Kids Night & New Faces In Wayne County Victory Lane

Written By: Randy Worrell

ORRVILLE – Just craziness. That’s the best word to describe Saturday’s edition of the Fast Five racing program at the Wayne County Speedway. Bone jarring crashes, a first-time winner, a fantastic finish in the sprint car division main event, and nearly everything in between that greeted fans in the mayhem-shortened action on the 3-8 mile lightning-fast paper-clip shaped oval near Orrville.
The evening, however, got off to a rousing start as a near-record amount of youngsters participated in the annual Kids Nights festivities presented by the Quota Club of Wooster, before Matt Shapaka recorded his first-ever trip to victory lane in the JoyRide Transportation mini stock event that was cut short in last weekend’s rain-delayed card after just two of 12 laps completed that was terminated shortly before 2 a.m.
Shapaka led wire-to-wire in the evening’s first event in his purple No. 22, followed by Johnny Bruce, Jr., Matt Reichard, Dustin Bedlion, and Kevin Markey in fifth.
Next to hit the speedway was the night’s marquee event, the scheduled 27-lap, $2,700-to-win Danny Gardner Memorial for the McKenzie Concrete Super Stocks.
Don Rutt and Took Wiles led the field to the green, but action was halted almost immediately as a pileup in turn one resulted in the night’s first of five red flags waved.
Wiles grabbed the point on the ensuing restart in his No.187 machine with Rutt in tow, before another yellow slowed the field resulting in the third of the feature’s six complete restarts. Point leader Kyle Moore exited the speedway on the fourth restart with mechanical problems, with Wiles also retiring pitside on the fifth effort to start the race.
The sixth and final complete restart saw Rutt take command of the lead, with Don Baney, Jr., Doug Drown, defending Gardner Memorial winner Brandon Morrow and Tyler Nicely completing the top-five. Just as Baney wrestled the lead away from Rutt, however, a yellow appeared for a spinning Morrow who had recently captured third from Drown. Following a decision to trim the feature to 11 laps, Rutt powered his way to a 5-lap shootout victory for his second triumph of the season, with Baney, Drown, Nicely, and 19th-starting Tyler Wiles rounding out the top-five.
The Pine Tree Towing and Recovery 410 Sprint Cars hit the high-speed clay next, with Struthers speedster Cody Bova and point leader Broc Martin, looking for his seventh win the season, occupying the front row of the 25-lap main event. Bova jumped to the point, with Martin, Nick Patterson, Dean Jacobs, Chris Myers, R.J. Jacobs and Zach Ames trying to keep pace with the black No. 20 of Bova.
On lap 15, though, Bova’s bid for his first WCS victory came to a sudden halt, as the race-long leader clipped the back of the lapped car of Dylan Kingan to bring out the caution. The night’s drama was just starting to unfold, however, as Martin’s right rear tire was losing air during the yellow, and subsequently went flat on the lap 16 restart. Dean Jacobs inherited the lead, with Myers in hot pursuit, with R.J. Jacobs, Ames, and Adam Cruea within striking distance.
Martin, who rejoined the field at the tail end, slowed down the front straight with mechanical issues on lap 23, only to collect a full-speed Kingan in his Classy Chassis No. 7 which resulted in a nasty series of flips to bring out the red. Kingan was uninjured in the mishap.
An ensuing green-white-checkered finish was the worth the night’s price of admission, however, as Myers perfectly executed a slide-job going in to turn one and two, with Jacobs turning under the yellow No. 38 to regain the lead, with Myers attempting another last-ditch effort in turn three. Jacobs again wheeled his No. 9 machine past Myers and sped to his first WCS victory since April 17.
The Malcuit Tavern Late Models were up next for their 25-lapper, and in keeping with evening’s theme, disaster struck early as Nathan Loney and Larry Bellman led the field to the green. Ninth-starting Brad Malcuit clipped a spinning car in turn two and flipped his familiar No. 79 machine with Mitch Caskey coming to rest atop the veteran’s mount. A lengthy delay resulted, but an uninjured Malcuit climbing from his battered machine.
A complete restart resulted in more mayhem, though, as Doug Baird and Jerry Aber collided on the front chute with Baird slamming into a retaining barrier with Aber’s mount flipping and coming to rest on its lid. Following another lengthy pause, Loney again took command with Doug Drown moving into second ahead of Ryan Markham, Bellman, and Jason Henderson. Drown’s bid for victory, seemingly, came to an end after jumping a treacherous cushion in turn three and four to bring out the cation on lap 12.
Markham captured the lead from Loney four circuits later, and built a comfortable advantage over Bellman and Drown, who restarted at the tail. Drown exited the speedway for good on lap 22 under a cloud of smoke, as Markham raced to victory over Bellman, Loney, Craig Hartong and Henderson.
The Corbon Ammunition Modifieds rolled onto the speedway next, with their scheduled 20-lap main coming to a premature ending almost before it started.
With two laps completed, with a pair of 01 machines in Denny Benjamin and Colton Shaw leading, the 27C ride of Casey Butler flipped his machine in turn one to wave the night’s fourth red flag. Kyle Moore, who went pitside during the stoppage, returned to the fray from the tail, and on the lap 3 restart, barrel-rolled his No. 1* mount hard exiting turn three. Although Moore escaped injury, the remaining Modified feature, and the night’s regularly-scheduled mini stock main events were postponed. The features will be completed ahead of next Saturday’s Fast Five racing program.
JoyRide Transport Mini Stock Make Up Feature

1. 22 M. Shapaka, 2. 311 J. Bruce Sr., 3. 29 M. Reichard, 4. 18X D. Bedlion, 5. 420 K Markey, 6. 83 J. James, 7. 16J J. Voshel, 8. 83J R. Carder, 9. 177 B. Markey, 10. 43 D. Keagy, 11. 89 T. Hutton, 12. 18 D. Hensel, 13. 23P K. Petit, 14. 11 M. Short, 15. 46 S. Crowe
   McKenzie Concrete Super Stocks
   Fast Time: C9 B. Morrow 19.499
   Heat Race One – 1. C9 B. Morrow, 2. 28 D. Drown, 3. 771 B. Craver, 4. 14 C. Schneider, 5. 8A K. Ake, 6. 92 A. Bright, 7. 77 R. Melzer, 8. U3 D. Uhler
   Heat Race Two – 1. 21D K Moore, 2. 27B D. Baney Jr, 3. 72 T. Nicely, 4. 60 J. Humphrey, 5. 714 T. Coen, 6. 9 J. Lorentz, 7. 187 Tyler Wiles, 8. 2 W Sidel
   Heat Race Three – 1. 187 Took Wiles, 2. 910 D. Rutt, 3. 263 C. Zimmerman, 4. 4Z Z. Myers, 5. U4 P McVicker, 6. 18 D. Hensel, 7. K3 K Catlette, 8. 15 C. Alexander
   Feature – 1. 910 D. Rutt, 2. 27B D. Baney Jr, 3. 28 D. Drown, 4. 72 T Nicely, 5. 187 Tyler Wiles, 6. 714 T. Coen, 7. 263 C. Zimmerman, 8. C9 B. Morrow, 9. 9 J. Lorentz, 10. 60 J. Humphrey, 11. 771 B. Craver, 12. 8A K. Ake, 13. 92 A. Bright, 14. 18 D. Hensel, 15. 187 Took Wiles, 16. 21D K. Moore, 17. 14 C Schneider, 18. 4Z Z Myers, 19. 15 C Alexander, 20. U4 P. McVicker
   Pine Tree Towing and Recovery Sprints
   Fast Time: 18J RJ Jacobs 15.139
   Heat Race One – 1. 9 D Jacobs, 2. 20B C. Bova, 3. 4* H Horton, 4. 18J RJ Jacobs, 5. 83C A. Cruea, 6. 2 J. Adorjan, 7. 25 J Ryan, 8. 57X A Palker
   Heat Race Two – 1. 83M B Martin, 2. 38K C Myers, 3. 6Z Z Ames, 4. 23P N Patterson, 5. 7 D Kingan, 6. 20 D Burkhart, 7. 6J J Aumend
   Feature – 1. 9 D Jacobs, 2. 38K C Myers, 3. 18J RJ Jacobs, 4. 6Z Z Ames, 5. 83C A. Cruea, 6. 20B C Bova, 7. 4* H Horton, 8. 20 D Burkhart, 9. 83M B Martin, 10. 7 D Kingan, 11. 6J J Aumend, 12. 23P N Patterson, 13. 2 J Adorjan, 14. 25R J Ryan, 15. 57X A Palker
   Malcuit Tavern Late Models
   Fast Time: 145 C Frohnapfel 16.998
   Heat Race One – 1. 10 N Loney, 2. 24S C. Simons, 3. J28 J Henderson, 4. 24A J Aber, 5. 69 D Baird, 6. 42A A Snell, 7. 145 C Frohnapfel, 8. 11 R. Abel, 9. 20 T Hahn
   Heat Race Two – 1. 777 D Drown, 2. 79 B Malcuit, 3. 14 JR Gentry, 4. 18 M Caskey, 5. 23H C Hartong, 6. 19 C Scott, 7. 21 W Morrison, 8. 45 R Frohnapfel, 9. 34 K. Wiser
   Heat Race Three – 1. 88 D Smith, 2. Co2 R Markham, 3. 59 L Bellman, 4. 19 A Baker, 5. 7 N Cox, 6. 24X J Skelly, 7. 51 T Gallion, 8. 414 R Holderbaum
   Feature – 1. Co2 R Markham, 2. 59 L Bellman, 3. 10 N Loney, 4. 23H C Hartong, 5. J28 J Henderson, 6. 24 C. Simons, 7. 21 W Morrison, 8. 7 N Cox, 9. 18 M Caskey, 10. 777 D Drown, 11. 19 A Baker, 12. 20 T Hahn, 13. 34 K Wiser, 14. 19 C Scott, 15. 88 D Smith, 16. 24 J Aber, 17. 69 D Baird, 18. 14 JR Gentry, 19. 79 B Malcuit, 20. 11 R Abel
   Corbon Ammunition Modifieds
   Fast Time: 5 S Peltz 18.674
   Heat Race One – 1. 01 C Shaw, 2. 89 J King, 3. 96 M Smith, 4. 29 S Smith, 5. 6 R Grogg, 6. 309 C Blair, 7. 27J J Johnson, 8. 5 S Peltz, 9. 185 R Miller
   Heat Race Two – 1. 1* K Moore, 2. 99 M Gardiner, 3. 01 D Benjamin, 4. 27C C Butler, 5. 12 M Lam, 6. 73B C Basinger, 7. 66W J Waldfogel, 8. 88 B Jacobs, 9. 23D D Daugherty
   JoyRide Transport Mini Stocks
   Heat Race One – 1. 2 J Cranmore, 2. 18X D Bedlion, 3. 23P K Petit, 4. 151 R Olar, 5. 83J R Carder, 6. 16J J Voshel, 7. 46 S Crowe, 8. 49B J Burns, 9. 9K K Noel
   Heat Race Two – 1. 311 J Bruce Sr., 2. 420 K Markey, 3. 711 K Long, 4. 18 B Hensel, 5. 77 M Ranigen, 6. 54 C Evans, 7. B00 B Burns, 8. 11 M Short, 9. 43 D Keagy
   Heat Race Three – 1. 83 J James, 2. 29 M Reichard, 3. 22 M Shapaka, 4. 7C C Musselman, 5. 177 B Markey, 6. 18 D Hensel, 7. 89 T Hutton

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