By Tyler Altmeyer
Port Royal, PA (September 13, 2015) – Despite having to wait an extra day due to Mother Nature, the “Myerstown Missile” Brent Marks never lost his touch, ultimately sweeping the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions “Tuscarora 50” weekend at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Pennsylvania. Including lap money, Marks earned $12,625 for the 50-lap, “Tuscarora 50” victory; a third consecutive victory in Port Royal, Pennsylvania for the Myerstown native and a second-consecutive UNOH All Star main event win. Marks took command of the historic 50-lapper on lap 26, charging forward from a 13th starting position to lock himself into the history books. Wooster, Ohio’s Sheldon Haudenschild rallied 12 positions to finish second, followed by a ninth-starting Dale Blaney. Brent Marks is the first driver to sweep the “Night Before The 50” and “Tuscarora 50” since Fred Rahmer in 2005.
Paul Arch photo
“Oh man, this is awesome” said Brent Marks, “This is a race I’ve wanted to win and this is a race I said we could win. We’ve went so long without a win this year and now to pull off three in a row is just unbelievable. I just hope I wake up tomorrow and it wasn’t a dream. This has been an awesome, awesome week for us. We’ve been working so hard and this car has been working so good. It was an amazing night.”
After a red flag on the initial start involving a spinning Greg Hodnett who collected Ryan Smith and Curt Stroup, feature competition officially ignited with Ryan Taylor and Doug Esh on the front row. Ryan Taylor earned the early advantage and officially led lap one of the 50-lap program. “The Hammer” Doug Esh made an early move on lap two to take over the top spot, keeping control until the event’s first fuel stop with seven laps in the books. Three early cautions, including the initial red flag, forced officials to allow teams to refuel with just seven recorded circuits.
“The Hammer” would bring the field back to green with Danny Dietrich and Mike Wagner in tow. After the restart, Dietrich would make a strong move to the front around Doug Esh, officially leading lap eight. Contact between Dietrich and Esh on lap nine would send Esh hard into the backstretch, inside guardrail, bringing out another caution. Danny Dietrich would also be forced to go pit-side with a damaged right-rear wheel due to contact with the #07 of Esh. Mike Wagner would inherit command. Danny Dietrich would return and tag the field.
Ryan Taylor and Sheldon Haudenschild, who started 14th, chased Wagner back to “green” with eight laps in the books, but not for long. Haudenschild rolled around Taylor and eventually Wagner to take command and officially lead lap nine. The twenty-two-year-old kept control until the event’s scheduled “red” with 25 laps in the books. Brent Marks, who started 13th on the main event grid, worked his way to second by the 25-lap break, followed by the “Low Rider” Dale Blaney who started on the inside of row ten.
Sheldon Haudenschild brought the field back to green flag conditions for the second, 25-lap segment, but had company in a hurry. The “Myerstown Missile” Brent Marks utilized the top-side of the speedway to work around Haudenschild for the lead, taking over the “Tuscarora 50” field officially on lap 26. The pilot of the familiar BAPS, Diamond Toyota, #19M would stay out front the entire second, caution-free segment, ultimately winning a career-first “Tuscarora 50” main event. Sheldon Haudenschild would cross the flag stand second, followed by Hartford, Ohio’s Dale Blaney.
“We got up front pretty quick there and we had a really good car” said Sheldon Haudenschild after finishing second, “We put a lot of hard work into this deal and to not get the win after leading is a bummer. Congrats to Brent Marks…definitely happy for those guys. He did a great job. I kinda messed up on that restart, but we won’t let that happen again.”
The UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions will continue their 2015 season next Friday and Saturday with back-to-back programs at the Fremont Speedway in Fremont, Ohio. The annual “Jim Ford Classic” will highlight action at “The Track That Action Built” on September 18-19, featuring a $10,000-to-win main event to heighten the weekend on Saturday night.
The UNOH All Stars have made 119 prior appearances at Fremont Speedway dating back to June 21, 1980. Greg Wilson is the most recent UNOH All Star winner at Fremont Speedway, capturing the Ohio Sprint Speedweek presented by Cometic Gasket main event win back on Thursday, June 25, 2015.
Fremont Speedway gates are scheduled to open at 4 p.m. on Friday, September 18, and Saturday, September 19, with racing slated for 7 p.m., sharp. Keep up with everything “Jim Ford Classic” related at www.fremontohspeedway.com.
Contingency Awards/Results – Port Royal Speedway – Sunday, September 13, 2015
Entrants: 40
Lincoln Electric Fast Qualifier: Greg Hodnett – 18.138 seconds
Kistler Racing Products Heat #1: Dale Blaney
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2: Rodney Westhafer
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3: Mike Wagner
Kistler Engines Heat #4: Lance Dewease
JE Pistons Dash: No Dash
Daido Engine Bearings Main Event Winner: Brent Marks
MSD A-Main 3rd Place Finisher: Dale Blaney
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 10th Place Finisher: Steve Buckwalter
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 15th Place Finisher: Dave Ely
Qualifying
1.27-Greg Hodnett, 18.138; 2.20-Ryan Taylor, 18.218; 3.48-Danny Dietrich, 18.218; 4.1-Lucas Wolfe, 18.330; 5.17B-Steve Buckwalter, 18.373; 6.19m-Brent Marks, 18.441; 7.3-Dave Ely, 18.483; 8.98-Mike Erdley, 18.543; 9.51S-Stevie Smith, 18.584; 10.23-TJ Stutts, 18.601; 11.55-Mike Wagner, 18.637; 12.1B-Dale Blaney, 18.651; 13.98H-Dave Blaney, 18.695; 14.O7-Doug Esh, 18.717; 15.44W-Rodney Westhafer, 18.763; 16.14-Lance Dewease, 18.770; 17.89-Cody Darrah, 18.803; 18.3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 18.826; 19.12-Blane Heimbach, 18.828; 20.93-Sheldon Haudenschild, 18.853; 21.94-Ryan Smith, 18.879; 22.33-Curt Stroup, 18.903; 23.W20-Greg Wilson, 18.923; 24.59-Danny Holtgraver, 18.935; 25.7-Todd Shaffer, 18.960; 26.5-Dylan Cisney, 18.974; 27.25-Aaron Ott, 18.976; 28.45-Tim Shaffer, 19.107; 29.8S-Trenton Sheaffer, 19.135; 30.10H-Chad Kemenah, 19.135; 31.75-Nicole Bower, 19.216; 32.36D-Wayne Dadetto, 19.227; 33.7W-Logan Wagner, 19.247; 34.4-Danny Smith, 19.437; 35.747-Davey Sammons, 19.455; 36.44-Joey Hershey, 19.561; 37.99-Brady Bacon, 19.661; 38.91-Anthony Fiore, 19.849; 39.13-Jac Haudenschild, 20.387; 40.55W-Michael Wagner II, 99.100; 41.51-Karl Baker, 99.200;
Heat 1, Group A – (10 Laps)
- 1B-Dale Blaney[2] ; 2. O7-Doug Esh[1] ; 3. 20-Ryan Taylor[4] ; 4. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[6] ; 5. 89-Cody Darrah[5] ; 6. 98-Mike Erdley[3] ; 7. 10H-Chad Kemenah[8] ; 8. 25-Aaron Ott[7] ; 9. 747-Davey Sammons[10] ; 10. 36D-Wayne Dadetto[9] ; 11. 51-Karl Baker[11]
Heat 2, Group A – (10 Laps)
- 44W-Rodney Westhafer[1] ; 2. 98H-Dave Blaney[2] ; 3. 1-Lucas Wolfe[4] ; 4. 12-Blane Heimbach[5] ; 5. 51S-Stevie Smith[3] ; 6. 7-Todd Shaffer[6] ; 7. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[7] ; 8. 99-Brady Bacon[10] ; 9. 75-Nicole Bower[8] ; 10. 7W-Logan Wagner[9]
Heat 3, Group B – (10 Laps)
- 55-Mike Wagner[1] ; 2. 27-Greg Hodnett[4] ; 3. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[3] ; 4. 3-Dave Ely[2] ; 5. 13-Jac Haudenschild[10] ; 6. 33-Curt Stroup[6] ; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[5] ; 8. 45-Tim Shaffer[8] ; 9. 59-Danny Holtgraver[7] ; 10. 44-Joey Hershey[9]
Heat 4, Group B – (10 Laps)
- 14-Lance Dewease[1] ; 2. 23-TJ Stutts[2] ; 3. 19m-Brent Marks[3] ; 4. 48-Danny Dietrich[4] ; 5. 94-Ryan Smith[5] ; 6. W20-Greg Wilson[6] ; 7. 5-Dylan Cisney[7] ; 8. 91-Anthony Fiore[9] ; 9. 4-Danny Smith[8] ; 10. 55W-Michael Wagner II[10]
B-Main 2 (10 Laps)
- 7-Todd Shaffer[2] ; 2. 25-Aaron Ott[5] ; 3. 98-Mike Erdley[1] ; 4. 10H-Chad Kemenah[3] ; 5. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[4] ; 6. 36D-Wayne Dadetto[9] ; 7. 747-Davey Sammons[7] ; 8. 99-Brady Bacon[6] ; 9. 51-Karl Baker[11] ; 10. 75-Nicole Bower[8] ; 11. 7W-Logan Wagner[10]
B-Main 2 (10 Laps)
- W20-Greg Wilson[3] ; 2. 5-Dylan Cisney[4] ; 3. 59-Danny Holtgraver[7] ; 4. 33-Curt Stroup[2] ; 5. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[1] ; 6. 4-Danny Smith[9] ; 7. 44-Joey Hershey[8] ; 8. 91-Anthony Fiore[6] ; 9. 45-Tim Shaffer[5] ; 10. 55W-Michael Wagner II[10]
A-Main 1 (50 Laps)
- 19m-Brent Marks[13] ; 2. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[12] ; 3. 1B-Dale Blaney[9] ; 4. W20-Greg Wilson[20] ; 5. 48-Danny Dietrich[3] ; 6. 55-Mike Wagner[8] ; 7. 51S-Stevie Smith[16] ; 8. 20-Ryan Taylor[1] ; 9. 12-Blane Heimbach[15] ; 10. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[10] ; 11. 25-Aaron Ott[23] ; 12. 27-Greg Hodnett[5] ; 13. 7W-Logan Wagner[25] ; 14. 14-Lance Dewease[6] ; 15. 3-Dave Ely[14] ; 16. 44W-Rodney Westhafer[4] ; 17. 23-TJ Stutts[7] ; 18. 7-Todd Shaffer[21] ; 19. 13-Jac Haudenschild[19] ; 20. 1-Lucas Wolfe[11] ; 21. 98-Mike Erdley[26] ; 22. O7-Doug Esh[2] ; 23. 5-Dylan Cisney[22] ; 24. 89-Cody Darrah[17] ; 25. 94-Ryan Smith[18] ; 26. 33-Curt Stroup[24]
Those seeking additional information regarding the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions should visit the official online home of the UNOH All Stars at www.allstarsprint.com. Series updates and breaking news will be posted regularly on the official Twitter account of the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions: https://twitter.com/ASCoC. Find full text results from each and every UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions event here: www.allstarsprint.com/schedule/.
About the All Star Circuit of Champions:
All Star Enterprises, LLC, wholly owned by Tony Stewart, d/b/a the All Star Circuit of Champions, is a winged sprint car series. The All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series is one of the oldest traveling 410 sprint car organizations and is a staple of grassroots, open-wheel racing. Formed in 1970 by Bud Miller, the series has largely been considered the first ‘outlaw’ Sprint Car organization of the modern era. After a 10 year stint as owner of the All Stars, Miller passed control of the series to Bert Emick in 1980; a reign that would continue through 2002. Guy Webb then purchased the series from Emick in the summer of 2002 and served as the series President for the next 12 years. Motorsports entrepreneur Tony Stewart agreed to terms with Guy Webb to become the sole owner of the original winged sprint car tour in January of 2015. The 2015 schedule includes 54 events in Ohio (29), Pennsylvania (14), Florida (5), Michigan (3), Indiana (1), New York (1) and Wisconsin (1).