Justin Owen Wins Dick Spencer Memorial at Waynesfield

Justin Owen J&T Photos

From WRP
WAYNESFIELD, Ohio (7/8/17) –

Justin Owen
J&T Photos
The 7th running of the Dick Spencer Memorial brought out a large crowd of non wing race fans to see a head-to-head battle between the traveling Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series and the weekly Waynesfield Quest Federal Credit Union Non Wings. Fireworks over turn four and a full moon in the sky had nothing on Saturday’s racing program.

The 2017 Dick Spencer Memorial race started with a four-wide salute to the fans led by a member of the Spencer family driving a full-sized, street legal non-wing sprint car. Following the salute, the 25 lap A-main was brought to green by Waynesfield regular Paul Dues and BOSS traveler Justin Owen. Owen won the drag race into turn one and led the opening lap. Owen took off like a rocket ship early in the A pulling away from the field. Owen’s lead did not seem to shorten until he came in contact with lap traffic. Lap traffic slowed Owen a bit allowing the rest of the field to catch up. Riley VanHise went for a wild ride with nine laps to go when he made contact with a safety tire near the entrance to the pit area. Contact with the tire forced it to begin to roll down the baking and come to a rest in the infield. The field stayed yellow as VanHise was removed for the scene and the tire was put back into position. VanHise was running fifth at the time of the incident. Back under green, Matt Westfall stole the show as he moved into third spot on the good jump coming to the restart. Westfall managed to gain the spots but fell back battling with multiple drivers at a time. With five laps remaining in the feature, Owens led, Dues was second, Steve Little was third, Cooper Clouse, who started on the inside of row eight, was fourth, and Matt Westfall rounded at the top five. The top three would remain the same as the double checkers flew. Justin Owen claimed the 7th Dick Spencer Memorial win. Paul Dues finished in second with Cooper Clouse going 15th to third in the main. Todd Keen, Paul Dues, Michael Fischesser, and Kyle Simon picked up the heat races. Dallas Hewitt, who flipped during his heat race, and Chad Wilson claimed the B-mains.

The Performance Powder Coating AMSA Mini Sprints took the track for 20 laps of action. The field of 19 was lead to the opening green flag by young drivers Bradley Ashford and Korbyn Hayslett. The drag race into turn one put Hayslett into the lead for the opening lap. Brad Racer in the 22B brought out the first caution of the night with just one lap in the books. A red flag would come three laps later for the 22 of Gunnar Lucius flipping up and over the banking exiting turn two. Lucius managed to climb out of the car unharmed. Back under green, lap traffic began to build for the leaders. The traffic was a huge benefit for Ty Tilton has he squeezed his way into the second spot. Now in second, Tilton set his sights on Hayslett for the lead. The battle came to an end as Tilton dropped off the pace and came to a stop on the track. Tilton’s exit from the contest moved Kobe Allison into the second spot. On the restart, Allison made a run on Hayslett before his machine dropped off the pace giving the second spot to Brad Strunk. Strunk made a last lap pass and managed to take home the victory by seven hundredths of a second. Despite leading much of the race, Hayslett finished in second with Nick Daugherty coming home third. Chris Bounds, Korbyn Hayslett and Bradley Ashford took home heat race victories.

The Satellite Connections UMP Modifieds continued to raise the bar on car counts this season. More than 35 cars signed in to compete. The 112 of Chris Ullery and the 21JR of Tom Conrad led the field of 20 to the opening green flag. Ullery took the early lead and led the opening lap. Three cars got together with just three laps in the books bringing out the first caution. Back under green, Zach Schroeder in the 55S jumped into the third spot after a great jump on the restart. The field was slowed again after the 58P of Jim Post got together with the 35 of Tim Cornett entering turn two. On the restart, Matt Hamilton, who started on the inside of row seven, jumped into the top five. Hamilton’s car was strong at the midpoint in the race as he setup to challenge for a spot in the top three. Wapakoneta’s Jerry Bowersock dropped off the pace late in the race giving the lead Schroeder. Schroeder would hold the lead through a final caution to take home the victory. Hamilton managed to squeeze into the second spot to take home the runner-up spot. Weasel Phlipot came out of nowhere late in the race to take home third. Jerry Bowersock, Zach Schroeder, Tom Comrad, and Chris Ullery took home the heat race victories. Brian Post and Jeff Koz won the B-mains.

The Block Insurance Tough Trucks took the track for 15 laps of action. The field was brought to the opening green flag by the 37J of Roy Miller and the 24F of Frankie Weigt. Weigt took control of the field and led the opening lap. The field was relatively quiet in the first half of the race. At the halfway point, a three-way battle for the lead developed between Weigt, Miller, and current point leader Hicks. Miller came out on the winning end of the battle claiming the lead with under eight laps to go in the A-main. Two laps later, a yellow was thrown for the 22B of Gaige Slaven. Slaven, on his first night out of racing, made contact with an infield tire stopping the truck on the bottom side of turn one. On the restart, Chris Hicks took the lead away from Miller as the field approached the five to go signal. Hicks never looked back and picked up his fourth win on the season. Roy Miller came home second with Gabe Twining in third after a late race battle with Bill Keeler. Hicks described the track as “tricky” after the heavy rain storms saturated the track the night before in Tim Hogan’s Carpet & Flooring of Lima victory lane. Hicks and Twining picked up the heat races.

The Indian Lake Outfitter Compacts pulled onto the track for 15 laps of racing. Kenny Poling, doing the double duty as a photographer and driver, led the field to green with veteran Justin Durflinger to his outside. Durflinger took the lead into turn one and claimed the opening lap. The first caution of the race came early for the 7 of Brandon Weigt. On the restart, Nick Glasgow, who started on the outside of row two, began to battle for position with the 54C of Chris Crosier. The battle was fun to watch as both drivers jockeyed for position. Crosier, having a breakout season in 2017, fount Glasglow lap after lap. The battle came to a stop for a late race caution for two different drivers shredding tires. Kenny Poling and Audrie Twining were both sent pit side after rubber littered the racing surface. Back under green, no one had anything for Justin Durflinger giving him the win. Glasgow finished in second. Crosier finished third. Durflinger’s trip to victory lane was the first in several weeks for the Bellefontaine, Ohio driver. Crosier and current point leader Brandon McDaries took home the heat race wins.

The 7th running of the Dick Spencer Memorial was presented by Ron Spencer Real Estate, Superior Federal Credit Union, Citizens National Bank, Block Insurance Agency, Armys Towing, Service Master by Case, Earth Safe Leasing, and Cart Customs.

Waynesfield will sit silent next weekend. Racing returns on Saturday night, July 22nd for the Limaland-Waynesfield double down. The event will feature all five weekly classes including the Quest Federal Credit Union Non Wing sprints, Performance Powder Coating AMSA Mini Sprints, Satellite Connections UMP Modifieds, Block Insurance Tough Trucks, and Indian Lake Outfitter Compacts. The Non Wings will be running for a $1200 to win payday. Racing will get underway at 7PM.

Get the latest Waynesfield Raceway Park information online by visiting www.waynesfieldracewaypark.net, by liking Waynesfield Raceway Park on Facebook, or by following @OfficialWRP on Twitter.

Dick Spencer Memorial
Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series
Waynesfield Raceway Park
Waynesfield, OH
Saturday July 8, 2017

BOSS VS Quest Federal Credit Union Non Wings

Heat 1 – (8 Laps)
1. 18-Todd Keen[2] ; 2. 96-Riley VanHise[1] ; 3. 9G-Cody Gardner[5] ; 4. 24L-Lee Underwood[4] ; 5. 54-Matt Westfall[6] ; 6. 9N-Luke Hall[9] ; 7. 74-Drew Rader[7] ; 8. 3-Joe Butero[3] ; 9. 08-Andy Feil[8]

Heat 2 – (8 Laps)
1. 87-Paul Dues[2] ; 2. 4J-Justin Owen[4] ; 3. 24P-Nick Bilbee[5] ; 4. 19-Matt Cooley[8] ; 5. 32-Garrett Abrms[7] ; 6. 14-Chad Wilson[6] ; 7. 5-Bob McMillin[1] ; 8. 51-Curtis Muhlenkamp[3]

Heat 3 – (8 Laps)
1. 44-Michael Fischesser[3] ; 2. 53-Steve Little[1] ; 3. 77-Dustin Smith[4] ; 4. 9x-Cooper Clouse[2] ; 5. 91X-Aaron Middaugh[7] ; 6. 69R-Dallas Hewitt[8] ; 7. e99-Gage Etgen[5] ; 8. 21-Travis Hery[6]

Heat 4 – (8 Laps)
1. 23S-Kyle Simon[1] ; 2. 2DI-Dustin Ingle[8] ; 3. 1J-Jeremy Stambaugh[2] ; 4. 42-Ty Tilton[3] ; 5. 82-Mike Miller[5] ; 6. 5A-Toby Alfrey[6] ; 7. 31L-Buddy Lowther[4] ; 8. 17-Kevin Myers[7]

B-Main 1 – (10 Laps)
1. 69R-Dallas Hewitt[4] ; 2. 54-Matt Westfall[1] ; 3. 9N-Luke Hall[3] ; 4. 74-Drew Rader[5] ; 5. e99-Gage Etgen[6] ; 6. 21-Travis Hery[8] ; 7. 3-Joe Butero[7] ; 8. 91X-Aaron Middaugh[2] ; 9. 08-Andy Feil[9]

B-Main 2 – (10 Laps)
1. 14-Chad Wilson[3] ; 2. 82-Mike Miller[2] ; 3. 32-Garrett Abrms[1] ; 4. 31L-Buddy Lowther[6] ; 5. 5A-Toby Alfrey[4] ; 6. 51-Curtis Muhlenkamp[7] ; 7. 5-Bob McMillin[5] ; 8. 17-Kevin Myers[8]

A-Main 1 – (20 Laps)
1. 4J-Justin Owen[2] ; 2. 87-Paul Dues[1] ; 3. 9x-Cooper Clouse[15] ; 4. 53-Steve Little[4] ; 5. 44-Michael Fischesser[8] ; 6. 54-Matt Westfall[19] ; 7. 69R-Dallas Hewitt[17] ; 8. 18-Todd Keen[6] ; 9. 2DI-Dustin Ingle[7] ; 10. 23S-Kyle Simon[5] ; 11. 24P-Nick Bilbee[10] ; 12. 19-Matt Cooley[14] ; 13. 24L-Lee Underwood[13] ; 14. 9G-Cody Gardner[9] ; 15. 14-Chad Wilson[18] ; 16. 82-Mike Miller[20] ; 17. 9N-Luke Hall[21] ; 18. 77-Dustin Smith[11] ; 19. 1J-Jeremy Stambaugh[12] ; 20. 32-Garrett Abrms[22] ; 21. 42-Ty Tilton[16] ; 22. 96-Riley VanHise[3]