Harris Scores IMCA Open Wheel Madness Win at Hagerstown
HAGERSTOWN, MD – Jerald Harris picked up the 25 lap IMCA RaceSaver 305 Sprint feature win on Open Wheel Madness night at Hagerstown Speedway on June 15.
The Rockingham, Virginia driver took the lead from Erin Statler off the front row at the start of the race, but a caution flag quickly setup a restart after Lap 1 for the stopped car of Dylan Proctor.
Harris remained in the lead following the restart, until a sixth lap red flag unfurled for the flipped car of Stevie Kenawell in turn one. He climbed out of the car under his own power.
On Lap 7, Dave Grube moved into second, and Ken Duke, Jr. moved into third and began to chase Harris as the lead trio began to break away from the field.
Harris began to navigate lapped traffic at the halfway point, and was never seriously challenged for the lead, as Grube and Duke dueled for the runner-up spot.
Meanwhile, Zach Newlin and Drew Ritchey moved into the top five. They began battling within the top five with Grube and Duke. Ritchey powered in third around Duke in the closing laps, while Harris motored on to victory.
“It was a great track. We set the car up dead loose, we didn’t have enough tire to get the stagger so we adjusted. French Grimes helped me adjust it to get it to run in the top, he pretty much set it up, and I just steered it.”, said Harris in his winner’s interview.
Grube held onto second, Ritchey was third, Duke was fourth, and Newlin was fifth.
Jim Young wired the field from start to finish in the 15 lap 600 Micro Sprint feature. Young held off Mike Thompson and pulled away to almost a three second advantage at the finish.
The race was only interrupted by one caution as Hannah Riser went up in a big plume of smoke entering turn one at the end of the third lap.
Following Young and Thompson at the finish were Travis Keiser, Trent Yoder, and Jayden Wolf.
Chad Myers took the lead away from his brother Cory Myers on the second lap of the 12 lap 270 Micro feature, and led the rest of the way to take the checkered flag.
Cory Myers fell back to third, but battled past Levi Peck on the final lap to reclaim the runner-up position. Peck was third, followed by Zachary Glass, and Brian Marriott completed the top five.
Notes: 29 IMCA RaceSaver Sprints were on hand in the interregional event that once again put on a great show for the fans. Ritchey came from 10th to 3rd, and Jake Frye finished 7th after starting 15th.
The 600 and 270 Micro Sprint winners each thanked Hagerstown Speedway for hosting the divisions and expressed interest in wanting to come back to race in the future.
Hagerstown Speedway will be off next Saturday night, but will be in action on Sunday evening, June 23 for the 3rd annual Frank Sagi Tribute featuring special guest Tom Peck.
Feature Results
IMCA RaceSaver Sprints – 1. J9-Jerald Harris,[2]; 2. 3D-Dave Grube,[3]; 3. 880-Drew Ritchey, [10]; 4. 67-Ken Duke Jr., [6]; 5. 11Z-Zachary Newlin, [7]; 6. 2-Erin Statler, [1]; 7. 56-Jake Frye, [15]; 8. 33-Scott Lutz, [8]; 9. 36-Jaremi Hanson, [12]; 10. 0-Kyle Ganoe, [11]; 11. 26-Ryan Lynn, [5]; 12. 86-Ron Aurand, [9]; 13. 99-Cale Reigle, [13]; 14. 17X-Kyle Keen, [24]; 15. 78-Justin Clark, [22]; 16. 6X-Brad Mellott, [18]; 17. 77-Mike Leraas, [23]; 18. 23-Samantha Lieberman, [19]; 19. R6-Reed Thompson, [28]; 20. 46-Michael Alleman, [4]; 21. 88VA-Bill Rice, [29]; 22. 43-Chris Ware, [25]; 23. 17K-Stevie Kenawell, [14]; 24. 8D-Scott Ellerman, [21]; 25. 6-Tony Harris, [26]; 26. 31-Donny Hendershot, [20]; 27. 92-Dylan Proctor, [16] DNS-Daren Bolac, Kurt Knepper
600 Micro – 1. 8-Jim Young, [1]; 2. 11-Mike Thompson, [2]; 3. 42K-Travis Keiser, [5]; 4. 66-Trent Yoder, [3]; 5. 7-Jayden Wolf, [4]; 6. 4R-Zane Rudisill, [8]; 7. 12E-Riley Emig, [7]; 8. 14K-Hannah Riser, [6]
270 Micro – 1. 8D-Chad Myers, [3]; 2. 20-Cory Myers, [1]; 3. 64-Levi Peck, [4]; 4. 84-Zachary Glass, [2]; 5. 1B-Brian Marriott, [6]; 6. 44-Steven Cox, [9]; 7. 37-Tyler Brown, [5]; 8. 6-Tim McClelland, [7]; 9. 2-Chris Kennedy, [12]; 10. 46-Colton Hendershot, [8]; 11. 19-Steven Daron, [10]; 12. 12-Bryce Trone, [11]