HAGERSTOWN, Md. – On a Saturday night filled with hard racing, caution flags and attrition, survival was the name of the game at Hagerstown Speedway during the Turn 5 Turn Around Small Car Nationals.
James Lichliter, Joey Zambotti, Kevin Thomas and Adam Campbell each took home victories in their respective divisions.
Cody Kershner led the way in the 25 lap Late Model Sportsman feature through the first 15 laps that saw cautions for a multi-car melee in turn one, a restart with multiple cars jumping positions and a red flag for Bruce Kane after a stuck throttle sent his car straight into the turn one guardrail. Kane emerged uninjured and walked away.
As the action settled down, Lichliter was racing his way through the field from the eighth spot, and had moved into second earlier, but began to pounce on Kershner’s lead in the final 10 laps as Kershner hit lapped traffic. Five laps later, Kershner and Lichliter battled for the lead and with four circuits remaining, Lichliter made the winning pass up top on turn four and drove his No. 8 to his first Late Model Sportsmna win of the year, worth $1,500.
“Every time I’d go one way, there was a lapped car and I was like ‘I gotta stay on this high side’ and I knew Cody’s car handling was going away on the last green flag stretch we had. I was trying to see where I could capitalize, and finally, I got hooked up”, said Lichliter.
Kershner held on to second, followed by Chad Myers in third, Andrew Yoder in fourth, and Barry Miler finished fifth.
Zambotti had to work hard and survive to keep his perfect record of Pure Stock feature wins intact as he started 16th, and took the lead on lap six of 20 to score his fifth win in five races.
Not only did Zambotti make it through the spins and cautions from other drivers, he had to endure three more after taking the lead from ninth-place starter Bob Egley. Zambotti’s feature win was worth $750.
Egley finished second, while Dan Zechman recovered from an early race spin to finish third. Rob Nichols was fourth, and Tony Stoneberger also recovered from an early spin to crack the top five.
Kevin Thomas is also undefeated in Hobby Stock competition as he is now four-for-four in feature wins. He didn’t run away from the whole field as he had Brady Daniels hot on his heels for most of the 20 lapper, but he had to hold off Daniels in a one lap shootout to the finish to earn the checkered flag, and $500.
Mike Fuller, John Catlett, and Kirk Lawson rounded out the top five.
Adam Campbell closed out the night with his first U-Car win at Hagerstown worth $300. Campbell took the top spot from Matt Worley around halfway, and never looked back.
Travis Brown got around Worley before the end to grab the runner-up spot, while Robbie Carroll and Eric Boozel took home fouth and fifth, respectively.