UNSLMS/Shaffer/Turn5 Victors Go To Covert
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 19th 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 9th, and Feathers came from 10th 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