Oakshade Raceway braved the weather and made a valiant attempt to get an entire racing program completed on Saturday night, but just as the Late Model feature took to the track, the rain drops began falling a little harder forcing the track officials to call it a night a little early.
A rain shower that came down shortly after the gates opened delayed the start of the evening’s events, but made for an extremely fast track for all the preliminary races.
Rusty Schlenk took over the Oakshade points lead after Aaron Scott’s troubles on the first lap of the Late Model feature a week ago.
Scott failed to transfer in to the feature this week through his heat event, but managed to dominate one of the two Late Model consolation races to make the starting line up for the feature. Skeet Reckner was the winner of the other consi.
Brian Ruhlman, Mike Miller, Brad Eitniear, and Ron Perrine, Jr. were all Late Model heat race winners.
Josh Steinacker came into the night leading the Sportsman points. Once again, Steinacker was behind the wheel of a Late Model and a Sportsman. Unfortunately for Steinacker, he was late getting into the line up for his Sportsman heat after transferring his Late Model into the feature since the two heats were back to back. Steinacker ended up starting near the tail of the Sportsman consi and secured a starting spot in the feature by working his way up to finish third.
Sportsman heat race winners were Amy Bernard, Brad Kendall and Rusty Schlenk who would be trying for his fourth Sportsman feature win in a row.
Due to the rain, the Late Model and Sportsman features will be made up on Saturday, July 30 with double features on that night.
Jim Scout took a hard hit on the track the previous week in the Bomber division in his heat event and that knocked him out of first place in points at Oakshade coming into the night’s events. He fell to third behind Jeff Foks, Jr. and Chuck Leininger.
Scout had his car back together this week and took a Bomber heat race win along with Gary Domoe, Rich Risner, Joe Smith, Matt Shippley and John Brooks who was driving the 18H usually driven by Danny Hogrefe.
The Bomber features will be made up on B&P Wrecking night which is Saturday, August 13.
This coming Saturday (July 23), Oakshade Raceway will host the Eighth Annual Birthday Race which is also the UMP Summer Nationals Finale. The winner of the 60 lap UMP Late Model feature will receive $10,000 and the winner of the Summer Nationals points chase will also be crowned. Bombers will also be in action that night as well.
In anticipation of this huge event, Oakshade Raceway will allow spectators to come in on Thursday, July 21 from 4pm until 8pm and reserve seats by taping down blankets. Then on Friday, July 22, the gates will be open from noon until 9pm for campers and for spectators to reserve seats. Everyone that comes through the gate on Friday must purchase a ticket and/or a pit pass for Saturday’s race.
Gates will open early on Saturday, July 23, by noon at the latest. Everyone will be allowed in the pits to meet the drivers until 4pm. After 4pm, you must have a pit pass to remain in the pits. Due to the qualifying procedures of the Summer Nationals series, the races will begin a little later than normal at 7:45pm Saturday night.
Large coolers will not be permitted and small coolers must be placed in front of you by your feet. Also, lawn chairs will not be permitted in the grandstands.
And again, Oakshade will run double features for the Late Models and Sportsman divisions on Saturday, July 30, the week after the Birthday Race and double features for Bombers on Saturday, August 13.
