T-Mac wins at Hagerstown

The early Saturday dampness preceding qualifying efforts turned to sunshine on Sunday as Hagerstown Speedway’s 22nd Octoberfest 350 went into the record books with Vernon, N.J’s Brett Hearn defending his big block modified victory to become a five time and overall seven time winner including his two small block wins. Chad Layton of Harrisburg, Pa. returned to the spot of his career first 410 sprint victory in 2002, victory lane for his second triumph of the 50-lap sprint event. York, Pa’s Rick Eckert added his name to the late model 100-lapper for the third time, having won back to back in 2001 and 2002 with Tim McCreadie, last year’s late model winner from Watertown, NY, placing his name on the small block modified winners list for the first time. Pat Ward took the early lead over Billy Decker in the big block event while fifth starting Hearn moved to third by lap four. Hearn took second on lap 12 and then challenged Ward and exited the fourth turn with the lead on the 18th circuit. Following the halfway fuel stop, Hearn stretched his lead over Ward and Ryan Godown to more than five seconds when fourth place Dale Plank brought out the caution on lap 74 with a right rear flat. Into the final 25 circuits, Hearn still had no problem pulling way from Ward while 17th starter J. R. Heffner, the 2002 and 2005 event winner, began showing some strength with ten to go. Heffner took third from Godown on lap 93 and then looked under Ward to take the runner up spot with two to go. He closed on Hearn to race across the finish a half length short. “With some of the drivers having tire problems, I was concerned most about the right rear tire,” Hearn said. “I was just trying to be conservative and save it.” Ward held to third with Godown and Jimmy Horton completing the front five. Rick Laubach (11th), Ryan Watt, Jamie Mills Larry Wight (21st) and Chic Cassaboone, after a flat on lap 88, completed the top ten. Cossaboone, Ward and Godown were the heat winners as Wade Hendrickson had no problem taking the consolation win. Layton beat four time event winner Lance Dewease on the start as the two led the procession with Mark Smith, three time event winner Greg Hodnett and Michael Carber trailing. They entered and quickly disposed of three rear cars on lap six and to the first caution on lap 13. Following the fuel stop, Hodnett was pushed to the pits with an engine problem as Layton took off on the green with Dewease continuing the chase but he began opening his lead with ten to go, having nearly a half stretch lead by a lap 43 yellow when Daryn Pittman came to a stop. In another five laps, Smith then spun in turn four. On the restart, three time winner, Donnie Kreitz Jr. charged around the outside of Carber but the two made contact when Kreitz tried to get back in line for the first turn, sending Carber up the track and into the fence. Layton charged ahead on the final restart and got to the checkered by 1.25 seconds over Dewease. “We were planning on running this race but things didn’t work out for the Middlewarth car to run this event so my brother Jimmy put this car together in less than a day for me. That’s brotherly love,” Layton said. “My motor went flat on lap 17 and I was hoping to make it to the halfway point. I didn’t want to give up the lead and didn’t want to get into lapped traffic as I didn’t feel as good as I did early on. Things just played in our lap and I thank the Lord for that.” Kreitz ended third over Cliff Brian and 12th starting Keith Kauffman. Gerald McIntrye, Daryl Stimeling, Josh Weller, (19th), Smith and Robbie Stillwagon completed the top ten. Layton and Dewease won the heats. D. J. Myers beat Eckert off the line to take the late model lead until the 14th lap when he stopped in turn four with the crew looking under the rear when towed to his pits. Eckert took over with Jason Covert, Josh Richards Roy Deese Jr. and three time winner, Gary Stuhler chasing and remained that way through the 75th lap when, like last year, Richards had a flat to bring out the caution. Into the final 25 circuits, Eckert stretched his lead to more than two seconds over Covert while it was more than three back to Deese but Covert began visibly closing and was to less than a second when the final caution was displayed on lap 91. Eckert was up on the wheel the remaining circuits as Covert no longer could smell his exhaust and saw Eckert pulling way by each circuit until crossing the line by 4.75 seconds ahead. “I have to dedicate this to Raye Vest,” Eckert said. “He’s a long time car owner and in the hospital and possibly might have to be operated on tomorrow. Hopefully this good luck carries over to him tomorrow. We made some changes to the car. Racing around here with these guys is tough. This is some of the best local racing in the country. All these guys are tough. Coming back here, the car has to be a little bit different. This car is really good on hard slick race tracks when we have to run those long races.” Deese and Stuhler were next with Vic Coffey (10th) ending fifth. Jeremy Miller (11th) was sixth over Frankie Plessinger (14th), Dylan Yoder (13th), Tim McCreadie (22nd) and Tim Fuller (21st). Eckert, Myers, Covert and Al Shawver Jr. were heat winners while Fuller and defending winner, McCreadie split the consolation events. Brett Hearn and Frank Cozze occupied the front row for the small block feature as Hearn got out front and led while Cozze closed to grab the lead on lap 18 with a number of rear cars just ahead. On the 24th lap, Hearn slid high in the fourth turn as both Matt Sheppard and McCreadie got by with Sheppard bringing out the caution the next circuit and parking his racer. Cozze continued to lead the second 25 laps with fourth running Richie Pratt Jr. bringing out the caution on lap 48. During the fuel stop, Cozze’s team dumped water on the right rear tire and was penalized a lap for the infraction when air in, air out and fuel were the only allowed functions during the stop. With McCreadie at the helm, he and Hearn took off following the stop as Hearn began slowing and more than three seconds behind and more than a straightaway back to Pat Ward. Hearn was off the pace and went pitside without a caution on lap 73 with McCreadie then 12.5 seconds ahead and took it to more than 13 seconds by a lap 83 yellow. Ward then gave up the runner up spot for a right rear flat on the 87th circuit as Meme Desantis took over. McCreadie continued to show the way and ended the final race of the event by 2.72 seconds over Desantis. “I really hate what happened to Frank, put water on the tires or something,” McCreadie said. “It’s a shame as he and I were having a great race out there. He doesn’t deserve to go out like that, but we’ll take it. It’d been a whole lot more fun to race him for the win. Once Brett fell out I just tried to slow down and not make mistakes. This car pretty much drives itself. I’m just the fortunate guy to be in the seat.” Billy Pouch Jr., Billy Decker (16th) and Jeff Stunk (12th) completed the top five while Dave Plank (19th); Jimmy Horton (20th), Kevin Hither (18th), Gary Hager (26th) and Brad Bright bill (23rd) ended the top ten. Hearn, Cozen, Pratt Jr. and Jess Hill were heat winners while the consolations went to Larry Wight and Wade Hendrickson. Hagerstown Speedway would like to thank the drivers, crewmen and car owners for their cooperation that greatly assisted with the progress of the qualifying efforts on Saturday as well as the aforementioned and fans for their understanding while Mother Nature hindered all efforts to have started the program any earlier. As it turned out, the natural moisture and evening surface allowed for some excellent qualifying events. The next event on the Speedway schedule will be the Annual Award Banquet scheduled for Saturday December 12th where Roy Deese Jr will receive the accolades for his seventh late model title while Kyle Lear has the honors for the late model sportsman division and Mike Warrenfeltz in the pure stocks. HAGERSTOWN SPEEDWAY RESULTS 22ND ANNUAL OCTOBERFEST 350 BIG BLOCK MODIFIEDS: 1.Brett Hearn; 2.J. R. Heffner; 3.Pat Ward; 4.Ryan Go down; 5.Jimmy Horton; 6.Rick Laubach; 7.Ryan Watt; 8.Jamie Mills; 9.Larry Wight; 10.Chic Cossaboone; 11.Richie Pratt Jr.; 12.Robert Dutton, 13.Rich Scagliotta; 14.Billy Pauch Jr.; 15.Brian Berger; 16.Kevin Hirthler; 17.Dale Plank; 18.Jeff Strunk; 19.Danny Johnson; 20.Matt Sheppard; 21.Doug Manmiller; 22.Wade Hendrickson; 23.Billy Decker; 24.Willie Osmun DNQ – Ron Roberts, Rusty Smith, Randy Chrysler, Jordon Watson, Shawn Reimert, Joseph Watson, J. J. Bunting, Gary Hager SPRINTS: 1.Chad Layton; 2.Lance Dewease; 3.Donnie Kreitz Jr.; 4.Cliff Brian; 5.Keith Kauffman; 6.Gerald McIntyre; 7.Daryl Stimeling; 8.Josh Weller, 9.Mark Smith; 10.Robbie Stillwagon; 11.Scott Lutz; 12.Chuck Brian; 13.Michael Carber; 14.Daryn Pittman; 15.Joey Hershey; 16.Vern Wasson; 17.French Grimes; 18.Greg Hodnett; 19.Justin Henderson; 20.Stan Campbell; 21.George Streaker; DNS- Troy Fraker, Pat Cooper LATE MODELS: 1.Rick Eckert; 2. Jason Covert; 3.Roy Deese Jr.; 4.Gary Stuhler; 5.Vic Coffey; 6.Jeremy Miller; 7.Frankie Plessinger; 8.Dylan Yoder; 9.Tim McCreadie; 10.Tim Fuller; 11.Bily Decker; 12.Austin Hubbard; 13.Josh Richards; 14.Kenny Pettyjohn; 15.Mike Lupfer; 16.Al Shawver Jr.; 17.Marvin Winters; 18.Devin Friese; 19.Scott Cross; 20.Billy Wampler; 21.Dan Stone; 22.Mike Hardy; 23.Jim Yoder; 24.D.J. Myers; 25.Alan Sagi; 26.Jamie Lathroum DNQ – Tommy Armel, Dave Zona, Tony Crim, Brian Booze, Bryan Bernheisel, Lindsay Barton, Larry Baker, Chuck Shultz, Chad Davis, Kerry King, Al Cheney, Luke Hoffner, Chad Hollenbech, Jamie Cornell, Ronnie DeHaven Jr., Kelly Putz, Matt Sheppard, Danny Kienitz SMALL BLOCK MODIFIEDS: 1.Tim McCreadie; 2.Meme Desantis; 3.Billy Pauch Jr.;4.Billy Decker; 5.Jeff Strunk; 6.Dave Plank; 7.Jimmy Horton; 8.Kevin Hirthler; 9.Gary Hager; 10.Brad Brightbill; 11.Pat Ward; 12.Wade Hendrickson; 13.Randy Chrysler; 14.Larry Wight; 15.Jesse Hill; 16.Brett Hearn; 17.Dave Dubois; 18.Ryan Godown, 19.Rick Laubach; 20.Frank Cozze; 21.Richie Pratt Jr.; 22.Matt Sheppard; 23.Doug Manmiller; 24.Sean Merkel; 25.Ryan Watt, DNS– J. J. Bunting, DNQ-Mike Mammana, Craig Whitmoyer, Rusty Smith, J. R. Heffner, Bryant Brown, Gary Wagner Jr., Ron Roberts, Shawn Reimert, Danny Kienitz, Tom Miller, Jimmy Horton IV, DNS – Willie Osmun, Chic Cossaboone, Herman Powell, Rich Scagliotta, Jordan Umbenhauer