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.