WAUSEON, OH – Race fans at Oakshade Raceway were treated to some great racing action on Saturday night with three drivers recording their first wins of the season including Casey Noonan, Ryan Davis and Jake Rendel. The Vintage American Race Cars (V.A.R.C) also put on a heck of a show with the leaders rubbing tires coming off the final corner.
The first feature event of the night was for the V.A.R.C. club which brought a group of various styles of race cars from years past. John Lawhorn had his vintage Champ car leading most of the feature race but fell back to about fifth when working through lapped traffic late in the race. Dan Wiedman took over the lead in his Ford coupe, but King Kramer drove his sprint car up beside Weidman and the two drivers made contact while racing side by side in the final corner with Kramer from Lansing, Michigan, taking the checkered flag by a nose. Randy Tusing, also in a classic sprint car, finished third.
Next up was the 25-lap DIRTcar UMP Late Model feature event which was dominated by Sylvania, Ohio’s Casey Noonan. Noonan started on the pole and led the entire distance. Steve Kester and Devin Shiels had a great battle for second most of the race with Shiels taking the position about halfway through the race.
The first caution flag flew on lap 16 as last week’s feature winner Rusty Smith slowed on the backstretch after working his way up to eighth from the rear of the field. Smith retired to the pits and surrendered his lead in the point standings.
Kester took advantage of the restart and got back by Shiels for the second position and then made a late run at Noonan for the lead, but Noonan eventually pulled away and claimed his first Oakshade feature win of the year. Shiels was able to get back around Kester to finish second with Colin Shipley and John Miller rounding out the rest of the top five finishers.
With his second-place finish, Shiels reclaims the Oakshade Raceway DIRTcar UMP Late Model point lead with Kester only three points behind. Rusty Smith’s mechanical issues dropped him from the top down to third in the standings as he now trails Shiels by 22 points.
“The Outlaw” Jesse Jones was going for his fifth consecutive DCR Graphics Sportsman feature win and came up just short of making that happen. Polesitter Ryan Davis from Weston, Michigan, had other plans as the two drivers battled for the top spot early with Jones grabbing the lead by lap four. Davis hung in there and took advantage of lapped traffic just before the finish to regain the lead and take the checkered flag with Jones settling for second in an exciting finish. Roman Brown finished third followed by Mike Jessen and Chris Williams.
Jake Rendel out of Adrian, Michigan, started on the outside of the front row of the Dominator Super Stock A Main and immediately took the lead over Kenny Rice at the drop of the green flag. Rendel and Mason Luttrell both pulled away from the rest of the field. Scott Hammer worked his way up to third about halfway through the 15-lap feature but was a good distance behind the race leaders until a series of late cautions tightened the field. Jake Rendel would go on to fend off Luttrell for his first feature win of the season. Luttrell settled for second followed by Hammer, Jarrett Rendel and Grayson Warner.
The only repeat winner of the night came in the Compact A Main with Holgate, Ohio’s Ryan Okuley earning his fourth feature win of the year. Okuley started fourth and took the lead by lap two. Eric Carr was pursuing Okuley in the second position when Christian Hulbert spun just in front of the leaders. Okuley got by, but Carr was collected in the incident ending his night early. Okuley went on to pick up the easy victory over defending track champion Jason Deshler. Megan Elliott gained five positions to finish third with Wesley Belkofer climbing eight spots to end up fourth. Adam Thomas also started in the second half of the field and came home fifth.
The always exciting Compact B Main wrapped up a great night of racing action at Oakshade Raceway with just three of the nine cars that started still on the track at the checkered flag. Despite the high attrition rate the only caution flag flew on the first lap for an incident with polesitter Del Warner. Once things got going, Tim Streight powered his way to a huge lead. The Port Clinton, Ohio, driver went on to pick up his first feature win of the season with Chariti Roby finishing second. Jakobie Roby finished third, one lap down. Jayla Hicks and Jeff Goodman didn’t make it to the end of the race but were scored as the fourth and fifth place finishers respectively.
This weekend Oakshade Raceway welcomes the DIRTcar Summer Nationals with the annual $10,000 to win Birthday Race which is also a co-sanctioned event for the Valvoline American Late Model Iron Man Series. The Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals will also be in action along with the Dominator Super Stocks. Gates will open at 12noon on Friday, July 11 for anyone coming out to camp on Friday night. Anyone coming through the gates on Friday must purchase a grandstand pass or pit pass for Saturday’s event. Then on Saturday, July 12, the gates will open at 10am and the pits will be open for everyone to meet drivers, get photographs and autographs. After 4pm, a pit pass will be required to remain in the pits. Hot laps/qualifying is scheduled to begin at 6:30pm. Racing is scheduled to start at 8pm. For this special event, adult general admission will be $20, ages 6-11 are $5 and kids 5 and under are FREE! Pit passes are $30.
