Fan Notes from Wayne County Ohio Speedweek

Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Wayne County SpeedwayWayne County Speedway (Tom Myers) 6/13/22 - The 4th event on this year’s Speedweek schedule was held at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio. Zeb Wise was the winner at Fremont the previous evening and he, along with the other All Stars were looking to either gain or keep momentum as Speedweek continued.

Monday came with a slight chance of some rain later in the evening, but with the humidity and partly cloudy skies, I thought we would have a thunderstorm at any time. The rain held off however and the show went on to completion but not without some hiccups.

There were 42 cars in the pits and there were some new faces making their first race of this year’s Speedweek. Tim Shaffer showed up to pilot the Jay Kiser racing 23 car. Buddy Kofoid was here in the black and blue 11k car and Christopher Bell was driving the Kevin Swindell 39 car. Alex Bowman was here in his beautiful 55x car. Also on hand tonight were Cale Thomas in his own 91 car, Logan McCandless from western PA, and Ricky Peterson in one of the McClure 9 cars, the other being driven by former All Star runner Andrew Paulker.
Carson ShortCarson Short There were a few other guys in the pits that you might know. Kenny and Dean Jacobs, Brad Doty, Jac Haudenschild and Tony Stewart. That was cool to see for sure. I also got to talk with Carson Short a bit. He is really excited about racing with the All Stars full time now in the Snow Racing 17 car.

The track was tacky and smooth. The fast lane was up by the guardrail in the turns, as is usually the case here. In hot laps, Bell had some problems with his ride coming out of gear. Courtney cut down a left rear. When time trials started Macedo laid down a really fast lap and it looked like he might end up with the fast time. He was screaming around the top and flat out. He ended up with the 3rd quickest time overall. Wise was the quick timer, followed by Cale Thomas, Macedo, Bell and PPM. Andrew Paulker got too close to the guardrail in turn two and rode it around until he ended up on top of the dirt pile at the turn 2 exit. He needed repairs. Ian Madsen also smacked the wall at the exit of turn 4 during his time trial. he also returned later.

There were two medical emergencies that delayed the time trials and also the heat races….as the ambulance was needed both times. There were 5 heats taking the top 4 to the A Main. In the 3rd heat, Trey Jacobs blasted around Lee Jacobs on the last lap to grab the last transfer. Bell fell back on the second lap after getting hit with a clump of dirt. He finished 6th. Bell never recovered to be competitive the rest of the evening. I was expecting Kofoid to be a factor and that never materialized.
Tim ShafferTim Shaffer Later on in the evening, before the dash, some of the track lights went out. After about 15 minutes they came back on and the dash was completed. Then they went out again and we waited for the B main to run. Thankfully the rest of the program ran off without a hitch.

Peck and Eliason started on the front row of the 25 lap Duffy Smith Memorial. PPM and DD started row 2. Thomas and Macedo were in row 3 with Courtney and Wise in row 4 with Reinhardt and Schurenburg in row 5. Eliason grabbed the lead at the green and raced out to a sizable distance from Peck. The leaders were racing around the top as Eliason and Peck kind of distanced themselves from the others. A yellow came out on lap 5 for McHugh and Street spinning out. The running order was Eliason, Peck, Thomas who was flying, PPM and Courtney. Eliason stretched his lead again on a clear track and was sailing pretty good.

It stayed this way until Peck caught Eliason around lap 12 and it took 2 or 3 laps of sliders for Peck to get by Eliason and on lap 15 he passed Eliason for the lead. That was good racing! It was then that Cole Macedo flipped it in turn 2, catching his right rear on the guardrail.
Justin Peck won the Speedweek stop at Wayne County MondayJustin Peck won the Speedweek stop at Wayne County Monday Someone always seems to get caught on that turn 2 guardrail. The last time the All Stars were here a few weeks back, Kofoid caught the same turn 2 guardrail with his right rear…..it sucked the front end of the car into it and Buddy flipped OVER the barrier and out of the track. On this night Macedo was okay and was interviewed on the spot by Flo Racing…after they turned him upright and after he got out of the car.

When racing resumed, Peck pulled away as Eliason faded. Thomas came up and passed Eliason and then tried to catch Peck but was unable to get close enough. Then a yellow on lap 20 for Skyler Gee and Carson Shot getting together bunched up the pack again.

On the restart Thomas was able to show his nose by diving low on the turns but Peck powered by up top and raced to the win. Thomas held on to 2nd and Courtney ended up 3rd.

That was a good race. A very hot and muggy evening but a good race.

Thank you All Stars and Thank you Wayne County Speedway. My Speedweek races are done for this year unfortunately. One of these years, I want to go to take a vacation and go to every Speedweek race. Bucket list!