COVERT PUTS NEW CAR THROUGH THE TEST TO TRIUMPH IN HAGERSTOWN’S APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN SPEEDWEEK
HAGERSTOWN, MD – Timing second quick and running second in his heat race, Jason Covert put his faith into picking the right child from the stands holding the Dirt Late Model magazine with the number one in it. The rest of the evening belonged to the York Haven, PA driver who led all 40 laps of Hagerstown Speedway’s night two of the Appalachian Mountain Dirt Late Model Speedweek presented by Harbaugh Amusement Machine for the Buchanan Auto Stores late models.
The triumph was the second of the year for Covert, who was Hagerstown’s inaugural speedweek winner in 2009.
“It’s pretty good when you pull the number one pill, so we’ll take it,” Covert said. “We had Gregg (Satterlee) there and if he’d been in front of us there, I’m sure it would have been in reverse order or Stoney (Dan Stone), as fast as he was tonight. We’ll take the luck of the draw.”
Kevin Boyer of Harpers Ferry, WV and Drew Fitzsimmons from Boonsboro split the two Ernie D’s pure stock features, Boyer taking the Special scheduled for the night, his second for the season, and Fitzsimmons, who won the rain postponed event from May 18.
Dan Stone started his evening off with a new one lap track record of 17.907 seconds in time trials for the 36 entries, which is the first time a late model has ever timed in the 17 seconds.
The top three from the three heats redrew for starting positions with Covert and C.S. Fitzgerald on the front row.
When the green waved, Covert was out of the starting gate with fifth starter Austin Hubbard into second and Stone charging from seventh into third by scoring of the opening lap. Following a restart on lap three for some debris on the track, Stone fell to fifth as ninth starter Tyler Hershey charged into fourth while eighth starter Satterlee got past Hubbard to take over the runner up position.
Following a ninth lap restart, Covert had Satterlee on his bumper while Stone was back into third within two laps. Covert stretched his lead to more than a second by the halfway mark and continued to pull away even more. With ten to go, Covert was all but three seconds ahead and closing on the rear of the field.
He entered the rear on lap 34 and in two laps, had three cars shielding himself from Satterlee and taking the checkered four laps later, he was victorious by 2.341 seconds over Satterlee and Stone with Hershey and Hubbard completing the top five.
“I want to thank Barry (Klinedinst) for getting me this new car,” Covert said. “We worked about two months on it. This is all because of him, he lets me do this. It’s a dream for me to get to race and to race in a big race like this at Hagerstown, it’s humbling and it means a lot. Thanks to Barry for all he does for me. These guys behind us are good. If we’d reversed the role, we’d just have been reversed.”
Covert also expressed his feeling from the previous weeks holiday weekend.
“Last week was Memorial Day and we didn’t get to win that weekend; we had a rough weekend,” Covert said. “I’d like to thank our veterans and remember what Memorial Day is for, for them dying for our freedoms. I think the government and people forget that today, that they fought for our freedoms and died and shed their blood on this land. So we want to remember that and keep that in our memories so that we can enjoy that on the weekends when we race.”
“We had a little maintenance issue, the power steering broke about ten or twelve laps into the race,” Satterlee said. “I was just trying to hang on to it the last 25-30 laps as much as I could. It really makes a difference. The track was in good shape. It was a good night and we’ll try to keep the momentum going tomorrow.”
Stone commented on his night, “It’s frustrating to be that good. That one restart at the beginning when we lost a couple spots when we had already got up to third. It’s a shame with the crowd and do single file restarts. It could have been a better show with double file restarts like we did last night. We’ll take it but we’re definitely not happy with it. It was one of those nights.”
Fitzgerald ended sixth with previous night’s Potomac winner Vic Coffey next, followed by Devin Friese, Dale Hollidge and 15th starter Roy Deese Jr.. Heats went to Stone, Hubbard and Satterlee with Gary Stuhler winning the B-main.
In the scheduled pure stock special feature, Rick Stouffer led the crowd for the first seven laps as Kevin Boyer moved in from sixth and took over on lap eight. He continued on to open a 3.188 second lead at the finish and had reason to celebrate as he was getting married at noon on Sunday. Stouffer was second with Darrin Younker, Drew Fitzsimons, the Bill Ecton and Son Hard Charger next with Mike Warrenfeltz fifth.
Fitzsimmons pulled to the front of the May 18th postponed feature while Darrin Younker came from 12th to take over the runner up spot on lap seven. Younker pulled alongside several times, but couldn’t overhaul Fitzsimmons and trailed by two lengths. Steve Lowery was third with Warrenfeltz and Tony Catlett completing the top five.
The latest news, results, photos, schedule or rule changes can be on the speedway’s website: www.hagerstownspeedway.com. Follow the speedway on Twitter and Facebook. 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 Results:
Appalachian Mountain Dirt Late Model Speedweek presented by Harbaugh Amusement Machine Night #2, Buchanan Auto Stores Late Models – 40 Laps, 36 Entries, (Lap Leaders: Jason Covert 1-40): 1.Jason Covert, 2.Gregg Satterlee, 3.Dan Stone, 4.Tyler Hershey, 5.Austin Hubbard, 6.C.S. Fitzgerald, 7.Vic Coffey, 8.Devin Friese, 9.Dale Hollidge, 10.Roy Deese Jr., 11.Jerry Bard, 12.Rusty Sites (Hard Charger from 21st), 13.Ryan Hackett, 14.Kenny Moreland, 15.J.T. Spence, 16.Gary Stuhler, 17.Jason Miller, 18.Kenny Pettyjohn, 19.Mason Zeigler, 20.Trevor Feathers, 21.David Watts, 22.Marvin Winters, 23.D.J. Myers, 24.Scott LeBarron, DNQ-Tony Crim, Lindsay Barton, Ron Delano, Tommy Armel, Kerry King, Mike Altobelli Jr., Frankie Plessinger, DNS – Chaz Walls, Jeremy Miller, Jamie Lathroum, Nick Dickson, Kyle Hardy
Ernie D’s Pure Stock Special: 15 Laps, 17 Entries, (Lap Leader Rick Stouffer 1-7, Kevin Boyer 8-15): 1.Kevin Boyer, 2.Rick Stouffer, 3.Darrin Younker, 4.Drew Fitzsimmons (Bill Ecton and Son Hard Charger), 5.Mike Warrenfeltz, 6.Charlie Pensinger, 7.Frank Dibella, 8.Steve Lowery, 9.Lane Hessong, 10.Bruce Leibowitz, 11.Nick Dibella, 12.Dave Gross, 13.Brian Swiger, 14. Michael Kratochvil, 15.Kenny Dillon, 16.Tony Catlett, DNS – Dave Stouffer Jr.
Ernie D’s Pure Stocks – (Postponed from May 18), 15 Laps, 14 Entries, Lap Leader Drew Fitzsimmons 1-15): 1.Drew Fitzsimmons, 2.Darrin Younker ((Bill Ecton and Son Hard Charger), 3.Steve Lowery, 4.Mike Warrenfeltz, 5.Tony Catlett, 6.Kevin Boyer, 7.Kenny Dillon, 8.Lane Hessong, 9.Nick Dibella, 10.Michael Kratochvil, 11.Dave Stouffer Jr., 12.Rick Stouffer, 13.Charlie Pensinger, DNS – Danny Beavers