Brian Ruhlman ruled the Howard Miller Memorial late model feature Saturday night at Oakshade Raceway, picking up his third feature win of the year.
Early in the late model feature, Steve Row was the leader with Casey Noonan following close behind.
Aaron Scott closed in to join the lead battle until a huge pile up on lap 12 of the 30-lap event took out all three leaders. Aaron Scott made it to the pits and was the only driver amongst the top three to continue on. Also involved in the crash were Ron Miller, Todd Schroyer and Jon Horner.
Tim Sabo assumed the lead for the restart with Kris Patterson second and Rusty Schlenk third.
Brian Ruhlman had worked his way up to fourth by lap 16 when the second yellow came out for a Brice Luttrell spin. Another caution came out after Mike Harger got turned around on lap 18 as he exited turn four. One lap after that restart, Ruhlman positioned himself in second behind Sabo.
Ruhlman finally assumed the lead on lap 20 and began to pull away quickly. He opened up an insurmountable lead until the caution flag flew a final time with two laps to go.
The yellow and eventually red flag flew after Shane Yoder and Brad Miller made contact that sent Miller head on into the front stretch wall. Miller climbed out of his car under his own power, but the field was stopped until some flames under the hood could be extinguished.
Tim Sabo could not mount a challenge on Ruhlman in the two-lap shootout, and Ruhlman went on to the easy victory. Sabo settled for second and Patterson finished third. Aaron Scott worked his way back up through the field in his battle-scarred car to a respectable fourth place finish with Rusty Schlenk fifth.
In recent weeks, the sportsman feature has been stealing the show with last lap passes and exciting finishes, but Rob Liaeff was out to break this trend, at least for this week.
Liaeff jumped out from the pole to take the lead and left the rest of the field in his dust. Liaeff took his big lead straight to the checkered flag in the caution free event to become the eighth different sportsman feature in eight races.
Brian Fisher continued his “close but not quite” finishes with another second followed closely by Tim Fisher. Bill Hahn came home fourth and Ray Klawitter finished fifth.
Bill Toedter opened up a big lead early in the bomber A Main until Andy Borton and Chris Joy got together on lap two to bring out the caution.
Tom Ordway restarted second behind Toedter and they continued in that order for much of the race.
Another yellow came out after contact between Billy Ruff and Jim Scout resulted in Scout’s car slamming the front stretch wall and then coming back down across the track and collecting the cars of Chris Joy and Todd Silvey.
Back under green, Ordway ducked low under Toedter on lap 12 to take the lead and win his first bomber A Main of the year. Joe Nickoloy was third behind Toedter with Josh Steinacker and Jake Rendel rounding out the top five.
Josh Caudill looked impressive in the bomber B Main for one lap, leading the pack until his car went up in smoke and ended his night.
Dan Dippman inherited the lead and then the rain came on lap five.
After a very brief delay, the race resumed and Dippman pulled away and was uncontested all the way to the checkered flag. Chuck Leininger crossed the line second with Josh Montague finishing third.
The bomber C Main featured some great racing for the lead with Kyle Light the first driver to occupy that position.
Chris Williams was first to challenge for the lead getting to the inside of Light, but Bill Reeves Jr. saw an opportunity and took second from Williams.
On lap six, Light, Reeves, and Bill Couts went three-wide for the lead. Couts ended up passing both cars to take the lead with Light falling back to third.
They went on to finish in that order with Chris Williams fourth and Terry Rump fifth.
On Saturday, July 10, Oakshade Raceway will once again feature the late model, sportsman and bomber divisions with a regular racing program.
