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.
