By: Scott Hammer
WAUSEON, OH – Five-time Oakshade Raceway DIRTcar UMP Late Model Champion Devin Shiels kicked off Oakshade’s 50th season with a dominating performance in the first feature event of the year leading from flag to flag.
Shiels, out of Britton, Michigan, started on the pole of the 25-lap main event alongside Rusty Schlenk. The two drivers battled side by side for the first lap with Shiels getting the edge over Schlenk by the completion of lap one. He would then proceed to pull away from Schlenk and the rest of the pack.
As Shiels caught the tail end of the field and began to navigate through lapped traffic, Schlenk was able to close the gap somewhat until the caution flag flew on lap seven after an incident involving Terry Rushlow and Bob Mayer on the frontstretch. That put clear race track back ahead of Shiels for the restart.
A couple more caution periods kept Shiels from having to deal with more lapped traffic with the last one coming out for debris on lap 15. After the ensuing restart, Schlenk who was still running second, slipped up and dropped a few positions and then a couple laps later retired to the pits with a flat tire.
Steve Kester had taken over second and began to ever so slightly reel in Shiels late in the race, but it was the 51S of Devin Shiels that ended up earning the first feature win of the season. Kester settled for second followed by Jake Rendel, Dusty Moore and Rusty Smith.
In DCR Graphics Sportman feature race action, Shane Estes moved by Roman Brown on the outside to take the lead on the first lap of the 20-lap event. Mike Jessen closed in and began to pressure for the top spot and after several laps of hard racing, Jessen finally took command.
Things got jumbled up at the front once the leaders caught lapped traffic and the youngster out of Adrian, Michigan, Roman Brown, got his new 00 Domination Race Car out front after slipping back to third at the start of the race.
Brown went on to record his second ever DCR Graphics feature win with Shane Estes fighting back to finish second. Donnie Ringman ended up third with Mike Jessen hanging on to finish fourth. Karl Spoores rounded out the top five finishers.
2021 Dominator Super Stock track champion, Gabe Mueller, started on the pole of the 15-lap A Main and immediately took command at the drop of the green flag. The only caution flag of the event flew right at the completion of lap one after Jake Rendel got loose and collected Mason Luttrell.
A couple laps after the restart, Jeff Foks Jr. got by Dylan Burt for second but could not catch Holland, Ohio, driver who went on to pick up the easy victory.
Foks settled for second followed by a nice recovery for Jake Rendel who drove back to a third-place finish. Dylan Burt held off Scott Hammer to finish in fourth.
A scary incident highlighted the Compact A Main as the leaders were working through some slower traffic about halfway through the race. Ricky Riffe II was way off the pace up high in turn three and both the leader, Ian Paul, and the second-place driver of James Stamper dove underneath and got by him.
Eric Carr, who was running third and a little higher up on the track, turned his car sideways to avoid the slower car and ended up barrel rolling one and a half times ending up on his lid to bring out the red flag. Carr was OK.
Ian Paul went on to pick up the checkered flag with James Stamper coming out on top of a good battle for second with Tim Streight. Jeff Wells and a slowing Jeff Goodman were the rest of the top five finishers.
The final event of the night was the Compact B Main in which only half of the scheduled drivers made it out on to the track for the start. The field spread out four-wide at the start with last-place starter Dalton McVey grabbing the lead by the first corner. McVey then pulled out to a commanding lead.
A few laps in, McVey’s motor began to sound a bit sour and his lap speeds began decreasing. Del Warner out of Perrysburg, Ohio began to slowly close in on the race leader.
It was his first night out in his Kam Warner at Howard Hanna, Kristen L. Watson Certified Public Accountant sponsored 98. A short time later, Warner took the lead and went on to pick up the win.
Peyton Hovis followed Warner for a second-place finish followed by Terry Bowers, Jakobie Roby and McVey who retired to the infield just before the finish.
Another full racing program is on tap for this coming Saturday, May 24 at Oakshade Raceway featuring DIRTcar UMP Late Models, DCR Graphics Sportsman, Dominator Super Stocks and Compacts in action.
Gates will open at 4pm with hot laps/qualifying at 6pm and racing at 7:15pm. Adult general admission is just $15, ages 6-11 are $5 and kids 5 and under are FREE! Pit passes are $30.
