McClure Ohio’s Rusty Schlenk navigated through heavy lapped traffic to capture his sixth Oakshade Raceway UMP Late Model feature win of the season Saturday night.

Current Oakshade Raceway UMP Late Model point leader, Devin Shiels earned the Attica Raceway Park track championship on Friday night and drew a pole starting position for Saturday night’s feature at Oakshade. Shiels darted out to the early lead over last week’s feature winner, Brian Ruhlman. Schlenk started eighth and quickly closed in on the front runners by staying on the high side through the corners. After Schlenk took over second position, lapped traffic became an issue. Shiels’ lead would shrink and grow depending on how the leaders came up on the slower traffic. Finally with just four laps to go, Schlenk found enough clear race track to take the lead and the eventual victory. Shiels settled for a second place finish behind the six-time track champion, and increased his point lead slightly over Ruhlman who ended up third. Steve Kester and Casey Noonan were the rest of the top five finishers.

B.J. Gregory dominated the UMP Sportsman feature race after battling with Mathew Chapman early in the race. Despite a caution on lap one that resulted in a complete restart, the race ran all 20 laps caution-free allowing Gregory to open up a commanding lead. It would be the second consecutive feature win for the Swanton, Ohio, driver. Current Oakshade Sportsman point leader Drew Smith rebounded for a second place finish after last week’s DNF. Chapman ended up third with Brian Fisher finishing fourth in his first start of the season. George Lindsey finished fifth.

Rich Riffe led the first couple of laps of the Bomber A Main, but Oregon, Ohio’s Craig Dippman took the lead by lap three and went on to pick up his first feature win of the year. Jeff Foks Jr. battled with Riffe for second much of the race, but was able to eventually get by Riffe. Foks mounted a late challenge on Dippman for the lead, but came up short having to settle for a second place finish. Riffe took third with Tim Hancock moving up nine positions to end up fourth. Chris Henry finished fifth. Foks’ second place finish slightly increased his Bomber point lead to 18 ahead of Hancock in a tight battle with only a few weeks remaining.

The Compact point battle is really tightening up as well heading in to the final stretch. Three drivers remain in the hunt with only 66 points separating them. Brogan Rehklau out of Waldron, Michigan has been closing the gap on the Compact point lead over the last couple months, but suffered a bit of a set back last week after jumping early on a late restart which cost him the feature win. Rehklau made up for it this week, getting by current point leader Jeff Foks Sr. to pick up his ninth feature win this season and cuts Fok’s point lead to 25. Foks’ second place finish in the race limited the ground Rehklau made up in the standings. Cameron Tusing finished third with Jason Deshler, who was leading the point standings earlier this season and now sits third, finishing fourth. Ken Watts ended up fifth.

Satch Crispen and Roscoe Stetten had a pretty good battle early in a caution filled Bomber B Main. Crispen got the lead at the start, but Stetten battled Crispen and was able to take the lead after a lap two restart. Late in the race, Justin Gamber began to close in on Stetten. Gamber made a nice move to the inside of the Adrian, Michigan driver coming off the final corner to the checkered flag. Unfortunately for Gamber, something broke under the rear end spraying out a shower of sparks from under the car just as he had gotten alongside Stetten coming off the final corner. It was Stetten’s first feature win of the year. Gamber’s ailing car crossed the finish line in second followed by Crispen, Ryder Price and Scott Barnhart.

This Labor Day weekend, Oakshade Raceway will host its final American Late Model Series event of the season, paying $2,000 to win on Saturday, September 2nd. Also in action will be UMP Sportsman, Bombers and Compacts with gates opening at 4pm, hot laps at 6pm and racing at 7pm.

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Defending Oakshade Raceway UMP Late Model Champion Brian Ruhlman found his way to victory lane for the second time in the last three weeks which has knocked some more points off Devin Shiels point lead with three more nights of point competition remaining this season.

Ruhlman out of Clarklake Michigan, started on the outside of the front row and immediately gained the lead over Steve Miller and the rest of the field. After a couple cautions on lap four and five, the final 20 laps ran caution-free with Ruhlman maintaining a several car-length advantage over second place Brad Eitniear for the majority of the race. Eitniear ended up finishing second followed by Casey Noonan and Rusty Schlenk who battled each other much of the night. Devin Shiels came from 14th starting position to finish fifth and currently holds a decent 129 point advantage over Ruhlman in the point standings.

The top two drivers in the Oakshade UMP Sportsman points, Drew and Rusty Smith, did not finish the feature event. Both drivers pulled off the track and retired to the pits before making it to the checkered flag. About a handful of laps into the UMP Sportsman feature, Swanton, Ohio’s B.J. Gregory passed defending track champion Mike Jessen for the lead and drove off to an easy win. It was his first of the season for Gregory. Jessen and Mathew Chapman were battling for second when Chapman tangled with a lapped car forcing him to restart at the rear of the field. Jessen held on to finish second in the race with Jeff Geis third. Joel Morton won the B Main just to make the starting line up of the feature and worked his way up to a fourth place finish after starting 16th. Josh Robertson also moved up nicely to finish fifth after starting 13th. Despite not finishing, Drew and Rusty Smith remain atop the point standings.

It took four attempts to get the Bomber A Main started due to multiple first lap incidents. Once things finally did get going, it was the Jeff Foks Jr. show. Foks, from Holland, Ohio, led the entire distance to win his second A Main of the year which also catapulted him into the Bomber points lead after former point leader Tim Hancock was caught up in an incident and ended up finishing ninth. Craig Dippman fended off Chris Henry for a second place finish followed by Terry Rushlow and last week’s A Main winner Rich Riffe.

Brogan Rehklau appeared to be on his way to his eighth Compact feature win of the season, but a mistake on the last restart would cost him the victory. Rehklau jumped a restart with only a few laps remaining which resulted in a two position penalty. Rehklau was able to get to the front and led the field to the checkered flag, but due to the assessed penalty, he was credited with a third place finish. Jeff Foks Sr. from Holland, Ohio was awarded the win, his third of the year, and that keeps him atop the point standings with a 30-point cushion over Rehklau. Cameron Tusing settled for a second place finish after starting on the pole. Ken Watts ended up fourth with Nathan Goodman fifth.

Clayton, Michigan’s Donovan Paskan earned his first Bomber feature win of the season after keeping a hard charging Dylan Hough behind him in the Bomber B Main. Hough started 18th and had a great run to finish in second. Gabe Mueller also started deep in the field, in the 16th position, and wound up third. Mike Villena and Zach Stotz were the rest of the top five finishers.

Ryder Price from Morenci, Michigan, quickly made his way to the front of a caution-free Bomber C Main. Price went on to pick up his very first feature win over Scott Robertson, Cory McCaughey, Steve Reeves and Scott Hammer.

This week, Oakshade Raceway will hold its First Annual Dirt Roads Flea Market at the race track this Wednesday through Friday from 10am-7pm each day. For more information on the flea market, call 419-466-6055. Then on Saturday, August 26th, Oakshade Raceway will host another full racing program of UMP Late Models, UMP Sportsman, Bombers and Compacts. Gates open at 4pm, hot laps are at 6pm and racing begins at 7pm on Saturday.

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The 2010 Barney Oldfield Race winner, Rusty Schlenk, earned his second ever Barney Oldfield Race win in Saturday night’s 28th Annual Barney Oldfield Race which was part of an American Late Model Series (ALMS) double header at Oakshade Raceway.

Originally scheduled for mid-June, the 28th Annual Barney Oldfield Race was rained out just before the start of the second last-chance race. That race and the 40-lap, $5,300 to win main event was rescheduled for Saturday night. An incident near the rear of the field on the first lap was the only caution flag of the race and it resulted in a complete restart. At the drop of the second green flag, Travis Stemler got the jump on Curtis Roberts and led much of the race. McClure, Ohio’s Rusty Schlenk started inside row two and began to reel in Stemler after taking over the second position early on. Stemler seemed to get through the lapped traffic a little better than Schlenk. Schlenk was able to pull up to the rear bumper of Stemler a couple times and then faded a bit while working through the lapped traffic, but he was finally able to stick with Stemler upon catching him again on lap 28. Four laps later, Schlenk took command and drove away to pick up the checkered flag. Dona Marcoullier made a late charge to get by Stemler for a second place finish with Stever Kester ending up fourth. Jon Henry was fifth.

Later in the night was a second ALMS feature event paying $2,000 to win. Devin Shiels started on the pole and took the early lead until Houghton Lake, Michigan’s Dona Marcoullier got by and then set sail. Marcoullier proceeded to open up a big lead leaving Shiels to battle Jon Henry for second. Marcoullier went on for the easy win which was his second Oakshade feature win of the year. Henry survived a bit of a scare, getting up high in turns one and two on lap 16, to finish second. Shiels maintains a commanding 159 point lead after finishing third. Travis Stemler had another top five finish, ending up fourth with Casey Noonan moving up eight spots to finish fifth.

The UMP Sportsman feature event produced the most exciting finish of the night. Oakshade Sportsman point-leader Drew Smith started on the pole and darted out to a large lead. Late in the race, defending track champion Mike Jessen began to nip away at the Sylvania, Ohio, driver’s lead. Jessen made a move to take the lead at the white flag, but the caution would come out right the same time after Chris Williams spun on the front stretch. That set up a two-lap shootout to the finish that did not disappoint. Smith led the field back to the green flag with Jessen in pursuit. It wasn’t until the final corner that Jessen was able to drop down to the inside of Smith making for a side by side drag race to the finish line. Smith was able to hang on by an inch or two for his second consecutive feature win and his fourth of the season. Finishing third behind Jessen was Rusty Smith who seems to have turned his luck around after posting two DNF’s after leading each of the features the previous couple weeks. Tim Fisher and Bruce Stuart rounded out the rest of the top five finishers.

Rich Riffe from Toledo, Ohio, got by Tim Hancock on lap two of the Bomber A Main and never looked back. Hancock was able to close back in on Riffe just past halfway in the 15-lap feature, but Riffe was able to hang on to pick up his second consecutive A Main feature win. Craig Dippman finished third ahead of Jeff Foks Jr. who is second in points, just eight behind Hancock. Terry Rushlow ended up fifth.

The Compact feature event produced a lot of lead changes. Carter Murday got the lead on lap one, but then pulled off giving it up to Ken Watts. Waldron, Michigan’s Brogan Rehklau challenged Watts for the top spot and got by to pick up his eighth feature win of the year. Watts held on to finish second followed by Jeff Foks Sr., Brandon Myers and Jason Deshler. Foks’ third place finish was enough to maintain a slim 16-point advantage over both Rehkau and Deshler as the season starts to wind down.

The final event of the night had a first time feature winner. After Brenen Mellon jumped the initial start of the Bomber B Main, Dave McMannamy from Holland, Ohio was scored as the race leader once Mellon’s penalty of two positions was served under a lap four caution. Mellon worked his way back to second but could not catch McMannamy who went on to win his first Oakshade feature win. Mellon held on to finish second with Scott Hammer third. Zach Stotz posted a fourth place finish and Rayce Price was fifth after both drivers started at the rear of the field.

There will be a full racing program once again of UMP Late Models, UMP Sportsman, Bombers and Compacts this Saturday, August 19th at Oakshade Raceway. Gate open at 4pm with hot laps at 6pm and racing at 7pm.

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