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Hagerstown Speedway
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (July 3) - Frankie Plessinger celebrated the holiday weekend with the biggest win of his career after scoring Saturday night's 50-lap 45th Annual Johnny Roberts Memorial at Hagerstown Speedway. The win was the current late model point leader's career ninth and first since April 2009.
"I've ran second in this race before and always hoped I'd win it someday. This is great," said Plessinger, of Big Cove Tannery, Pa.
Other winners on the holiday program were Kyle Lear of Severna Park, Md. who scored his season first in the Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic late model sportsman feature after taking the lead just before the halfway mark. Following a crash the previous week, Hagerstown's Mike Warrenfeltz returned for win number six in the Ernie D's pure stocks.
On the first attempt to get the late models underway, Marvin Winters was eliminated when the inside row stacked up in turn two and he may have received a broken wrist in the incident.
Jerry Bard took off from the pole on the second try to lead the 50-lap late model feature while third starter, Al Shawver Jr. grabbed second and the two pulled away from Brian Booze. Plessinger was on the way from ninth and moved into fourth by lap four.
Shawver kept the pressure on Bard until rounding the top to grab the spot on lap 11. In two laps, he pulled away just over two seconds before a lap 13 caution for a stopped car.
On the restart, Shawver continued to lead Bard while Plessinger took third away but 12th starter and six time Roberts winner, Gary Stuhler had advanced to seize third on lap 18.
Shawver still was pulling away and had a 2.88 second lead on Bard when the final caution waved on lap 23 for another stopped car.
Stuhler quickly moved past Bard on the restart while Plessinger went to work on the top and came away with the runner up spot on lap 28 to set sights on Shawver. He closed several times as Shawver escaped by a few lengths as Plessinger again moved in to Shawver's bumper.
Plessinger rounded the top of lap 39 to pull along the outside of Shawver on the backstretch as he got pinched off and the two touched with both recovering and Plessinger then pulling ahead and continuing to stretch out his lead in the final laps to 2.227 seconds at the checkered.
"I figured I had to find something," Plessinger said. "Everybody else was on the bottom so I had to go somewhere and kept working the top. I tried the middle for awhile and Al was running there and once I got to the top, he just kept drifting up. I just kept getting a run on him, run on him. Finally I drove it in hard. I did get into him, but he slid right up in front of me. I lifted so we wouldn't get tangled up there."
Stuhler ended third over 11th starting Jamie Lathroum with J.T. Spence (10th) completing the top five. Sixth went to Roy Deese Jr. with Alan Sagi, Booze, Bard and Mike Lupfer rounding the top ten. Heat winners were Plessinger, Lathroum and Lupfer while Bryan Bernheisel was the consy winner.
Hagerstown Speedway Results
45th Annual Johnny Roberts Memorial: Late Models, 50 laps, 25 entries, (Lap Leaders - Jerry Bard, 1-10, Al Shawver Jr. 11-40, Frankie Plessinger 41-50) 1.Frankie Plessinger; 2.Al Shawver Jr.; 3.Gary Stuhler; 4.Jamie Lathroum; 5.J.T. Spence; 6.Roy Deese Jr.; 7.Alan Sagi; 8.Brian Booze; 9.Jerry Bard; 10.Mike Lupfer; 11.Bryan Bernheisel; 12.Dale Hollidge; 13.Larry Baker II; 14.Rusty Sites; 15.James Myers; 16.Kirk Baker; 17.Tyler Hershey; 18.Tim Murphy; 19.Tim Wilson; 20.Charlie Hageage; 21.Paul Crowl; 22.Lindsay Barton; 23.Steve Gibney; 24. Marvin Winters; DNQ-Matt Murphy
Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic Late Model Sportsman, 20 laps, 24 entries (Lap Leaders - Nick Pappas 1-7, Kyle Lear 8-18, 20, Pete Weaver 19): 1.Kyle Lear; 2.Pete Weaver (St. Thomas Towing/Checkered Flag Lube Center Hard Charger) 3.Barry Miller; 4.Andy Fries; 5.Ashley Barrett; 6.Courtney Shreiner; 7.Wayne Walls Jr.; 8.Terry Flaherty; 9.Nick Pappas; 10.Scott Palmer; 11.Glenn Elliott; 12.Mike Walls; 13.Paul Cursey; 14.Ryan Walls; 15.Robby Beall; 16.Rodney Walls; 17.Donnie Farlling; 18.Kris Eaton; 19.Chad Myers; 20.Richard Walls; DNQ - Justin Weaver; Elwood Sord, Michal Collins, DSQ - Steve Axtell Jr.
Ernie D's Pure Stocks, 15 laps, 15 entries (Lap Leaders - Danny Beavers 1-4, Steve Lowery 5-8, Mike Warrenfeltz 9-15) 1.Mike Warrenfeltz (Turner Bowling Centers Hard Charger); 2.Steve Lowery; 3.Hans Stamberg; 4.Kenny Dillon; 5.Drew Fitzsimmons; 6.Danny Beavers; 7.Dave Mikolajski; 8.Kevin Koontz; 9.Bill Reitober, 10.Kevin Boyer; 11.Dave Stouffer; 12.Charlie Pensinger; 13.Keith Koontz; 14. DNQ-Mike Kratovil; DNQ- Billy Ecton Jr.
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