A huge crowd packed the stands on L&M Enterprise Concrete and Leo’s Metal and Wood Night at Oakshade Raceway to see how Nascar driver Kenny Schrader would fair against the fastest area UMP Late Model drivers.
Schrader started off strong with an impressive heat race win and looked to be one of the cars to beat going in to the feature event with a row two starting postion.
Jon Henry from Ada, Ohio started on the pole and grabbed the early lead of the UMP Late Model feature. Rusty Schlenk and Kevin Reeve had a heated battle going for second until a caution for an incident involving Dan Wallace and Mike Bores on lap three.
Schrader was running fifth before the caution and spun in the middle of traffic entering turn two on the restart. At least seven other cars were collected in the pile up including Tim Sabo, Mike Bores, Tom Ordway, Mike Miller, Rob Anderzack, Steve Kester and Chris Keller. Parts fell off Schrader’s torn up race car as he limped back to the pits.
Once the track was clear, Kevin Reeve took advantage of the double-file restart and battled side by side with Henry for the lead. At lap five, Reeve had the advantage for the race lead. Henry fought back and reassumed the lead on lap ten as Reeve began to slip back.
A late caution flag flew on lap 21 after Dusty Moore spun while battling with Brad Eitniear and Ryan Missler for fifth. That incident allowed national UMP Late Model point leader Rusty Schlenk to restart alongside Henry with only four laps remaining, but Henry was too strong and held on to pick up his first Oakshade feature win of the year. Schlenk finished second followed by Brian Ruhlman in third. Reeve slipped back to finish fourth with Brad Eitniear moving up to finish fifth after starting 16th.
Defending Oakshade Raceway UMP Sportsman Champion Brett Miller started on the pole of the UMP Sportsman feature and went on to win his first of the year. Brice Luttrell held the lead for about five laps after getting by Miller on a restart. Miller regained the lead on another restart and never looked back. Brice Luttrell finished second followed by Tim Line, Rusty Smith and Brian Fisher.
Matt Lane had a strong run early in the UMP Bomber A Main, leading the first five laps. Danny Hogrefe took command after that and led the remaining distance to win his first A Main of the year which also put him in the Oakshade Bomber point lead. Dan Shaffer and Craig Dippman pressured Hogrefe near the end of the race, but ended up finishing second and third respectively. Jim Scout was fourth and Matt Lane held on to a top five finish.
Dylan Herman made it two feature wins in a row after winning the Hornet feature event for the second consecutive week. Drew Smith pressured early for the lead, but then faded back. Derek Morris took over second and then took advantage of slower lapped traffic to close in on Herman, but Herman held on for the victory. Morris finished second followed by Drew Smith, Josh Froelich and Curtis Spurgeon.
A big crash slowed the action on lap five of the UMP Bomber B Main. With Jeff Geis leading, Donovan Paskin and Gregg Detray were battling for position and got together on the front stretch. The cars scraped along the wall and then came down off the wall right in front of Rich Noonan. Noonan slammed hard into the driver side of Paskin ending both drivers’ nights.
Curt Lancaster got by Geis for the lead on lap eight. Geis and Dave “Gumby” Golembiewski had a good battle going for second as Lancaster took the checkered flag. Geis held off Golembiewski for second. Josh Montague finished fourth with Ron Bloomfield fifth.
Todd Silvey took the lead from Chris Tressler on lap two in the UMP Bomber C Main on his way to an easy victory. Tressler held on to finish second followed by Rex Strow, Jake Reckner and Tony Sylvestri.
The American Late Model Series returns to Oakshade Raceway this Memorial Day weekend paying $2000 to win. UMP Sportsman, UMP Bombers and Hornets will be in action as welll with gates opening at 4pm and racing at 7pm.
