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SITES SCORES CAREER FIRST LATE MODEL TRIUMPH WHILE DEESE REPEATS AS LATE MODEL CHAMPION FOR EIGHTH TIME

Rusty Sites of St. Thomas Pa. led Hagerstown Speedway’s 26th Annual McBee/Hays Championship 44-lap event twice on Saturday evening, the second time for the final 13 circuits to score his first ever late model win and also include his name on the exclusive list of drivers who have won the prestigious event.

Roy Deese Jr. of Laurel, Md. ended fourth and recorded his career eighth late model title which now ties Nathan Durboraw.

Mercersburg, Pa.’s Andy Fries scored his second Hoosier Tire-Mid Atlantic late model sportsman win of the weekend and Hagerstown second while Pete Weaver of Williamsport wrapped up his second consecutive title in the division.

Hagerstown’s Rick Stouffer took the checkered flag for his first time in the Ernie D’s pure stocks as Drew Fitzsimmons, Boonsboro, ended atop the point standings for his first ever time.

Krazy Kenny Thomas of Keedysville, Md. recorded his fourth consecutive hobby stock cruiser triumph plus took the championship for the inaugural season of the division.

All but Weaver’s win were remaining to be settled in these final point races. Fries and Stouffer earned guaranteed starting positions in the Small Car Nationals qualifiers which were postponed from the previous week.

The late model feature got off to a bumpy start when a seven car incident occurred in turn three of the opening lap which involved the 2nd to 4th place point drivers, Kyle Lear, Jim Bernheisel and Duane Harbaugh with Harbaugh unable to rejoin the field along with four time event winner Gary Stuhler, Brian Booze and Ashley Barrett.

Tim Murphy then set the pace with fourth starting Sites taking over the second spot with Bryan Bernheisel, Tyler Hershey and Marvin Winters in a battle for third by the fifth lap. Sites took the lead on the seventh lap as Winters moved into the runner up spot three laps later. Frankie Plessinger was up from ninth passed Hershey for third on the 11th circuit with Winters taking the top spot on the 14th lap and 17th starting Deese entering the top five.

Hershey suddenly was off the pace on the 19th to bring out the yellow while Lear, who had restarted 18th at the tail, was past Deese and into fourth for the restart.

Winters continued to hold the advantage on Sites until the 32nd lap when the rear axle broke on Winters’ racer which turned the lead back to Sites. Sites began to stretch his lead over Plessinger and Lear and had more than 2.5 seconds separation but scaled it back to 1.72 seconds at the checkered.

“This is one of the hardest things to do and that’s win a late model feature at Hagerstown,” Sites said. “It’s a tough thing to do. I didn’t know Ronnie (McBee), I was pretty young but I’ve been around here since my parents brought me here in diapers. Speedy, I did know him a little bit and he was just a super intelligent guy. That guy could set up a race car and win a lot of races. I’m very honored to be standing here and win this race.”

Deese ended in the fourth spot with Jerry Bard next. Bernheisel also came from the initial lap restart with Alan Sagi, Kenny Pettyjohn (from 23rd), Bryan Bernheisel and Al Shawver completing the top ten. Tim and Matt Murphy along with Winters won the heat races.

Fries started from the outside pole and beat Glenn Elliott into the first turn while Mike Walls quickly moved to third. Fries was 1.44 seconds ahead and nearing the rear of the field when Pete Weaver had his motor go up in smoke on the tenth lap.

Fries continued to hold a marginal lead over Elliott who had one last shot at taking over when Walls spun off turn two with one to go. Fries held on for the win by .56 seconds over Elliott and Donnie Farlling.

“When you get that top groove and a little lip, I like to rim ride that a lot,” Fries said.”I can keep my momentum up. I always say, when I’m rim riding, nobody is going to pass me on the bottom.”

Charlie Shaffer, who started 11th, ended fourth with Paul Cursey completing the top five. Mike Walls, Ronnie Dennis and Fries were the heat winners.

In the pure stocks, Stouffer took off from the outside pole with Billy Ecton Jr. taking second as Kenny Dillon moved into third on the third circuit. Dillon worked on Ecton until finally getting by on the eighth lap and then kept the pressure on Stouffer but his final turn effort almost resulted in a complete spin. He did recover but Stouffer was on his way to victory with Ecton again taking over the runner up spot.

“These guys don’t give you nothing,” Stouffer said. “It doesn’t matter if you start on the front row. The last couple weeks ago, it’s been good up high and that‘s where I like to go and it worked out fine for me.”

Wayne Hawbaker, Kevin Koontz and Steve Lowery were next. Stouffer, Dave Stouffer Jr. and Ecton Jr. won the heats.

Mark Vegh led the hobby stocks from third while Krazy Kenny Thomas began from 12th with only a five point advantage over ninth starter, Kenny Thomas. Krazy Kenny moved forward to take third on the fifth lap and second on lap nine. He worked on Vegh to go past him to lead lap 11 and following a lap 12 restart, won by a half length over Brandon Churchey who restarted on the rear after an opening lap incident. Craig Kline and Gary Proctor were the heat winners.

“I’m glad the race wasn’t one lap longer,” Thomas said. “We popped a belt with two laps to go and I was watching the temperature gauge. Coming out of four, it kicked the water out of it but it got us where we needed to go.”

With a one week absence, Hagerstown returns with the 5th Annual Small Car Nationals which included the Late Model Sportsman, Pure Stocks, Four Cylinders, Hobby Stock Cruiser, Powder Puff plus the 25th Annual Tommy Thompson Demo Derby that was postponed from August 27th .

Hagerstown Speedway Results

26th Annual McBee/Hays Championship: Late Models, 44 Laps, 23 entries (Lap Leaders – Tim Murphy 1-6, Rusty Sites 7-13, Marvin Winters 14-31, Sites 32-44): 1.Rusty Sites, 2.Kyle Lear, 3.Frankie Plessinger, 4.Roy Deese Jr.5.Jerry Bard, 6.Jim Bernheisel, 7.Alan Sagi, 8.Kenny Pettyjohn, 9.Bryan Bernheisel, 10.Al Shawver Jr., 11.Cody Lear, 12.Matt Murphy, 13.Lindsay Barton, 14.Marvin Winters, 15.Tim Murphy, 16.Tyler Hershey, 17.Chad Davis, 18.Brent Smith, 19.Gary Stuhler, 20.Duane Harbaugh, 21.Brian Booze, 22.Ashley Barrett, DNS – Rick Hulson

Hoosier Tire-Mid Atlantic Late Model Sportsman, 20 Laps, 22 entries, (Lap Leaders Andy Fries 1-20): 1.Andy Fries, 2.Glenn Elliott, 3.Donnie Farlling, 4.Charlie Shaffer, 5.Paul Cursey, 6.Justin Weaver, 7.Wayne Walls Jr., 8.Cody Lear, 9.Scott Palmer (St. Thomas Towing, Checkered Flag Lube Center Hard Charger), 10.Chaz Walls, 11.Courney Shreiner, 12.Chad Myers, 13.Will Rowe, 14.Matt Nailor, 15.Mike Walls, 16.Barry Lear Sr., 17.Sam Leonard, 18.Terry Flaherty, 19.Pete Weaver, DNS – Ronnie Dennis, Frankie Plessinger, Bruce Kane,

Ernie D’s Pure Stocks, 15 laps, 16 entries (Lap Leaders – Rick Stouffer 1-15): 1.Rick Stouffer, 2.Billy Ecton Jr., 3.Wayne Hawbaker, 4.Kevin Koontz, 5.Steve Lowery, 6.Eddie McClellan, 7.Kenny Dillon, 8.Dave Stouffer Jr., 9.Drew Fitzsimmons, 10.Danny Beavers (Turner Bowling Centers Hard Charger) 11.Frank Dibella, 12.Charlie Pensinger, 13.Mike Kratovil, 14.Keith Koontz, DNS – Tony Catlett, Billy Ecton Sr.

Hobby Stock Cruisers, 15 laps, 19 entries (Lap Leaders – Mark Vegh 1-10, Krazy Kenny Thomas 11-15) -- 1.Krazy Kenny Thomas, 2.Mark Vegh, 3.Brandon Churchey, 4.Gary Proctor, 5.Joe Rodgers, 6.Larry Hurley Jr., 7.Craig Kline, 8.Kenny Thomas, 9.Nick Dibella, 10.Nathaniel Younker, 11.Matt Smith, 12.Danny Holmes, 13.Lane Hessong, 14.Dave Shatto, 15.Tom Caravello, 16.David Norris, 17.Russ Mosley, 18.Rodney Minor, DSQ-William Crook

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