Oakshade Raceway near Wauseon, Ohio was proud to host the first Allstar Performance Michigan Dirt Cup Modified event outside the state of Michigan on Saturday night with 42 of the areas best modified drivers. Jacob Poel from Spring Lake, Michigan came out on top with an impressive run in the 30-lap feature event which earned him $1,500.
Josh Scott and Andrew Terrill battled side by side for the lead early in the Michigan Dirt Cup Modified main event. Scott eventually cleared Terrill and stayed out front for almost half the race. A caution on lap eight tightened up the field for the restart which Jacob Poel took advantage of. He put pressure on Scott and finally took over the race lead on lap 12. Poel began to pull away as Travis Stemler from Ionia, Michigan worked his way past several cars to take over second. Stemler benefited from a couple caution periods in the final 10 laps to keep close to Poel, but was unable to mount a substantial challenge and settled for a second place finish. Mark Anderson got by Scott late in the race to finish third. Scott slipped back to wind up fourth and David Mielke finished fifth.
Swanton, Ohio’s Bob Gregory made a bold move through the middle, three-wide to move up to second behind Mike Jessen at the start of the UMP Sportsman feature race. A caution brought out by Billy Brown and Roger Weirich on the second lap slowed things down. Gregory got a good restart and took the lead from Jessen on the outside. No one could catch Gregory who went on to take the checkered flag in only his second start of the season. Jessen finished second with Bruce Stuart third. Tim Line saw his consecutive win streak come to an end after earning the previous nine straight feature wins. He finished fourth after starting 11th. Rich Ruff was fifth.
Richard Riffe and Gregg DeTray raced hard for the early lead in an eventful Bomber A Main with Riffe winning that battle. Tim Murphy tried to slide up in front of DeTray for second. He was able to make the pass but not after some contact that left DeTray’s left front a little tore up. Both drivers continued on without wrecking.
The Bomber points leader, Jeff Foks, had an off night after winning the previous two Bomber A Mains. Foks started deep in the field and spun on lap six to bring out a yellow. Foks had some damage from an earlier incident and made a brief visit to the pits before rejoining competition. Terry Rushlow who is third in points was involved in a wreck with Skeet Reckner which brought out the red flag on lap eight. Both drivers were racing in the top five at the time and ended up being done for the night. Chris Sands, second in Bomber points, stood to benefit the most with the bad luck suffered by both Foks and Rushlow. He took over second place with three laps to go and challenged Riffe for the lead the final couple of laps. Riffe, from Toledo, Ohio, was able to hold off Sands to earn his first Bomber A Main win. Sands finished a very close second and was able to make up a lot of ground in the points race with only two weeks left. Sands is now just 37 points behind Foks. Murphy finished third followed by Jake Rendel and Adam Noonan.
The first lap of the Best Performance Motorsports Compacts feature had a lot of action. Cody Stetten, John Martis, Jerry Hoot and Jennifer Rendel all had problems which resulted in a complete restart. Only Rendel was able to continue. Dane Arvin jumped out to the early lead over Brandon Myers, but Myers fought back and took command by the completion of the first lap. Arvin had slipped back to third when Josh Floyd got into Arvin, spinning both drivers. Myers, from Morenci, Michigan, went on to post his fourth feature win of the year with Aaron Barrick finishing second. Cole Walbolt was third followed by a couple Goodmans who started deep in the field. Jeff Goodman started 15th and ended up fourth while Devin Goodman started 19th and crossed the line fifth.
Dan Shaffer appeared to have the Bomber B Main win locked up after leading all the way to the white flag, but things fell apart for the Morenci, Michigan driver on the final lap. Multiple cautions kept Shaffer from opening up too big of a lead over Tim Hancock and Ted Hill. Hill moved into second late in the race and trailed Shaffer as they exited turn two on the final lap. As Shaffer raced down the backstretch, his car suddenly slowed as a shower of sparks came from underneath. Perrysburg, Ohio’s Ted Hill took advantage of Shaffer’s bad luck and took the checkered flag for his first feature win. Hancock finished second with Teri-Lynn Murphy third. Pete Herman started 18th and wound up fourth with Perry Cox recovering after being involved in an early caution to finish fifth. Shaffer slipped all the way back to ninth after losing his drive shaft half a lap from the checkered flag.
The UMP Late Models are going topless on Saturday, September 13, for their final appearance of the 2014 season at Oakshade Raceway. All Late Model drivers will have the roofs off of their cars. UMP Sportsman and Bomber drivers are also welcome to race “topless” but it isn’t mandatory. Also in action will be the Best Performance Motorsports Compacts. Gates open at 4pm with racing at 7pm.
