FINDLAY, Ohio (August 28, 2016) — Despite Mother Nature’s attempt to end the evening just after qualifying time trials, Wooster, Ohio’s Sheldon Haudenschild cruised on to score his sixth Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions victory of the 2016 season on Sunday night at Millstream Speedway, leading all 30 circuits over fellow championship contenders Chad Kemenah and Dale Blaney. Haudenschild, pilot of the Southern Pacific Farms/Finzer Farms/Haudenschild Racing/No. 93, survived six cautions, including a fuel stop, to clinch his spot in victory lane, increasing his career win total to 12 with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions.
“This is huge, you know,” Haudenschild said. “We’ve struggled with qualifying here in the past. We never could get ourselves into a dash, so qualifying for the dash tonight was really important to us. That little bit of rain we got earlier in the night made the track pretty fast. It was definitely important to start up front. I can’t thank my guys enough for what they do. It wouldn’t be possible without all of them, as well as everyone else who is on the car.”
Sheldon Haudenschild jumped ahead during the initial start, taking advantage of his pole position to control the opening lap over a pair of fellow Ohio natives, Chad Kemenah and Dale Blaney. An early caution on lap five, as well as a pair of cautions on lap 10 and lap 13, may have stalled feature competition, but they never disturbed the top three in the running order. Haudenschild mastered his preferred line at the top of the speedway, which proved to be the dominant line around the Findlay, Ohio, half-mile. Chad Kemenah attempted to make the middle of the speedway work during segments of the main event, while Dale Blaney utilized the bottom groove; each proving to be unsuccessful against Haudenschild.
A late caution on lap 27 would force the feature field to refuel, setting up a four lap dash for Haudenschild, Kemenah, and Blaney. On the restart, Kemenah and Blaney each attempted to overtake Haudenschild from underneath, but a clear track and clean air proved to be too powerful for Haudenschild, driving away nearly unchallenged to score the $5,000 victory. The win, equaling his 15th top-five finish of the season, allowed the second generation racer to close in on the championship chase by another two markers, cutting Kemenah’s advantage to 68 points. Dale Blaney currently sits second, just eight points behind Kemenah.
“The track was just a little too fast to get by Sheldon (Haudenschild),” Kemenah explained. “The cushion was the fastest way around the race track and he’s good on the cushion.”
“I think we have a shot to catch Chad (Kemenah) and Dale (Blaney) in the championship,” Haudenschild said. “We just have to concentrate on winning these races. That’s what we come here to do. If things go our way, I think we’ll be OK.”
A pair of $10,000-to-win programs will headline Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions competition during Labor Day weekend, beginning with the Dirt Classic Ohio at Attica Raceway Park in Attica, Ohio, on Saturday night, September 3. The event was originally scheduled for early August, but later moved and reassigned as an Arctic Cat All Star program.
In addition to $10,000, the highly anticipated, highly raved, inaugural Dirt Classic Ohio program will also award a golden ticket; an automatic A-main starting position in the $20,000-to-win/$1,000-to-start Dirt Classic finale at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, September 24.
The second $10,000-to-win showcase during Labor Day Weekend will be contested at the Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio, on Sunday night, September 4. The Pete Jacobs Memorial will highlight competition at “Orrville’s Historic Oval,” the fourth and final Arctic Cat All Star appearance at Wayne County Speedway in 2016.
Those seeking additional information regarding the pair of $10,000-to-win programs should visit Attica Raceway Park and Wayne County Speedway live on the Web at www.atticaracewaypark.com and www.waynecountyspeedway.com.
Contingency Awards/Results: Millstream Speedway – Sunday, August 28, 2016:
EMi Driver’s Meeting: 31 entries
State Water Heaters Warm-Ups: Dale Blaney – 14.404 seconds
Lincoln Electric Fast Qualifier: Dale Blaney – 13.746 seconds
Kistler Racing Products Heat #1: Stuart Brubaker
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2: Caleb Helms
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3: Carson Macedo
JE Pistons Dash: Sheldon Haudenschild
Daido Engine Bearings Main Event Winner: Sheldon Haudenschild
MSD Performance Hard Charger Award: Kraig Kinser (+11)
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 5th Place Finisher: Travis Philo
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 10th Place Finisher: Dean Jacobs
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 15th Place Finisher: Hunter Mackison
(Lincoln Electric, Daido Engine Bearings, MSD Performance, Outback Steakhouse: Need decal to qualify for contingency award)
Qualifying
1.1-Dale Blaney, 13.746; 2.10H-Chad Kemenah, 14.016; 3.57X-Andrew Palker, 14.020; 4.21-Cap Henry, 14.070; 5.40-Caleb Helms, 14.170; 6.17-Jared Horstman, 14.198; 7.70-Danny Holtgraver, 14.207; 8.8M-TJ Michael, 14.227; 9.93-Sheldon Haudenschild, 14.239; 10.35-Stuart Brubaker, 14.248; 11.81-Lee Jacobs, 14.277; 12.09x-Carson Macedo, 14.278; 13.49-Tim Shaffer, 14.292; 14.5M-Max Stambaugh, 14.307; 15.23-DJ Foos, 14.366; 16.11K-Kraig Kinser, 14.380; 17.38-Dean Jacobs, 14.396; 18.7C-Caleb Armstrong, 14.430; 19.11N-Randy Hannagan, 14.461; 20.22B-Ryan Broughton, 14.464; 21.95-Hunter Mackison, 14.486; 22.7-Joe Swanson, 14.543; 23.1080-Jordan Mackison, 14.561; 24.51-Roger Campbell, 14.593; 25.5T-Travis Philo, 14.644; 26.59N-Bryan Nuckles, 14.688; 27.60-Kory Crabtree, 14.828; 28.5J-Jarrod DeLong, 14.841; 29.4-Danny Smith, 14.938; 30.49H-Bradley Howard, 99.060; 31.6M-Jac Haudenschild, 99.990;
Heat 1, Group A – (8 Laps)
1. 35-Stuart Brubaker[1] ; 2. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[2] ; 3. 49-Tim Shaffer[5] ; 4. 5T-Travis Philo[9] ; 5. 57X-Andrew Palker[4] ; 6. 11N-Randy Hannagan[6] ; 7. 95-Hunter Mackison[7] ; 8. 49H-Bradley Howard[10] ; 9. 70-Danny Holtgraver[3] ; 10. 1080-Jordan Mackison[8]
Heat 2, Group B – (8 Laps)
1. 40-Caleb Helms[2] ; 2. 10H-Chad Kemenah[4] ; 3. 17-Jared Horstman[1] ; 4. 21-Cap Henry[3] ; 5. 7C-Caleb Armstrong[7] ; 6. 8M-TJ Michael[5] ; 7. 5M-Max Stambaugh[6] ; 8. 22B-Ryan Broughton[8] ; 9. 5J-Jarrod DeLong[10] ; 10. 60-Kory Crabtree[9]
Heat 3, Group C – (8 Laps)
1. 09x-Carson Macedo[2] ; 2. 1-Dale Blaney[4] ; 3. 23-DJ Foos[1] ; 4. 38-Dean Jacobs[6] ; 5. 81-Lee Jacobs[3] ; 6. 11K-Kraig Kinser[5] ; 7. 4-Danny Smith[10] ; 8. 51-Roger Campbell[8] ; 9. 59N-Bryan Nuckles[9] ; 10. 7-Joe Swanson[7]
Dash 1 – (6 Laps)
1. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[2] ; 2. 17-Jared Horstman[3] ; 3. 40-Caleb Helms[4] ; 4. 10H-Chad Kemenah[7] ; 5. 1-Dale Blaney[6] ; 6. 8M-TJ Michael[8] ; 7. 21-Cap Henry[5] ; 8. 57X-Andrew Palker[1]
B-Main 1 – (12 Laps)
1. 5M-Max Stambaugh[2] ; 2. 22B-Ryan Broughton[3] ; 3. 95-Hunter Mackison[4] ; 4. 4-Danny Smith[11] ; 5. 59N-Bryan Nuckles[8] ; 6. 60-Kory Crabtree[9] ; 7. 5J-Jarrod DeLong[10] ; 8. 7-Joe Swanson[5] ; 9. 51-Roger Campbell[7] ; 10. 49H-Bradley Howard[12] ; 11. 70-Danny Holtgraver[1] ; 12. 1080-Jordan Mackison[6]
A-Main 1 – (30 Laps)
1. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[1] ; 2. 10H-Chad Kemenah[4] ; 3. 1-Dale Blaney[5] ; 4. 49-Tim Shaffer[11] ; 5. 5T-Travis Philo[13] ; 6. 23-DJ Foos[12] ; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser[18] ; 8. 8M-TJ Michael[6] ; 9. 17-Jared Horstman[2] ; 10. 38-Dean Jacobs[14] ; 11. 09x-Carson Macedo[10] ; 12. 35-Stuart Brubaker[9] ; 13. 11N-Randy Hannagan[15] ; 14. 5M-Max Stambaugh[17] ; 15. 95-Hunter Mackison[19] ; 16. 57X-Andrew Palker[8] ; 17. 81-Lee Jacobs[16] ; 18. 70-Danny Holtgraver[23] ; 19. 60-Kory Crabtree[24] ; 20. 4-Danny Smith[22] ; 21. 59N-Bryan Nuckles[21] ; 22. 21-Cap Henry[7] ; 23. 40-Caleb Helms[3] ; 24. 7C-Caleb Armstrong[25] ; 25. 22B-Ryan Broughton[20]
Current Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Standings (August 28, 2016):
1. Chad Kemenah: 4334
2. Dale Blaney: 4326
3. Sheldon Haudenschild: 4268
4. Cap Henry: 4046
5. Danny Holtgraver: 4028
6. Kraig Kinser: 3984
7. T.J. Michael: 3854
8. Caleb Helms: 3712
9. Lee Jacobs: 3538
10. Andrew Palker: 3494