Oakshade Raceway wrapped up the 2018 race season with a memorable night that even included outhouse racing. It turned out to be a pretty good night for UMP Late Model driver Steve Kester who won an exciting feature race shortly after crashing and rolling over in the outhouse races which his team managed to win.
After outlasting the competition in some destructive outhouse racing just before intermission, Kester, out of Holland, Ohio, started on the pole of the 25-lap topless (no roofs) UMP Late Model feature and opened up a big lead early in the race. Casey Noonan started fifth and quickly worked his way up to second by lap three. Once Kester started working through slower traffic at the back of the field, Noonan was able to reel him in. The two drivers put on a great show racing side by side and three-wide at times while lapping cars for multiple laps. With Noonan applying the pressure, Kester couldn’t let up and when they came up to lap the car driven by Chester Fitch, Kester got into the rear of him causing Fitch to spin in turn two which brought out the yellow flag on lap 14. With clear track ahead, Kester was able to open up a little breathing room over Noonan and went on to win his fourth feature of the year. Brad Eitniear finished third followed by unofficial 2018 track champion Devin Shiels. Dan Wallace started 11th and came home fifth.
Mathew Chapman wrapped up his championship season with AmeriGas UMP Sportsman win number nine, fittingly the same as his car number. The Tecumseh, Michigan driver started fourth and eventually worked his way up into the lead with last week’s feature winner Brandon Gregory in tow. Gregory could not mount a challenge on Chapman, who was sporting a “mohawk” on his helmet, and settled for a second place finish. Rusty Smith finished third followed by Josh Robertson and Jerry Signor.
Holland, Ohio’s Jeff Foks Jr. put a bow on his Hot Rod Welding & Engineering Bomber track championship season with another A Main feature win, his sixth of the year. Last week’s Bomber Spectacular winner, Rich Riffe, came up one spot short this week and finished second. Chris Henry finished third followed by Terry Rushlow and Adam Lantz.
The final Compact feature of the year went caution-free with Cory Gumm picking up his second consecutive feature win after starting on the pole. It was the fifth feature win of the season for the Hillsdale, Michigan driver. The top four starters ended up finishing in the same order they started in with Devin Goodman, Cameron Tusing and Ken Watts finishing second through fourth respectively. Jason Deshler cracked the top five after starting seventh.
The very last race of the 2018 race season at Oakshade Raceway was the Hot Rod Welding & Engineering Bomber B Main. There was some issues getting the race going initially with multiple cautions on the first lap resulting in complete restarts. Once things did get going, Lyons, Ohio’s Curt Dickie found himself out front. Dickie went on to lead the entire distance and after picking up his first ever feature win back in July of this year, he was able to notch his third Bomber B Main win of the year. Jacob Rothenberger got by Shane Estes to finish second. Justin Gamber finished fourth after starting 13th and Joe Nickloy ended up fifth.
The Oakshade swap meet is coming up on Saturday, October 20. Keep an eye of oakshaderaceway.com or @oakshaderaceway on Twitter for more details.
