Moore & Thomas Repeat, Jones & Kling Score Hagerstown Firsts
By Brett Rose
HAGERSTOWN, MD – Greg “Spike” Moore drove to his second straight and overall Late Model Sportsman win of the 2019 season at Hagerstown Speedway on April 20. .
As opening night winner Scott Palmer powered around pole sitter Zach Kauffman at the start, Moore moved around Kauffman into second a lap later. Palmer maintained the lead through Lap 8 until he encountered traffic and was held up by a slower car, giving Moore the opportunity to take lead away.
While Moore overtook the lead from Palmer, Barry Miller and James Lichliter battled for third. One more caution flag unfurled with just seven laps to go giving that group one more shot at the win.
Moore was able to distance himself from the group as they broke away from the rest of the field, and the Defiance, PA driver wasn’t going to be denied another trip to victory lane.
“Yeah I just kind of played it cool there because I figured maybe the track would come to me a little bit. My car was a little tight to start off with there, and I can’t say enough about my car and how it works down here. We’ve been trying stuff to get better here, and I think we got it”, said Moore.
Palmer, Miller, 14th place starter Cody Kershner, and Lichliter completed the top five.
The IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature came to a stop almost as quickly as it started as heat race winner Jake Karklin spun in turn one, backed it into the fence, and rolled on his top. He was OK.
On the restart, Jonathan Jones of Irvona, PA powered into the lead, and pulled away from the field. But as the laps wound down, second place runner Christian Rumsey began chasing Jones around the halfway mark.
Rumsey slowly chipped away at the lead, closing the gap through traffic in the final laps, but it was not enough as Jones took the checkered flag.
Jones said: “I’m speechless. I honestly don’t know what to say. I just can’t thank everybody enough that got us here. Thanks to Hagerstown for having us; nice, smooth surface and thanks to the fans that support us.”
Following Jones and Rumsey at the finish were Drew Ritchey, Tyler Denochick, and Ryan Lynn came from 14th to finish fifth.
Brad Kling used a late-race restart with just six laps remaining to move around Carl McKinney to pick up the Mid Atlantic Modifieds feature win. McKinney slid up a little coming to the green, allowing the former MAM champion to move underneath him and grab his first Hagerstown Speedway win of 2019.
“Well, I got in a little hot down there and I seen him (McKinney) on the top and I got a good run in the corner”, stated Kling in victory lane. Tim Fedder, Ray Kable, and Justin Cullum rounded out the top five.
Kevin Thomas drove off to his third Hobby Stock win of the season. Thomas survived a late race caution to hold off a fast-charging Brady Daniels to take victory. Billy Ecton, Jr. was third, Jamie Mills was fourth, and Mike Fuller finished fifth.
Notes: 93 total cars were pit side for the first of a few races featuring cars of the open-wheeled variety. Four distinctively different divisions were on the card giving fans a true variety to watch.
Late Model Sportsman heat race winner Tyler Ritchey competes with a car that utilizes hand controls for throttle and braking as he is paralyzed from the waist down. He finished sixth in the LMS feature event.
No winners started on the pole. Only Jones won from the front row on a night that plenty of racers were moving through the field in their respective divisions.
Feature Results
IMCA RaceSaver Sprints – 1. 12J-Jonathan Jones, [2]; 2. 1R-Christian Rumsey, [4]; 3. 880-Drew Ritchey, [8]; 4. 6L-Tyler Denochick, [1]; 5. 26-Ryan Lynn, [14]; 6. 33-Scott Lutz, [17]; 7. 46-Michael Alleman, [7]; 8. 6X-Brad Mellott, [11]; 9. 86-Ron Aurand, [3]; 10. 00S-Randy Sterling, [5]; 11. 39-Tom Humphries, [22]; 12. 31-Donnie Hendershot, [13]; 13. 6-Tony Harris, [9]; 14. 44V-Daren Bolac, [16]; 15. R6-Reed Thompson, [10]; 16. J9-Jerald Harris, [18]; 17. 90-Charlie Ware, [12]; 18. 25K-Matthew Kline, [23]; 19. 43-Chris Ware, [20]; 20. 7-Ben McCall, [21]; 21. 88-Bill Rice, [15]; 22. 5K-Jake Karklin, [6] DNS-Neil Sandridge
Mid Atlantic Modifieds – 1. 11-Brad Kling, [7]; 2. 6M-Carl McKinney, [2]; 3. 8-Tim Fedder, [5]; 4. 90-Ray Kable, [10]; 5. 95J-Justin Cullum, [6]; 6. 25-Mike Corbin, [21]; 7. 55-Alyssa Rowe, [11]; 8. 97-Mitch Thomas, [9]; 9. 5-Jerry Foster, [14]; 10. 51-Joey Polevoy, [3]; 11. 55C-Cody Oliver, [12]; 12. 21H-Kyle Lloyd, [8]; 13. 1N-Hunter Nester, [18]; 14. 41-Cody Williams,[19]; 15. 99-Bryan Green, [4]; 16. 0-Haley Kaiser, [20]; 17. 57-Ken Singer, [16]; 18. 8M-Jeffrey McCauley, [17]; 19. H20-Ridge Bookwalter, [13]; 20. 13G-David Green, [23]; 21. 086-Tracey Hichs, [24]; 22. 17-Andy Bosley, [25]; 23. 7H-Josh Hughes, [15]; 24. 80-Keith Reed, [22]; 25. 29-Douglas Ostwald DNS-Beau Aikey
Late Model Sportsman – 1. 48W-Greg Moore, [4]; 2. 86-Scott Palmer, [2]; 3. 88-Barry Miller, [6]; 4. 43-Cody Kershner, [14]; 5. 8-James Lichliter, [3]; 6. 3-Tyler Ritchey, [5]; 7. 1K-Bruce Kane, [11]; 8. 08-Keith Koontz, [9]; 9. 000-Paul Cursey Jr., [16]; 10. 85-Rodney Walls, [12]; 11. 44S-Shawn Shoemaker, [7]; 12. 88X-Devin Weyandt, [10]; 13. 21M-Matt Murphy, [13]; 14. 08K-Zach Kauffman, [1]; 15. 52-Bryan Benton, [18]; 16. 22*-Ryan Sager, [15]; 17. 11B-Ronnie Bottenfield, [22]; 18. 53-Tyler Kirby, [21]; 19. 77S-Elwood Sord, [17]; 20. 16-Clinton Hersh, [8]; 21. 36-Sam Archer, [19]; 22. 24R-John Rowland, [20]; 23. 38-Carl Biddle, [23] DNS-Travis Wilson, Eddie Cornett
Hobby Stock – 1. 03-Kevin Thomas, [5]; 2. 76-Brady Daniels, [6]; 3. 57-William Ecton Jr., [7]; 4. 0-Jamie Mills, [8]; 5. 19-Mike Fuller, [1]; 6. 67-Billy Ecton, [4]; 7. 11A-James Speelman, [9]; 8. 10-Drew Fertig, [2]; 9. 53-Gregory Morgan, [12]; 10. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [14]; 11. 64-William Crook, [10]; 12. 28-Brad Umbrell, [15]; 13. 7K-Michael Knight, [11]; 14. 25-Rodney Miner, [16]; 15. 43-Jason Sarver, [13] DNS -Sam Caravello