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[WMP]

Mellenberndt, Sawmiller, Lewis, and Craig Cash in Memorial Day Weekend at Waynesfield Motorsports Park With weather threatening all around the northern part of the state for Friday night and Saturday afternoon there seemed to be a perimeter around Waynesfield Motorsports Park though, not allowing any rain to dampen the spirits of track employees and fans. Two lucky fans were also treated to the ride of their lives as the two seat sprint car owned by sprint car legend Jack Hewitt was on the grounds and ready to give them rides. Up first this Saturday was our Non-Wing Sprints and Lee Stark had already been entertaining the fans yanking the front wheels two feet off the ground in hot laps. With the heats races set it was Luke Hall after starting sixth, last race feature winner Cody White, and the Sioux Falls, SD native Bret Mellenberndt taking victory. With feature time closing in and cars pushing off a something appeared to break on what was set to be the pole sitting car of Cody White as it went into a set of barrel rolls on the backstretch before all of the cars were even pushed onto the track. Once the accident was cleared off the field was ready to go and the 97 was ready to take advantage of his improved starting position. It would be that improved position that would give him the lead going into the first turn of the initial lap. The issues though would begin early in the feature when on lap four the 2 looped it in the second turn. On the restart the 23M would turn the car around in nearly the same place as the car before him keeping the yellow out on the track. Six laps later the 97 was still in the lead but now the 34 was hounding for the lead until the 23M brought out his second caution sending him pitside. With five laps to go there was a bit of a scare when the red was put out for the 2H who was leaving the track and problems sent him flipping just behind the backstretch wall. Former track champ Jon Nelson then lost a left front wheel just after his motor lit after the red was lifted. With just a few laps remaining, the last caution of the night would come out for the 48 and 16 coming together just under the flag stand turning the 48 around and sending him pitside unable to continue. All the while the 97 continued to lead with the 34 right behind, at least until Luke Hall pounded the cushion with two laps remaining allowing both the 82 and 4M to get by and giving Bret a little breathing room underneath the checkered flag. “This is a fun environment and a racy track” said the driver of the Peterson Motors and Keizer Wheels number 97 sprint car. “This is a well lit track that has the same banking all the way around the track”. He also made the comment that the track slicked off a little earlier than he thought causing him to worry about his set-up choice, but everything went alright as he took his first victory of the year at Waynesfield Motorsports Park. Next up for battle were the Trucks and heat races were taken by birthday girl Jessica Nuss, last feature winner Mike Hicks, and another A-Main victor Pete Zuppardo. Starting problems continued as on the start a heavy crash that included the 65, 18B, 9C, and 31 brought the field back to a complete restart. Luckily after that everything calmed down and the racing began with the 33, 21Z, 26, and the 10B all wanting the lead and each hoping to use the lapped traffic they were approaching to get them into a comfortable lead. It was then that the 26 spun around after some contact with the 21Z going through traffic that also saw the 84X spin as an innocent bystander. A couple of laps later the 21Z slowed dramatically and had to pull off of the speedway leaving the 10B with a large lead. With five laps to go feature winner Derrick Noffsinger began to close on the leader but it was too little too late as Jerry Sawmiller won his first race of the year. “You know this place was really decent tonight”, said Sawmiller, “it reminds me of a mini Eldora”. “I really like using this radios, they really do help out”, was something else the driver pointed out. When asked where the speed came from, the truck was much faster than in weeks past, he said that over the week they found a lot of problems with the C&O Welding and Fabricating, Wayne Street Lounge Truck and corrected them. This week the Modifieds were put number three in the list of classes to run and once again I am left wondering why some of these guys even run a left front tire when it hardly ever touches the ground. When the heat races were all said and done it was Frank Luchini, Bill Lewis, and Steve Duty opening the evening up with victories. The modifieds nearly followed our other classes when the 23D and 18 getting together in front of the field right at the start, but both were able to continue without caution. It was then that Bill Lewis decided that he wanted another checkered flag for the evening and began a torrid place taking the lead five laps into the twenty lap feature. Five laps later the only thing that could bring second place Frank Luchini closer to the leader was a caution for the 45P who then hooked the 4S. Just after the caution Jon Henry went to the outside for second place and his chance at leading yet another feature at Waynesfield. Then on lap 17 the leader was reeled back in due to the 79 and 21T spinning on opposite ends of the track bringing out another yellow flag. It was all for naught for the rest of the field though as when the green was displayed for the final time Bill Lewis once again built up a lead and took home the cash. The final feature of the evening was given to our Stock Cars and with this being only their second race of the year there were a lot of new faces in our pit area. Heat race wins would fall to Greg Knoch, Tim Bowen, and Weasel Philpot. You could tell that these guys wanted to thank the fans for showing up Saturday when in turn one it was three wide racing about four deep with everybody just wanting that lead. Tim Cornett who took the first feature win for Stock Cars started fourth and by the end of the first lap took the lead under the flag stand. The second lap though the action would come to a stop when the pole sitter brought the caution. As the green came back out the 35, 71C, and 77B were in a battle for the lead with the 58P trailing just behind ready to jump all over any mistakes. This though had to take a break on lap 5 when the caution came out for the 22X. When the green came out this time it stayed out for some time, long enough for the 71C and 35 to split a lap car with the 71C breaking through to take the lead. Just after that the caution was displayed again for the 28, 21, and 04E spinning on the track. When the green came back out the 71C and the 35 were fighting back and forth but there seemed to be a problem with the 35 as he started to drop back into the field a little giving the 77B a hold of second and enough speed to catch up to the leader some. It was not enough though as Tim Bowen was able to get to Byron Craig’s bumper but the 71C was first under the checkered. “Track was pretty racy tonight, we could use the entire track to race on said the driver of the Kalvinator Engines, Americas Best Value Inn. “I had a really good time tonight!” Non-Wing Sprints Heat 1 1 Luke Hall 34 2 Aron McFadden 23M 3 Jon Nelson 9N 4 John Hewitt 21 5 Chuck Wilson 31 6 Steve Ball Jr 95 7 Bob Gehr Jr 8 Doug Hewitt 56 Heat 2 1 Cody White 26 2 Mike Dunlap 10 3 Mark Hery 40 4 Jamie Miller 4M 5 Mike Burkin 48 6 Chad Wilson 14 7 Brent Smith 7 Heat 3 1 Bret Mellenberndt 97 2 Mike Miller 82 3 Bob Gehr Sr 2 4 Dallas Hewitt 2H 5 Lee Stark 16 6 Lewie Christian 8 7 Mark Shultz J1 Trucks Heat 1 1 Jessica Nuss 26 2 Danny Kelly 31 3 Bill Harman 9C 4 Scott Fisher 4F 5 Roger Keysor 48 6 Ralph Sheckelford 11 7 Mark Hunnaman 52 H Heat 2 Mike Hicks 33 2 Randy Crossley 65 3 Derrick Noffsinger 18N 4 Darrell Porter 84X 5 Nathan Mailhot 4 6 Eric Sutter 13 7 Matt Twining 1W Heat 3 1 Pete Zuppardo 21Z 2 Jerry Sawmiller 10B 3 Tim Dick 18B 4 Gabe Twining 25G 5 Greg Hohenbrienk 10 6 Sam Casey 19K Modified Heat 1 Frank Luchini 4 2 Chris Ullery 112 3 Gary Richard 64 4 Eric Morris 43 5 Bill Keeler 20K 6 Todd Sherman 65 7 Chad Rosenbech Heat 2 1 Bill Lewis 9C 2 Jon Henry 18 3 Brian Post 45P 4 Andy Bibler 22B 5 Kelly Bowlby 36 6 Brandon Jacobs 10B 7 Doug St Myers 4S Heat 3 1 Steve Duty 23D 2 Mike Hohlbein 6S 3 Josh Lolmaugh 25 4 Tom Treon 21T 5 Shane Unger 79 6 Stan Smith 21S Stocks Heat 1 1 Greg Knoch 78 2 Tim Cornett 35 3 Jacob Hardesty 04E 4 Jan Launder 53 5 Bill Gross 9G 6 Charlie Strait 55 7 David Hollon 21H Heat 2 1 Byron Craig 71C 2 Tim Bowen 77B 3 Jim Post 58P 4 Eddie Shaner 67 5 Brad Jessup 37 6 Brad Wright 33W 7 Kevin Gossard 62 Heat 3 1 Weasel Philpot 52 2 Jeff Baldauf 73 3 RK Smith 22X 4 LeRoy McCall 68 5 Brian Baldauf 28 6 Brad Conover 8C Non-Wing Sprints Feature 1 Bret Mellenberndt 97 2 Mike Miller 82 3 Jamie Miller 4M 4 Luke Hall 34 5 Mark Hery 40 6 Steve Ball Jr 95 7 Chuck Wilson 31 8 Lee Stark 16 9 Brent Smith 7 10 John Hewitt 21 11 Chad Wilson 14 12 Bob Gehr Sr 2 13 Bob Gehr Jr 3G 14 Doug Hewitt 56 15 Mike Burkin 48 16 Jon Nelson 9N 17 Dallas Hewitt 2H 18 Lewie Christian 8 19 Mike Dunlap 10 20 Aron McFadden 23M Truck Feature 1 Jerry Sawmiller 10B 2 Derrick Noffsinger 18N 3 Eric Sutter 13 4 Bill Harman 9C 5 Randy Crossley 65 6 Scott Fisher 4F 7 Danny Kelly 31 8 Roger Keysor 48 9 Jessica Nuss 26 10 Tim Dick 18B 11 Mike Hicks 33 12 Nathan Mailhot 4 13 Ralph Sheckelford 11 14 Darrell Porter 84X 15 Matt Twining 1W 16 Gabe Twining 25G 17 Sam Casey 19K 18 Pete Zuppardo 21Z 19 Greg Hohenbrienk 20 Mark Hunnaman 52H Modified Feature 1 Bill Lewis 9C 2 Jon Henry 18 3 Frank Luchini 4 4 Chris Ullery 112 5 Gary Richard 64 6 Eric Morris 43 7 Todd Sherman 65 8 Steve Duty 23D 9 Andy Bibler 22B 10 Josh Lolmaugh 25 11 Bill Keeler 20K 12 Kelly Bowlby 36 13 Chad Rosenbech 28 14 Shane Unger 79 15 Tom Treon 21T 16 Brian Post 45P 17 Mike Hohlbein 6S 18 Stan Smith 21S 19 Doug St Myers 4S 20 Brandon Jacobs 10B Stock Car Feature 1 Byron Craig 71C 2 Tim Bowen 77B 3 Jim Post 58P 4 Eddie Shaner 67 5 Greg Knoch 78 6 Tim Cornett 35 7 Brad Conover 8C 8 Weasel Philpot 52 9 Bill Gross 9G 10 Brad Jessup 37 11 David Hollon 21H 12 RK Smith 22X 13 Jeff Baldauf 73 14 LeRoy McCall 68 15 Jan Launder 53 16 Brian Baldauf 28 17 Jacob Hardesty 04E 18 Brad Wright 33W 19 Charlie Strait 55 20 Kevin Gossard 62 Be sure to check out our schedule to see that May 18-19 we will be having our the 1st Annual Truck-Off, June 9th the NRA Invaders, and on Tuesday June 26 the third leg of Ohio Speedweek for the All Star Circuit of Champions. Waynesfield Motorsports Park is located in Waynesfield, Ohio at 15811 Waynesfield Road. Please feel free to visit our website at www.waynesfieldmotorsportspark.net. The track phone is 419-568-3201.