WAUSEON, OH – Rusty Smith held off Oakshade Raceway DIRTcar UMP Late Model point leader Devin Shiels to earn his second feature win of the season Saturday night.
Smith, from Sylvania, Ohio, started on the pole of the 25-lap DIRTcar UMP Late Model feature event and took the lead at the drop of the green flag with Devn Shiels in pursuit. Smith had a comfortable advantage early in the race until he caught the tail end of the field and had to work through slower lapped traffic. That is when Shiels was able to close right to Smith’s rear bumper.
The first caution of the race flew on lap 11 just as a full moon began to rise over the horizon off turn two. This was the first of a string of caution periods that included a five car pile up on the lap 11 restart.
Following a restart on lap 12, Casey Noonan found something that worked in the high groove and charged from fifth to second on the outside in one lap. A lap 13 caution would tighten the field up once again with Noonan restarting in second behind Smith in what looked to be shaping up as a great battle for the lead. Unfortunately, once the green flag waved, Noonan began dropping back with what appeared to be a left rear going down. Noonan would eventually retire to the infield before the finish.
This put Shiels back into the runner-up position to battle with Smith for the race lead, but Smith held off last week’s feature winner to take the checkered flag. Colin Shipley finished third followed by Steve Kester and Brayden Shiels.
A caution-filled DCR Graphics Sportsman feature was up next. Point leader Jesse Jones had some issues on the first lap with his car popping out of gear and having to restart at the tail of the field after going a lap down.
Scott Robertson started on the pole and led early until getting too high in turns one and two which turned the lead over to Roman Brown. Brown would maintain the lead over Ryan Davis until a lapped car spun right in front of him forcing the young driver to spin to avoid. Davis was able to get by and take the lead. Davis, from Weston, Michigan, would go on to win his third consecutive DCR Graphics Sportsman feature event. The father and son duo of Mike and Dylan Jessen finished in the second and third spots after a one two run earlier in the night in their heat race. Shane Estes finished fourth and Kyle Eckhart gained seven positions from the start to finish fifth.
Other than a fire under the rear end of Harriet Callahan’s car that brought a red flag early, the Dominator Super Stock A Main was a much less eventful feature event than the DCR Graphics Sportman. Adam Lantz from Wauseon, Ohio, started on the pole and after fending off a challenge from Jake Rendel, went on to pick up his third A Main win of the season. Rendel settled for a second-place finish and further padded his point lead with only two weeks of point competition left. Alex Krall held Dylan Burt off for third and Scott Hammer finished fifth.
The Compact feature event produced one of the most exciting finishes of the night with a last lap pass for the win. It was Ken Wells who took the lead at the start after starting on the pole, but Jeff Wells would take command around lap five. Jeff Wells would continue to lead all the way to the white flag with Holgate, Ohio’s Ryan Okuley closing in. Okuley looked to the outside in turns one and two and took the lead away. Wells made one last run to try to get back to the inside of Okuley in the final two corners, but Okuley held on to claim his sixth feature win of the year. James Stamper came home third followed by Ken Wells and Gavin Stambaugh.
Oakshade Raceway will be back in action this coming Saturday night with a full racing program feature DIRTcar UMP Late Models, DCR Graphics Sportsman, Dominator Super Stocks and Compacts. Plus there will be the Chris Mize Memorial Hot Dog Race for the Dominator Super Stocks. Gates will open at 4pm with hot laps/qualifying at 6pm and racing at 7:15pm. Adult general admission is just $15, ages 6-11 are $5 and kids 5 and under are FREE! Pit passes are $30.
