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Battling his way to the front of a stellar field after starting 14th, Scott James became the fourth different leader in Saturday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 26th Annual Stanley Schetromph Memorial event at Hagerstown Speedway and left with the $10,000 top prize.
“I haven’t had a car that good since the Dream last year and I gave that one away,” James said. “Man that was awesome. I could run the top, bottom or middle. You don’t get cars like this too often. It’s nice to get $10,000, I know that.”
The race, held in recognition of the man who built Hagerstown Speedway, had start to finish excitement. James, of Lawrenceburg , Ind , came into the event 10th in Lucas Oil points, picked up his second career Lucas Oil victory and his first in two seasons. It was only his third trip to Hagerstown and a far cry from the 22nd place in last season’s event. He became the 8th different driver to win a Lucas event this year and the 11th different driver to win the Schetromph event in as many events.
“It was just Kenny and me on this trip and he worked his butt off,” James said. “We’ve been here twice and never really ran good. We looked at the notebook and stayed away from what didn’t work for us in the past. We decided to make some changes two minutes before the feature. I knew it was coming...we’ve been so fast. I guess Hagerstown is one of my favorite tracks now.”
Some changes were required during the evening when a 40% chance of rain turned into 100% after the pit gates had opened and a continuous drizzle fell for more than three hours before the track could be tackled. It was nine o’clock before the first warm-ups got onto the track, but the track ended super smooth fast despite the inside 10-15 feet not even being used in the turns due to the wetness. Time trials were dropped with passing points used to set the feature line up which made for an extremely exciting show. The Ernie’s Auto Enterprises pure stocks qualified in heats, however their feature was held over until the next event on May 4th.
Dan Schlieper took control of the event from his pole position over third starting Rick Elliott but Elliott over powered him on the fourth lap to take his turn at the helm. Don O’Neal advanced from seventh and into second by the sixth circuit as he and Elliott ran away from Schieper and Steve Shaver by four seconds.
To the rear of the field by the 13th circuit, O’Neal ducked under Elliott to take charge on the 15th while Shaver was into third and James was past Schlieper and into fourth on the 18th circuit.
The first caution regrouped the field on lap 22 when J. T. Spence came to a stop as Shaver took second following the restart while James and Tim McCreadie battled with Elliott for third. McCreadie had the spot for the 25th circuit but James took possession the next circuit as Ray Cook was then in the hunt and moved into fourth.
Mechanical problems brought out cautions on laps 30 and 33 to eliminate Earl Pearson Jr. and McCreadie from competition but James had already seized the lead from O’Neal on the 32nd.
While James was comfortably setting the pace, Steve Casebolt, who originally started fourth, but had dropped as far as 12th, was on the move and challenging O’Neal repeatedly as Jason Covert and Donnie Moran also came on strong from deep in the field after both came from the B mains. The four ran a side by side formation through the turns for several laps until Casebolt secured the runner up spot on lap 46.
James was more than two seconds ahead as Casebolt could only settle for a respectable runner up effort. Meanwhile, Covert, from winning the B main and starting 18th, charged past O’Neal to take over third with two circuits remaining as Moran, who originally started 24th, followed suit on the final lap. O’Neal held on for fifth.
“Kenny kept giving me a two car length lead,” James said. “I kept looking at him and I‘m like ‘Man, this car is too good to only have a two car length lead’. With three to go, I looked at him and he was wide as he could be so he was playing with my head a little bit.
This is the most competitive series in the country. We proved it tonight.”
Elliott ended the event in sixth with Cook taking seventh. Terry English was another driver to come out of the B Main and ended eighth after starting 23rd while Shaver and pole sitter, Billy Decker completed the top ten.
Heats for the 58 entries were Decker, Elliott, Casebolt, Shaver, Billy Drake and Schlieper while Jack Pencil and Covert were B Main winners. Ronnie DeHaven was added as the track provisional based on last season points.
The speedway swings into the regular weekly program on ARCH night, May 4th with the double point make up and regular pure stock events, along with the Cindy Rowe Auto Glass late models. It’s the first appearance for the Hoosier/ HTMA late model sportsman along with the first enduro dash of the season.
Pit gates open at 4 p.m. and grandstands open at 5 p.m. Hot laps begin at 7 p.m. Check the speedway website for any changes in weather at: www.hagerstownspeedway.com or contact the speedway office at 301-582-0640.
Hagerstown Speedway Results
Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series: 26th Annual Schetromph Memorial,
50 Laps, 58 Entries (Lap Leaders –Dan Schlieper 1-4, Ricky Elliott 5-14, Don O’Neal 15-31, Scott James 32-50): 1.Scott James; 2.Steve Casebolt; 3. Jason Covert ; 4.Donnie Moran; 5.Don O’Neal; 6.Ricky Elliott; 7.Ray Cook; 8.Terry English; 9.Steve Shaver; 10.Billy Decker; 11.Mike Balzano; 12.Billy Moyer Jr.; 13.Ronnie DeHaven Jr.; 14.Davey Johnson; 15.Billy Drake; 16.Dan Schlieper; 17.Dan Stone; 18.Jack Pencil; 19.Matt Miller; 20.Tim McCreadie; 21.Earl Pearson Jr.; 22.Devin Friese; 23.J.T. Spence; 24.Jeremy Miller; 25.Bo Feathers DNQ: Justin Rattliff, Nick Dickson, Brian Booze, D. J. Myers, Sean Cosgrove, Mike Lupfer, Mark Pettyjohn, Brent Smith; Damon Eller, Rick Hulson, Alan Sagi, Vic Coffey, Darryl Hills, Jim Stine, Jamie Lathroum, Andy Anderson, Ryan Hackett, Bob Salathe, Brian Lillie, Freddy Smith, Michael English, David Williams, Nathan Durboraw, John Mason, Scott Lupfer, Brad Neat, Eric Midkiff, Ray Kable Jr., Rick Strong, DNS: Frankie Plessinger, Gary Stuhler, Kirk Ryan Jr., Scott Cross |
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