Casey Noonan earned his fourth UMP Late Model feature win of the year at Oakshade Raceway on Saturday night, holding off a hard charging Rusty Schlenk late in the race. Race fans were also treated to some “throwback racing” thanks to the Vintage American Race Car (VARC) group.
Casey Noonan, out of Sylvania, Ohio, started on the pole of the 25-lap UMP Late Model feature event and led the entire distance of the caution-free race. Steve Kester and Brian Ruhlman, running second and third respectively, began to make up some ground on Noonan while working through lapped traffic. Neither driver would get close enough to challenge for the lead, but Rusty Schlenk drove the wheels off the 91 car up to the second position near the finish. Schlenk ran out of laps trying to catch Noonan and settled for second after starting 15th. Kester ended up third with Ruhlman fourth which allowed him to maintain a slim 13 point lead over Noonan in the point standings. Last week’s feature winner, Devin Shiels, finished fifth after starting 12th.
Mike Jessen has come on strong the past couple weeks, picking up his second consecutive UMP Sportsman feature win Saturday night after leading the entire race. Multiple caution flags kept the Berkey, Ohio, driver from pulling out to big of a lead. Scot Mills was involved in one of those cautions. He spun while running in the top five and Billy Brown slammed into him hard ending both drivers’ night. Jessen was a master of the restarts and held off George Lindsey for the victory. Sportsman point leader Rusty Smith was third with Jamie Grochowski and Tim Fisher rounding out the top five after starting deep in the field.
New grandpa Craig Dippman started on the pole of the Bomber A Main after picking up his heat win earlier in the night. Dippman became a grandfather in the wee hours of Saturday morning and burst out to the early feature lead. Swanton, Ohio’s Gregg DeTray worked the inside of Dippman and took command on lap four. As did the Late Model feature, the Bomber A Main ran caution-free and DeTray proceeded to pull away to an insurmountable lead on his way to his third A Main win of the year. Bomber point leader Jeff Foks Jr. finished second with Dippman slipping back to third. Tim Murphy finished fourth followed by Chris Sands in fifth.
Toledo, Ohio’s Richard Riffe continued his dominance in Sport Compact class at Oakshade, racking up his fifth consecutive A Main win and seventh of the season. Cody Stetten set the pace early after starting on the pole, but Carter Murday and Brogan Rehklau overtook him by the completion of the second lap. The two drivers battled side by side for a bit with Rehklau taking the lead by lap three. Rehklau put up a good battle with Riffe in trying for his second feature win of the season, but Riffe came out on top at the finish. Rehklau settled for a second place finish with Cory Gumm third. Murday and Stetten wound up fourth and fifth respectively.
Ryan Gory and Dylan Burt battled for the lead early on in the Bomber B Main. Gorey led most of the race, but Perrysburg, Ohio’s Kyle Perry caught Gorey late and took the lead away on lap nine of the 12 lap race. Perry went on to the easy victory with Gorey and Burt taking second and third. Jarrett Rendel finished fourth with Cody Laney fifth.
Delta, Ohio’s Devin Goodman took the lead of the Sport Compact B Main on lap two from Josh Proffit and went on to pick up the victory. He held off a late charge from Jeff Foks Sr. who ended up second. Proffit finished third followed by Nathan Shaffer and Hailey Hottenstein.
The final race of the evening, the Bomber C Main, produced some great racing action late in the race for the lead. Edgerton, Ohio’s Matt Koerner took the lead from the pole and led most of the race until Rick Dixon closed in. Dixon took the lead with two laps to go, but Koerner fought back to the point as the white flag flew and held on to pick up the victory over Dixon. Ron Bloomfield started deep in the field and finished third with Jeff Warnick and John Reichow rounding out the rest of the top five.
Oakshade Raceway, proud member of Contingency Connection’s $100,000 Racer Rewards, will host the final two nights of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals series this Friday, July 15 and Saturday, July 16. Friday night will by $5,000 to win for the Summer Nationals Late Models and $1,000 to win for the Summit Racing Modifieds. Then Saturday is the $10,000 to win 18th Annual Birthday Race/Summer National Finale for the Late Models. Summer Racing Modifieds will race for $1,000 to win and the Sport Compacts will also be in action on Saturday night. Gates open at 10am with racing at 7:30pm both days. The pits will be open on Saturday for autographs and to meet drivers for everyone until 4pm. It is the best bargain in racing as admission prices will NOT be increased for these special events.
