6/18/2011
Hagerstown Speedway
THE BROTHERS LEAR WERE HARD TO BEAT AT HAGERSTOWN
The Lear’s have it. Brothers Kyle and Cody Lear were both successful Saturday night at Hagerstown Speedway as Kyle of Severna Park, MD, who has nine late model sportsman wins to his credit, scored his first ever late model triumph after moving to the division this season. For younger brother Cody, of Severn, MD, his Hoosier Daddy 25 triumph in the Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic late model sportsman was his career second after winning his first ever in the division on June 30, 2007.
Hagerstown’s Dave Stouffer took the lead after three circuits to score his season second in the Ernie D’s pure stocks while Krazy Kenny Thomas of Keedysville, MD won his second straight in the hobby stock cruisers.
On the third attempt, the late models got underway with Marvin Winters sweeping off the second turn to pull ahead of Ashley Barrett, Lear and Frankie Plessinger. Winters pulled out to a 1.5 second advantage but Lear was into the runner up spot by the second circuit and quickly began running him down. Lear closed to Winters’ bumper on the eighth lap and surged ahead the next circuit with Bo Feathers coming to a stop on lap 11 to regroup the field.
Lear took off on the restart with Winters chasing as Frankie Plessinger took third from Barrett on the 13th lap and Jim Bernheisel passed him for fourth the next lap. Lear maintained a more than one second advantage until catching rear traffic on lap 19 and then began to stretch the distance on Winters until heading off the final turn two lapped cars and 2.555 seconds ahead of Winters with Plessinger next.
“The biggest thing is getting the bugs worked out of a new car that you’re not used to driving, getting it fined tuned,” Lear said. “We went to some of the speedweek shows and worked on the car a lot. We had some driver errors but we’re getting better at that each week. The lack of performance on the car has been a lack of talent of the driver.”
Bernheisel and Barrett were next followed by Alan Sagi, Roy Deese Jr., Duane Harbaugh, Brian Booze and Tyler Hershey, who came from the rear after being involved in the second restart attempt. Heat winners were Barrett, Bernheisel and Lear.
“This is one of the hardest race tracks we’re ever going to go to in the country,” Lear said. “Paul (Crowl), all my guys…it isn’t Paul, it isn’t me…a lot of people put a lot of time on this race car every night during the week. It’s not a hobby…it’s basically a part time job.”
In the Hoosier Daddy 25, Winters had the lead from the pole over Mike Walls as fourth starting Cody Lear charged past both Walls and Winters to lead the fourth circuit. Lear began pulling away from Winters while outside pole sitter Steve Long grabbed the runner up spot on lap seven and was 2.34 seconds behind Lear. Lear had stretched his lead to 2.9 seconds when the caution flag waved on lap nine.
Lear then held a comfortable lead on Long while Winters trailed by nearly three seconds until cautions on the 17th and 20th laps again regrouped the field.
Following the final restart, Lear ran his own race while Winters went around Long and held the runner up spot until the final lap when Long retook the position and finished 1.841 seconds behind Lear at the checkered. Winters, Wayne Walls Jr. and Scott Palmer completed the top five with Pete Weaver coming from 20th to earn the St. Thomas Towing/Checkered Flag Lube hard charger award in sixth. Donnie Farlling was next with Mike Walls, Terry Flaherty and Justin Weaver following. Heats went to Winters, Long and J. Weaver with Tanner Kerr taking the consy.
“The car was awesome,” Lear said. “It’s been fast all year. We’re just having bad luck but we finally put it all together.”
Tony Catlett pulled to the front of the pure stock feature while Stouffer found holes in traffic and charged from eighth to second by completion of the first lap. He chased Catlett until getting past on the fourth lap and pulled away from the five car battle for second. Billy Ecton Jr. had the spot with Catlett taking it back on the tenth lap until Kevin Koontz entered the mix with two to go and took it to end 1.14 seconds back. Drew Fitzsimmons ended third with Wayne Hawbaker and Eddie McClellan next. McClellan and Catlett won the heats.
The hobby stock cruisers were included on the program after their third rain out the previous week as Gary Proctor led the opening lap until Kenny Thomas went by. Mark Vegh moved into the second spot on the third lap and Krazy Kenny Thomas to third on lap seven. Vegh took the lead on the ninth lap while Thomas and K.K. Thomas made it a tight three car battle during the final laps. Thomas retook the spot on lap 12 with slight contact made heading into turn three on the final lap as K.K. Thomas charged by on the inside when Thomas went high and bobbled exiting turn four to end two lengths back. Proctor was third with Matt Smith and Vegh returning to finish fifth.
Next Saturday, June 24, the Three State Flyers Late Models will take to the track in the 4th Annual Red Nininger Memorial, a TSF Shootout open event with Winchester. Having won the last TSF event at Hagerstown, the Bonebrake Tribute, Jason Covert returns to the track 22 points ahead of J.T. Spence in the "Nininger’s Tire and Auto Center Challenge in Memory of Red Nininger". The Ernie D’s Pure Stocks will also be in competition. Warm ups begin at 7:00 p.m.
Hagerstown Speedway Results
Late Models, 25 laps, 23 entries, (Lap Leaders – Marvin Winters 1-8, Kyle Lear 9-25) 1.Kyle Lear, 2.Marvin Winters, 3.Frankie Plessinger, 4.Jim Bernheisel, 5.Ashle Barrett, 6.Alan Sagi, 7.Roy Deese Jr., 8.Duane Harbaugh, 9.Brian Booze, 10.Tyler Hershey, 11.Jerry Bard, 12.Steve Axtell, Jr., 13.Wesley Bonebrake, 14.Scott LeBarron, 15.Matt Murphy, 16.Brent Smith, 17.Jason Miller, 18.Larry Baker III, 19.Tim Murphy, 20.Chuck Lewis, 21.Bo Feathers, 22.Lindsay Barton, 23.Denny Bonebrake
Hoosier Daddy: Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic Late Model Sportsman, 25 Laps, 27 entries (Lap Leaders – Marvin Winters 1-3, Cody Lear 4-25) 1.Cody Lear, 2.Steve Long, 3.Marvin Winters, 4.Wayne Walls Jr., 5.Scott Palmer, 6.Pete Weaver (St. Thomas Towing/ Checkered Flag Lube Hard Charger),7.Donnie Farlling, 8.Mike Walls, 9.Terry Flaherty, 10.Justin Weaver, 11.Courtney Shreiner, 12.Robby Beall, 13.Chad Myers, 14.Chaz Walls, 15.Tyler Horst, 16.Rodney Walls, 17.Ronnie Dennis, 18.Bruce Kane, 19.Paul Cursey, 20.Tanner Kerr, 21.Andy Fries, 22.Glenn Elliott, 23.Trever Feathers, 24.Kyle Wiser, DNS – John Baker, Richard Walls
Ernie D’s Pure Stocks, 15 laps, 18 entries (Lap Leaders – Tony Catlett 1-3, Dave Stouffer Jr. 4-15) 1.Dave Stouffer Jr. (Turner Bowling Centers Hard Charger), 2.Kevn Koontz, 3.Drew Fitzsimmons, 4.Wayne Hawbaker, 5.Eddie McClellan, 6.Tony Catlett, 7.Kenny Dillon, 8.Frank Dibella, 9.Keith Koontz, 10.Dave Gross, 11.Steve Lowery, 12.Mike Kratovil, 13.Kenny Day, 14.Billy Ecton Jr., 15.Charlie Pensinger, 16.Charlie Shearer, 17.Bill Ecton Sr., DNS – Dave Boring
Hobby Stock Cruisers, 15 Laps, 16 entries (Lap Leaders – Gary Proctor 1-2, Kenny Thomas 3-8, 12, 14, Mark Vegh 9-11, 13, Krazy Kenny Thomas 15) 1.Krazy Kenny Thomas, 2.Kenny Thomas, 3.Gary Proctor, 4.Matt Smith, 5.Mark Vegh, 6.Joe Rodgers, 7.Dave Shatto, 8.William Crook, 9.Rodney Minor, 10.Charlie Stambaugh, 11.Nick Dibella, 12.Tom Caravello, 13.Danny Holmes, 14.Nathan Younker, DNS – Lane Hessong, Andy Mowen
Article Credit: Bob Vores
Submitted By: Josh Fries