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.
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