Fan Notes from Wednesday Wayne County Ohio Speedweek

Eric Walls leads the drivers meeting at Wayne County (Tom Myers) 6/19/2019 Orrville, Ohio – Atomic was originally scheduled to have their Ohio All Star Sprint Speed Week race on Wednesday June 19th, but the steady rain that has plagued most of Speed Week so far this year forced them to cancel. As a backup plan, All Star officials and Wayne County Speedway conspired against the weather to re-schedule Monday’s rained out race in place of the cancelled Atomic race. With very short notice and no promotion, and with the help of social media, a healthy crowd showed up to watch 37 cars and drivers do battle. Thankfully, the weather held off allowing the All Stars to finally get a race in.

Getting enough of a track crew, concession employees, fans and racers to come to a race that was scheduled that same day at 9:00 am was an amazing feat and it seemed to go fairly smoothly. I feel bad for the fans that couldn’t change their schedule at the last minute….and had to miss this race. There were many who posted this dilemma on Facebook or twitter. I myself had something else scheduled and I could not cancel it. I had to leave around 6:00pm and my hope was to return to catch the A main.

Chad Kemenah Got to the track early to grab a seat and put down a blanket and head to the pits. It was sunny and beautiful and looked like we had no danger of any rain. Kyle Larson was not here, and I saw Tony Stewart in the pits but he wasn’t racing. Danny Dietrich and Chad Kemenah were on hand along with Brinton Marvel and a few others I didn’t see at Attica last Saturday. Rico is here, that’s cool. No Christopher Bell. Buddy Kofoid is here. The All Star regulars are here along with the Wayne County guys and a few Attica/Fremont guys like Cap Henry and D.J. Foos.

I made my way back to the grandstand and to my seat when Pops showed up. After getting settled in he agreed to watch my stuff as I left for my engagement. At least I got to watch cars push off for engine heat….but had to leave before hot laps started.

I made it back to the track around 8:15 or 8:30 or so, if I remember correctly, just as the B main was getting started and just as the rain clouds started threatening again! When I got out of my car, I thought it was the A main that was getting underway so I hustled up from the parking lot, dodging the soft, mushy areas and large puddles….. just to discover it was the B main. Cool, I didn’t miss the feature!

Spencer Bayston At the start of the B main, and after some track work, the surface looked tacky and smooth in most places save for a bump entering turn 1. Not bad….but then, after a few laps, it started blowing dirt all over the place and a big cloud developed. A slight breeze was blowing back into the stands covering everyone with a good layer of dirt. We have not had much good weather to prepare a dirt track properly this year….so kudos to Wayne County for even making this track a race able surface.

Jac was on the pole alongside Trevor Baker. Spencer Bayston and Lee Jacobs and Cale Conley are in the B main as well. After a few restarts and some tangles, Jac runs away with it followed by Baker, Ricky Peterson and Lee Jacobs transferring. Bayston and Hobaugh take a provisional to start the feature at the tail.

The track gets reworked again and looks very tacky and smooth. Reutzel and Shaffer are on the front with Shaffer on the pole. Zearfoss and Dean Jacobs are in row 2 with Abreu and Palker starting in row 3. At the start, Shaffer gets the jump and slide jobs Reutzel in 1 for the lead. However, on the same lap Spencer Bayston flips his car down the backstretch and takes a while getting out. He’s okay but that was a serious wreck as he was going full speed out of turn 2 when he started flipping.

Aaron Reutzel won the Ohio Speedweek stop at Wayne County Wednesday On the ensuing restart, Reutzel gets the jump and grabs the lead and Shaffer follows closely. On lap 3 Baker spins out bringing out a yellow. Loads of dirt is now swirling around in the air pelting the crowd but the track is tacky as some racers are pulling wheelies. On lap 6 Lee Jacobs spins nd brings out a yellow. Reutzel and Shaffer had been pulling away from the field as Abreu just passed Dean Jacobs up around the top for third. The running order is Reutzel, with his inside out right rear, Shaffer, Abreu, Jacobs, Zearfoss, Palker, Eliason and Kofoid, or something like that. The rest of the race goes green and Reutzel wins it. A few times in traffic Shaffer had his nose under Aaron, but couldn’t forge ahead. Aaron weaved in and out and around, up high and down low in a masterful fashion to keep his car in the lead. Shaffer settles for 2nd followed by Abreu, Zearfoss, Jacobs, Eliason, Kofoid, Palker, McIntyre and Greg Wilson. Jac was the hard charger moving up 6 spots to take 15th place.

The track stayed pretty tacky throughout and as a result there wasn’t much passing, but we did eat a lot of dirt in the stands. This has to be caused by the weather because this is not the norm anymore for this track. I mean, Wayne County has not been dusty like that for the last two years that I have been here, especially with the new dirt on it. A big thank you goes to Wayne County Speedway and the ASCoC. They both went the extra mile and thought outside the box to get a race in. We hope to see you this Saturday for the Speed Week final!