 7. 60-Phillip Childers, 8. 59-Mike Desch, 9. 2+2-Chris Ebersole, 10. 92-Jonathan Raley, 11. 19M-Bobby Meixsell, 12. 83-Bryan Kerns, 13. 2-Randy Zechman, 14. 27-Tom Wakefield, 15. 69-Dwayne Snyder, 16. 12-Michael Warrenfeltz, 17. 28-Ethan Ours, 18. 1X-Joey Harrison, 19. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, 20. 57H-TJ Henry DNS -Tony Catlett, Danny Atherton,
Hobby Stock – 1. 0-Jamie Mills, 2. 10-Drew Fertig, 3. 76-Brady Daniels, 4. 11-Dylan Rutherford, 5. 1J-Chuckie Johnson, 6. 44X-Chad Brill, 7. 2-Preston Imler, 8. 100%-Dalton Dillman, 9. 35-James Mongan, 10. 44-Bradley Nesline, 11. 52-Ron Benton, 12. 13-Jeffry Galvin, 13. 41-Sam Caravello, 14. 81M-Tyke Mussleman, 15. 19-Mike Fuller, 16. X1-Scot Sipes, 17. 8E-Andrew Stough, 18. 88E-Erik Weyandt, 19. 23-Danny Holmes, 20. 84-Andy Lufkin, 21. 66*-Chet Morris, 22. 7K-Michael Knight, 23. 16-Skylar Barnhart, 24. 03-Kevin Thomas, 25. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, 26. 25-Rodney Miner