Schlenk Victorious On Night of Wheels

A heavy downpour shortly before race time at Oakshade Raceway delayed the start of racing, but it didn’t dampen the smiles on at least 46 kids who went home with new wheels (bicycles, tricycles, scooters, etc.) on the “Night of Wheels.” It also made for some extremely fast racing with Rusty Schlenk finding his way to victory lane for the fourth time this year at Oakshade.

Brian Ruhlman won his heat race convincingly earlier in the night and started on the pole of the UMP Late Model feature. He darted out to the lead over Josh Scott leaving Scott to battle with Schlenk for second. Schlenk disposed of Scott and then tracked down Ruhlman making the pass for the lead on lap five. Schlenk led the rest of the way with Jon Henry trying to reel him in the last half of the race. Henry ended up in second with Ruhlman slipping back to finish third. Ryan Missler was fourth and Rick Delong was fifth.

Tim Line led early in an ugly UMP Sportsman feature event that was marred by multiple wrecks, including one that involved half the field. Tim Fisher and Brice Luttrell got together on lap three which stacked things up behind them in one of the incidents. Bruce Stuart got by Line for the lead on the restart, but the yellow would fly on lap four for an incident involving seven cars. The big wreck happened one lap later that just about blocked the entire track exiting turn two with 10 cars. Stuart survived to pick up his first feature win of the season with point leader Tim Line finishing second. The rest of the top five were Mike Jessen, Joe Derbeck and George Lindsey.

Tony Tolles passed Danny Hogrefe off turn two on the first lap to take the lead in the UMP Bomber A Main. The first yellow flag came out on lap six when Greg Whitehead spun in turn three and collected five other cars. A couple laps after the restart, Hogrefe went by Tolles on the outside to regain the lead and managed to fend off Tolles and Chris Henry to earn his first A Main feature win of the year. Henry got by Tolles for second. Finishing behind Tolles in fourth was Joe Overmyer and Jim Scout, who started back in 16th.

The only feature race to go completely caution free was the one for drivers 18 and under. Sporting a new number, Derek Morris got by Logan Hough for the early lead in the Hornet feature race and never looked back. Morris went on to pick up his fourth feature win of the year and closed to within 31 points on point leader Drew Smith who mustered a fourth place finish after started last. Logan Hough finished second with pole-sitter Troy Schalitz winding up third. Brandon Myers was the fifth place finisher.

Joe Heffner started on the pole of the UMP Bomber B Main, but his night was cut short after spinning on the exit of turn two in front of the entire field. Most cars were able to get by, but Derek Dusseau, who was further back in the field, plowed hard into Heffner. That ended both drivers’ night. Dan Bleikamp led the entire distance of another caution-filled feature and held off Steve Morris and Josh Montague on a one-lap shootout finish after the race time limit had expired. Morris was involved in one of the earlier cautions and had to restart at the tail, but worked his way back to a second place finish followed by Montague, Fred Burtch and Shaun Sharp.

The Sportsman Twin 25’s will be the featured event on Saturday, July 30 at Oakshade Raceway with two 25-lap feature events. UMP Late Models, UMP Bombers and Hornets will also be in action. Gates open at 4pm with Racing at 7pm.