Hardy Wins Nininger Memorial SLM Clash for Cash
by Brett Rose
HAGERSTOWN, MD – Kyle Hardy has been traveling with the Ultimate Super Late Model Series this season, but he used a weekend off tour not far from his Stephens City, Virginia home to race and win the 35 lap Clash for Cash/Red Nininger Memorial at Hagerstown Speedway.
It was Hardy’s 7th career Hagerstown win and first since 2015.
Roy Deese, Jr. paced the field from the pole, but was quickly overtaken coming off of turn two on both sides by Allen Brannon and D.J. Troutman. It wasn’t much longer before fourth starting Hardy and fifth starting Tyler Bare entered the fold to battle out for the lead on the fast track with two distinct grooves of racing.
Brannon kept his car on the bottom while Hardy was chasing him up on the cushion. Bare stuck to the bottom, and stuck with it as Brannon changed lines once he began to work through lapped traffic.
Bare was able to move by Hardy into second on Lap 13, then around Brannon for the lead on Lap 14. A caution was able to bunch the group back together with clear race track in front of them. At this point in the race, Bare was committed to the low groove in the Klinedinst No.43a, while Hardy looked to be content with the topside in the Shawn Martin No.99v.
Bare held off Hardy’s charges for the lead until Lap 20. Once in the lead, Hardy was just too strong to contend with over the final 15 laps. Hardy’s margin of victory was 1.222 seconds.
Hardy said: “Well, you know coming home… is truly awesome. Thanks to Hagerstown Speedway for putting on this race, and thank God that we could come here. We put a new motor in tonight and that thing runs good.”
Crossing the checkered flag behind Hardy and Bare were Marvin Winters, Deese, and Brannon.
Doug Hoffman extended his points lead in the Pure Stock division with his third trip to victory lane. The driver of the Clegg Racing No.Super7 shared the front row with four-time winner Craig Parrill, and immediately positioned his car into the lead.
Hoffman of Newville, PA drove through the middle of the groove and found that to be fast way around and steadily pulled away from Parrill in a 15 lap wire-to-wire win.
Hoffman said: “There’s always good cars here and the competition is good. The points are coming down to it, so we needed a good points night and we got it. This car was perfect.”
Following the lead duo was Sam Archer, Jamie Zentmyer, and Danny Atherton.
Notes: A passing shower a few hours before race time created a super-fast surface. Kenny Moreland blistered the Hub City half-mile with a lap of 17.886 seconds to set a new SLM track record. The previous record held by Dan Stone at a 17.907 was set just over five years ago.
Hardy recently announced that his team will be chasing the World Outlaws LM Series in 2019. He is currently the USLMS point leader without a feature win in the series.
Feature Results
Super Late Models – 1. 99-Kyle Hardy, [4]; 2. 43A-Tyler Bare, [5]; 3. 46-Marvin Winters, [11]; 4. 05-Roy Deese Jr., [1]; 5. 30-Allen Brannon, [2]; 6. 86-Scott Palmer, [23]; 7. 41-Andy Anderson, [8]; 8. 82-Andy Fries, [16]; 9. 5-Brad Omps, [7]; 10. 8-James Lichliter, [17]; 11. 14-Tyler Horst, [9]; 12. 21-Chad Myers, [15]; 13. 11-Kirk Baker, [13]; 14. 08-Keith Koontz, [19]; 15. 85-Rodney Walls, [10]; 16. 15P-Matt Parks, [12]; 17. 22R-Reese Masiello, [24]; 18. 77-Randy Burkholder, [18]; 19. 13D-Jonathan DeHaven, [14]; 20. 38-Carl Biddle, [22]; 21. 72J-Roger Jenkins, 22. 39-Bill Kessler DNS – Al Shawver Jr., Justin Weaver DQ -Kenny Moreland, DJ Troutman
Pure Stocks – 1. S7-Doug Hoffman, [1]; 2. 3-Craig Parrill, [2]; 3. 36A-Sam Archer, [4]; 4. 81J-Jamie Zentmyer, [10]; 5. 19-Danny Atherton, [9]; 6. 19M-Bobby Meixsell, [3]; 7. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [7]; 8. 75-Marshall McMullen, [8]; 9. 99-Chad Smith, [14]; 10. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [12]; 11. 54-John Catlett, [16]; 12. 2W-Brian Walls, [6]; 13. 65-Dillon Wilson, [5]; 14. 2-Randy Zechman, [13]; 15. 21W-Will Walls, [17]; 16. 03-Bryan Neff, [11]; 17. 81F-Gary Calimer Jr.,[15] DNS -Mike Walls