Wayne County Speedway Opening Night
4 min read
Eric Nickelson Photo
ORRVILLE – A perfect opening day turned out to be a perfect ending as well for sprint car ace Cody Bova.
After knocking on the door to his first career 410 sprint car victory, the 28-year-old broke through on Saturday night by capturing the 25-lap Pine Tree Towing and Recovery sprint car main event to highlight the thrice-delayed season opener at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Wayne County Speedway near Orrville.
West Virginia native Zack Milbee scored an impressive victory in the Mountaineer state-based Steel Block Super Late Model series feature, with Brandon Morrow picking up an equally rousing win in the McKenzie Concrete super stock main event, while Colton Shaw and Doug Hensel thrilled the overflow crowd with dramatic triumphs in the McKenzie Super Stock and JoyRide Transportation Mini Stock, respectively, season openers.
After coming up just short in his bid for victory during the 2021 season, including a heartbreaking late-race setback at WCS, Bova made the most of his opportunity on Saturday. The Struthers, Ohio native grabbed the top spot from Brandon Spithaler on lap six and never looked back in fending off a hard-charging Chris Myers at the stripe in earning his inaugural visit to victory lane in his Bova Excavating No. 20. “We’ve been fast here before, and even thought we had one locked up last year, but l just concentrated on hitting my marks and not making any mistakes in lapped traffic tonight,” Bova said. “The track surface was just awesome, and to come in here and beat this caliber of cars feels great. We were thinking of splitting our time this season between here (and Mercer Speedway in western Pa.), but this may change our plans.” The action behind Bova, however, was fast and furious as former motocross star Zach Ames, Spithaler, Jordan Ryan, Broc Martin, Myers, and Fremont Speedway regular Zeth Sabo were on the move. Mechanical woes, though, eventually sent Martin and Ryan pitside while running inside the top four, as Myers chipped away at Bova’s advantage. Myers closed to the back bumper of Bova on numerous occasions in the closing stages, but settled for second, ahead of Spithaler, ninth-starting Sabo, sixth row starter Henry Malcuit, 17th-starting Leyton Wagner, Ames, former track champion Danny Mumaw from the tail, Andrew Palker in his first ride in the McClure Motorsports No. 9, and Jason Dolick.
After wiring the field in the Steel Block series’ visit to Hilltop Speedway on Friday night, Corey Delancey seemed primed for a second victory on Saturday by grabbing the point from Milbee at the start of the 25-lap main event with Tyler Riggs, Dustin Sprouse, Russ Frohnapfel, and BJ Gregory in tow.
Disaster struck Delancey on lap six, though, as the leader ducked to the work area with a flat tire, with Riggs retiring pitside as well. Milbee inherited the lead and sped to the $1,200 victory with Delancey racing back to second from the tail, as Sprouse, Frohnapfel, and Gregory rounded out the top five.
The 15-lap super stock main was next to hit the ultra-fast 3-8 mile clay, with heavy hitters Took Wiles and Kyle Moore occupying the inside front two rows. With Wiles grabbing the point and leading through lap 10, all eyes were on the fast-closing C9 machine of 10th-starting Brandon Morrow. Morrow tracked down the leaders, and following a lap 12 caution, took the top spot and never looked back. Wiles and Moore diced it up behind Morrow, with Wiles claiming second in his Rott Shop 187, with Moore garnering third in the 21D, with Rob Melzer and Don Rutt completing the top five.
The action in the last two feature races matched the well-deserved 80-degree temperatures of the sun-drenched afternoon, with nail-biting finishes kicked off by the 23-car Modified main event.
WCS regular Colton Shaw grabbed the lead in his familiar 01 mount, with Scott Peltz following. As Peltz stayed glued to the back bumper of Shaw, sixth starting Jason Brennan and fourth row starter Nate Young were picking their way to the front by lap eight. Brennan wrestled the lead away from Shaw with a handful of laps left, with Shaw, Young, Eric Wilson, and Peltz all within striking distance. Brennan’s night came to a halt with mechanical failure with Shaw and Young door-to-door close behind. Shaw grabbed the lead on the restart and held off the charge of Young at the stripe to by less than a car length with Peltz, Ryan Robey, and Wilson completing the top five.
The 12-lap Mini Stock main closed the opening night festivities with a bang, as WCS stalwarts Jordan James, Doug Hensel, and Travis Hutton traded the top three spots with regularity with each leading laps.
With Hensel shuffled to third with less than two laps remaining behind James and Hutton, the former track champion charged to the front after taking the white flag and won the drag race to the checkers besting James, Hutton, Johnny Bruce Jr., and Kyle Petit.
Next week WCS will host an all-open wheel spectacular, with the traveling 360 cubic inch Great Lakes Super Sprint-NRA Sprint Invaders tour joined by the 410 sprints and modifieds
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