6/6/2015
Hagerstown Speedway
ANDERSON PUTS NEW MBH LATE MODEL TO THE TEST AND WINS SPEEDWEEK FINALE
HAGERSTOWN, MD. (June 6) - Andy Anderson’s first night out with new wheels under him produced not only a win, but a big one, the $4,000 finale of 7th Annual Appalachian Mountain Dirt Late Model Series Speedweek at Hagerstown Speedway/Dirt Capitol.
With a new MBH racer on the track, Anderson of Bunker Hill, WV started the evening by setting quick time following some resolved issues. With a pool of nine youngsters from the stands with starting numbers on frisbees, he luckily chose the one that had the number two. He went into action and dominated the 40-lap event to beat Gary Stuhler by .721 seconds in a one lap shootout, his career 20th.
“Starting position won the race again,” Anderson said. “I’m not saying I could have won if I started further back but it feels good to come out first night in this car. It started out pretty bad. We didn’t have any clutch, didn’t have any brakes; went out for hot laps and didn’t have much. When I came in the clutch started to work. We bled the brakes and got that where I could time trial, then bled them again, and it just started to come around. I have to thank Ernie (Davis) and Jack (Bland). We all put this thing together a month ago. I figured I could still drive, I was just missing something. I’ve been in a Rocket my whole life so I figured I might as well try one of these MBH racers. I don’t have many more years left. So far it looks pretty good.”
After winning at Winchester the previous week, Bedford the night before, Travis Stickley of Keyser, WV continued his roll by recording his first ever triumph at Hagerstown in the Malloy Ford Late Model Sportsman event after beating Paul Cursey on the start and leading all the way. Jamie Zentmyer, Waynesboro, Pa made it two in three weeks after he passed Craig Parrill just before the halfway mark in the K-Lynn Management Pure Stocks and won by ten lengths. Jamie Mills, Big Pool, MD recorded his first career win in the Mason Dixon Auto Auction Hobby Stocks over Kenny Thomas.
Following time trials which paid Anderson $100 for the fast time and heat races for the Appalachian Mountain feature, the top three from the three heats drew for position as Anderson got the outside pole with Kenny Pettyjohn on the point.
When the feature got the green flag, Anderson rolled around the top to edge Pettyjohn off the second turn and following a third lap multi car incident in the second turn that ended the night for Jerry Bard, Nick Dickson, Austin Hubbard and Trever Feathers, he never looked back until the 36th lap when the yellow waved and again on the white flag lap.
Following the third lap restart, Stuhler shot past Pettyjohn for the runner up spot while Anderson was out front pulling away and as he approached the rear of the field on the 13th lap, had nearly a 3.7second lead.
Working traffic didn’t faze him as he maneuvered thru the rear cars while stretching his distance over Stuhler and by the 36th lap, had distanced himself 6.2 seconds ahead of Stuhler and Pettyjohn.
Four laps later came the one lap shootout for debris on the track but he withstood the test again and easily ran away to score his 20th victory as Stuhler and Pettyjohn were next followed by Jeff Rine and Kyle Hardy.
Heats went to Keith Jackson, Pettyjohn and Hardy while Roy Deese Jr. was the B Main winner. Matt Parks was the another site Hard Charger and picked up $150 for his 22nd to 11th effort.
Rine was named the 7th Annual Speedweek Champion following fourth place finishes at both Port Royal the previous Saturday evening at Hagerstown, the only two events that were not affected by weather.
James Stasiowski, of title sponsor Loco Motives rewarded Rine with a check for $2,000 along with the other top five finishers in the series.
“I was really looking forward to Path Valley, being a little short track,” Rine said. “I raced micro sprints there and was looking forward to running a big car there. It just didn’t work out and you can’t stop Mother Nature. We still went up and down the road and ended up here. This is really a cool deal. The last couple years, we didn’t get to run them all. We were dedicated to the points at Selinsgrove and I talked to my car owner a couple weeks ago and told him I’d like to do this and he said “Lets go for it”, so we did it.”
Final Speedweek Points: 1.Jeff Rine 491, 2.Kyle Hardy, 465, 3.Rick Eckert, 464, Kenny Pettyjohn, 456, Brian Bernheisel, 405
Stickley rounded the top to beat Paul Cursey while the battle for second quickly in contention as fifth starting Bobby Beard was challenging until taking the spot at the halfway mark.
Stickley continued to easily hold to the top spot through two restarts with five to go as Kyle Lee grabbed Beard’s position and held him off at the finish but trailed Stickley by 1.939 seconds. Beard was third followed by four straight winner Scott Palmer and Rodney Walls. After having a flat in the heat race, Justin Weaver came from 17th to claim sixth.
“This is the best car I ever had here,” Stickley said. “This thing is amazing, it’s an 09. We bought it off Tim Smith Jr. and came out of a barn. It was a bare frame and the cockpit had hay all over it. We took everything off our old car and put on this one. It’s a good piece. We race out of our pocket week to week and this makes it worth it. This is awesome.”
Craig Parrill led the Pure Stocks from the pole over Mike Corbin while Zentmyer made several challenges until taking second on the seventh lap. Zentmyer continued to lead the all green flag feature and picked up the win by 1.09 seconds over Parrill and Corbin with Chris Ebersole coming from the tail to get fourth and Brian Miller fifth. .
Jamie Mills took off from the pole with Kenny Thomas chasing him and starting to work around the top until finally making his efforts pay off with the completed pass on the tenth lap. After the two took the white flag, Mills made contact with the rear of Thomas and sent him high as Mills drove on to capture the win. Thomas rebounded to retain second over Marshall Mc Mullen, Jeff Dillon and Tom Caravello.
The latest news, results, photos, schedule or rule changes will also be found on the speedway’s website: www.hagerstownspeedway.com. Also check the website for any changes in weather conditions that may delay or cancel the program or contact the speedway office at 301-582-0640.
HAGERSTOWN SPEEDWAY/DIRT CAPITOL LLC RESULTS
Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek: 40 Laps: 1. Andy Anderson, 2. Gary Stuhler, 3. Kenny Pettyjohn, 4. Jeff Rine, 5. Kyle Hardy, 6. Dylan Yoder, 7. Lindsay Barton, 8. Rick Eckert, 9. Tyler Hershey, 10. Marvin Winters, 11. Matt Parks, 12. Bryan Bernheisel, 13. Roy Deese Jr., 14. Brian Tavenner, 15. Jake Jones, 16. Mike Lupfer, 17. Keith Jackson, 18. Allen Brannon, 19. Tim Wilson, 20. Jason Miller, 21. Barry Miller, 22. Trever Feathers, 23. Austin Hubbard, 24. Nick Dickson, 25. Jerry Bard, DNQ -.David Watts, Cole Amsden, Kirk Baker, D.J. Myers, Pancho Lawler, Kyle Lear, Dan Stone
Malloy Ford Late Model Sportsman): 20 Laps: 1.Travis Stickley, 2.Kyle Lee, 3.Bobby Beard, 4.Scott Palmer, 5.Rodney Walls, 6.Justin Weaver, 7.Paul Cursey, 8.Keith Walls, 9.Wayne Dillman, 10.Bryan Wright, 11.Cody Kershner, 12.Eddie Cornett, 13.Garrett Walls, 14.Elwood Sord, 15.Brayden Anderson, 16.Joe Westerman Jr., 17.Chaz Walls
K-Lynn Management Pure Stocks, 15 Laps: 1.Jamie Zentmyer, 2.Craig Parrill, 3.Mike Corbin, 4.Chris Ebersole, 5.Brian Miller, 6.Nick Dibella, 7.Michelle Walls, 8.Kyle Martin, 9.Keith Koontz, 10.Wayne Hawbaker, 11.Darrin Younker, 12.Kenny Day, 13.Rick Stouffer
Mason Dixon Auto Auction Hobby Stocks, 15 Laps: 1.Jamie Mills, 2.Kenny Thomas, 3.Marshall McMullen, 4.Jeff Dillon, 5.Tom Caravello, 8.Bryan Neff, 9.Dwayne Snyder, 10.John Catlett, 11.Rodney Minor, 12.Gary Proctor, 13.Ralph Hansberger
Article Credit: Danny Wilson
Submitted By: Josh Fries