Fan Notes from Wayne County Speedway OSCS!

Dean Jacobs (Tom Myers) 8-19-17 Orrville, Ohio – Well, it feels like it’s been awhile since I have seen a 410 feature. Some races got rained out. Some races went so long into the night that I couldn’t stay to see the feature because pops can’t stay up that late anymore. The schedule also has worked against us because the All Stars have been racing outside of Ohio. They raced in western PA and New York the weeks before the Nationals and this week they are racing in central PA. The FAST group, (Fremont Attica Sprint Title) scheduled a race at Mercer Saturday because Fremont has the fair going on. So, I am grateful, to say the least, for the Ohio Sprint Car Series, or OSCS. They have been racing around Ohio on the weekends when the other groups are elsewhere….and I couldn’t be happier. This Saturday they were scheduled at Wayne County Speedway so I loaded up my nephew and went.

The last time the OSCS raced here Danny Smith took the checkers. Danny is a regular with the group as well as Cole Duncan, Cale Conley and Brandon Wimmer. You might also see Cale Thomas and Dallas Hewitt on occasion. Jac Haudenschild was also a regular with these guys before he got the call to race the 17 on the WoO trail. On my way to the track I was trying to guess who might show up. I was thinking 21-23 cars or so. When I got there, I counted 30 cars, a nice field on this beautiful evening! In addition to Danny Smith, Cole Duncan, Cale Conley and Brandon Wimmer , all the tough Wayne County regulars were on hand as well as some surprise entries. Joining Brad Haudenschild, Danny Mumaw, Andrew Paulker, Tyler Dunn, Nick Patterson and Jordan Ryan were Tracy Hines, Dean Jacobs, Lee Jacobs, Trevor Baker and Carson Macedo, driving the Pete Grove blue #70 that he won with the previous night at Attica.

Carson Macedo As I walked the pits, I got to talk with some of the car owners and of course the topic of the new race track in Ohio with the big events came up. I also talked with Brandon Wimmer’s car owner, John Shewbrooks. He is such a nice man. He said he had never been to Wayne County before and I assured him that they run the shows fast and that he would be leaving at a reasonable hour. As a matter of fact, Wayne County has been doing a really good job running their shows the past few years. They run them quickly and also keep working the track as the evening progresses. This night was no different.

As I wandered around the pits a bit longer, I came to Carson Macedo’s pit and stood there listening to folks talking. After standing there awhile, I thought I would joke with one of Pete Grove’s crew members so I said, “Hey, I heard that Carson Macedo won last night at Attica,….he’s pretty good. You guys should probably try and see if he would agree to drive your car someday, even if for just a weekend.”

Well, I thought that was funny because, well, Carson WAS driving their car for a weekend and Carson did win in it the night before……..Now, I don’t know what is wrong with guys in the pits but quite often, I don’t get the response I think I am going to get….. So the fellow said, “Yeah, we would like to but we can’t because he has other commitments…..” And I thought, wait, I just made a joke and you just…oh, well, so I explained to him that I was trying to joke with him and I did get a smirk. It’s not like they were pulling a motor right then before the A main was to start! Ha Ha. At least Mr. Paulker jokes around with me and Rick Ferkel played along with my humor one time. That’s two for one hundred…..that’s better than a shutout! Heck, I even tried to joke with Shirley Kear one time and that fizzled…maybe it’s my delivery?

Brandon Wimmer Ok, so onto the show. The track was smooth with a little cushion that you could drive onto if you wanted. The four heats were fairly non-eventful, as those who started up front finished there. They were taking the top 2 finishers and re-drawing them for A main starting position. In the last heat, Carson Macedo did put on a show by making some bonzai moves to take the 2nd spot on the last lap..that after he had fallen back to fourth. The Heat winners were Cale Conley, Cole Duncan, Nick Patterson and Dean Jacobs. Of note, Brad Haudenschild came out for his heat and when starting the car, broke a rear end. Danny Mumaw also popped out of gear twice during his heat and was relegated to the B main. Haudenschild didn’t return, Mumaw ended up making the feature after finishing third in the B main, charging from the last spot.

It was 9:30 when they started pushing off the 25 lap OSCS A-main…. and that after re-working the track in a few spots. So we were on a good schedule! The lineup had young Trevor Baker on the pole alongside Cale Conley. In row two we had Dean Jacobs and Nick Patterson. Nick was leading the feature the last time the OSCS was here and with three laps to go, a lapped car zig-zagged in front of him and ended his evening. The third row consisted of Brandon Wimmer and Cole Duncan. Behind them were Carson Macedo and Danny Smith, followed by Paulker, Ryan, Jordan Harbaugh and Lee Jacobs. A pretty good field for the first six rows.

At the green, Dunn spun out and on the restart Mumaw spun into the infield, probably with a mechanical failure because he didn’t restart. When the race finally got underway, Baker grabbed the lead and looked pretty good. He is a rookie in the 410’s this year, I think, and he has been fast but painfully inconsistent and hard on equipment. Conley followed for a time and then passed him for the lead, but a yellow flag for a spinout in turn two negated that move.

Cale Conley I think we were at lap seven or so at that point and on the restart Conley got a good run and was hard on baker’s tail and passed him for the lead a lap later. Conley then would pull away a little as Cole Duncan and Dean Jacobs would come up to challenge…along with Wimmer and Macedo. Baker would fade but then make some amazing moves to take a spot back. Duncan started to reel Conley in as the leaders entered lapped traffic. Behind them Baker battled Jacobs and Wimmer and Macedo as all four of them shuffled positions lap after lap until Jacobs firmly established himself as the third place car. Macedo finally got by Baker when the yellow came out with about nine laps left. Conley got a decent restart but Duncan was hard on his heels and then I think another yellow came out with seven laps to go. The running order was Conley, Duncan, Jacobs, Macedo, Wimmer, and Baker. Conley got a great restart and ended up with about a ten to twelve car length advantage. As the laps wound down, Conley and Duncan sped away from Jacobs who could not make a serious charge. Duncan pulled almost even with Conley on the last lap entrance to turn three but Conley threaded two lapped cars and pulled off the win by a few car lengths. Good feature with a crazy battle for third through sixth the whole race. Nice run by Conley and his second feature win in the last few weeks. Macedo’s motor started to sour the last half of the race or he may have had more for those ahead of him. Trevor Baker did a great job to bring it home in sixth and he was throwin’ it in there, mixing it up with the pros. Nice to see.

Kudos to Wayne County Speedway. On this night there were FOUR classes of cars on hand and they ran the show efficiently and quickly. Some of that I also attribute to the OSCS officials who do a great job getting the heats and features lined up quickly. They did time trial, but they timed three or four at a time and that sped it along nicely. The feature was over at 10:00 and I was a happy camper. Thank you Wayne County Speedway and thank you OSCS. Let’s do it again soon!