WAUSEON, OH – After winning the Barney Oldfield Race for a record seventh time last weekend, Rusty Schlenk goes back-to-back to earn career feature win number 300 Saturday night at Oakshade Raceway. The win came on Oakshade Raceway’s Autograph Night where nearly every single competitor among all four race classes drove out to the front stretch at intermission. Then the fans were let onto the track to get up close and personal with the cars and drivers and to collect photos and autographs.
Once the autograph session wrapped up and a little track prep followed, it was time to get down to business with the 25-lap DIRTcar UMP Late Model A Main. Casey Noonan started on the pole and proceeded to open up a big lead after the drop of the initial green flag.
Early in the race, the battle to watch was for the second position behind the race leader. Steve Kester started on the outside of the front row and relinquished the second position a few laps into the race to Rusty Smith. A handful of laps later, Jackson, Michigan’s Rusty Schlenk came knocking on the door and took the second position away.
Noonan appeared to be having a difficult time trying to lap some of the back markers. That allowed the 91 of Schlenk to close in. Schlenk made the move by Noonan for the lead on lap 13 and then proceeded to slice and dice through the lapped traffic putting separation between himself and Noonan.
It appeared Schlenk was on his way to the easy win, but the first and only caution flag flew with two laps remaining which would tighten the field back up behind him. The good news was that there would be clear racetrack in front of him.
Schlenk had picked up his 299th career win at Attica Raceway Park the previous night. With the 300th win in his grasp, he was not about to make any mistakes in the two-lap dash to the finish. Schlenk was able to drive away from Noonan once again to pick up the milestone victory. Noonan’s second place finish closed him to just one point behind point leader Steve Kester who slipped back to finish the race outside the top five. Devin Shiels charged up to third by lap 21 after starting ninth and settled for that podium finishing position. Colin Shipley also gained six positions from the start to finish fourth with another top five run for Terry Rushlow.
Josh Robertson, out of Defiance, Ohio, started on the pole of the 20-lap Speedy Graphics Sportsman feature and led the entire distance to earn his second feature win of the season and now sits atop of the Speedy Graphics Sportsman point standings. Dylan Jessen, who also has two feature wins this season, closed in on Robertson late in the race while the leader was working lapped traffic but had to settle for a second-place finish. Dylan now sits just six points behind Robertson in the standings. Mike Jessen finished the race in third and also is third in points. Dylan Hough and Chris Williams were the rest of the top five finishers.
After a caution-plagued feature event last week, the 15-lap Dominator Super Stock A Main went green to checkered with no yellow flags this week and provided for some entertaining racing. Last week’s winner Jake Rendel started on the pole but pushed up out of turn two on the second lap allowing Toledo, Ohio’s Chane Stuckey to get by for the lead. Rendel would battle back and reclaim the lead on lap six.
Point leader Mason Luttrell had a close call late in the race. He had worked his way up to second when he tangled with a lapped car and fell back to third.
Rendel had an issue on the last lap and Chane Stuckey took advantage to earn his first feature win of the season. Luttrell came home second followed by Jeff Foks Jr., Jarrett Rendel and Josh McNicol.
Getting the Compact feature race going was a bit of a slow go with multiple accidents marring the first couple laps of the race. Once things got going, it was the Cory Gumm and Ryan Okuley show out front. The two drivers pulled away from the rest of the field with Okuley in pursuit of the Hillsdale, Michigan, driver. Gumm was able to keep the 6 car of Okuley behind him and earn his second feature win this year with Okuley settling for second. James Stamper finished third followed by Will Bechstein and Russell Nickloy.
Oakshade Raceway celebrates the nation’s 250th birthday on Saturday, July 4th with another full night of action with the addition of the Vintage American Race Cars (VARC). Catch all the action of those race cars from yesteryear along with the DIRTcar UMP Late Models, Speedy Graphics Sportsman, Dominator Super Stocks and Compacts. Gates open at 4 p.m., hot laps start at 6 and racing will begin at 7:15.
