By Mike Swanger
As the calendar turns over to June, the action and intensity of the race season really starts to pick up at NAPA Wayne County Speedway with some wild action in the features on City Service Company night. Along with the purse and points up for grabs, all the drivers are running for reward bonus’ from the Contingency Connection program that total nearly $100,000 for the season.
The start of the Fisher Performance Sprint feature would have Jordan Ryan claiming the lead for the first four circuits before giving way to Holmesville’s Brad Haudenschild. As Haudenschild began to pull away, Ryan Broughton would challenge Ryan for second as Andrew Palker would pull up to their bumpers to make it a three way battle for second. Fans also was watching Danny Mumaw coming from his 20th starting position to work his way to 7th but his run would get cut short as he got mixed up with a lapped car at the 1/2 way mark and would drop out. On the restart, Haudenschild and the Kempthorn Auto, Fire & Ice Pub, and Ballistic Designs #38k would would drive away as Broughton, Ryan and Palker would resume their battle back and forth for second until lap 20. Broughton would slow on the backstretch with mechanical issues to bring out the caution flag and during that time, Ryan would go pit side with issues. That would give Palker five laps to work on Haudenschild for the win, but B. Haud would have nothing to do with the challenge as he drove away for his 1st win in over a year. Tyler Dunn would get a season best third while the Harble brothers, Jordan and Mitch would fill out the top five. Australia’s Sean Zemunik, B. Haudenschild and Palker topped the heat races.
The first ten laps of the Kar Connection Super Late Model feature would see J R Gentry blast out to a straight away lead from his outside front row starting spot. A caution flag would wipe out that big lead and Gentry would find himself in a battle to hang on to the lead as Ryan Markham, Doug Drown, Cody Scott and Charlie Duncan all were in pursuit. Gentry kept the point as Markham and Drown would exchange second place on laps 16, 17 and Drown secured second on lap 18. Doing a power slide in turns one and two, Drown wrestled the lead away from Gentry on lap 20 as Duncan was fending off Jim Nicely and Larry Bellman for fifth as Scott continued holding fourth. A caution on lap 22 would once again bunch the field together and as the green waved again, Drown would give himself a couple of car lengths breathing room as Markham and Gentry dueled for second. With the white flag waving, Drown bounced off the guardrail in turn two which punctured the right rear tire, slowing him up as Markham and Gentry drove by. Markham of Ashland,and his H & T Demolition, Page Excavating, and Harriger Towing #5m would edge out Gentry at the finish. Scott would take home a third while Nicely moved past Duncan and Bellman during the last three circuits to record a 4th place finish ahead of those two drivers. Drown, who limped back to finish 7th, and Gentry won the heat races.
Before one lap of the Lowes Super Stock feature could be recorded, the first three cars in the starting line up had problems as Jordan James, Chris Albright and Todd Sherwin had vacated their starting positions although Albright would come back for a fifth place finish. Frank Oriti would set the pace for the opening two laps then dropped back to fourth when he let his car spin in turn four with Don Rutt making contact with Oriti, sending both to the pits. Originally starting 8th, Mansfield’s Bob Daugherty would take the point on lap two. The Char’s Cars, McKenzie Concrete and Hursh Engines #21d of Daugherty would hold off Gary Hensel Jr.’s challenges in between caution flags to chalk up his fourth win of the season. Tyler Nicely started 11th and finished a season best third while Tod Bevilacqua grabbed fourth in front of Albright. James and Daugherty pocketed the heat wins.
The WQKT 104.5 Mini Stock main would have almost half of the starting field in the pits before the checkered flag flew. Gary Hensel Jr. set the pace for the opening two laps when the caution flag flew. On the restart, a lot of contact at the flagstand caused a major wreck that would eliminate Hensel Jr., Brent Boreman, Lance Smith and Jeff Slykhuis from the race. As the race went back to green, Wooster’s Doug Hensel and his #18 would take control and keep Corey Staley at bay the rest of the way to find his way to the Summit Racing victory circle. Mitch Reichard climbed his up to a third place finish with Jason Henderson recording a season best 4th as Dustin Smith rounded out the top five. Heat winners were Stephen Crowe, Doug Hensel and Gary Hensel Jr.
Next Saturday, June 10th will see a full racing program with the Ohio Sprint Car Series (OSCS) highlighting the night as the Kar Connection Super Late Models, Lowes Super Stocks and the WQKT 104.5 Mini Stocks all in action with race time at 7 p m. Erin Stoll will be giving a concert from 3:15 to 6 pm before the racing starts.
For more info on the track, go to www.waynecountyspeedway.com
NAPA WAYNE COUNTY SPEEDWAY RESULTS
Saturday, June 3, 2017
FISHER PERFORMANCE SPRINTS
Heat 1 Sean Zemunik, Jordan Ryan, Steve Butler, Jordan Harble, Jac Haudenschild, Mitch Harble, Jason Dolick
Heat 2 Brad Haudenschild, Ryan Broughton, Troy Kingan, Russ Sansosti, Kris Davis, Dylan Kingan, Danny Mumaw
Heat 3 Andrew Palker, Nick Patterson#23, Tyler Dunn, Clay Riney, Bill Ault, Nick Patterson#33, Bret Barbone
Feature Brad Haudenschild, Andrew Palker, Tyler Dunn, Jordan Harble, Mitch Harble, Jason Dolick, Steve Butler, Troy Kingan, Clay Riney, Nick Patterson#23, Russ Sansosti, Bill Ault, Nick Patterson#33, Ryan Broughton, Jordan Ryan, Sean Zemunik, Danny Mumaw, Kris Davis, Dylan Kingan, Bret Barbone, Jac Haudenschild dns
KAR CONNECTION SUPER LATE MODELS