)PHOTO COURTESY OF FREEZE FRAME PHOTOS)
SEASON CHAMP … Casey Noonan- 2026 DIRTCAR UMP Late Model Track Champion.
By: Scott Hammer
WAUSEON, OH – Tight point battles contributed to some wild action at Oakshade Raceway for Season Champion Night. The 2009 and 2022 DIRTcar UMP Late Model track champion, Casey Noonan, survived and secured his third track championship with his second consecutive feature win.
Steve Kester trailed Noonan by just eight points entering the 25-lap season championship feature race. He started on the pole with Noonan starting sixth. Things looked promising for Kester early in the race after getting the lead in front of Rusty Schlenk at the start and having Noonan mired in traffic further back.
Kester began to extend his lead the first part of the race until he began working lapped traffic. Schlenk closed back in on Kester and dove to the inside of Kester entering turn three. At the same time, Kester was attempting to pass a lapped car on the inside.
Kester got squeezed in the middle of the three-wide situation and ended up spinning to bring out the caution on lap 15. Some extracurricular activity took place on the backstretch between Kester and Schlenk before Kester eventually tagged on to the rear of the field for the restart with Schlenk leading.
Another caution would fly almost immediately after the restart when Dan Wallace and Josh Corkwell got turned around coming back to the green flag. During that caution, Rusty Schlenk retired to the pits with an apparent flat tire and gave the lead up to Sylvania, Ohio’s Casey Noonan.
Noonan led Devin Shiels the final ten laps as the two drivers pulled away from the rest of the field. Noonan held on for the win with Shiels finishing second.
Colin Shipley, Kevin Reeve and Drew Smith were the rest of the top five finishers. Kester was able to recover to a ninth-place finish which meant Noonan would earn the championship by 36 points over Kester unofficially.
It was a father/son battle in the Speedy Graphics Sportsman points chase with Dylan Jessen having locked up the championship by feature time over his four-time champion father, Mike Jessen.
Dylan was involved in a first lap accident and took a quick stop back in the pits before the rest of the field resumed racing and rejoined at the back.
Ian Palmer started on the pole and after the second complete restart, jumped out to a decent lead over Jake Rendel. A big pile up about five laps in brought out a quick red flag as the track was blocked. Once back to green flag racing, Palmer and Rendel pulled away from the rest of the competition.
Further back, Dylan Hough began rolling the outside and picking off positions to move up to fourth just as the leaders got caught up in an accident in turn one on lap 11. Suddenly Rusty Smith found himself as the new leader with Hough running second.
Hough would take the lead two laps later and appeared to have the race well in hand, however, Dylan Jessen was charging quickly to the front, recovering well after his first lap incident.
The two Dylans would race side by side the final couple of laps with Wauseon, Ohio’s Dylan Hough sticking to the high side and winning the drag race off turn four on the final lap to the checkered.
Jessen finished a close second and earned his first track championship with his father Mike Jessen coming home third to finish second in the championship standings.
Dusty Moore, wheeling the Dippman Motorsports modified, ended up fourth with John Gamber rounding out the rest of the top five finishers in the Speedy Graphics Sportsman season championship feature.
Mason Luttrell and Jeff Foks Jr. had been trading the point lead this final month of competition in the Dominator Super Stocks. Luttrell maintained a slim 13-point advantage heading into the 15-lap championship feature.
Craig Dippman started on the pole with Brad Eitniear quickly moving up from his third starting position to challenge for the race. Eitniear took command by lap three and never looked back.
The driver from Wauseon, Ohio, went on to convincingly win his second Dominator Super Stock feature of the year with Jake Rendel finishing second and Dippman slipping back to end up third.
Foks and Luttrell battled hard for the fourth position for most of the race. The two drivers made contact just a couple laps before the finish and Foks came across the finish line fourth with Luttrell crossing in sixth.\
Unfortunately for Foks, officials had called him for jumping the previous restart which penalized him two positions in the final running order. Scott Hammer was credited with a fourth-place finish and Luttrell with fifth. That was more than enough to earn Mason Luttrell his first ever track championship by 15 points over Foks unofficially.
The only championship that was already locked up before the night began was in the Compacts with Ryan Okuley holding a 222-point advantage over James Stamper as the night began. Okuley, from Holgate, Ohio, didn’t hold back in the feature event.
He took the lead at the start from the outside of the front row and went on to a commanding victory, his seventh of the season and fifth in a row, putting an exclamation point on his second consecutive championship season.
James Stamper finished the race in second and finished in that same position in the final point standings. The 2024 compact track champion, Jason Deshler, finished third followed by Ken Wells and Russell Nickloy.
Just because the point championships are over doesn’t mean the racing is. Oakshade Raceway is back in action Saturday, September 5 with the $1,000 to win Sportsman/Mods (Speedy Graphics Sportsman and UMP Modifieds in a combined class) along with the Dominator Super Stocks, Compacts and the Fremont Dirt Trucks added to the program as well. Gates open at 4PM, hot laps and qualifying start at 6PM with racing at 7:15PM.
