By: Ron Burt
USAC Midwest Thunder Midget driver Zach Wigal has now won three features in 2023. His most recent win was last Friday at Williamsburg’s Moler Raceway Park. He started outside row 2 in the feature, and by lap three had the lead, and never looked back leading the remaining 17 laps as he made the win look routine. His crew knows how to set up his car. It just grips the track and Zach can put the car low or up next to the cushion and dominate the field. Zach is one of the sports young guns to keep an eye on. Indiana driver, Jakeb Boxell came home second with reigning series champ Stratton Briggs from Anna Ohio third. Zach won his heat race. Ottoville’s, Abby Hohlbein won her heat race and placed 8th in the feature. Matt Lux scored the other heat race win. Here’s the current USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget Top 10 Points: 1-Zach Wigal-469, 2-Bryce Massingill-433, 3-Stratton Briggs-401, 4-Josh Yenser-376, 5-Ian Creager-361, 6-Gunnar Lucius-357, 7-Matt Lux-355, 8-Jakeb Boxell-332, 9-Abby Hohlbein-292, 10-Alex Watson-285. The next USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget Race will be July 3rd at Waynesfield Raceway Park.
At Limaland Motor Sports Park, Nate Dussel won the 25-lap NRA Sprint feature, followed by 2nd Jared Horstman and 3rd Max Stambaugh. The UMP Modifieds had a make-up feature from May 12th. Todd Sherman picked up the win. In the regular nightly 20-lap feature Troy Cattarene took the checker followed by 2nd Todd Sherman and 3rd Jerry Bowersock. Brenden Rassel won the 15-lap Thunderstock A-main.
The big crowd at Gas City I-69 Speedway watched Max Adams get the victory in the 410 Non-wing Sprint A-main. Tye Mihocko was a close 2nd, followed by Colin Grissom. Clayton Bryant won the Modified feature, Dalton Smith won in the Hornets and Bryce Norris won the Indiana Winged Racesaver Winged Sprint A-main.
On Saturday evening at Angola Motorsports Park, your feature winners were, Late Model Hunter Jack, Modified Jonathan Gatton, Street Stock Zach Henderson and FWD Mark Mason.
Mr. Excitement, Rusty Schlenk picked another Oakshade Raceway UMP Late Model feature win in Saturday night’s Oakshade/Attica Late Model Challenge Series. This was his 2nd win in a row at Oakshade and 7th of the season over-all. Devin Shiels kept close the entire race and came in 2nd. Colin Shipley was third. After 3 straight Sportsman feature wins Josh Robertson had to settle for second. Ryan Davis had the victory this week after being close several times recently. Carter Schlenk came in 3rd. The entire race was a dog fight between these three with lapped traffic coming into play. The Dominator Super Stock A-main ran caution-free and featured a great battle for the race lead during the first half of the race. Dylan Burt started on the pole and took the early lead. Adam Lantz went to the outside of Burt and the two drivers battled side by side, lap after lap. Lantz was able to take over the race lead on lap seven and went on to pick up his third win of the season. Burt was 2nd and Adam Noonan 3rd. Cory Gumm took early command of the Compact feature event and went on to pick up his fourth win of the season.
At Fremont, Paul Weaver started in 10th and by lap 10 he had the lead in the 305 Sprint feature and drove off to victory and picking up his 73rd career win at the track. He’s now 3rd on the all-time Fremont win list. J.J. Hickle won his first 410-Winged Sprint feature at the Action Track. The Dirt Truck feature was won by Shawn Valenti.
Daily coverage of 17 tri-state racetracks and several racing series can be found on my sports blog, Ohio Sports Blitz on Facebook. Until next week, keep your wheels down. Ron out!
