By: Ron Burt
The 4th of July weekend didn’t disappoint race fans. All the tri-state tracks were open except three, Attica and Fremont because of weather and storm damage. Montpelier Speedway took the weekend off.
Limaland Motorsports Park kicked off the Independence Day weekend with the annual running of Firecracker Friday. As always, “The Bull Ring” had lots of excitement and three great features. Leipsic, Ohio’s Chase Dunham drove his car to victory in the NRA 360 Sprint Invader competition, while Todd Sherman added another DIRTcar UMP Modified feature win to his resume, and Justin Long bagged the Thunderstock victory. In the current track point standings. Todd Sherman leads in the UMP Modifieds with 20 points over second place driver Jeff Koz and in the Thunder Stocks, Gabe Mueller has a 40-point lead over Tony Anderson.
Saturday night the Midwest Super Modifieds took to the high banks of the Sandusky Speedway paved ½ mile. Kyle Edwards picked up where he left off and captured his 2nd feature win of the year. Edwards is now 9 points ahead of Otto Sitterly as they head to Berlin Speedway July 15th-16th in a Co-Sanctioned event with ISMA Supermodifieds. Gas City I-69 Speedway gave the Non-Winged Sprints a rest for the weekend and changed from a Friday show to Saturday night. Todd Sherman picked up his second feature win of the weekend with his UMP Modified. Garrett Bradley owned the Stock Car A-main. Action is always hot & heavy at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon. The evening was highlighted by 2020 Oakshade Raceway Late Model Track Champion Steve Kester putting his car in the winner’s circle for the first time this season after leading from flag to flag in the 25-lap late model feature. Steve Kester, shot out to the lead of the Late Model feature event from his pole starting position. A couple of early yellows, including one on lap two that involved nearly half of the field, kept the field tight for the first few laps. After that, it was all green flag racing with Kester showing the way just ahead of an exciting battle for second between Casey Noonan and Devin Shiels. Eventually Brian Ruhlman would dispose of both drivers and take over the second position with five laps remaining. Despite dealing with lapped traffic, Kester was able to hang on and pick up the victory with Ruhlman settling for second. Shiels ended up third with Casey Noonan finishing fourth.
The grandstands were packed Saturday at Plymouth Motor Speedway for race number 2 of the Grand Slam for the Outlaw Late Models. Tyler Roahrig is now 2 for 2 in the four-race series and $7500.00 richer. To get the win he had to hold off a hard charging Steve Needles and Mark Shook.
I will cover the 39th Annual Kings Royal weekend from Eldora and the 34th Annual Brad Doty Classic from Attica, as Kyle Larson tries to get win #2 at Attica in 2022 with the World of Outlaws. For complete coverage from area tracks visit my Facebook page, Ohio Sports Blitz and you can reach me at ohiosportsblitz@yahoo.com. Keep your wheels down. Ron Out!
