Eric Johnson Memorial for Hobby Stocks Rescheduled on September 13

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The Eric Johnson Memorial for Hobby Stocks that was rain postponed shortly after beginning the feature on June 29 will be made up from where it left off on Friday, September 13 during qualifying night of the Small Car Nationals.

Only those drivers that originally competed in the Eric Johnson Memorial on June 29 are eligible to compete as that race had already officially started. Two laps were completed, and 13 laps remain to finish.

The race is still $1,001 to win, and the rest of the original purse to be paid along with many other awards and bonus paid to the field of 26 cars that originally started the race.

For more information or details, call the speedway office at 301-582-0640.

Rahmer Wins Johnny Grum Memorial at Hagerstown

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By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Freddie Rahmer picked up the win in exciting fashion during the third edition of the Johnny Grum Memorial on Thursday night’s seventh round of Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek at Hagerstown Speedway.

Robbie Kendall and Lucas Wolfe paced the field from the front row, and Kendall beat Wolfe into turn one and off of turn two to take the lead.

Kendall quickly drove his No. 55k into lapped traffic on the sixth circuit before a Lap 7 caution waved for the stopped car of Brandon Rahmer in turn one.

On the restart, Kendall repeated his original start, beating Wolfe and the field again to remain the race leader. At the halfway point, Kendall led Wolfe by a 1.63 second margin and once again was working through lapped traffic while rim-riding the top groove of the Hub City oval.

Just a few laps later, Wolfe worked the bottom groove underneath Kendall to take the lead coming off of turn two on Lap 19. As Wolfe was leading, a four-car battle for second began between the cars of Kendall, Cory Eliason, Danny Dietrich, and Freddie Rahmer.

Rahmer made the best of the battle, settling into second and began his chase of Wolfe on Lap 23, and worked the low groove to pass Wolfe for the lead on Lap 24.

From then, Rahmer looked poised to pull away until a Lap 28 caution waved for the spun car of Brock Zearfoss on the backstretch.

This setup a two-lap dash to the finish, but Rahmer was too strong at the end, and took the checkered flag.

The win for the Salfordville, Pennsylvania driver in his Leffler Energy No.51 was the first of his career at Hagerstown.

“I don’t know how good I was at the end, but it was good enough to hold them off. It’s pretty cool to get my first win at Hagerstown.  I always love coming here. I wish we could race here more. The track flows perfect for Sprint Cars and Late Models. It’s all good racing.”, praised Rahmer in victory lane.

Wolfe held onto second, followed by Eliason, Dietrich, and fifth-place finisher Anthony Macri.

The win put Rahmer into the points lead at the time for the PA Sprint Speedweek championship with two races remaining.

Notes: 22 cars signed into the pit area on the July 4th holiday race. Notably absent was Lance Dewease, whose team elected to take the night off. Dewease’s streak of three consecutive wins at Hagerstown came to an end.

Rico Abreu set quick time with a lap of 15.601 seconds, falling short of Mark Kinser’s pre-weight limit best of 14.945 set back in 1999.

Heats were won by Wolfe, Dietrich, and Kendall.

Feature Results

410 Sprints (30 Laps) – 1. Freddie Rahmer, 2. Lucas Wolfe, 3. Cory Eliason, 4. Danny Dietrich, 5. Anthony Macri, 6. James McFadden, 7. Rico Abreu, 8. Robbie Kendall, 9. Dylan Cisney, 10. Logan Wagner, 11. Tony Stewart, 12. T.J. Stutts, 13. Mike Wagner, 14. Chad Trout, 15. Jared Esh, 16. A.J. Flick, 17. Justin Whitall, 18, Brock Zearfoss, 19. Troy Fraker, 20. Chase Dietz, 21. Carl Bowser, 22. Brandon Rahmer

PA Sprint Speedweek Up Next 

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Hagerstown Speedway is back in action with the annual “South of the Border” stop this Thursday, July 4th for the seventh night of the PA Sprint Speedweek for 410 Sprint Cars with the Johnny Grum Tribute.

Grum was best known in the region for his time spent behind the wheel of the No.66 cars owned by Harry Fletcher. Both have since passed away, but both are still remembered and revered for making a formidable team from the mid 1960’s through the mid 1970’s.

One of those cars was the uniquely built “Sidewinder” that featured an offset 427 Ford engine, and very low clearance that was dominant at Hagerstown Speedway. He won the 1966 Super Modified championship with that car, and another championship in 1969 with Small Block Chevy power a conventional Sprint Car.

Grum still ranks third on the all-time Sprint Car win list at Hagerstown with 21 career feature wins, and still holds the 35 and 100 lap records set in 1974.

Featured on the card with the 410 Sprints will be an exhibition of vintage race cars through the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.

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

General Admission $25, Student/Senior/Military $20, Reserved Seating (top two rows) $30. Kids age 12 and under are free. Pit Insurance is $35.

For the latest news and information, please follow Hagerstown Speedway on Facebook and Twitter, or call the speedway office at 301-582-0640.

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

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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

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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

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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]