Feathers Back on Track with Big Winchester Win

Trever Feathers and Larry Royston Racing repelled the many struggles that have recently worked against them to reach their highest point of the season to date on Saturday.

Having worked tirelessly to repair his race car in the aftermath of an unfortunate incident last week at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, Feathers finished the arduous week in victory lane at Winchester (Va.) Speedway, with the $3,500 Curt Hershey Memorial check in possession.

Feathers swept the night 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 — earning his first win of the season over recent Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series winner Gregg Satterlee.

April 23: Curt Hershey Memorial / Winchester Speedway / Winchester, VA

     (19 cars, Qualifying 1st in group/1st overall, Heat 1st, A-main 1st)

“It was a nice shot in the arm for everybody, from Larry to me, to my mom  and dad (Bo), to the guys working on the car. It’s like we all had nothing but energy shots,” Feathers said. “Everybody is amped up and ready to go racing now.”

Up to Saturday, Feathers posted best finishes of fourth in two races in March at Port Royal Speedway, one being a race in which he led laps, but an ill-balanced car couldn’t hold serve at the front of the field.

Nothing stood in the way of Feathers’ pursuit for excellence, as the 29-year-old set overall fast time with a lap of 15.286 seconds and rode that superior speed throughout the night. The Winchester, Va., native topped his heat race by more than four seconds and commanded all 35 laps in the main event at his hometown 3/8-mile clay oval that played right into his approval of slick and methodical racing.

“Winning is winning, but it’s always nice to win at home,” Feathers said. “We’re five minutes away. Everybody was there. It makes it nice.” 

“That’s the racing I love to do,” Feathers added. “I love slow, slick, drive it with the right foot kind of racetracks. Everything played into my favor. We unloaded fairly quick. I wasn’t happy after warmups even though we were fastest in our group. We went to work on it in our heat race and picked up a lot of time. We were pretty fast in our heat race compared to the other heat race winners.”

“We really didn’t change the car for the feature. Just bolted on harder tires and went to see how we stacked up. We just kind of took off from there. Satterlee kept me honest. He stayed about five to six cars behind me. I had to run 35 no-mistake laps.”

On April 10, Satterlee won the Lucas Oil Series race at Port Royal Speedway and subsequently earned a spot in DirtonDirt.com’s Top 25 weekly poll ranking the best Dirt Late Model drivers in the country — a list that Feathers has received votes in the past.

“Anytime you have Satterlee behind you, you better run perfect laps,” Feathers said. “He’s going to be there for the taking at any second. Dad was giving me signals, and the (biggest lead) I felt like I had was like half a straightaway before we caught lapped traffic. I tried to back my pace up once we caught the lapped cars for the fact that it was toward the end of the race, and I didn’t want to get into them. Satterlee caught me fairly quickly, and I had to go for it.”

The new Droop Rule enacted over the winter curbed a lot of notes Feathers and crew compiled last year, but Feathers said important gains were made on the race car over the weekend.

“I’m having to find a completely new balance for these race cars,” Feathers said. “We want to do what we know was fast last year, but we know it’s not going to work.”

Feathers’ first victory at Winchester since Sept. 7, 2019, was an emotional one, too. Over the winter, Feathers’ best friend Nathan McCory died in a work accident landscaping in the Winchester area.

McCoy meant “much more than working on the race car,” said Feathers, who still grieves the death of his good friend.

“If I needed anything done around my house, or something happened around my house I didn’t know about, I called him,” he added. “I depended on him a lot outside of the race car. It was a big hit all the way around, in the garage, in my life period.”

Feathers has many ongoing supporters helping alleviate the pain, although last week Feathers himself made most of the repairs to get the team back on track.

This week, Feathers will try to race Friday’s $12,086-to-win Billy Winn Classic at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway if maintenance goes as scheduled.

“I had my hands in everything last week,” Feathers said. “If we had funding, hell yeah, I’d go hire somebody (to help crew) tomorrow, that way it’d just help me out.

“I’m going to try my hardest at Bedford, but there’s no guarantees.”