Races:
83
Wins: 15 Top 5: 51 Top 10:
67
HEARN DOUBLES IN OCTOBERFEST, RICHARDS
AND PITTMAN SCORE FIRSTS
Hagerstown,
Md.:
Unlike its scheduled
weekend ending with the Trick or Treat
snow job of two weeks ago, the postponed
Hagerstown Speedway’s 24th
Annual Verizon Wireless Octoberfest
ended with a more than seasonable
weekend to finalize the speedway’s
season on Sunday.
Topping
his season at 15 overall wins, Vernon,
N.J’s Brett Hearn scored the final two
after opening the afternoon in a
non-stop small block feature with a flag
to flag domination victory where he was
more than seven seconds ahead at the
finish for his ninth overall Octoberfest
win. Having won the last three
consecutive big block events, he came
back later to record a nearly eleven
second triumph to give him ten overall
victories in both small and big block
event features.
Starting
ninth, Shinnston, WV’s Josh Richards
took control of the late model event on
lap 15 and was nearly six seconds ahead
when the checkered waved for his first
ever Octoberfest victory but his overall
14th of the season.
Daryn
Pittman of Owasso, Ok took advantage of
his pole position to lead all the way in
the sprint feature to score an
Octoberfest win for the first time. It
was his overall 15th triumph
of the season.
Hearn got
the jump from the outside pole over
Larry Wight and was to the rear of the
field by lap eight and began sticking
lapped traffic between himself and Wight
while Jimmy Horton was further back in
third. Rick Laubach grabbed third from
Horton on the 20th circuit
While
Hearn continued to duck in and out of
traffic, he had an over nine second lead
at the 30 lap mark with six lapped cars
separating him and Wight. Still in
traffic in his advance, he got to the
finish with a lead of 7.13 seconds over
Wight while Laubach maintained third.
Matt Sheppard came from 21st
to take fourth from J. R. Heffner on the
33rd lap as the two finished
in that order. Willie Decker, Ryan
Godown, Dale Planck, Alan Johnson and
Craig Von Dohren completed the top ten.
“That was
a good car from the first lap,” Hearn
said.”Sometimes when they start off that
good, they don’t finish that good. The
track was a lot of fun. You could run
anywhere on it. I always have fun here,
regardless.”
Saturday’s heat wins went to Wight,
Hearn, Dalen Planck and Matt Dilorenzo
with Sheppard winning the consolation
after having a flat tire in his heat.
With two
time event winner, Jeremy Miller on the
late model pole, Ronnie DeHaven Jr.
grabbed the top spot from the outside
over him with Dave Zona, Kyle Lear and
Rick Eckert in tow. The caution waved on
the second lap as four cars were
involved on a backstretch incident with
Jason Miller unable to continue. The
next circuit, Lear and Eckert got
together heading into the first turn as
Lear went around and into the first turn
with Jason Covert also sliding into the
incident. Both were unable to continue.
DeHaven
stretched his lead over Miller following
the restart and was to the rear of the
field and more than four seconds ahead
by the 12th lap while
Richards and Eckert were into the next
spots.
Back to
back restarts gave Richards the
opportunity to grab second and when
DeHaven bobbled slightly in the fourth
turn, Richards quickly sped past to lead
the 15th lap. Eckert followed
into the runner up spot but DeHaven
battled back to retake the position four
laps later.
Richards
led while DeHaven trailed by just over
two seconds for lap after lap while
Jamie Lathroum moved into third on the
21st lap and Dylan Yoder
passed Eckert for fourth the next lap.
Richards was into the rear of the field
again on the 34th lap and
began to stretch his lead by sticking
lapped cars between himself and DeHaven
and enjoyed 5.81 seconds just before the
yellow waved for ninth running Marvin
Winters who coasted to a stop.
Richards
sped the final three laps to capture the
win over DeHaven, Lathroum, 20th
starting Booper Bare and Yoder. Dan
Stone came from 23rd for
sixth with defending event winner Gary
Stuhler from 17th, Kenny
Pettyjohn (16th), Eckert and
Alan Sagi completing the top ten.
“I have
to thank Ernie, Connie and Keya Davis
for letting me drive this car and Ernie
for putting up the rest of the purse
money for all the classes,” Richards
said. “That just shows how much he loves
to race and supports the fans and the
track. Just to drive this care is
awesome. We were a little soft on the
left rear tire. We just tried to stay
smooth. This was a cool way to end the
season.”
Miller,
DeHaven, Zona and Lear were heat winners
while Stone was the consolation winner.
Larry
Wight also led the big block from the
pole to beat Sheppard into the first
turns but Hearn was quickly past him
into the runner up spot by lap two.
Hearn was putting the pressure on
Sheppard by the fifth lap and after a
complete side by side lap, Hearn came
out on top on lap nine and began lapping
rear cars.
Hearn
kept getting better and better as Ryan
Godown moved into third on the 19th
lap with a nearly six second lead erased
on lap 26 with five lapped cars back to
Sheppard.
In the
open, Hearn drove his own pace but he
wasn’t leaving off as he was over nine
seconds ahead with ten to go and
continued on until taking the checkered
10.91 seconds ahead of Godown who passed
Sheppard in traffic on the final
circuit. J.R. Heffner was sixth followed
by Craig Von Dohren, Brian Weaver, Alan
Johnson (17th) and Kevin
Hirthler.
“When
you’re racing Matt Sheppard, you don’t
know what to expect, he’s as tough as
they come,” Hearn said. “When he gets
out front first, it’s going to be a
tough pass. I saw him getting a little
bit loose off the corners and we were
getting better and better. I just tried
to get to the front. By the end of the
race, it was getting pretty hard with
those lapped cars. Those last three or
four laps, I was waiting for a wreck.
They were racing each other really hard
for the checkered. Once I knew I had
enough room I just backed off that last
lap and gave myself a little bit of
space.”
Wight,
Sheppard, Hearn and Brian Weaver were
the heat winners while Brian Berger was
the consolation winner.
The
sprints completed their entire program
on Sunday as the postponed date
interfered with the final race at
Susquehanna as Daryn Pittman, Danny
Dietrich and Brent Marks began the
afternoon by winning their heats and
George Suprick taking the consolation.
Pittman
beat Dietrich off the line as defending
event winner Cody Darrah quickly grabbed
third from his fifth starting spot.
Pittman was into the rear by the seventh
lap while Darrah and Rahmer got past
Dietrich by the tenth lap with Rahmer
passing Darrah before a 16th
lap yellow.
Rahmer
did a 360 degree spin following the
restart but a premature yellow flag gave
him his spot back as Pittman didn’t have
room for a misstep with Rahmer and
Dietrich close enough to strike. After
Mark Smith took fourth from Darrah with
five to go, rear traffic came into play
in the final laps as Pittman escaped any
attempt from Rahmer to take the top spot
but Smith got past Dietrich on the final
lap while Darrah ended fifth. Curt
Michael was sixth with Marks, Greg
Hodnett (14th), Robbie
Stillwagon and Daryl Stimeling to
complete the top ten.
“The
lapped cars, some were pretty slow. It
was kind of one lane and made it tough
no matter what speed they were going,”
Pittman said. “We were glad we were able
to make the right moves. Really, about
four or five to go there, I about gave
it away and was able to get around a
couple lapped cars that were running
side by side. Our starting spot was
important, but we still had to finish
it, so it was a great team effort and a
good way to finish our year.”
A
speedway management decision was
announced prior to the features to
reduce the 100 laps by half for the
modified and late model features with
sprints going 30 while lowering the
purse for only the top few positions.
Ernie Davis of Ernie D’s Enterprises
stepped up to pick up the additional
purse which was a great gesture on his
part and drew applause from the
competitors in the drivers meeting.
Hagerstown’s season has concluded. The
speedway would like to congratulate Roy
Deese Jr. on his eighth late model
championship while Pete Weaver repeated
his title in the Hoosier Tire Mid
Atlantic late model sportsman division.
Drew Fitzsimmons was the Ernie D’s pure
stock winner and Krazy Kenny Thomas was
the champion in the inaugural season for
the hobby stock cruisers.
HAGERSTOWN SPEEDWAY RESULTS
24th
ANNUAL VERIZON WIRELESS OCTOBERFEST
SMALL BLOCK MODIFIEDS:
1.Brett Hearn,
2.Larry Wight, 3.Rick Laubach, 4.Matt
Sheppard, 5.J.R. Heffner, 6.Willie
Decker, 7.Ryan Godown, 8.Dale Planck,
9.Alan Johnson, 10.Craig Von Dohren,
11.Brain Weaver, 12.Randy Chrysler,
13.Kevin Hirthler, 14.H.J. Bunting,
15.Jimmy Horton, 16.Shawn Reimert,
17.Brian Kressley, 18.Richie Pratt Jr.,
19.Darwin Greene, 20.Sammy Piazza,
21.Matt Dilorenzo, 22.Butch Tittle,
23.Glenn Strunk, 24.Rusty Smith,
25.James Bobbit Jr., 26.Duane Rust, DNQ-
Neil Huber, Colt Harris, Mark
Frankhouser, Gary Wagner, Bryant Brown,
Jamie Mills
BIG BLOCK MODIFIEDS:
1.Brett Hearn,
2.Ryan Godown, 3.Matt Sheppard, 4.Jamie
Mills, 5.Jimmy Horton, 6.J. R. Heffner,
7.Craig Von Dohren, 8.Brian Weaver,
9.Alan Johnson, 10.Kevin Hirthler,
11.Brian Berger, 12.Domminick Buffalino,
13.Rex King Jr., 14.Butch Tittle,
15.Randy Chrysler, 16.Chris Ostrowsky,
17.Matt Delorenzo, 18.Glenn Strunk,
19.Darwin Greene, 20.Sammy Piazza,
21.Ryan Forte, 22.Rick Laubach, 23.Larry
Wight, 24.Richie Pratt Jr., 25.H.J.
Bunting, 26.Willie Decker, DNQ – Mark
Forte Jr., Adam Roberts, Mark
Frankhouser, Brett Ballard, Rusty Smith
– DNS – Dale Planck
