Kane, Warrenfeltz, & Boozel Score Wins at Hagerstown, Johnson Memorial Postponed

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Bruce Kane scored his first Late Model Sportsman win of the season after a wild three-wide battle for the lead with race leader Cody Kershner and Randy Burkholder following the final restart on Lap 16 of the 20 lap feature event.

Kershner wasted no time taking the lead from Taylor Farling on the fourth circuit, and appeared to be in control until a late caution came up, setting up the mad dash to the finish.

On the final restart, Kane pulled ahead of the group, as Burkholder followed and Kershner faded to third over the last few laps. Taylor Farling finished fourth and Chad Myers finished fifth.

Michael Warrenfeltz picked up his third Pure Stock feature win of 2019. Warrenfeltz took the lead on Lap 3, and never looked back over the remaining twelve laps of the 15 lap feature event.

Danny Atherton finished second; Randy Zechman was third, followed by Joshua Bloom and Sam Gallagher respectively to complete the top five.

In support division action, Eric Boozel wired the field to pick up the 10 lap U-Car feature win.

The Eric Johnson Memorial for Hobby Stocks got two laps completed before the rains came in a thunderstorm with plenty of lightning that lit up the skies surrounding Hagerstown Speedway. That race will continue from where it left off on July 6 when the Mason Dixon Shootout Series and the Mid Atlantic Modifieds return.

Brady Daniels was the race leader at the time the feature was halted, and will pace the field for the final 13 laps remaining.

Notes – Ryan Lester set quick time in Hobby Stock time trials with a 23.948 second lap. He was the only driver out of 26 entries that turned a sub-24 second lap.

While awaiting repairs to be completed to his own car from a crash last week, Pure Stock driver Dwayne Snyder was scheduled to drive the borrowed car of Brian Swiger before mechanical woes ended his time behind the wheel of that car during hot laps. Tike Loizos then loaned Snyder his ride for the remainder of the evening.

Feature Results

Late Model Sportsman (20 laps) – 1. 1K-Bruce Kane, [3]; 2. 77-Randy Burkholder, [8]; 3. 43-Cody Kershner, [5]; 4. 8F-Taylor Farlling, [1]; 5. 21-Chad Myers, [9]; 6. 8-James Lichliter, [7]; 7. 08-Keith Koontz, [12]; 8. 000-Paul Cursey Jr., [4]; 9. 2-Dan Zechman, [6]; 10. 11B-Ronnie Bottenfield, [22]; 11. 28Z-Ryan Zook, [11]; 12. 12K-Jared Fulkroad, [15]; 13. 11-Joe Westerman Jr., [14]; 14. 77S-Elwood Sord, [17]; 15. 39-Tom Chaffins, [19]; 16. 24R-John Rowland, [20]; 17. 116-Travis Mease, [13]; 18. 85-Rodney Walls, [2]; 19. 93-Cory Lawler, [10]; 20. 6-Corry Gingerich, [16]; 21. 72D-Dale Murphy, [18]  DNS-Zach Kauffman

Pure Stock – 1. 12-Michael Warrenfeltz, [6]; 2. 19-Danny Atherton, [7]; 3. 2-Randy Zechman, [4]; 4. 00-Joshua Bloom, [2]; 5. 25J-Sam Gallagher, [3]; 6. 65-Dillon Wilson, [8]; 7. 47-Dwayne Snyder, [9]; 8. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [5]; 9. 25-Jeremy Mills, [1]; 10. 19M-Bobby Meixsell, [10]  DNS-Gregory Laird, Jamie Zentmyer ,Tike Loizos

U-Cars – 1. Eric Boozel, 2. Rob Rudisill, Jr., 3. Matt Worley, 4. Kayla Bookwalter

Eric Johnson Memorial for Hobby Stocks

Hobby Stocks take center stage as the headliner with their biggest race of 2019 as Hagerstown Speedway presents the Eric Johnson Memorial.

Johnson was well known as one of the area’s best Pure Stock and Hobby Stock racers. Johnson unexpectedly passed away late last year, and this race will be held in his memory.

Some big money is up for grabs in this special event for the Hobby Stocks with $1001 going to winner, and a good purse throughout the field.

Late Model Sportsman, Pure Stocks, and U-Cars fill out the the card.

Pit gates open at 4:30, grandstands at 5pm, and racing begins at 7pm.

General admission is $15, students/seniors/military $12, kids age 12 and under are free. Pit admission is $30.

Stay tuned to the Hagerstown Speedway Facebook and Twitter pages for the latest news and information or call the speedway office at 301-582-0640

Kyle Lee Triumphs in Sagi Tribute at Hagerstown

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Kyle Lee drove his way to the Super Late Model triumph in the 3rd-annual Frank Sagi Tribute on Sunday evening at Hagerstown Speedway.

Pole sitter Jason Covert and Marvin Winters paced the field from the front row, and Winters powered into the lead in his throwback of Tom Peck’s “Fireball 40”.

A caution for a multi-car pileup quickly negated Winters’ lead, but he was able to maintain his position over Covert following the restart, until he slowed going into turn four on the seventh lap.

Covert inherited the lead following the stoppage for Winters, but another multi-car incident following the restart bunched the field back up.

This time, Covert had Lee to contend with, and on Lap 8, Lee drove underneath the potent No.72 machine for the lead off of turn two.

Lee began to stretch out his lead by a two second margin at the halfway point, and then began navigating traffic on Lap 19. The Mercersburg, Pennsylvania driver maneuvered his No.2t through the back markers to keep Covert at bay and take the checkered flag.

Lee said in his interview: “I was really sad for what happened to Marvin.  I’m not exactly sure what happened, but that put us in a good spot on the next restart with Covert, and we just got lucky. I’m glad he chose the top lane and we were really working on the bottom. He kind of missed going into turn one and two, and that was it, man. The car was really, really good tonight.”

Covert held on to second, fending off a fast-closing Trever Feathers coming from tenth to finish third. Rounding out the top five were Gene Knaub, and Tyler Bare.

Scott Palmer picked up the Late Model Sportsman win after battling Derick Quade for the lead in the closing laps.

Quade led up until Lap 14 when Palmer used the low side off of turn four to take the lead away. Palmer’s lead was quickly negated a lap later when a caution came out for the spun car of Zach Kauffman. On the restart, Quade reclaimed the top spot from Palmer and held it until his car pushed hard into the cushion entering turn two, and Palmer moved back out front with the winning pass with two laps to go on the low side to take the victory.

Following Palmer and Quade at the finish were Barry Miller, Bruce Kane, and Randy Burkholder.

A multi-car melee marred the opening lap shortly after the green flag fell on the frontstretch of the Pure Stock feature event. No drivers were injured.

After a complete restart with the remaining cars, Craig Parrill powered past Danny Atherton up high off of turn two to lead the field, and then quickly had Michael Warrenfeltz in pursuit.

Parrill and Warrnefeltz battled side-by-side for most the feature event, until Warrenfeltz ran into the lapped car of Jeremy Mills, bringing out the final caution with just a couple laps to go.

Parrill led the restart and at the white flag lap, but Warrenfeltz was able to pull alongside the leader halfway down the backstretch, and into the lead going in to turn three over the remaining quarter of a lap to grab the win.

Parrill held off Randy Zechman to keep second, Atherton was fourth, and Joshua Bloom was fifth.

Notes: 29 Super Late Models, 30 Late Model Sportsman, and 22 Pure Stocks came out to race on this Sunday special, along with the fans and many retired drivers from the past converged at Hagerstown Speedway.

Covert set fast time during a timed hot lap session with a best lap of 18.789 seconds.

Longtime fans will recognize the name Tom Peck.  The 66 year-old from McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania former racer was the special guest of honor for the 2019 Frank Sagi Tribute. He was best known for driving the “Flaming Fireball 40”, and was one of the best Super Late Model drivers on dirt before leaving the local scene to go racing in what was known as the NASCAR Busch Grand National series.

A feature winner of 171 races, Peck won 43 of them at Hagerstown along with two track championships in 1980 and 1986. Peck’s final feature win at Hagerstown came on September 5, 1988 before departing the dirt world for NASCAR where he finished fifth in BGN points during the 1990 season. His final race competed in was in 1995.

Logan Wagner made his Super Late Model debut behind the wheel of the Coleman Farms No.72, and had a tough time adapting, but put forth a valiant effort to make the show. He was awarded a provisional where he started 25th, and finished in 19th after falling out of the race.

Feature Results

Super Late Models (25 Laps) – 1. 2T-Kyle Lee, [5]; 2. 72C-Jason Covert, [1]; 3. 20-Trever Feathers, [10]; 4. 1-Gene Knaub, [7]; 5. B8-Tyler Bare, [4]; 6. 30-Allen Brannon, [12]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner, [3]; 8. 2J-Justin Weaver, [6]; 9. 2-Dan Stone, [8]; 10. 14-Tyler Horst, [13]; 11. 41-Andy Anderson, [16]; 12. 44-Gary Stuhler, [14]; 13. 5-Brad Omps, 21]; 14. 86-Scott Palmer, [9]; 15. 85-Rodney Walls, [20]; 16. 11-Kirk Baker, [24]; 17. 59-Chad Julius, [22]; 18. 68-Nathan LaSalle, [18]; 19. 72-Logan Wagner, [25]; 20. F1-Colbey Frye, [15]; 21. 94-Jason Miller, [19]; 22. 5E-Glenn Elliott, [23]; 23. 17-Nick Dickson, [17]; 24. 40-Marvin Winters, [2]; 25. 36V-Kyle Hardy, [11]

Late Model Sportsman (20 Laps) – 1. 86-Scott Palmer,[3]; 2. 74-Derick Quade, [1]; 3. 88-Barry Miller, [2]; 4. 1K-Bruce Kane, [5]; 5. 77-Randy Burkholder, [4]; 6. 43-Cody Kershner, [14]; 7. 21-Chad Myers, [11]; 8. 8-James Lichliter, [9]; 9. 48W-Greg Moore, [8]; 10. 118-Sean Merkel, [17]; 11. 11-Joe Westerman Jr., [6]; 12. 44-Dylan Lewis, [7]; 13. 53-Tyler Kirby, [20]; 14. 000-Paul Cursey Jr., [15]; 15. 92-Frankie Gordon, [18]; 16. 5-Levi Crowl, [19]; 17. 8H-Travis Wilson, [16]; 18. 93-Cory Lawler, [24]; 19. 08K-Zach Kauffman, [13]; 20. 77S-Elwood Sord, [22]; 21. 15-Trae Armel, [23]; 22. 39-Ryan Walls, [10]; 23. 33K-Alan Sagi, [12]; 24. 72D-Dale Murphy,[21]

Pure Stock (15 Laps)– 1. 12-Michael Warrenfeltz, [3]; 2. 3-Craig Parrill, [2]; 3. 2-Randy Zechman, [7]; 4. 19-Danny Atherton, [1]; 5. 00-Joshua Bloom, [17]; 6. 65-Dillon Wilson, [10]; 7. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [6]; 8. 59-Mike Desch, 16]; 9. 72M-Russel Shoop, [21]; 10. 15-Ricky Feltner, [13]; 11. 25-Jeremy Mills, [19]; 12. 47-Tike Loizos, [20]; 13. 29-Jason Gilliland, [18]; 14. 55-Jonathan Raley, [8]; 15. 12S-Tony Stoneberger, [4]; 16. 38M-Matt Mellott, [15]; 17. 54-Dylan Rutherford, [5]; 18. 25X-Rodney Miner, [22]; 19. 19M-Bobby Meixsell, [9]; 20. 2W-Brian Walls,[12]; 21. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [11]; 22. 57H-TJ Henry, [14]

Frank Sagi Tribute w/special guest Tom Peck this Sunday Night

Coming up next at the Hagerstown Speedway is the 3rd annual Frank Sagi Tribute Race with special guest Tom Peck coming up on the evening of Sunday, June 23rd.

The race in honor of the former longtime Hagerstown Speedway announcer will also be honoring Peck.  The McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania driver best known for driving the “Flaming Fireball 40” was one of the best drivers on dirt before leaving the local scene to go racing in what was known as the NASCAR Busch Grand National series.

A feature winner of 171 races, Peck won 43 of them at Hagerstown along with two track championships in 1980 and 1986. He also won nine more track championships at four other speedways between 1973 and 1986.

Peck’s final feature win at Hagerstown came on September 5, 1988 before departing the dirt world for NASCAR where he finished fifth in BGN points during the 1990 season. His final race competed in was in 1995.

Honoring the 66 year-old retired racer as the special featured guest honoree is just one of the treats fans will get as many other former retired and active drivers will be on hand that evening. Fans arriving at the track early will have the opportunity to meet or reconnect with these drivers, including Peck for autographs, photos, and chats during the meet & greet session behind the grandstands when the gates open at 4:00 until 5:30.

Fans will also be presented with their choice of jumbo art prints being specially drawn for this event by racing artist Jeff Lindsay. Each print will have a collage of cars driven by Peck, along with some of the other popular drivers who will be in attendance. These collectible prints will be free of charge to the fans, along with other mystery gifts that will also be available to early arriving fans at the grandstand gate entrance.

Special edition t-shirts commemorating the career of Peck will also be available for sale on the night of the race. They will be sold by the staff of the Auto Racing Club of Hagerstown.  Proceeds from the sale of the shirts will be donated to the ARCH Injured Drivers Fund.

On-track action will consist of the Super Late Models, Late Model Sportsman and Pure Stocks.  All three divisions will be competing in qualifying heat races and 25, 20 and 15-lap features respectively.

A new qualifying format for the Frank Sagi Tribute is designed to be appealing to both racers and fans alike for the Super Late Model division, they will compete in an exciting timed hot laps session.

The Late Model Sportsman and Pure Stock divisions will compete under a more conventional format during the evening. Both classes will have standard warmup sessions, followed by qualifying heat races which will be lined up by the luck of the draw. Features will start heads-up according to heat race finishing positions.

This race will also mark the first leg of a new three-race series called the Nininger Challenge, sponsored by Glenn Nininger of Nininger’s Tire & Auto of Brunswick, Maryland.

The Nininger Challenge gives SLM drivers an opportunity to win cash bonuses of $500 and $1,000 if anyone can win two out of three or all three of the designated races at Hagerstown Speedway. The other two races involved in the are the Red Nininger Memorial in July, and the Tex Shaffer Memorial in August. Drivers are required to participate in all three events to be eligible for this extra bonus payout.

As an added attraction, Central Pennsylvania 410 Sprint car hot-shoe Logan Wagner will be making his debut behind the wheel of a Super Late Model, driving the Coleman Farms No.72 machine that scored the 2019 season opener at Hagerstown.

Super Late Model driver Marvin Winters has graciously agreed to convert his familiar black No. 46 racer one time into a yellow-sided machine for this special event, carrying the No. 40 inside of a fireball and P&W Excavating sponsorship on the quarter panels in honor of the appearance of many of Peck’s cars over the years

Fans will have a chance to win and own a piece of history on this memorable evening. A raffle will be held at the track and two lucky winners will go home with the bodywork off of that race car. One winner will be drawn for the right side door and quarter panel, with a second winning ticket chosen for the left side door and rear fender. Chances will be sold throughout the evening in both the grandstand and pit areas by members of the Auto Racing Club of Hagerstown, with all proceeds from the raffle going to the ARCH Injured Drivers Fund.

The bodywork will be drilled off of Winters’ car after the completion of the Super Late Model feature, and both winners who have their ticket numbers drawn will be able to take their race-used “Fireball 40” sheet metal home with them in exactly the condition that it comes off of the track.

The Frank Sagi Tribute has become one of the “can’t miss” races on the schedule. Make your plans to arrive early on June 23 to partake in all of the celebrations.

General admission is $16, students/seniors/military are $12, and kids age 12 and under are free. Pit admission is $30.

For more information, stay tuned to the speedway website, Facebook and Twitter pages for the latest news, or call the speedway office at 301-582-0640.

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]

Open Wheel Madness This Weekend

Coming up this Saturday night on June 15, Hagerstown Speedway presents Open Wheel Madness night, featuring the IMCA RaceSaver 305 Sprint Cars, along with the 600cc and 270cc Micro Sprint divisions.

The 305 Sprints have made three previous starts at Hagerstown Speedway in 2019 after their rousing debut almost exactly one year ago. These cars have produced some phenomenal racing so far at the Hub City half-mile, and this weekend should live up to those expectations.

In the four races held for the IMCA RaceSaver Sprints, no driver has repeated victory.

Coming off the heels of last month’s East Coast Sprint Nationals, IMCA VP of Racing Operations Jim Stannard was in attendance and left with a great impression and many praises of his visit at Hagerstown Speedway, along with many of the competitors.

The 600cc and 270cc Micro Sprints are scaled down versions of full size Sprint Cars that use motorcycle engines. They generally race on tracks smaller than a half-mile, so it will be very interesting to see these drivers race at a higher speed. It should definitely be an exciting night of racing to watch.

General admission is $15, students/seniors/military $12, kids age 12 and under are free. Pit admission is $30.

Pit gates open at 4:30, grandstands at 5pm, and racing begins at 7pm.

Follow the Hagerstown Speedway Facebook and Twitter pages for the latest in updates news, or call the speedway office at 301-582-0640 for more information.