It was the Brian Ruhlman and Rusty Schlenk show Saturday night at Oakshade Raceway. Ruhlman won an exciting 30-lap American Late Model Series Feature with Schlenk finishing second. Then Schlenk jumped into his UMP Sportsman ride to win his third Sportsman Feature of the year.

Nearly 60 Late Model teams filled the pits to compete for a chance at the $2,000 going to the winner of the ALMS Feature.

The action began right at the start with Jeep Van Wormer and Casey Noonan getting together on the first lap to bring out the first caution. Zack Olger was also collected in the incident that resulted in a complete restart. Van Wormer and Olger were both able to continue while Noonan retired to the pits.

Once under green, Ruhlman set the pace at the front of the pack while Schlenk put the pressure on. The two drivers swapped the lead back and forth several times

Schlenk was leading when a lap 11 spin by Mike Harger brought out the yellow flag. Four laps after the restart, Ruhlman reclaimed the lead.

The two drivers continued to battle for the lead all the way to the checkered flag with Schlenk making one last bid to the inside of Ruhlman as they came off turn four on the final lap. The two drivers raced side by side to the checkered flag with Ruhlman holding on to win just ahead of Schlenk.

Jeep Van Wormer came back after the early crash to finish third. Ronnie Perrine started 19th and worked his way all the way up to a fourth place finish with Aaron Scott taking fifth.

Rusty Smith was in control early in the UMP Sportsman Feature leading the first five laps. Smith then got loose and Rusty Schlenk along with Brian Fisher scooted by to take over the first two positions.

After a series of caution periods, Schlenk held off a late challenge from Fisher to add to his points lead and win his third Sportsman Feature of the year. Ray Klawitter passed Rusty Smith with one lap to go to finish in the third position and Joe Derbeck came home in fifth behind Smith.

Hugh Snell and Ron Tolles battled for the lead at the start of the Bomber A Main with Tolles taking the top spot on the second lap.

Jake Rendel started seventh and worked his way into the lead after five laps. Rendel went on to win his first feature of the year convincingly over Jim Scout, Danny Hogrefe and Ron Tolles. Craig Dippman finished fifth.

Karl Spoores rocketed from the outside of the front row of the Bomber B Main to lead most of the race. Gene Potridge challenged Spoores for the lead for a few laps and then fell back.

Spoores continued to lead until Rob Anderzack, who started 20th, took over with just two laps to go.

Jeff Foks was charging toward the front and spun in turn four as the field was taking the white flag. The spin cost him a top five finish and set up a one lap dash to the finish.

Anderzack held on to win over Spoores. Jarrett Rendel finished third ahead of Gene Potridge and last week’s B Main winner, Wade Rick.

The Bomber C Main was marred by a number of caution flags. Paul Bickel brought out the third caution of the race with a spin while running in the second position.

Dan Bleikamp gained four positions in just one lap after the restart and got by Terry Rushlow for the lead.

Bleikamp went on to win the race after a few more cautions with Kyle Light finishing second. Josh Montague was third and Jesse Burgett recovered after spinning early in the race to take fourth. Tom O’Leary finished in the fifth position..

On Saturday June 3, Wyse Excavating will sponsor the exciting racing action featuring the extremely competitive UMP Late Model, UMP Sportsman and Bomber divisions. Gates open at 4pm with racing at 7pm.

Oakshade Raceway’s defending Late Model track champion, Rusty Schlenk got his third feature win of the year, but his first in a UMP Late Model.

The Service Drive Solutions sponsored Late Model Feature started off slow with a couple of quick cautions, the second of which came out after Aaron Scott spun while battling with Kris Patterson for the lead just after completing lap one. Brian Ruhlman and Rody Schoyer were both caught up in the incident. Only Scott continued, but had to restart at the tail.

With Patterson leading, Rusty Schlenk began to work his way up to the front making his way up to third by lap five and then up to second after Ronnie Perrine retired to the pits with mechanical problems.

Patterson and Schlenk battled side by side for about four laps until Schlenk finally took over the lead and went on to take the checkered flag. Patterson finished second followed by Bob Miller, Dusty Moore and Zack Olger who transferred in to the feature by winning one of the consolation races. The feature winner two weeks ago, Justin Paxton, did not make the starting line up this week missing out on the final transfer spot behind Olger by inches to Devin Shiels.

After winning the feature, Schlenk jumped into a borrowed UMP Sportsman to try for his third Sportsman Feature win in a row. He would have a long way to go though since he was not in his primary car and had to start at the tail of the field.

Shortly after the start, Josh Steinacker made it three-wide to take the lead. Even though the race was marred by numerous cautions, Steinacker would not relinquish the lead and went on to post his first Sportsman Feature win of the year.

Bruce Stuart was battling Mike Jessen for second and ended up spinning on lap 10 ending his chances for top five finish.

In the end, it was Jessen finishing second behind Steinacker with Chris Smith taking third. Brian Fisher and Tim Fisher finished fourth and fifth respectively and Rusty Schlenk settled for sixth after coming all the way from the back of the field.

Side by side racing and exciting finishes were a constant theme for the Bomber features. Jake Rendel and Tom Ordway battled side by side for the lead early in the Bomber A Main with Ordway eventually getting the best of him.

Jim Scout closed in and got alongside of Ordway on the final lap to win by just the nose of his car at the checkered flag giving Scout his second A Main win of the year. Rendel held on to finish third ahead of Craig Dippman and Danny Hogrefe.

Gary Domoe assumed the lead at the start of the Bomber B Main after starting on the pole and pulled away from Dan Shaffer. After a few laps, Shaffer began to reel him back in.

A crash involving Steve Reeves, Chris Howard, Billy Garland, Dustin Sauter and Walt Helsel brought out the caution on lap five.

Shaffer challenged Domoe after the restart and Curt Lancaster closed in and made it a three-car battle for the lead. The trio weaved through lapped traffic with Shaffer getting held up slightly near the finish allowing Lancaster to make a bid for the lead.

Domoe held on by the nose of his car to win at the line over Lancaster and Shaffer. Richard Patton finished fourth and Gene Potridge was fifth.

The Bomber C Main was another feature plagued with numerous caution periods, one of which came out when Tim Strohaver was running third and spun collecting the 27 car of Corrina Belcher.

One lap later, Terry Rushlow spun while also running in the third position.

Kyle Light worked his through nearly the entire field to take the lead halfway through the race, but a late caution set up a one-lap shootout to the finish.

Wade Rick led early in the race and was second for the restart. Rick made it three-wide to take the lead on the final lap and claim the victory over Kyle Light and Josh Overmyer. Brad Brehm and Justin Woodruff were fourth and fifth.

Saturday, May 27 marks the first of four American Late Model Series events at Oakshade Raceway paying $2000 to win. UMP Sportsman and the wild and exciting Bomber will also be in action with gates opening at 4pm and racing at 7pm.

2003 Oakshade Raceway Late Model Track Champion Justin Paxton won the first Late Model feature of the year over field filled with talented drivers.

Josh Steinacker was scheduled to start on the pole of the feature but a fire erupted under his hood during the parade laps before the race forcing him to watch the race from the pits.

With Steinacker out, the field was realigned with a new pole sitter, Casey Noonan. Noonan would lead the first eight laps of the UMP Late Model feature until Kris Patterson closed in and took.

With Patterson at the point, Justin Paxton began picking off cars on his charge to the front. By lap 12 of the 25-lap event, Paxton was up to second and four laps later took the lead from Patterson.

Paxton pulled away and won convincingly with Noonan just edging out Patterson for second at the checkered flag. Hillard Miller started 16th after winning one of the two Late Model consolation events and drove all the way to a fourth place finish ahead of Ron Perrine.

Rusty Schlenk finished sixth in the Late Model feature and quickly jumped into his Sportsman ride to try for his second consecutive feature win in that division.

Tim Bernard started on the pole and quickly jumped out to the lead early in the race. Bernard was disqualified shortly after the race when his car came up too light after crossing the scales.

Schlenk passed Bernard to lead the field by lap three. Schlenk opened up a sizeable lead until a series of caution flags kept the pack tight. After each restart, Schlenk would once again pull away from the field.

Chris Smith appeared to be on a mission, driving from deep in the field up to second by lap 11. Another caution would allow Smith to restart right behind the 28z of Schlenk, but not even Smith who used to dominate the Sportsman division at Oakshade a few years ago could surmount much of a challenge.

Schlenk went on to pick up the victory. Smith settled for second ahead of Mike Jessen, Joe Derbeck and Brian Fisher.

The Bomber A Main featured some of the night’s most exciting racing action with Rob Anderzack leading the first couple laps.

Jake Rendel, Jim Scout and Tom Ordway quickly closed in and put on a whale of a race exchanging lead several times each lap and going four abreast at times.

Once things finally shook out, Tom Ordway found himself out front and went on to be the first to the checkered flag. Last week’s A Main winner, Jim Scout, held on to finish second with Jake Rendel, Rob Anderzack and Danny Hogrefe filling out the rest of the top five finishers.

Karl Spoores tore up his car pretty bad last week, but got it back together for this week and held on to just barely win the Bomber B Main.

Spoores led from start to finish, but Kevin Hanford made things interesting after starting 13th and closing in on the leader to challenge for the lead on the final lap. Hanford dove to the inside of Spoores coming off turn four and got alongside as they headed to the checkered flag.

Spoores won by the nose of his car over Hanford. Gary Cole had a good view of that exciting finish as he came home third. Jacob Gamber was fourth with Dan Shaffer making it in to the top five after starting way back in the 11th row.

John McGeorge was running second behind Tim Zuver in the early running of the Bomber C Main when he spun in turn two in front of the entire field. Everyone got by with no major incident, but McGeorge’s good run was relegated to a restart at the tail.

Richard Patton got by Zuver once the green flag dropped to take the lead and then Zuver began to slip back through the field.

Keven Cole worked his way into second before dropping his drive shaft down the front stretch putting an end to his night.

That allowed Hugh Snell to take over second and then Snell passed Patton on the final lap to win the Bomber C Main.

Gene Potridge was third and Ron Leonard was fourth. John McGeorge recovered for a fifth place finish.

Oakshade Raceway will once again feature some great racing action Mother’s Day Weekend with a Saturday night program once again highlighted by UMP Late Models, UMP Sportsman and Bombers. Gates open at 4pm with racing at 7pm.