Fan Notes from Wayne County Pete Jacobs Memorial

Tyler Street (Hutch Extreme Photo) (Tom Myers) 9/17/2022 – This year, the annual Pete Jacobs Memorial race at Wayne County Speedway met with a bit of adversity, with a rained out original date and a slew of other races on the same evening as the make - up date…..but that didn’t take away from a great night of racing at the Orrville paperclip facility.

It was 1965 when Pete Jacobs, in an effort to have a great place for racers to compete and to have a track where racers were actually paid the advertised purse, decided to build a racetrack. Today we thank him because we do have a racetrack that puts on many good shows and we have a racetrack where we can see some of the best drivers in the world compete. Over the years, many sprint car legends have come here to compete and have won races. The original All Star series competed here in the early 70’s and I think the races were 50 laps back then! Wayne County attracted big time racers Jan Opperman, Bobby Allen, Harold McGilton, and Rick Ferkel to name a few. From the USAC ranks stars such as Tom Bigelow, Pancho Carter, Gary Bettenhausen and Duke Cook came to Orrville to race. More recently, legends such as Swindell, Kinser and Wolfgang stopped in to compete. In the past few years race fans at Wayne County Speedway have had the pleasure of watching Jac and Sheldon Haudenschild, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Dave Blaney, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Rico Abreu, Alex Bowman, Buddy Kofoid and the current World of Outlaws and All Star racers.

So we say, Thank you Pete Jacobs, for building a track and making a great place to race and to watch races. And this is why there is a Pete Jacobs race each year!

Paige Polyak (Hutch Extreme Photo) It was a bummer that there were so many other races around Ohio and PA on this evening. The original race date would have been perfect…dang rain! Anyway, the winner at Orrville would get $15,000 and that’s a good chunk of change. The second place finisher would get $6,000 and third paid $3,000.

There were 24 cars on hand and it was a racy field. Tim Shaffer, who won this race a few years back, was here along with former All Star champion Greg Wilson, all star winner Caleb Griffith, Wayne County track champion Henry Malcuit, recent Attica winner Trey Jacobs, West Virginia hot shoe Andre Layfield, former World of Outlaws racer Paige Polyak, and a young up and comer named Cole Macedo. Cole has 11 feature wins this year and is really fast in the Linder wrenched 18 car.

The track was really smooth and tacky all evening. Tyler Street was the quick timer and won $400 for his efforts. Rounding out the top ten in order were Macedo, Chris Myers, Shaffer, Danny Mumaw, Stuart Brubaker, Ricky Peterson, Malcuit, Trey Jacobs and Leyton Wagner. There were 3 heat races, each one 8 laps with a top 4 invert. The top 2 finishers would go to the dash to determine the starting positions for the first 3 rows of the 35 lap feature.

Bryan Sebetto was on hand, not only to race the 305 car he just started running this year at Attica and Fremont, (after a 4 year absence from racing I might add), but he was also wheeling the Jay Kiser 23 car normally driven by Chris Andrews. It was nice to see Bryan back. He won a lot of 410 races in the #24 Hammer Pallets car a few years back.

Tim Shaffer (Hutch Extreme Photo) The heat one winner was Leyton Wagner, who held off a charging Tim Shaffer for the win.  The finish was 38-Leyton Wagner[1] ; 2. 45-Tim Shaffer[3] ; 3. 4*-Tyler Street[4] ; 4. 9-Ricky Peterson[2] ; 5. 19-Paige Polyak[6] ; 6. 21-Andre Layfield[5] ; 7. 7DK-Dylan Kingan[8] ; 8. 20-Daniel Burkhart[7]. In heat 2, the winner was Local favorite and 2022 track champion Henry Malcuit. Pole sitter Sebetto would fall back to 5th …but then it looked like he put his foot in it and shook off some rust. Sebetto started racing around the top and passed back to 4th at the end. The finish was Henry Malcuit[2] ; 2. 18-Cole Macedo[4] ; 3. 16-Danny Mumaw[3] ; 4. 23-Bryan Sebetto[1] ; 5. 97-Greg Wilson[5] ; 6. 22-Ryan Broughton[6] ; 7. D12-Jason Dolick[7] ; 8. 14Z-Wyatt Zimmerman[8]. After this heat, Macedo and crew thrashed to change a motor.

The heat 3 finish was 38K-Chris Myers[4] ; 2. 35-Stuart Brubaker[3] ; 3. 1M-Jamie Myers[5] ; 4. 8-Zach Ames[1] ; 5. 33W-Caleb Griffith[7] ; 6. 11-Shawn Hubler[6] ; 7. 6J-Jonah Aumend[8] ; 8. 3J-Trey Jacobs[2]. Trey Jacobs, who was staring 2nd, had ignition troubles and had to go pitside. This would put Trey at the tail of the A main. Obviously, this disappointed many in the crowd, and especially Trey, who wants to win this race in a bad way and for obvious reasons!

The 6 lap dash was all Cole Macedo. The dash finish was 18-Cole Macedo[2] ; 2. 45-Tim Shaffer[1] ; 3. 38K-Chris Myers[3] ; 4. 38-Leyton Wagner[4] ; 5. 70-Henry Malcuit[5] ; 6. 35-Stuart Brubaker[6].

Cole Macedo won the Pete Jacobs Memorial (Hutch Extreme Photo) By feature time, the track was still tacky and smooth and racy. Macedo was on the pole with Shaffer alongside. In row 2 it was Chris Myers and Leyton Wagner. In row 3 Malcuit started on the inside with Brubaker alongside him and in row 4 it was fast timer Street with Mumaw alongside. When the green waived, Macedo raced out to the early lead but Shaffer kept within striking distance. Then on the 3rd lap 6th running Stuart Brubaker turned it over in turn 2, but he was okay. When racing resumed, it was more of the same with Macedo getting out to the lead and Shaffer chasing. Shaffer was better in traffic and started to close on Macedo and then on lap 11, 5th running Wagner sailed over the turn 2 guardrail. At the same time Ricky Peterson shredded a left rear tire and got together with Sebetto at the turn one entrance. Peterson resumed racing but Sebetto was done. The running order is Macedo, Shaffer, Chris Myers, Malcuit, Mumaw, Street, Polyak, Jamie Myers, Wilson and Zach Ames.

When the race resumed, Macedo kept the lead with Shaffer not far behind. There was good racing behind the top 2 with Malcuit and Myers and Mumaw and Street mixing it up and later Polyak getting into the top 5 mix. The race ran green until lap 32 when Malcuit, who was in third by this time, stopped on the back stretch. Mumaw, who was in the top 5, also retired with a flat tire. Macedo had been in heavy traffic and Shaffer was on his bumper but couldn’t get by and then the yellow with 3 to go. Now Macedo had a clear track ahead of him. The running order is now Macedo, Shaffer, Chris Myers, Trey Jacobs….wait, Trey Jacobs, up from 24th! Street, Polyak and Wilson made up positions 5th thru 7th. After the restart and on lap 34, 3rd running Chris Myers loses power and Ricky Peterson and Caleb Griffith get caught up in a tangle. All 3 were done for the evening. During the red, the race teams re-fueled for a 1 lap shootout. Macedo races away to win followed by Shaffer, Trey Jacobs, Street, Polyak, Wilson, Jamie Myers, Chris Myers, Ricky Peterson and Zach Ames. That was fun watching Shaffer tail Macedo and it looked like Tim had a shot but then that last yellow! Congrats to Cole Macedo and team. Great job and congrats on a breakout season too!

Thank you Wayne County Speedway! I hope to see you again soon.