By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – On a night when many legendary former drivers and car owners came out to Hagerstown Speedway to pay homage to the late Frank Sagi, a youthful Trever Feathers parked his No.20 machine in the winner’s circle for the second time this season in the 25 lap Super Late Model feature at Hagerstown Speedway.

The 24 year old from Winchester, Virginia rocketed from his fourth place start following an early restart to take the lead away from Bryan Bernheisel. Feathers remained in control of the top spot with last week’s winner Andy Anderson chasing him for the lead.

Feathers hit traffic on lap 11, and Anderson closed the gap some, but Feathers was able to keep Anderson at bay as he navigated through the traffic, and went on his way to the win.

In his winner’s interview with Danny Wilson, Feathers said: “You know, these guys spend a bunch of money on motors, and there’s Roger (Devenny) down in Staunton, Virginia that builds amazing power, but all my guys that come in there and spend their hard earned time and hard earned money to go racing with us, it’s amazing what we’ve been able to do so far.”

Anderson held on to second, while Bryan Bernheisel, Kyle Hardy, and Kenny Moreland completed the top five spots.

Bryan Bernheisel drove his No.119 BRC Lazer Chassis to the 20 lap Late Model Sportsman feature win. Bernheisel survived two multi-car pileups before the first lap was completed, and another caution following the first lap before moving up from his fourth place start to move around pole sitter Derick Quade to take the lead.

Bernheisel came into traffic around the halfway point, and that allowed Quade and Barry Miller to close in. As they maneuvered through the back of the field, Miller moved around Quade, then closed in on Bernheisel before the final caution waved with just four laps to go.

Bernheisel got a trememdous restart on Miller, and pulled away to the victory. Following Bernheisel and Miller was third place finisher Alan Sagi, Kyle Lear, and fifth-place finisher Quade.

Craig Parrill was victorious for the fifth consecutive race in the 15 lap Pure Stock feature event. Parrill started ninth, buzz sawed his way through the field, and passed race-long leader Brandon Churchey up on the high side with just four laps to go.

A caution a lap later setup a restart, but Parrill was able to drive away from Churchey to take the checkered flag. Frank DiBella was third, Sean Dawson was fourth, and Danny Atherton finished fifth.

Dylan Rutherford appeared to pick up his fourth Hobby Stock win of the 2017 season, as he led all 15 laps, but he was disqualified after the race. That handed the win to Davey Gross, Jr for his second win of the season.

James Speelman was credited with second, while Jamie Mills, Jeff Dillon, and Joe Rodgers rounded out the top five.

Notes:  A special thanks goes out to Alan Sagi for his tireless efforts and everyone else involved who promoted this grand night of racing. Many thanks go out to all of the racers, fans, sponsors, and former drivers and car owners, along with all of our current competitors that made this a grand event.

Thanks also go to promoter Doug Timmons for electing to bypass consolation races and start all cars in each feature event.

Bryan Bernheisel pulled double duty in racing two cars in both the SLM and LMS divisions. It was a good night with a win in the LMS feature and a third place run in the SLM.

Craig Parrill is in another zip code against the Pure Stock competition right now. Five straight wins, and six overall, yet he still follows point leader Sean Dawson.

Davey Gross, Jr. was very gracious in his winner’s interview. He’s a driver who is really passionate about racing, and wants to see the future of racing grow.

Feature Results:

Super Late Model – 1. Trever Feathers,  2. Andy Anderson, 3.Bryan Bernheisel, 4.Kyle Hardy, 5. Kenny Moreland,  6. 2T-Kyle Lee, 7.Marvin WInters, 8. Scott Palmer, 9. Gary Stuhler, 10. Reese Masiello,  11. Brian Booze, 12.Matt Cosner, 13. Roy Deese Jr., 14. Steve Axtell Jr., 15.Brian Tavenner, 16.Brad Omps, 17.Rodney Walls, 18. Tyler Emory, 19. Kirk Baker, 20. Matt Sponaugle, 21. Ryan Walls, 22. Devin Friese, 23. Mike Steck, 24. D.J. Myers,  25. Gene Knaub

Late Model Sportsman – 1.Bryan Bernheisel, 2. Barry Miller, 3. Alan Sagi, 4. Kyle Lear, 5. Derick Quade, 6.Justin Weaver, 7. James Lichliter, 8. Paul Cursey, Jr., 9. Donnie Farling, 10. Devin Hart, 11. Ryan Walls, 12. Andrew Yoder, 13. Curtis Dunn, 14. Kenneth Yoder, 15. Craig Smith, 16. Joe Westerman, Jr., 17. Bruce Kane, 18. Larry Neiderer, 19. John Rowland, 20. Johnny Oliver, 21. Justin Dillman, 22. Dale Murphy, 23. Kurt Zimmerman, 24. Justin Jesmer, 25. Taylor Farling,  26.Michael Walls, 27. Davey Dunkle, DNS- Ronnie Bottenfield

Pure Stock – 1.Craig Parrill, 2. Brandon Churchey, 3. Frank DiBella, 4.Sean Dawson, 5. Danny Atherton, 6. Drew Fitzsimmons, 7. Wayne Hawbaker,  8.Ed Pope, 9.Bryan Kerns, 10. Jesse Snyder, 11. Doug Hoffman, 12. Shane Wilt, 13.Brian Swiger, 14. Travis Calhoun, 15. Dwayne Snyder, 16. Jeremy Mills, 17. Marshall McMullen, 18. Earl Brown, 19. William Crook, 20. Nick DiBella, 21. Dickie Tharp

Hobby Stock – 1. Dylan Rutherford, 2. Davey Gross Jr.,3. James Speelman,4. Jamie Mills, 5. Jeff Dillon, 6. Joe Rodgers, 7. John Catlett, 8. Greg Mattingly,  9. Willie Ling, 10. Jonathan Raley,  11. Ralph Hansberger, 12. Rodney Miner, (DNS) Mike Fuller

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – 55 Super Late Models checked into the pit area on beautiful spring evening at Hagerstown Speedway, and it was York, Pennsylvania’s Rick Eckert that ran the table to grab the checkered flag of the 40 lap, $4,000-to win Appalachian Mountain Dirt Late Model Speedweek lid-lifter last Wednesday night.

Eckert used a night off from his World of Outlaws Late Model Series commitments in his Paul Crowl-owned No.7E to set a quick time at a lap of 17.961 seconds around the Hub City half/mile oval before winning his heat race.

Prior to the feature, the redraw was held on the frontstretch which put Virginia driver Walker Arthur on the pole to pace the field at the beginning of the race.

Arthur thwarted off the challenges of Eckert and Trever Feathers over the first eight laps in a nose to tail battle before the trio raced three-wide for the lead.

Feathers settled into the lead with Eckert in tow by the fourteenth circuit, and began to stretch his lead while lapping traffic until a caution flag unfurled on Lap 22 for the stopped car of Dylan Yoder.

On the restart, Eckert was all over the rear of Feathers and made the pass for the lead on Lap 25. By this point, Mason Zeigler worked his way up into the mix and got by Feathers for the runner-up spot on Lap 29.

That was as far as anyone else could get as Eckert pulled away to over half a straightaway lead over Zeigler, and he went the rest of the way to claim his spot in victory lane.

“Yeah, that’s fun. You know, everybody was doing a good job running their own line and this race track widened out beautiful to where it was multi-lanes and we could just cross over a lane and luckily it was that wide because I needed all of it to make any time with the way I had my car. I really need to work on a bit, but we’ll take it.” Eckert said.

Crossing the line in the top five behind Eckert and Zeigler at the finish were Jason Covert, Feathers, and Jeff Rine.

In the Pure Stock division, racing under an open competition/home track rules format, it was Craig Parrill defending the home turf against the outsiders, taking his third feature win of the season. Parrill pulled away from Sean Dawson over the second half of the 15 lap feature event.

Following the top pair and completing the top five at the checkers were Keith Koontz, Brandon Churchey, and Greg Hainsey.

Notes: Eckert flirted with the track record of Dan Stone’s 17.90 set a few years ago. It was impressive due to time trials limited to a single lap, and his late draw for his time trial attempt.

Kyle Hardy was back in the Shawn Martin No.3v after a driving stint in the Indiana-based Jim Beeman No.99. Hardy won the first of two B-Mains, and finished 16th in the feature.

Gary Stuhler, who has been dominant all season at Hagerstown, squeaked into the show and claimed the final qualifying spot in the second B-main. He went on to record a 14^th place finish in the feature.

Tyler Hershey was the hard charger winner, moving up to finish 10^th from his 22^nd place start.

Feature Results

Super Late Models- 1. Rick Eckert, 2. Mason Zeigler, 3. Jason Covert, 4. Trever Feathers, 5. Jeff Rine, 6. Austin Hubbard, 7. Walker Arthur, 8. Kenny Pettyjohn, 9. Marvin Winters, 10. Tyler Hershey, 11. Roy Deese,Jr., 12. Bryan Bernheisel, 13. Matt Cosner, 14. Gary Stuhler, 15. Gene Knaub, 16. Kyle Hardy, 17. Kyle Lee, 18. Jared Miley, 19. Waylon Wagner, 20. Mike Lupfer, 21. Nick Dickson, 22. Chad Hollenbeck, 23. Dylan Yoder, 24. Dan Stone, 25. Andy Fries

 

Pure Stocks – 1. Craig Parrill, 2. Sean Dawson, 3. Keith Koontz, 4. Brandon Churchey, 5. Greg Hainsey, 6. Michael Warrenfeltz, 7. Tony Catlett, 8. Ed Pope, 9. Shane Wilt, 10. Wayne Dutterer, 11. Frank DiBella, 12. Nick DiBella, 13. Brian Swiger, 14. Dickie Tharp, 15. Jamie Zentmyer, 16. Davey Gross, Jr.