I have always really wanted to win the Hagerstown MD race as it is what one would call “my home town track” as I was born and raised in Honey Brook PA. I have a lot of family and friends who come out and watch this race. But the best I have been able to do here is a 3rd – not what one would call a poor performance, but not what I would really like.

Anyway, this year it wasn’t the normal sticky, humid Hagerstown. Not sure if the fact that it was three weeks earlier helped the weather situation or if it was just a nice day, but it was a great day in Hagerstown! We had a lot of rain the night before which had cancelled out one of our Steve Nace All Star races. So the track had a lot of moisture.

I qualified not all that badly, feeling good the whole time. I was in the 3rd Heat with Kenny Coolbeth, Sammy Halbert, and Brad Baker among others. I knew it would be a tough Heat as Halbert has been performing well all year and Kenny is the guy to beat at Hagerstown every year. I got the hole shot and was putting some decent laps in, but then here came Coolbeth and checked out. I ended up 2nd but had some work to do if I was to catch Kenny.

For the Dash we decided to try another bike as this year we are allowed to switch bikes anytime we want, and not go to the penalty line. So we switched bikes and still got waxed by Coolbeth. I thought the bike was a touch better and hadn’t ridden it all day so I thought we could make it a little better with a few minor changes. So we stuck with it.

In the Main Event I got a decent jump but was running 3rd, trying to get around Johnny Lewis. Sometimes I could get up to him and tried to get around, but wasn’t able to make it stick. Lewis’ bike seems to have a lot of straight-away speed. He started to check out and then, with 8 laps to go, we had a red flag. Doug Lawrence was down, stopping the race. We lined it back up and tried it again but then Chris Carr got tangled with someone and went down at the start. So we tried it again and this time it was good. I was running 4th as Jake Johnson got by me. I was able to get back by Jake but could not run Lewis’s pace and got another 3rd at Hagerstown. I knew trying to beat Coolbeth would be a real stretch but I thought we could make 2nd, but Johnny put in one hard race and wanted that 2nd place even more than I did.

Next race is kind of another “home town track” for me as I now live in MI and the race is in Lake Odessa at the I 96 Speedway. But I can sleep the night before in my own bed.

Look forward to seeing you all there, thank you for all the support.

Jammin’ Jared Mees # 9

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