Rain Forces UNSLMS and MDSS Rescheduling

Torrential rainfalls throughout the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday wiped out racing in the region everywhere, including here at Hagerstown Speedway.

The card originally scheduled for July 21 with the Ultimate Northeast Super Late Model Series, Mason Dixon Shootout Series, Pure Stocks and Hobby Stocks will now take place on October 13 with an earlier 6pm start.

Regular racing will be off for Monster Jam the weekend of July 27-29, but will return for a special Sunday night rendition of the Frank Sagi Tribute on August 5 with a 6pm start time.

The Red Nininger Memorial for Super Late Models will now be part of the Clash for Cash on August 11.

Please take note of the date changes and start times accordingly. Stay up to date on Hagerstown Speedway news and information here on the website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

***Editor note – The Small Car Nationals are on September 14-15, NOT 13-14 as was mistakenly noted in last week’s press release.  I apologize for any confusion.

Thanks,

Brett Rose – PR/Media Relations Director

Two Big Weekends of Action at Hagerstown Speedway

As we complete the first month of summer, July ends with two big weekends of action at Hagerstown Speedway featuring Super Late Models and Monster Trucks.

This Saturday, July 21 brings back the return of the Ultimate Northeast Super Late Model Series in the $5,000 to-win Red Nininger Memorial presented by All Things Automotive. Many of the area’s best Super Late Model teams are expected to be on hand to battle in the 40 lap main event.

Trever Feathers is looking to repeat his season opening win at Hagerstown, which was also the opener for the UNSLMS. 2017 Hagerstown SLM champion Kyle Lee has been competing in most of the series events and he will be seeking his 1st win of the season at the Hub City oval.

Series point leader Jared Miley leads Ross Robinson by five markers going into Saturday night, and Matt Cosner sits in third place just six points out of front in a tight point battle.

Joining the UNSLMS on the card is another appearance of the Mason-Dixon Shootout Series gunning for a $1,500 to win payday. Many of the area Late Model Sportsman and 358 steel block racers are expected for one of the best payouts in the division. Justin Weaver leads the contingent to Hagerstown where he has already scored one feature win in 2018.

Pure Stocks and Hobby Stocks both will be racing with feature events paying $500 to the winner. This night has shaped up to be one of biggest race nights of the summer for the racers and the fans.

General admission is $18, Students/Seniors/Military $15, Kids 12 and under are free, and pit admission is $35. Grandstand gates open at 5pm, and racing begins at 7pm.

Monster Jam returns for another three day weekend show on July 27-29 presenting the top stars in Monster Trucks. For ticket ordering information, visit speedwayshopping.com, or call the speedway office at 301-582-0640.

Kershner Leads All SCN Qualifiers with 1st LMS Win

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Cody Kershner fulfilled a career racing goal by winning his first Late Model Sportsman feature event during the Small Car Nationals automatic qualifiers Saturday night at Hagerstown Speedway. By doing so, the Hagerstown resident also earned a guaranteed starting position in his No. 43 Rocket at the SCN held at the Hub City oval in September.

Kershner raced his way toward the front from fifth on the grid to catch early leader Justin Weaver at the halfway mark of the 20 lapper. Following a restart, Kershner powered past Weaver to take the lead at Lap 12 and pulled away as Weaver faded back a couple spots.

Kershner went onto victory to a memorable moment celebrated with his family and crew.

“This is a dream come true, man. It’s been childhood dream of mine to win in one of these cars and I can’t explain it.”, exclaimed an emotional Kershner in his winner’s interview.

He was followed at the finish by a strong effort from Derick Quade, last week’s winner James Lichliter, Weaver, and Ronnie Bottenfield.

Logan Roberson got his guaranteed SCN start as he picked up his second Crate Late Model win of the season in similar fashion as he did a couple weeks ago in a nonstop feature event. As was the case then, Roberson ran the table leading every lap in his heat race as well as the 20 lap feature event.

Trailing Roberson at the checkers were Jake Piper, Transtan Stoner, Jimmy Jesmer, and Timmy Booth.

Dan Zechman utilized a rare Hagerstown Speedway appearance to good use by scoring the Pure Stock feature win.  Zechman battled Sam Archer in an exchange several times for the lead early in the 15 lap event before settling into a comfortable margin.

A late caution setup a one lap dash to the finish, but Zechman wasn’t going to be denied an automatic SCN entry as he raced away over the final lap from Archer, Wayne Hawbaker, Doug Hoffman, and Dwayne Snyder.

Former 4 Cylinder Mini- Stock racer Kevin Thomas came out of a four year retirement to put himself in the Hobby Stock portion of the SCN with his first career win in the division, making it his 100th overall feature event win.

Thomas had to thwart off the challenges of multi-time winner Jonathan Raley to earn the coveted spot over a competitive field of cars including fellow top five finishers Travis Horan, Tom Caravello, and James Speelman.

Jason Stoner and Matt Worley each punched their tickets into the SCN with respective wins in the 4 Cylinder and U-Car feature events.

Notes: The SCN is a two day show scheduled to take place with qualifying events on September 13 and all features on September 14. As mentioned, all of this week’s winners received a guaranteed spot in the SCN.

Feature Results

Late Model Sportsman – 1. 43-Cody Kershner, [5]; 2. 74-Derick Quade, [6]; 3. 8L-James Lichliter, [2]; 4. 2J-Justin Weaver, [1]; 5. 11B-Ronnie Bottenfield, [11]; 6. 77-Randy Burkholder, [7]; 7. 72D-Dale Murphy, [4]; 8. 99-Michael Walls, [12]; 9. 12-Bobby Beard, [8]; 10. 08-Keith Koontz, [10]; 11. 11-Joe Westerman Jr., [9]; 12. 3-Tyler Ritchey, [15]; 13. 92-Frankie Gordon, [3]; 14. 9A-Kurt Zimmerman, [13]; 15. 08K-Zach Kauffman, [17]; 16. 24R-John Rowland, [18]; 17. 72B-Shyann Bard, [16]; DNS -Clinton Hersh

Crate Late Models – 1. 17-Logan Roberson, [1]; 2. 21-Jake Piper,[3]; 3. M14-Transtan Stoner, [5]; 4. 747-Jimmy Jesmer, [4]; 5. 95B-Timmy Booth, [6]; 6. 14-Jennae Piper, [7]; 7. 48-Steve Lowery, [11]; 8. 5-Levi Crowl, [8]; 9. 71P-Jon Painter, [13]; 10. 38-Chad Click, [15]; 11. 27-Cuyler Upperman, [17]; 12. 21M-Michael Ott, [10]; 13. 38B-Carl Biddle, [12]; 14. 21C-Coty Ramirez, [14]; 15. 32-Lindsey Barton, [9]; 16. 93-Cory Lawler, [2]; DNS -Brian Coe Jr., Justin Jesmer

 Pure Stock – 1. 2-Dan Zechman, [2]; 2. 36A-Sam Archer, [1]; 3. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [6]; 4. S7-Doug Hoffman, [7]; 5. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [9]; 6. 81J-Jamie Zentmyer, [3]; 7. 19-Danny Atherton, [10]; 8. 54-John Catlett, [12]; 9. 27P-David Puckett, [16]; 10. 16-Tom Brady, Jr. [14]; 11. 52-Michelle Walls, [13]; 12. 6X-Shawn Wyles, [15]; 13. 08-Will Worthington, [18]; 14. 4J-Bob Jay, [4]; 15. 65-Dillon Wilson, [5]; 16. 21W-Will Walls, [8]; 17. 1-Charles Shearer, [19]; DNS -Joshua Bloom, Bryan Neff

Hobby Stock – 1. 03-Kevin Thomas, [1]; 2. 92-Jonathan Raley,[4]; 3. 21H-Travis Horan, [2]; 4. 41-Tom Caravello, [5]; 5. 11A-James Speelman, [7]; 6. 55-Pat McCalane, [9]; 7. 21A-Sam Rial, [6]; 8. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [13]; 9. 7K-Michael Knight, [10]; 10. 25-Rodney Miner, [14]; 11. 34-Terry Leach, [12]; 12. 15-Jeffery Gill, [11]; 13. 57-William Ecton Jr., [8]; 14. 14-Gary Breeden, [3]; 15. 28-Brad Umbrell, [15]; 16. 67-Billy Ecton, [17]; DNS-Sam Caravello

4 Cylinders – 1. 21-Jason Stoner, 09:47.886[1]; 2. 6-Shaine Sixeas, 09:48.463[2]; 3. 85-Allen Whitt Jr., 09:49.685[5]; 4. 43X-Mike Kershner, 09:50.128[3]; 5. 19-Jacob Whitt, 09:50.295[9]; 6. 24-Kevin Bard, 09:51.735[4]; 7. 74-Tommy Whitt, 03:23.644[7]; 8. 18-Ronnie Garlock III, 03:46.594[6]; (DNS) 2-Justin McKee, 03:46.594

U-Cars – 1. 6W-Matt Worley, [4]; 2. 15-Chris Anderson, [2]; 3. 69-Robbie Carroll, [3]; 4. 151-Eric Boozel, [1]; 5. 47-Travis Brown, [5]; 6. 12-Kyle Rohrbaugh, [7]; 7. 18-Anthony Varner, [12]; 8. 98-Bill Sheehan, [6]; 9. 15K-Douglas Conrath, [9]; 10. 15C-Korby Crawley, [8]; 11. 55-Andrew Long, [10]; 12. 2SLOW-Kevin Banzhoff, [13]; DNS-Rusty Martin, Dale Varner Jr.

Lichliter Wins Mason-Dixon Shootout at Hagerstown

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – James Lichliter drove to victory in the 25 Lap Mason-Dixon Shootout Series headliner on Saturday night at Hagerstown Speedway.

The Maurertown, Virginia racer took home $1,000 for his efforts from setting the pace in his No.8 MastersBilt machine after taking the lead away from Craig Wagaman on the high side of the third circuit.

Lichliter was able to stretch out his lead to a half-straightaway over Wagaman until a caution flag waved on Lap 11. A couple laps after the restart, Barry Miller moved around Wagaman into second.

Lichliter caught traffic with two laps to go, and Miller was able to close the gap a little, but the traffic didn’t impede Lichliter’s progress towards the checkered flag.

“We’re used to the 20 lap races here and with 25 (laps), I started to see the rubber come in on the bottom and I was getting worried, but I knew if I caught the lapped cars, I wasn’t sure if they were running side by side and I didn’t know what to do and finally one got around each other. I got up alongside one and knew nobody could get on the outside of me and I continued that line.” said Lichliter.

Miller held on the second as Wagaman, Devin Hart, and 13th starting Justin Weaver rounded out the top five.

Craig Parrill returned to racing at Hagerstown, and he put the Dickie Tharp No.3 back into victory lane by winning the Jim Cornett Tribute for the Pure Stock division.

The winningest Pure Stock driver at Hagerstown in 2017, Parrill had his work cut out for him over the first half of the 20 lap special event as he had to battle Dillon Wilson throughout most the feature race with a side-by-side battle for the lead until taking it over solely by Lap 12.

With three laps to go, a caution setup a restart to give Wilson one more shot, but to no avail. The Clearbrook, Virgina racer picked up his second win of the season in only his third start at the Hub City half-mile.

Wilson’s strong run netted him the runner-up spot. He was followed at the finish by Jeremy Tinsman, Sam Archer, and Bryan Neff.

It took 25 years of racing, but Billy Ecton, Sr. finally celebrated in victory lane with his first career win in the Hobby Stock division. It was also a big moment for the Ecton family with a father/son 1-2 finish as Billy Ecton, Jr. followed him at the checkered flag.

The Ectons were trailed by 14th place starter Don Murphy, Jeff Dillon, and James Speelman.

Taking home the win in the Classic Car Series nightcap was Wes Brown.

Notes: Lichliter said that this win was huge because he finally was going home with a big souvenir check to hang on his shop wall.

The ever popular Small Fry Night was a success with many smiling kids’ faces after getting their chance to take a lap at idle speed in a race car. This has been a longtime tradition at Hagerstown Speedway. Thanks to all of the drivers that participated.
Next week is the Small Car Nationals automatic qualifiers.

Feature Results

Mason-Dixon Shootout Series – 1. 8L-James Lichliter, [2]; 2. 88-Barry Miller, [3]; 3. 5-Craig Wagaman, [1]; 4. 33K-Devin Hart, [4]; 5. 2J-Justin Weaver, [13]; 6. 13-Brad McGinnis, [17]; 7. 77-Randy Burkholder, [8]; 8. 43-Cody Kershner, [7]; 9. 2-Steve Campbell, [5]; 10. 87-Eric Irvin, [12]; 11. 99-Michael Walls, [6]; 12. 7-Kenneth Yoder, [9]; 13. 72D-Dale Murphy, [11]; 14. 1K-Bruce Kane, [20]; 15. 32J-Shaun Jones, [21]; 16. 37-Paul Cursey Jr., [10]; 17. 11-Joe Westerman Jr., [14]; 18. 11B-Ronnie Bottenfield, [18]; 19. 48-Donnie Farlling, [16]; 20. 12K-Jared Fulkroad, [22]; 21. 24R-John Rowland, [24]; 22. 5J-Jeremy Ohl, [23]; 23. 24-Daulton Bigler, [15]; 24. 5B-Wes Bonebrake, [19]

Pure Stock – 1. 3-Craig Parrill, [6]; 2. 65-Dillon Wilson, [2]; 3. 8-Jeremy Tinsman, [1]; 4. 36A-Sam Archer, [3]; 5. 03-Bryan Neff, [7]; 6. S7-Doug Hoffman, [4]; 7. 19-Danny Atherton, [5]; 8. 81J-Jamie Zentmyer, [8]; 9. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [10]; 10. 2+2-Chris Ebersole, [9]; 11. 08-Will Worthington, [12]; 12. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [11]

Hobby Stock – 1. 67-Billy Ecton, [2]; 2. 57-William Ecton Jr., [5]; 3. 17-Don Murphy, [14]; 4. 52-Jeff Dillon, [1]; 5. 11A-James Speelman, [9]; 6. 99-Hilton Pickeral, [8]; 7. 41-Tom Caravello, [4]; 8. 28-Brad Umbrell, [13]; 9. 92-Jonathan Raley, [6]; 10. 7K-Michael Knight, [11]; 11. 41X-Sam Caravello, [15]; 12. 03-Kevin Boyer, [3]; 13. 43-Jason Sarver, [7], DNS-Davey Gross Jr., Jamie Mills

Dewease Wins Johnny Grum Memorial at Hagerstown

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – For the third consecutive year, Lance Dewease drove the Davey Brown prepared, Don Kreitz, Jr. owned No.69k to victory lane at Hagerstown Speedway winning $5,000 in the 30 lap Johnny Grum Memorial in Round 7 of Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek.

Dewease began the feature event from sixth on the grid and quickly moved into the top five by the fourth circuit and was running in fourth place when a caution flag waved for the spun car of Australian racer Jesse Attard on lap seven.

Pole starter Greg Hodnett led the way from the start and was followed by fellow front row starter Ryan Smith, with Freddie Rahmer in tow ahead of Dewease on the restart.

It took two laps for Dewease to move past Rahmer and Smith into the runner-up spot, albeit about a half-straightaway behind Hodnett. Hodnett held that advantage approximately three seconds ahead of Dewease at the halfway point of the contest.

Hodnett searched his way all over the track in the Mike Heffner No.27 through lapped traffic to keep Dewease at bay, but Dewease persevered along the bottom searching for a line that would allow him to reel in Hodnett’s lead.

As the laps wound down toward the end, Dewease pulled to within a couple car lengths of Hodnett. Dewease caught Hodnett with four laps to go, and then made the pass for the lead down low in turn three with three laps remaining.

Once out front, Dewease slightly pulled away to a .522 second advantage over a valiant effort by Hodnett to regain the top spot, but it wasn’t enough as Dewease drove to his 16th career win at the Hub City oval where he picked up his first career win 32 years ago in 1986.

“I was running as hard as I could, making sure I hit my marks. Greg (Hodnett) I think was a little better than us tonight, especially early in the feature. I just kept driving hard and found a line that I could get by those lapped cars. He got by those lapped cars earlier better than I could and I finally found a line in turn one and two to get by them a lot easier. I got at him and he stayed out there a little bit in three and I was going by him one way or the other. I didn’t know if I could hold him off or not and I just wanted to make sure I didn’t lose my pace after that.” said Dewease in victory lane.

Hodnett finished second, followed by Smith, Rahmer and Anthony Macri in the top five.

Spencer Bayston had quick time in time trials with a lap of 17.008 seconds, while Hodnett, Macri, and Dewease were heat race winners. Rico Abreu won the B-main.

Notes: 29 cars were pitside for the only 410 Sprint Car race of the season that included former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart in competition for his first ever start at Hagerstown, while former NASCAR driver and World of Outlaws champion Dave Blaney was also racing. Stewart finished 11th, while Blaney finished 17th.

Dewease’s win moves him into a three way tie for sixth on the all-time Sprint Car win list with Ray Dovel and Bobby Abel whom each won at Hagerstown for their 16th career wins in 1969.

It also marks the 16th career win at Hagerstown for Kreitz as a car owner including his 13 wins as a driver.

Feature Results

410 Sprints –  1. Lance Dewease, 2. Greg Hodnett, 3. Ryan Smith, 4. Freddie Rahmer, 5. Anthony Macri, 6. Logan Wagner, 7. Dylan Cisney, 8. Mike Wagner, 9. Lucas Wolfe, 10. Spencer Bayston, 11. Tony Stewart, 12. Danny Dietrich, 13. Brock Zearfoss, 14. Aaron Reutzel, 15. Trey Starks, 16. Gerard McIntrye, 17. Dave Blaney, 18. James McFadden, 19. Rico Abreu, 20. Kyle Moody, 21. Joey Hershey, 22. Jordan Givler, 23. Jesse Attard, 24. Adrian Shaffer

DNQ – Jared Esh, Robbie Kendall, Mitchell Wormall, Troy Fraker, John Sharpe

Roberson Romps CLM Field for Win at Hagerstown

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Logan Roberson was the class of the field as he romped over his fellow competitors in the 20 lap Crate Late Model feature event during Fan Appreciation Night at Hagerstown Speedway.

The youngster from Waynesboro, Virginia won his heat race as well in the same dominant fashion. Roberson quickly put distance over his competition in his No.17 Rocket XR-1 and diced his way through lapped traffic without skipping a beat, lapping up to the ninth place car over the nonstop main event.

The win was Roberson’s eighth overall for the 2018 season. He was followed at the finish by Mike Franklin, Tyler Hershey, Transtan Stoner, and Tanner Kerr.

Jamie Zentmyer picked up his first Pure Stock win of the season in a wild feature event that had its share of carnage and battles. Early frontrunners Sam Archer and Michelle Walls tangled in turn two while battling Zentmyer and Jamey Swank for the lead.

Once the field settled, Zentmyer took command in the lead past the halfway point of the 15 lap feature. Swank finished second, Wayne Hawbaker fought back from the rear after an early incident to finish third, Doug Hoffman finished fourth after starting last in a borrowed ride, and Danny Atherton came back from the rear to cross the checkers in fifth.

Jonathan Raley was the man to beat again in the Hobby Stocks as he wired the field for his third win of 2018. The battle was from second on back as Tom Caravello hanged on to a second place finish while withstanding the challenge from William Ecton, Jr. Billy Ecton rode home in fourth as Brady Daniels rounded out the top five.

The Penn-Mar Vintage Racers provided the nightcap as dual winners were crowned. Randy Minich scored the Modified portion of the feature race and Mike Beidel was the Sportsman winner.

Feature Results

Crate Late Models – 1. 17-Logan Roberson, [1]; 2. 74F-Mike Franklin, [4]; 3. 74-Tyler Hershey, [2]; 4. M14-Transtan Stoner, [3]; 5. 41*-Tanner Kerr, [5]; 6. 5-Levi Crowl, [6]; 7. 21P-Jake Piper, [9]; 8. 48-Steve Lowery, [8]; 9. 32-Lindsey Barton, [11]; 10. 27-Cuyler Upperman, [13]; 11. 21-Jeff Koller, [12]; 12. 71P-Jon Painter, [7]; 13. 92J-Brian Coe Jr., [14]; 14. 2-Kevin Moore, [10]; 15. 55S-Doug Saylor, [15]

Pure Stock – 1. 81J-Jamie Zentmyer, [6]; 2. 22-Jamey Swank, [1]; 3. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [3]; 4. 19m-Doug Hoffman, [9]; 5. 19-Danny Atherton, [5]; 6. 36A-Sam Archer, [2]; 7. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [7]; 8. 03-Bryan Neff, [10]; 9. 54-John Catlett, [11]; 10. 1W-Michelle Walls, [4]; 11. 6R-Joe Rodgers, [13]; 12. 65-Dillon Wilson, [8]; DNS -William Crook, Bobby Meixsell, Gary Breeden

Hobby Stock – 1. 92-Jonathan Raley, [2]; 2. 41-Tom Caravello, [3]; 3. 57-William Ecton Jr., [14]; 4. 67-Billy Ecton, [5]; 5. 76-Brady Daniels,[7]; 6. 10-Drew Fertig,[10]; 7. 11A-James Speelman,[4]; 8. 52-Jeff Dillon,[9]; 9. 03-Robert Thompson,[11]; 10. 41X-Sam Caravello,[8]; 11. 7K-Michael Knight, [13]; 12. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [6]; DNS -Jason Sarver, Charles Noblitt, Terry Leach, Brad Umbrell, Davey Gross,Jr., Jimmy Kline