Fan Notes from Wayne County "King of the County"

Trey Jacobs (Hutch Xtreme Racing Photo) Tom Myers-Orrville, Ohio 4/17/2021 – For the 2021 racing season, Wayne County Speedway announced four special paying sprint car races. Named “King of the County,” these events boast a larger than usual sprint purse, paying $3,500 to win and $400 to start. The first “KoC” race was Saturday April 17th and featured an earlier start time because of the cool temperatures.

I was hoping for a good field of cars because of the bigger payout and was curious who would show up to race. Waynesfield had just recently added a FAST race on this same night so we had dueling tracks here in Ohio. Nonetheless, 25 sprinters showed up here to do battle.

You knew that there would be some of the Jacobs racers in the field. Dean Jacobs, the defending track champion was here, as well as Trey Jacobs and R.J. Jacobs. Both Trey and R.J. were driving different cars than usual tonight. Trey was in the red #0 car owned by Bill Morrison and R.J. drove the Prosser 19 car. Also in the pits was Brandon Spithaler, who is on a roll right now, winning at Attica last Friday and finishing 3nd there last evening. Jack Sodeman Jr was in the pits along with his father. I got to meet Jack Sodeman Sr. and we talked his racing in the 70’s and 80’s. That was really neat, thank you Jack Sr., for the stroll down memory lane! Broc Martin was in the pits. Broc is a former Fremont track champion and he also finished 7th in the World of Outlaws feature last year at Wayne County. Young guns Jordan Ryan, Henry Malcuit and Tyler Street were on hand. All three are up and coming and are really starting to become top racers. Corbin Gurley, a young racer from western Indiana, was in the pits. You may remember Van Gurley, who raced with the All Stars in the 90’s I believe…well Van is Corbin’s uncle. Corbin looked pretty good for only in his 2nd year racing a 410 sprint car. Nate Dussel and Kyle Capodice are two young drivers who have just recently moved up from 305’s to the 410 ranks. They were on hand and eager to try out the Orrville clay. I was able to talk with Nate and Kyle this evening and they were both very pleasant to talk with. Thank you Nate and Kyle, for taking some time to chat with me tonight and good luck this year.

Nate Dussel (Hutch Xtreme Racing Photo) The track was tacky and smooth and stayed that way all evening. They qualified 3 cars at a time and the fastest qualifier was Chris Myers. He was followed by Martin, Dussel, R.J. Jacobs, Trey Jacobs, Dean Jacobs, Sodeman Jr., Ryan, Spithaler and Dylan Kingan. Street and Malcuit didn’t time well. Usually they are both pretty fast. Malcuit was fighting an engine issue all evening, while Street rebounded and had a good run in the feature.

There were 3 heats, 8 laps each and the top 5 would transfer. After that, the top 3 finishers in each heat would re-draw for their feature starting spot. In heat 1your winner was Sodeman Jr., who was followed by Dylan Kingan, R.J. Jacobs, Chris Myers and Nate Reeser. Jordan Ryan was the heat 2 winner. He was followed by Martin, Trey Jacobs, Nick Patterson and Malcuit. Street tried every which way to get around Malcuit for the final transfer spot. Malcuit, who obviously was having engine woes, made himself just wide enough to keep Street behind him. In the 3rd heat Dean Jacobs was out front for the win, followed by Dussel, Spithaler, Jason Dolick and Troy Kingan.

After the other classes finished up and after the B main and feature draw, we were ready for the first 25 lap “KoC” race for 2021. The starting order had Trey Jacobs on the pole with Sodeman Jr. alongside. Row 2 was Dylan Kingan with Ryan alongside him. The 3rd row was Martin inside and Dean Jacobs outside. Row 4 had R.J. Jacobs inside with Spithaler outside. The 5th row had Dussle inside and Chris Myers on the outside. The following rows were Patterson and Dolick, Reeser and Malcuit, Troy Kingan and Jamie Myers, Street and Zack Ames, with Capodice and Gurley on the last row.

Dean Jacobs won the "King of the County" event at Wayne County Speedway Saturday At the start, Sodeman grabbed the lead and had it for the first lap. On the second lap, Trey Jacobs would sweep around the outside of Sodeman in turn 2 and race into the lead. Jacobs would then race out to a good lead as battles developed behind him. On lap 4, 3rd running Ryan went into the turn 2 guard rail and that ended his night. The running order was Trey Jacobs, Sodeman, Spithaler, Dean Jacobs and Martin. On the restart, Trey would build a big lead while the racing behind him got more intense. Spithaler would get by Sodeman and then on lap 12 a yellow came out when Reeser came to a stop in turn 4. As racing resumed, Trey would pull away as Spithaler trailed and Dean Jacobs would get by Sodeman for third on lap 13. On lap 14, Dolick and R.J. Jacobs made contact in turn 2 and Capodice ran into them and rolled over. Capodice was okay but done for the evening as was R.J.. When the green came back out, Trey pulled away again and looked like he was going to be the winner, but on lap 20 or 21 Trey started slowing and Spithaler raced past and into the lead. A lap or 2 later Trey’s left rear tire went down and he stopped, bring out the yellow with 2 laps to go. Spithaler was running strong but Dean Jacobs was sticking with him and had been close enough on occasion to almost make a pass. Now with 2 laps to go and Dean in second, this would be interesting. On the restart Spithaler went middle low into turn 1 and Dean went high up by the rail. As Spithaler exited turn 2 he drifted up the turn and Jacobs diamonded underneath Spithaler and raced past him for the lead. Brandon tried passing Dean back but couldn’t get it done as Dean passed first under the checkers. The top 10 finish was Dean Jacobs, Spihaler, Martin, Chrsi Myers, Dussel, Sodeman, Patterson, Street, who was up from 17th starting spot, Dylan Kingan and Zach Ames.

That was a good race and a fun evening. A little chilly, but the track stayed smooth and tacky with hardly any dirt in the air. Thank you Wayne County Speedway, and thank you Dean Jacobs, for a great racing career. Dean is hanging up his helmet after this season. He’s won with the All Stars and World of Outlaws and has won a few track championships along the way. Dean has been successful racing with a wing and without one as well. We will miss watching Dean when he is done, but it looks like he will not go quietly!