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Hagerstown Speedway
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (September 5) - Jamie "The Jet" Lathroum, Mechanicsville, Md. led all but one lap of the 24th Annual McBee/Hays Championship 44-lap event at Hagerstown Speedway on Saturday evening to record his career first late model feature win in the prestigious event.
With double points on the line in the final point event, it was last lap-last turn as seven time track champion, Roy Deese Jr. of Laurel, Md. capped his title by one point over Frankie Plessinger who came into the event seven points up.
Glenn Elliott of Sykesville, Md won the shortened Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic late model sportsman event, the third of his rookie season when numerous cautions caused the time limit to expire. Severna Park, Md's Kyle Lear, finished fourth but ended the season with his first ever track title in the division over veteran and four time champion Wayne Walls Jr..
Hagerstown's Mike Warrenfeltz won both the Ernie D's pure stock feature, his second of the season and 74th of his career but also posted his fourth track championship in the division, his first since 2004. Kenny Thomas of Greencastle, Pa scored the final 30-lap Enduro Dash event by .97 seconds over Matt Smith for his first win since May 2006.
Lathroum lost the lead to J. T. Spence on lap 40, but he rebounded to lead the final four circuits and win by .91 seconds over the #91 of Spence. He became the 14th different feature winner.
"J. T. misjudged that lapped car and got a little loose," Lathroum said. "I think he thought he was going to hit him and he opened the door back up. I thought 'I'm going to stick to the bottom if he's going to go around the top.'"
Deese and Plessinger started side by side in the sixth row but Deese found some holes and quickly advanced to seventh as the field began to stretch out with only one 16th lap caution to interrupt the action.
"I feel really bad for Frankie," Deese said. "He's run good all year and if it wasn't for me trying to win it for myself, I'd love to see him win it. My car is good at the beginning, he's always good at the end and I knew I had to get going early. At the end I was hanging on. I was searching for anything to make me fast. I can't believe I pulled this off. Frankie had us covered the second half of this year. Another couple laps, I think Frankie would have been standing here."
"I knew we had to finish ahead of him to beat him if we were in the top ten," said Plessinger. "The 46 (Marvin Winters) cost me some time and that left him get away from me but that's racing. It just took me too long to get up there and didn't have any cautions to help me."
Lathroum shot from his outside pole to take the lead as fifth starter Ronnie DeHaven Jr grabbed second over Rusty Sites while seventh starting Spence moved to fourth. Lathroum entered rear traffic by the 11th lap while DeHaven was nearly two seconds behind.
Following the only restart on lap 16, Spence took third from Sites and battled with DeHaven while Lathroum was again just over two seconds ahead.
Spence got by DeHaven on lap 30 and closed on Lathroum's bumper for four laps before getting by but as quickly as he got the lead, he lost it when Lathroum quickly reacted in the lapped traffic to retake the spot and hold off Spence at the end.
"This is one of the toughest places to win," said Lathroum. "The track is so different all the time and there are so many good cars up here that have been racing forever. A lot of these guys have been racing longer than I am old."
DeHaven held to third over Al Shawver Jr. and 17th starting Gary Stuhler to complete the top five while Andy Anderson, Sites, Deese, Plessinger and Winters rounded out the top ten. Lathroum, Shawver Jr. and Plessinger were the heat winners while Mike Lupfer won the consy.
Hagerstown Speedway Results
24th Annual McBee/ Hays Championship Late Models, 44 laps, 30 entries, (Lap Leaders - Jamie Lathroum 1-39, J.T. Spence - 40, Lathroum 41-44) 1.Jamie Lathroum; 2.J. T. Spence; 3.Ronnie DeHaven Jr.; 4.Al Shawver Jr.; 5.Gary Stuhler; 6.Andy Anderson; 7.Rusty Sites; 8.Roy Deese Jr.; 9.Frankie Plessinger; 10.Marvin Winters; 11.Tyler Hershey; 12.Alan Sagi; 13.Devin Friese; 14.Jim Yoder; 15.Billy Wampler; 16.Bob Dunn; 17.Steve Gibney; 18.Brian Booze; 19.Al Cheney; 20.Rick Hulson; 21.Tim Murphy; 22.Jimmy McBee Jr..; 23.Matt Murphy; 24.Mike Lupfer, DNQ - James Myers, Todd Snook, Lindsay Barton, Charlie Hageage, Larry Baker II, DNS - Doug Stine
Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic Late Model Sportsman, 20 laps, 23 entries (Lap Leaders - Nick Pappas 1-2, Terry Flaherty 3-4, Glenn Elliott 5-15 (Time Expiration) ): 1.Glenn Elliott; 2.Pete Weaver; 3.Terry Flaherty; 4.Kyle Lear; 5.Steve Bailor; 6.Wayne Walls Jr.(St Thomas Towing/Checkered Flag Lube Center Hard Charger); 7.Ashley Barrett; 8.Steve Axtell Jr.; 9.Courtney Shreiner; 10.Ronnie Dennis; 11.Jerry Bard; 12.Mike Walls; 13.Michael Collins; 14.Barry Lear Sr.; 15.Anthony Lupini; 16.Mark Jones; 17.Justin Hart; 18.Todd Lewis; 19.Donnie Farlling; 20.Matt Housare; 21.Randy Schaeffer; 22.Elwood Sord; 23. DSQ - Nick Pappas
Ernie D's Pure Stocks, 15 laps, 22 entries (Lap Leaders - Justin Snodderly 1-7, Danny Beavers 8, Mike Warrenfeltz 9-15) 1.Mike Warrenfeltz; 2.Danny Beavers; 3.Dave Stouffer Jr.; 4.Kenny Dillon; 5.Wayne Hawbaker; 6.Darrin Younker; 7.Justin Snodderly; 8.Steve Lowery; 9.Drew Fitzsimmons; 10.Bill Reitober; 11.Frank Dibella; 12.Dave Mikolajski; 13.Kevin Koontz; 14.Dave Gross; 15.Mike Sanders; 16.Bill Ecton Jr.; 17.Billy Ecton; 18.Dustin Proctor; 19.Charlie Pensinger; DNS - Tony Stoneberger, Tony Catlett, Kevin Keefer
Enduro Dash, 30 laps 26 entries ( Lap Leaders Robin Koogler 1, Matt Smith 2-9, Kenny Thomas 10-30) 1.Kenny Thomas; 2.Matt Smith; 3.Krazy Kenny Thomas; 4.Cris Ebersole; 5.Larry Hurley; 6.Robin Koogler; 7.William Crook; 8.Jim Speelman; 9.Danny Holmes; 10.Mark Vegh; 11.Richard Tracey; 12.Rob Keller; 13.Gary Cekovich; 14.Bryan Green; 15.James Clark; 16.J.C.Butts; 17.Danny Bell; 18.Bill Hargett; 19.John Conrad; 20.John Poole; 21.Eric Myers; 22.Gary Proctor; 23.Rodney Minor; 24.Charles Stambaugh; 25.Joe Rodgers; 26.Dave Shatto
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