By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Jason Covert picked up a big win at Hagerstown Speedway in the first running of the Tex Shaffer Memorial/Turn 5 Turnaround Summer Championship sanctioned by the Ultimate Northeast Super Late Model Series.

Covert picked up $5,046 for his efforts in the 46 lap feature event in honor of the car number of the longtime race team owner. It was his 19^th career win at the Hub City half-mile.

Covert shared the front row outside of pole sitter Jamie Lathroum, but didn’t take the lead until pulling off a slide job coming out of turn two on the ninth lap.

Covert began working traffic on Lap 13. Kyle Lee had just moved around Roy Deese, Jr. , and Alex Ferree into third on Lap 17, when a caution flag waved for Lathroum who was stopped from a flat right rear tire a lap later.

Lee inherited second, and followed Covert from the Delaware-style restart while keeping the leader within sight. Just past the halfway point, Covert was running the cushion through lapped traffic while Lee was working the bottom and top groove to reel in Covert’s lead.

With just ten laps remaining, Lee was within a couple car lengths of Covert before a slight bobble in turn four cost him some momentum.

Covert was able to maintain his distance the rest of the way toward the checkered flag.

A jubilant Covert climbed from his Cameron-Mann No.72 in victory lane, and said: “This is for Tex Shaffer. I came here when I was a kid, and that 46 car was here a lot longer than what I’ve been alive. Just the memory of him, and thanks for all of the fans for coming out. I hope we put on a little bit of show there.”

Lee’s right rear tire went flat just as he crossed the checkered flag to finish second, while Trever Feathers made a late pass of Deese to finish third, and Jared Miley recovered from a spin that brought out a caution and sent him to restart in the rear before the first lap was completed to finish fifth.

After a few cautions and restarts resulting in a green/white/checkered finish, Joey Zambotti returned to Hagerstown Speedway after a lengthy absence and picked up his sixth Pure Stock feature win of the season after leading the whole distance from his outside front row starting spot.

Zambotti beat 2019 track champion Danny Atherton into the corner of turn one and never looked back to claim the $1,000 top prize.

Atherton battled third and fourth place finishers Dillon Wilson and Craig Parrill throughout most of the 15 lap event, while Jonathan DeHaven made a cameo appearance to round out the top five.

Brady Daniels came from ninth, and survived the attrition to take his third Hobby Stock feature win of the season. Davey Gross was second, followed by Sam Caravello, Gene Miller, and Mike Fuller.

Daniels picked up $500 for the win.

Notes: Alex Ferree set quick time over the 22 car field with a best lap of 18.101 seconds. Heat race winners were Covert, Deese, Jr., and Matt Cosner.

With some fresh clay added about a month ago to the racing surface, the track yielded some excellent multiple groove racing with three-wide action racing in all three divisions all night long.

Lee came from 9^th, and Feathers came from 10^th place starts to each claim podium finishes.

Hagerstown Speedway is off the next couple of weekends before the Small Car Nationals on September 13-14.

Feature Results

Super Late Models (46 Laps) – 1. 72C-Jason Covert, [2]; 2. 2T-Kyle Lee, [9]; 3. 20-Trever Feathers, [10]; 4. 05-Roy Deese Jr., [4]; 5. 10-Jared Miley, [5]; 6. 44-Gary Stuhler, [13]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner, [3]; 8. 46-Marvin Winters, [11]; 9. 4-Alex Ferree, [6]; 10. 41-Andy Anderson, [8]; 11. 32J-Shaun Jones, [16]; 12. 8-Matt Sponaugle, [12]; 13. 21-Chad Myers, [15]; 14. 43-Cody Kershner, [22]; 15. 45-Jamie Lathroum, [1]; 16. 08-Keith Koontz, [21]; 17. 86-Scott Palmer, [14]; 18. 5-Brad Omps, [19]; 19. 48-Colton Flinner, [7]; 20. 11-Kirk Baker, [17]; 21. 85-Rodney Walls, [18]; 22. 2J-Justin Weaver, [20]

Pure Stock (15 Laps)– 1. 948-Joey Zambotti, [2]; 2. 19-Danny Atherton, [1]; 3. 65-Dillon Wilson, [5]; 4. 34C-Craig Parrill, [3]; 5. 54-Jonathan DeHaven, [6]; 6. 59X-Ryan Smith, [8]; 7. 11-Dylan Rutherford, [13]; 8. 72M-Russel Shoop, [17]; 9. 75-Marshall McMullen, [4]; 10. 94-Zachary Myers, [7]; 11. 15-Ricky Feltner, [10]; 12. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [12]; 13. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [11]; 14. 56-Gregory Laird, [14]; 15. 47-Tike Loizos, [15]; 16. 59-Mike Desch, [9]; 17. 7-Rob Nichols, [19]; 18. 2-Randy Zechman, [16] DNS-Charles Rupert

Hobby Stock (15 Laps) – 1. 76-Brady Daniels, [9]; 2. 27-Davey Gross Jr., [3]; 3. 41-Sam Caravello, [12]; 4. 11M-Gene Miller, [1]; 5. 19-Mike Fuller, [5]; 6. 0-Jamie Mills, [4]; 7. 14-Codey Breeden, [15]; 8. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [11]; 9. X53-Gregory Morgan, [8]; 10. 35-James Mongan, [14]; 11. 2-Preston Imler, [18]; 12. 10-Drew Fertig, [7]; 13. 64-William Crook, [13]; 14. 75-Bradley Vaughn, [16]; 15. 03-Kevin Thomas, [2]; 16. 141-Tom Caravello, [10]; 17. 00-Charles Noblitt,[6]DNS- Andy Lufkin, Scot Sipes

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Trever Feathers scored the Super Late Model win in the 12^th annual Red Nininger Memorial on a hot, summer night at Hagerstown Speedway.

Marvin Winters led the field from the start as a three wide battle ensued for second place between Justin Weaver, Tyler Horst, and Allen Brannon. Weaver settled into second while Winters began to pull away. Feathers got by Brannon and closed in on the group a couple laps later.

Winters saw his advantaged erased as the caution flag flew on Lap 11 for Larry Neiderer, setting up a restart. Once again, Winters pulled away from another three-wide battle for second among Weaver, Horst, and this time Feathers.

Feathers got the best of the group and began his stalk of Winters, making the pass for the lead on the low side of Winters on Lap 17.

From then on, Feathers overpowered the field and a late closing Andy Anderson to pick up his first SLM win of the season at Hagerstown.

Feathers said : “This whole week has been the hardest week of my life. This car was sitting in pieces. It’s brand new, brand new motor…. Let me get this Super done, we’ll go to Hagerstown. I busted my butt all week, me and my guys, and my dad…. In warmups and time trials, we had no brakes. Had brakes in the rear for the heat race, and somewhat had brakes in the feature. This is probably the biggest win my career. Not money wise, but as hard as we worked in the past seven days is unbelievable.”

Winters finished third, while Horst and Weaver completed the top five.

Cody Kershner and Barry Miller shared the front row in the Late Model Sportsman feature, and each driver was looking for their first win of the 2019 season. Miller was able to pull ahead into the lead and maintain his advantage over Kershner for the duration to pick up the feature win.

Finishing third was Scott Palmer, followed by James Lichliter and Devin Frey.

With Lichliter’s fourth place finish, he claimed the 2019 LMS track championship over Palmer by a 65 point margin.

Kevin Thomas picked up his sixth Hobby Stock feature win of the season, and the 2019 track championship. Thomas trailed Billy Ecton,Sr. by 22 points entering the evening and briefly battled him early in the feature event until Brady Daniels made his bid for the lead.

Daniels spun on the tenth lap, bringing out the caution and had to go to the rear. Daniels drove from the rear and back into second place as Ecton, Sr. fell out to mechanical woes. Thomas claimed the title by a scant 10 points.

Jason Sarver, Sam Caravello, and James Speelman rounded out the top five.

After a couple seasons of strong runs, Danny Atherton finally picked up his first career Pure Stock feature win. Atherton battled Rob Nichols for much of the feature event, and pulled away at the halfway point before Nichols began to reel in the leader.

A caution on the fourteenth lap setup a one-lap shootout to the finish, and Atherton was able to withstand the challenge of Nichols to pick up the win.

Trailing Atherton and Nichols at the finish were Dillon Wilson, Bobby Meixsell, and Lane Hessong.

Picking up the LaSalle 602 Crate Modified feature nightcap was Cameron Campbell over Chris Chamberlain, Andy Swope, and Keith Van Horn.

Notes: Weaver set quick time for SLM with a lap of 18.750 seconds on a tricky racing surface following a week after the NTPA Truck & Tractor Pull held on the frontstretch.

Kyle Lee was originally eligible to win the Nininger Challenge available to a driver that could win two or three of the memorial races via his win in the Frank Sagi Tribute, but he was not in competition due to being away on vacation. To be eligible for the bonus, the drivers must attend all three memorial events.

An extra $500 is up for grabs to Feathers if he can win the Tex Shaffer Memorial on August 24.

Hagerstown Speedway would like to thank Glenn Nininger and his family for their support and involvement with this event, along with all of the racers and fans that came out to support this race.

Feature Results

Super Late Models (25 Laps) – 1. 20-Trever Feathers, [5]; 2. 41-Andy Anderson, [6]; 3. 46-Marvin Winters, [1]; 4. 14-Tyler Horst, [4]; 5. 2J-Justin Weaver, 2]; 6. 30-Allen Brannon, 3]; 7. 5E-Glenn Elliott, [10]; 8. 86-Scott Palmer, [8]; 9. 121-Larry Neiderer, [11]; 10. 85-Rodney Walls, [9]; DNS-Gary Stuhler

Late Model Sportsman (20 Laps)– 1. 88-Barry Miller, [2]; 2. 43-Cody Kershner, [1]; 3. 86-Scott Palmer, [6]; 4. 8-James Lichliter, [5]; 5. 62-Devin Frey, [10]; 6. 2-Dan Zechman, [4]; 7. 08-Keith Koontz, [9]; 8. 85-Rodney Walls, [3]; 9. 000-Paul Cursey Jr., [7]; 10. 08K-Zach Kauffman, [8]; 11. 17-Doug Legum, [11]; 12. 24R-John Rowland, [13]; 13. 77S-Elwood Sord, [12]

Pure Stock (15 Laps)– 1. 19-Danny Atherton, [3]; 2. 7N-Rob Nichols, [5]; 3. 65-Dillon Wilson, [7]; 4. 19M-Bobby Meixsell, [6]; 5. 55-Lane Hessong, [4]; 6. 6-Wayne Hawbaker, [9]; 7. 56-Gregory Laird, [11]; 8. 47-Tike Loizos, [12]; 9. 25-Jeremy Mills, [13]; 10. 69-Dwayne Snyder, [8]; 11. 00-Joshua Bloom, [1]; 12. 44-Charles Rupert, [10] DNS -Randy Zechman

Hobby Stock (15 Laps)– 1. 03-Kevin Thomas, [3]; 2. 76-Brady Daniels, [5]; 3. 43-Jason Sarver, [8]; 4. 41-Sam Caravello, [10]; 5. 10-Drew Fertig, [14]; 6. 11A-James Speelman, [2]; 7. 57-William Ecton Jr., [6]; 8. 67-William Ecton Sr., [1]; 9. 14-Codey Breeden, [11]; 10. 84-Andy Lufkin, [13]; 11. 15-Scot Sipes, [4]; 12. 64-William Crook, [12]; 13. 12LC-Laura Chamberlain, [9]; 14. 25-Rodney Miner, [15]; 15. 19-Mike Fuller, [7]

Crate Mods (15 Laps)– 1. 8-Cameron Campbell, [2]; 2. 31C-Chris Chamberlain, [3]; 3. 70-Andy Swope, [1]; 4. 00-Keith Van Horn, [5]; DNF-Charlie Summers, DNS-Scott Corbin