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For the second week in a row, Trever Feathers went head-to-head with one of the hottest Dirt Late Model drivers in the country, Gregg Satterlee, on Friday at Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway.

On April 23, the 29-year-old outdueled the recent Lucas Oil Series winner for a $3,500 win at hometown track Winchester (Va.) Speedway.

At the big half-mile clay oval last Friday, Feathers led a race-high 25 laps from the outside pole of the 86th annual Billy Winn Classic but couldn’t muster the late-race strength to counteract Satterlee’s $12,086 romp.

While Satterlee led the final 12 laps, Feathers finished four seconds behind and content in the runner-up position aboard the No. 20 Larry Royston’s Septic Services / Martins Pumping Service / Feathers & Sons Roofing / Fastenal of Winchester, VA / McFarland Custom Painting & Wall Coverings / Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic / MB Sports Collectibles / Leggett Engine Research / Coffelt Graphics / Larry Royston Properties / Larry Royston Equipment / Bilstein Shocks / Longhorn Chassis.

April 29: Billy Winn Classic / Bedford Speedway / Bedford, PA

     (31 cars, Qualifying 2nd in group/3rd overall, Heat 2nd, A-main 2nd)

“We were one adjustment away from starting outside the pole and leading the whole thing. It is what it is,” Feathers said. “(Bedford) is difficult. Satterlee has been rolling the past four or five years here; I think he’s won just about every big race you can (at Bedford). It is what it is, tonight was a good night all the way around.”

“That’s about the best we’ve been here,” Feathers added. “We generally suck at this place. This is my worst racetrack we go to. It’s somewhat of a win tonight even though we ran second.”

Satterlee, the 17th-ranked driver in DirtonDirt.com’s weekly poll, was the only driver that stood in the way of Feathers last Friday — qualifying quick time while Feathers time-trialed second of 31 cars and winning heat two with Feathers in tow.

Much like his Winchester sweep on April 23, Feathers needed little time to get going. By lap five, Feathers built a 1.5-second advantage ahead of polesitter Ross Robinson, where the Winchester, Va., native paced the opening 16 laps. On lap 17, reigning Bedford track champion Jeff Rine caught Feathers backpedaling off turn four to complete the race’s first of three lead changes.

photo credit: Travis Trussell / WRT SpeedWerx

Feathers regathered himself on lap 18, racing by Rine to lead through lap 26.

“I don’t want to say I was screwing around, but I was trying to find the line the car needed to be able to get back away from Rine,” Feathers said. “I was watching (my father Bo Feathers providing signals) and when I ran my normal line, I was pulling away a bit. When I started to get in traffic, I was trying to find a line that would suit the car a little bit better, because I knew I was killing my tires.”

“We had a good car to start; a good car until halfway. Then I started to get tight; it was getting tight and then I was burning the rear tires up trying to free the car. It just wasn’t our night.”

Friday marked Feathers’ fifth top-five finish in six races this season.

Feathers logged his seventh race of 2022 on Saturday at Port Royal, which did not go according to plan. The 2021 Opening Day winner at The Speed Palace got caught up in a mid-race incident that knocked him out of the 25-lap feature.

Additionally, the incident issued frame damage to Feathers’ primary race car that will sideline him and Larry Royston Racing for at least this weekend.

Stay up to date with all things Trever Feathers and Larry Royston Racing by following our social media channels.

PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Trever Feathers had the raw speed to carve out a sliver of history Sunday at Port Royal Speedway, but exterior circumstances deflected a run at those honors.

Feathers finished fourth in the 25-lap Opening Day event, just shy of a third-straight season opening win at the half-mile Juniata River Valley clay oval that would have been a Super Late Model track record.

Prior to his first feature event of the season, Feathers was more than three-tenths faster than the nearest competitor in warm-ups and backed that with a two-second win in his heat race.

The 2019 and ‘20 winner of the Opening Day event had to settle for something less this time.

“We were super fast on Sunday … then redrew [the fifth-starting spot] and couldn’t go anywhere,” Feathers said. “We struggled to get going in that feature.”

Feathers started fifth and finished five seconds off Colton Flinner’s winning pace in the No. 20 Larry Royston’s Septic Services / Martins Pumping Service / Feathers & Sons Roofing / Fastenal of Winchester, VA / McFarland Custom Painting & Wall Coverings / Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic / MB Sports Collectibles / Leggett Engine Research / Coffelt Graphics / Larry Royston Properties / Larry Royston Equipment / Bilstein Shocks / Longhorn Chassis.

The Winchester, Va., native would have nudged ahead of Andy Haus and Jason Covert in the Port Royal record books for most Opening Day event wins in a Super Late Model.

Feathers clocked the only 19-second lap in warm-ups, but not nearly enough windows emerged in the feature to cash in on such speed.

“I think if we would have gotten up front first, we would have been OK – held our own in clean air,” Feathers said. “When I was in dirty air, I couldn’t do anything. I would stall out. The way my car was, I needed to use the entire race track to make speed. When you’re racing around other people, you can’t do that.”

In the feature, Feathers ran fifth until back-to-back caution periods on laps 12 and 13 gave Feathers the chance to get to fourth-place.

Over the final 12 laps Feathers hounded Gary Stuhler for the final podium spot but couldn’t find a way by the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member.

“We have to find some more speed,” Feathers said. “What we had up there Sunday when the track got real slow wasn’t working.”

“The track workers did the best they could, it just got a little choppy up [in turns one and two],” Feathers said. “It wasn’t too bad, the first race of the year. It was about what you expect. There was still snow on the side of the road when we went through there. They did the best they could.”

Feathers and crew had initially planned to race the first two weekends at the Speed Palace, but with cold temperatures in the forecast, the team will instead stay home and save resources.

“The tire situation is really scaring me,” Feather said. “I was told a lot of people didn’t show up [Sunday at Port Royal] because of tires. We have enough [tires] to run through March. This weekend is a one-day show, and with the high gas prices, that’s probably $400 to get up there for one show and back.”

In optimal circumstances Feathers would like to squeeze two full races out of a set of tires. This past weekend, however, the team burned through a whole set.

Now the team shifts its focus to a pair of $3,500-to-win United Late Model Series events, also at Port Royal Speedway, on Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20.

“We’re trying to be smart about it and hope the tire situation gets better as the year goes on,” Feathers said.

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