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Hagerstown Speedway
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (June 6) - Jason Covert's third season at Hagerstown Speedway came in dominating fashion Saturday night in the Appalachian Mountain Dirt Late Model Speedweek Series opener after taking the lead on lap four and then wondering where everyone was for the next 36 laps. Covert, of York Haven, PA took the $5,000 triumph by 3.28 seconds over D.J. Myers.
Hans Stamberg advanced from the 11th position to lead on lap nine and later score his third season win in the Ernie D's pure stock event by three lengths over Dave Stuffer Jr.
With the top two from each heat race drawing for the feature start, Covert pulled the number four and by the third lap was in a huddle with front row drivers, Al Shawver Jr. and J.T. Spence to slip past both on the same lap and assume command. Setting the pace, he was 4.9 seconds ahead when Myers took over second on lap 11. His dominance in the Barry Klinedinst Rocket showed all the way to the checkered.
"I left everyone down last week with the (World of) Outlaws, I didn't give the crew the right input" Covert said. "I think I gave them the right input tonight. We built another spare car for this series. Some of the guys have been in the shop 14 straight days and we worked on this one to get it ready tool. My hat's off to them. When the car is like that, all I have to do is drive it. Those guys do all the work."
Shawver Jr. stormed from the outside pole to grab the lead from Spence exiting the second turn, but Covert powered into the mix and quickly made his moves past both and within two laps was 1.6 seconds ahead of Spence and by lap eight, had stretched the interval to 3.8. Covert continued on his mission all alone out front as Myers took over the runner up spot on lap 11 who was joined by Jeremy Miller.
Covert then saw some other cars as got to the rear of the field by lap 14 and started through. In three laps, he had three cars between himself and Myers and still enjoyed a four second advantage when the only caution in the race came out on lap 21 when Spence coasted to a stop. .
Myers quickly disposed of the one lapped car that remained on the track but Covert was starting to edge away. Nick Dickson was still holding to fourth while 13th starter, Tommy Armel got past fast timer Jamie Lathroum following the restart and began trying to unseat Dickson.
Covert's distance to Myers continued to grow with each circuit as he again caught the rear of the field on lap 37 and stuck five rear cars between himself and Myers in the final laps.
"In the heat race, Jamie (Lathroum) just left me," Covert said. "I was like "Wow." He's been so good lately and I thought we had our work cut out for us, but then I drew four and that's like negative four for me so that was great. I usually drive from the back row. The car was good and the tires were good. I can't thank American Racer enough for what they do for us.'
Myers paved the way for Miller as they occupied the next positions.
"Covert was good," Myers said after starting fifth. "I think we had harder tires on than him because he went awful good on that restart. Once he got distance on me, it was too hard for me to make up. I was glad the top three cars were on American Racers."
"Starting spot made a lot tonight," said seventh starter, Miller. "I think we got beat on tires tonight. We were coming and they were fading, but we're putting the pieces of the jigsaw together. At least we got to run all 40 laps tonight. That was a big plus."
Austin Hubbard came from 12th and got past Armel with two to go and claimed the fourth position while Armel completed the top five. Lathroum ended sixth after starting eighth with Ronnie DeHaven Jr. from 11th, Frankie Plessinger, from 17th, Dickson, and Mike Lupfer, from 16th completing the top ten.
Sixty five entries vied for starting spots as Lathroum, DeHaven Jr., Shawver Jr., Myers, Dickson and Gary Stuhler won the qualifying heats while the consolations were won by Dan Stone, Greg Fetters and Tim Wilson.
Following a caution on the opening lap for the pure stocks, Drew Fitzsimmons and Dave Stouffer battled side by side for the top spot with Kevin Koontz watching the moves closely behind until Stouffer got it barely on the fourth lap as Fitzsimmons came back by a half length ahead on the seventh. Stamberg found a hole and quickly got past traffic after starting 11th and got under Stouffer to lead the ninth lap. Following a red flag on lap 13 when Bill Ecton crashed on the backstretch, Stamberg held the winning hand on Stouffer by three lengths at the finish while previous week's winner, Kenny Dillon took third with two to go. Wayne Hawbaker and Dave Mikolajski completed the top five. Heats were won by Dillon, Steve Lowery and Stamberg.
"I was stuck in traffic behind Wayne. There really wasn't anywhere to go so I tried diving it in down below and it worked," Stamberg said, "'I was a little worried that it was going to slide up, but it didn't. Luckily it worked out."
After several weeks of special events, the upcoming program will be a regular point show for the late models, late model sportsman and pure stocks plus the fourth Enduro Dash.
Check the speedway website for any changes in the weather at: www.hagerstownspeedway.com or contact the speedway office at 301-582-0640.
Hagerstown Speedway Results
Appalachian Mountain Dirt Late Model Speedweek Series Race #1, 40 laps, 65 entries, (Lap Leaders - Al Shawver Jr. 1-3, Jason Covert 4-40)
1. Jason Covert;
2. D.J. Myers;
3. Jeremy Miller;
4. Austin Hubbard;
5. Tommy Armel;
6. Jamie Lathroum;
7. Ronnie DeHaven Jr.;
8. Frankie Plessinger;
9. Nick Dickson;
10. Mike Lupfer;
11. Gary Stuhler;
12. Jeff Rine;
13. Jim Yoder;
14. Devin Friese;
15. Dan Stone;
16. Robby Blair;
17. Darryl Hills;
18. Scott Cross;
19. Tim Wilson;
20. Andy Anderson;
21. Bo Feathers;
22. Al Shawver Jr..;
23. J. T. Spence;
24. Greg Fetters;
25. Jere Wierman;
26. Steve Campbell;
27. Tyler Hershey,
DNQ - Roy Deese Jr., Jason Dupont, Dale Hollidge, Nathan Durboraw, Brett Schadel, Scott Haus, Les Hare ,Rusty Sites, Bryan Sipe, Dylan Yoder, Tony Adams, Waylon Wagner, Matt Quade, Erick Hans, Tim Burkholder, Jeff Smith, Bryan Bernheisel, Marvin Winters, Ray , Kable Jr., Tim Fedder, Brian Booze, Steve Gibney, Colby Frye, Troy Erickson, Jason Miller, Brian White, Tyler Armstrong, Al Chaney, Keith Jackson, DNS - Scott LeBarron, Alan Sagi, Billy Wampler, Jack Pencil, Bob Dunn, Kirk, Ryan Jr., Lindsay Barton, Rick Stouffer.
Ernie's Auto Enterprises Pure Stocks, 15 laps, 23 entries (Lap Leaders - Drew Fitzsimmons, 1-3, 7, Dave Stouffer Jr. 4-6, 8, Hans Stamberg 9-15) 1.Hans Stamberg; 2.Dave Stouffer Jr.; 3.Kenny Dillon; 4.Wayne Hawbaker; 5.Dave Mikolajski; 6.Darrin Younker; 7.Charlie Pensinger; 8.Mike Warrenfeltz; 9.Billy Ecton Jr.; 10.Frank Dibella; 11.Kenny Day; 12.Danny Beavers; 13.Steve Lowery; 14.Kevin Koontz; 15.Juntin Snodderly; 16.Drew Fitzsimmons; 17.Bill Ecton; 18.Zack, Reid; 19.Tony Stoneberger; 20.Bobby Franklin; DNS - Kevin Keefer, Lin Sutphin, Sherman Lynn
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