WAUSEON,
OH – Sponsors from the Team 97 late model pitched in to up the
payout for the Oakshade Raceway UMP DIRTcar Late Model feature event
to $2,000 to win and $200 to start on Saturday night. Holland Ohio’s
Steve Kester would gladly accept the $2,000 after earning his second
consecutive feature win which also moved him to the top in the
Oakshade late model point standings.
The
Get-It-Done Auto Parts, Select Sanitation Service, Childress
Collision, Barn Restaurant, Accelo Raceway, Dippman Motorsports and
Warpaint Graphix sponsored late model main event was marred by
multiple caution periods. Kester jumped out in front of all the
trouble on the first lap after starting on the outside of the front
row. Dusty Moore appeared to get the advantage over Kester on one of
the early restarts after Kester chose to restart on the outside lane.
Luckily for him the caution flag flew before another lap could be
completed, saving the lead for Kester who opted for the inside line
on the next restart.
The
Oakshade UMP DIRTcar Late Model point leader Jake Rendel had worked
his way up to second with Chris Keller and Dusty Moore knocking at
his back door. The action got a little too tight in turn four
resulting in Keller and Moore spinning out sending both drivers to
the back for the restart. Rendel, Jeff Geis and Garrett McClain got
together on the next restart while battling in the top five. Geis and
McClain stopped on the track while Rendel continued on. More trouble
for top five cars happened on lap 10 after Devin Shiels had issues
coming off turn four ending his night after he had worked his way up
to third. Rendel’s night got worse a couple laps later as his car
slowed on the track and then retired to the pits. All of this action
occurred before reaching the halfway point in the 25-lap race.
With
less then half the field left, the last half of the race ran pretty
clean with Casey Noonan pestering Kester for the race lead. In the
end, Kester was able to prevail with Noonan finishing a close second.
Steve Miller transferred in to the main event through the last chance
race, spun out on lap four and still managed to work up to an
impressive third place finish. Bob Mayer finished fourth and Dusty
Moore worked his way back from his earlier troubles to finish fifth.
The UMP
DIRTcar Sportsman feature was also slowed by multiple caution
periods. Last week’s feature winner Bruce Stuart took the early lead
after starting on the pole. Point leader Rusty Smith would take
command just before the halfway point in the race. The Sylvania,
Ohio, driver hadn’t visited the Oakshade Winner’s Circle since June
20, but Smith was able to hang on and pick up his fifth feature win
of the season. Brandon Gregory had been closing the point battle
since the beginning of July with a string of five straight feature
wins. He lost a little ground with his second place finish. Josh
Robertson finished third followed by B.J. Gregory and Jake Gamber.
Rich
Riffe out of Toledo, Ohio, wasted no time in getting to the front of
the Hot Rod Welding & Engineering Bomber A Main. He passed
pole-sitter Cody Stetten for the top spot by the completion of lap
one. Riffe went on to pick up his second consecutive A Main win, his
sixth on the season. Jeff Foks Jr. trails Riffe in the point
standings and lost just a little ground finishing in the second
position. William “Bubba” Cundick posted a third place finish
with Cody Stetten and Adam Noonan rounding out the rest fo the top
five finishers.
Pole-sitter
Ken Watts and Joe Carr made some heavy contact ending both of their
nights early in the Compact feature event. Joe Elliott and Eric Carr
had a great battle for the lead coming to the checkered flag with
Carr picking up his first feature victory of the season. The Wauseon,
Ohio, driver had been leading the points with consistent finishes,
but now can add a feature win to his 2020 resume. Elliott is second
in points and had to settle for a close second place finish. Aaron
VanPelt’s win streak was cut short at just two after he ended up
finishing third on Saturday. Mark Barrick and Megan Elliott rounded
out the rest of the top five.
Dylan
Burt started on the pole of the evening’s final main event, the Hot
Rod Welding & Engineering Bomber B Main and led the first part of
the race. A hard-charging Adam Lantz closed in from his 11th
starting position and took the lead on the high side down the
backstretch on lap four. Lantz, from Wauseon, Ohio, went on to claim
his third B Main win of the year with Donnie Ringman finishing
second. Burt held on to finish third with Roscoe Stetten fourth.
Brian Miller started fifth and finished fifth.
A full
racing program of UMP DIRTcar Late Models, UMP DIRTcar Sportsman, Hot
Rod Welding & Engineering Bombers and Compacts is scheduled for
Saturday, August 29 at Oakshade Raceway. Gates open at 4pm with
racing at 7pm. Please follow Oakshade Raceway on Twitter or Facebook
or the oakshaderaceway.com web site for the lastest updates.