Gary Stuhler charged from 18th to win the $10,000 Octoberfest 350 at Hagerstown Sunday afternoon. Stuhler passed Tim McCreadie on lap 96 and pulled away to take the win! Congrats to Gary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Printable View
Gary Stuhler charged from 18th to win the $10,000 Octoberfest 350 at Hagerstown Sunday afternoon. Stuhler passed Tim McCreadie on lap 96 and pulled away to take the win! Congrats to Gary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats to Gary and everyone on the #7 team!!! 18th to 1st on the daytime surface at Hagerstown, what an awesome run!!!!:D
Congrats to Shuhler, full rundown???
Octoberfest Repeats to Hearn, Stuhler & McCreadie, First To Darrah
Hagerstown, Md.: Following Saturday’s qualifying, Sunday arrived as another sunny seasonable fall day at Hagerstown Speedway to finalize the last race weekend of the season with the 23rd Annual Octoberfest 350.
Vernon, N.J’s Brett Hearn opened the afternoon with a flag to flag victory to defend his consecutive big block modified victories and become a six time and overall seven time winner including two small block wins. It was Hearn’s career 27th win at Hagerstown.
Inaugural event winner in 1988, Gary Stuhler of Greencastle, Pa. began from the 18th position in the late model 100 lapper and led the final five circuits to post that victory to make him a five time overall winner including the 1996, 1999 and 2003 events. The triumph was the overall leading feature winners career 128th. Cody Darrah of Red Lion, Pa., making his first appearance in a 410 sprint car after being sidelined due to serious injuries from a traffic accident at Daytona in February, didn’t miss a beat after leading the first 22 circuits and retaking the lead on lap 42 to post his career first Hagerstown and Octoberfest victory.
Josh Richards sped around the outside of polesitter Dylan Yoder in the opening turns to lead the late model field while McCreadie quickly took second before the first lap scoring. Richards easily distanced McCreadie by more than two seconds by lap five and entered the rear of the field by lap 12. Seventh starter Jason Covert took third from Yoder on the 17th circuit but four laps later, Stuhler arrived from 18th to pass Covert while McCreadie was more than four seconds ahead. Richards held the upper hand into the fuel stop with only a .44 second advantage over McCreadie at the halfway mark. Just after the halfway restart, Richards suddenly slowed and pitted with and engine problems as McCreadie and Stuhler pulled away from Covert and Dan Stone.
Stuhler didn’t allow McCreadie any room for error with a lap 81 caution regrouping the field. Billy Decker who originally started fourth and dropped to 12th by halfway was on the move around the outside and advanced to pick off Covert on lap 36 while 2.35 seconds behind Stuhler. Decker began to close the gap while Stuhler’s assault on McCreadie became more intense until he found the opportunity to charge around and take the lead on lap 96. He pulled ahead 1.38 seconds at the checkered. Decker trailed McCreadie by two seconds with Covert and 12th starting Dan Stone completing the top five. Vic Coffey, from 23rd was sixth with Marvin Winters, Russ King, (25th), Yoder and Frankie Plessinger (14th) next.
“Everything worked our way,” Stuhler said. “I think if Josh had stayed in there, he definitely would have won the race. Timmy is a class act to race with and it was a lot of fun. I don’t think either one of us would have had anything for Josh if he would have stayed in there. Whatever happened to him, we’ll take it. Sometimes you get those things. It’s a good way to end the year.”
In the 32 late model entries, Yoder, Richards, McCreadie and Decker won heats while Larry Wight took the consolation event
The next event on the Speedway schedule will be the Annual Award Banquet scheduled for Saturday December 4th where Frankie Plessinger will receive the accolades for his career first 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
23rd ANNUAL OCTOBERFEST 350
BIG BLOCK MODIFIEDS: 1.Brett Hearn, 2.Billy Decker, 3.Rick Laubach, 4.Larry Wight, 5.Tim McCreadie, 6.J. J. Bunting, 7.Kenny Brightbill, 8.Ryan Godown, 9.Darwin Green, 10.Richie Pratt Jr., 11.Billy Pauch, 12.Jimmy Horton Jr., 13.Kevin Hirthler, 14.Jimmy Horton, 15.Chic Cossaboone, 16.Brett Ballard, 17.Butch Tittle, 18.Brain Kressley, 19.Ryan Watt, 20.Roger Crysler, 21.Ronald Roberts Jr. 22.Matt Sheppard, 23.J. R. Heffner, 24.Wade Hendrickson, 25.Skip Moore, DNS – Rusty Smith
LATE MODELS: 1.Gary Stuhler, 2.Tim McCreadie, 3.Billy Decker, 4.Jason Covert, 5.Dan Stone, 6.Vic Coffey, 7.Marvin Winters, 8.Russ King, 9.Dylan Yoder, 10.Franke Plessinger, 11.Tim Wilson, 12.Wes Bonebrake, 13.Jonathan DeHaven, 14.Chad Hollenback, 15.Danny Kienitz, 16.Keith Jackson, 17.Kenny Pettyjohn, 18.Tom Decker, 19.Larry Wight, 20.Rick Eckert, 21.Josh Richards, 22.Jim Yoder, 23.Scot LeBarron, 24.Doug Eck, 25.Alan Sagi, 26.Jeremy Miller DNQ – Chuck Shultz, Chris Schneider, Mike Mort, Jim OHara, DNS – Ronnie DeHaven Jr., Lindsay Barton
SPRINTS: 1.Cody Darrah, 2.Lance Dewease, 3.Fred Rahmer, 4.Greg Hodnett, 5.Donnie Kreitz Jr., 6.Daryn Pittman, 7.Mark Smith, 8.Justin Henderson, 9.Tim Glatfelter, 10.Chad Layton, 11.Troy Fraker, 12.Daryl Stimeling, 13.Scott Lutz, 14.Robbie Stillwagon, 15.Stan Campbell, 16.Brian Ehrenzeller, 17.Cole Duncan, 18.J. R. Berry, 19.Lucas Wolfe, 20.Mar Ide, 21.Vern Wasson, 22.George Superick, 23.Keith Kaufman, 24.Curt Michaels, 25.Jay Reichard, 26.Bill Jones Jr. DNQ-Tim Higgens, DNS - Aaron Ott, Chuck Brion
SMALL BLOCK MODIFIEDS: 1.Tim McCreadie, 2.Brett Hearn, 3.Ryan Godown, 4.Jimmy Horton, 5.Wade Hendrickson, 6.Rick Laubach, 7.J. R. Heffner, 8.Willie Decker, 9.Richie Pratt Jr., 10.Shawn Reimer, 11.Frank Cozze, 12.Kevin Albert, 13.Darwin Green, 14.Gary Wagner, 15.Chic Cossaboone, 16.Brett Kressley, 17.Dave Dubois, 18.Matt Sheppard, 19.Frank Cozze Jr. 20.H. J. Bunting, 21.Jack Harnett, 22.Meme Desantis, 23.Billy Decker, 24.Kevin Hirthler, 25.Larry Wight, 26.Bryan Brown DNQ – Mark Frankhouser, Colt Harris, Roger Crysler, Derek Berkley, Brad Brightbill, DNS – Rick Ryder, Tom Miller
Well I must say that the fact that they started over 3 hours late Saturday, with no explanation, on a bright & sunny day, really pissed me off. Starting later in the afternoon is fine and is better for the track surface, but just don't tell us that you're going to start at noon if you have no intention to! They basically held us hostage for an extra 3 hours with nothing to do but visit the concession stands.
BUT, I must admit that that was, by far, the best track conditions I've ever seen at Octoberfest. Saturday was wet, heavy, & tacky for a while, then slick on the bottom with a cushion at the end. People were racing side by side in all divisions in the heats. Sunday was a bit more typical smooth, black surface, but for whatever reason it still didn't "lock down" and become one grooved. Stuhler wins from 18th, Coffey and King start in the 20's and finish 6th and 8th, and Decker pits and comes back to 3rd. Both Stuhler and Decker were still making late race, open track passes on the outside for position.
Next year, Hagerstown, why don't you just advertise that Saturday's program starts at 3:00?
Highlights.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZcMJXPyTTA ;)
Fantastic ending to a fantastic season at the Capitol...:cool:
By the way, nice post Pitboard...:confused:...Constructive criticism, done in a tasteful manner is always appriciated...:)