WAUSEON, OH – After Carter Murday picked up his first Oakshade Raceway UMP Late Model feature win last week, he proved it wasn’t a fluke by following it up with another dominating performance in his second consecutive feature win on Saturday night.
The Adrian, Michigan driver started on the outside of the front row for the 25-lap UMP Late Model feature and took the lead at the start. Murday would lead the entire distance, staying in front of a lot of excitement just behind him. Colin Shipley got by Jake Rendel for second on lap four just before Rendel spun and brought out the first caution flag of the race. Shipley would suffer some bad luck on lap 10 when he spun just after a restart forcing just about the entire field to scatter around him. Most everyone got by unscathed except for William “Bubba” Cundick. Shipley and Cundick would restart at the tail.
On the next restart, Rusty Schlenk passed Devin Shiels to take over the second position, but Schlenk could not keep pace with Murday who pulled away with the lead.
A couple other top five runners had bad luck as well and retired to the infield near the end of the UMP Late Model feature. Oakshade point leader Dusty Moore and Steve Kester both ducked off the backstretch into the infield with issues before making it to the checkered flag. Moore would fall back to finish 12th but still cling to a four-point lead over Colin Shipley in the Oakshade point standings.
After picking up his second UMP Late Model win ever, Murday moved up to fourth in the point standings, just 18 points behind Moore. Schlenk settled for a second-place finish followed by Shiels, Jamie Grochowski and Ken Hahn.
Josh Robertson also made it back-to-back feature wins after picking up his second consecutive UMP Sportsman feature victory. The field was kept tight by multiple caution flags the first part of the race after Josh Robertson jumped out to the early lead over Jeff Robertson. Josh Robertson, out of Defiance, Ohio, would lead the entire 20-lap distance to take the checkered flag ahead of Carter Schlenk and Kolin Schilt. Jeff Robertson slipped back to finish fourth with Chris Williams fifth.
Dan Dippman took the early lead in the 15-lap Dominator Super Stock A Main after starting from the pole. Adam Lantz had moved up to second position, but an incident on the backstretch a couple laps before the finish would collect multiple cars including Dippman and Lantz. Wauseon, Ohio’s William “Bubba” Cundick would take over the race lead and went on to pick up the victory over Donovan Paskan, Justin Gamber, Chris Bleikamp and Chane Stuckey.
A great three-car battle for the lead in the closing laps highlighted the Compact A Main feature race. A late race restart had Brandon Paskan as the race leader with Eric Carr and Josh Bailey in pursuit. Carr and Paskan raced side by side with Bailey trying to find a line to make it three-wide for the lead. Paskan had the advantage at the white flag, but Carr pulled off a last lap pass to take the win from Paskan. It was the second feature win of the year for the Wauseon, Ohio, driver. Bailey settled for a close third-place finish behind Paskan with James Stamper and Gage Rushlow the rest of the top five finishers.
Curt Dickie started on the pole of the Dominator Super Stock B Main and pulled out to decent lead over the rest of the field. A late caution would set up a one-lap shootout to the checkers with Josh McNicol restarting on Dickie’s back bumper. Dickie, out of Lyons, Ohio, held on to pick up the win with McNicol finishing second. Amy Clair finished third followed by a Grayson Warner and Alex Krall.
Things got off to an ugly start in the final event of the night, the Compact B Main. Chris Rutan had a hard hit with an infield tire that launched his car back into traffic where he was collected by another car for a second hard hit. That brought out the red flag as rescue crews checked on the driver. Once things got going, Elie Kolodie took the race lead and had a pretty decent battle with Marcus Davis. The two drivers checked out from the rest of the field. The Fayette, Ohio, driver was able to hold off Davis and earned his second B Main win of the season. Jonathon Gerard finished third behind Davis followed by Ric Carper and Matt Stratton.
This Saturday night, Oakshade Raceway hosts the annual Barney Oldfield Race for the UMP Late Models that pays $5,000 to win. UMP Sportsman, Dominator Super Stocks and Compacts will also be in action on Saturday, June 10. Gates open at 4pm with hot laps at 6pm and racing at 7pm. Adult general admission is just $14, ages 6-11 are $5 and kids 5 and under are FREE! Pit passes are $25.
