Fan Notes from Wayne County Pete Jacobs Memorial 9-3-17

Travis Philo (Tom Myers) 9/3/2017, Orrville, Ohio – The All Star Circuit of Champions sanctioned Pete Jacobs Memorial. $10,000 to win. My fourth race in three days. Beautiful weather. A race twenty minutes from my house! Labor Day weekend. What more could anyone want?

Thirty four cars showed up to do battle on Sunday at Wayne County Speedway. I was expecting more but I didn’t realize that the FAST series had a race at Waynesfield and the OVSCA also had a race in southern Ohio. In addition, Sammy Swindell, who was supposed to race here, broke a motor on the last lap at Attica the previous night and Dean Jacobs couldn’t race because of unforeseen circumstances. There were a few other racers who suffered mechanical issues and wrecked some equipment the night before too…or there may have been close to forty cars. In any case, it was a quality field and a great evening of racing.

Andrew Palker The track was tacky and smooth after the track crew had put plenty of water on it. Of those in the pits, Joey Saldana was the favorite in my mind to win another ten grand. Some of the track regulars were hoping to break through and make some noise. I was anticipating a good showing from Danny Mumaw, Brad Haudenschild and this year’s track champion and former All Star Andrew Paulker. Tim Shaffer was in the pits too…trying to add to his weekend’s winnings. Brandon Wimmer was in the pits too. The Shewbrooks 67A car that Brandon is driving made a first appearance at Wayne County a few weeks ago. Mr. Shewbrooks liked the track and experience so he decided to come back and race again. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Saldana had the fastest overall time. Tim Shaffer, Jordan Mackison and Caleb Armstrong were fastest in their qualifying groups. The heat one finish was Cale Conley, Ryan Smith, Lee Jacobs, Max Stambaugh and Trevor Baker, who won a feature here a week ago. The top five were transferring to the feature. In the second heat, Jordan Harble rolled it over in turn three but he was okay. The finish was T.J. Michaels, Cole Duncan, Tim Shaffer, Brandon Wimmer, and Andrew Paulker. Paulker had changed an engine after time trials. He had a sputter that started at Attica and no matter what they did, they just couldn’t get the motor to run right. Andrew has two regular helpers and his dad with him, but I saw at least eight guys helping change that motor! It’s neat to see how folks rush to help each other. One young fellow walked up while they were working on the car and obviously he was a friend of Andrew’s. He asked if they needed any more helpers. He was told no but thanks anyway. Not much later this young man was putting the headers on the new motor! In heat three, Tyler Esh bounced in turn three and did a few hard flips. He was okay but had much work to do to make it out for the B main. On the restart, Clay Riney flipped over turn two. He was okay but watch out, the track was grabbing right rears! The heat three finish was Saldana, Mumaw, Travis Philo, who was driving one of the 9x cars instead of his own 5t, Dale Blaney in the Baughman 17 and Brad Haudenschild. The heat four finish was Chad Kemenah, Caleb Helms, Caleb Armstrong, Brandon Spithaler and Ryan Broughton.

Danny Mumaw Back in the pits, there was a major thrash going on as the Mackisons and the Kemenah’s were helping fix Tyler Esh’s ride. It was really neat to see so many of the other teams helping Tyler get his car ready to get in the B main. It took forever and much pounding to get the mangled left rear wheel off the car. It also looked like a right front shock mount was broken off…it looked like they put a new one on the frame….it was some kind of a clamp that tightened around the down tube right where the old shock mount was. After all the fixing, they just made it in time. Tyler then won the B followed by Brandon Matus, Jordan Mackison, and George Hobaugh.

After the dashes the A main front row was Saldana on the pole with Kemenah alongside. Row two was Mumaw and Conley, row three Helms and Shaffer, row four Duncan and Ryan Smith and row five Michaels and Dale Blaney.

Caleb Helms won the Pete Jacobs Memorial When the A main started, Saldana grabbed the lead with Kemenah trailing and then a yellow on lap one. Another yellow on lap three for a spin and then a red on lap five for a George Harbough flip. He was oaky. On lap seven, Trevor Bakers stops and brings out a yellow. By this time, Mumaw had moved up and was battling Helms for second. The running order was Saldana, Mumaw, Helms, Shaffer and Kemenah. On the restart, Mumaw got a run on Saldana and grabbed the lead out of turn two. Saldana did a slide job in turn three but Mumaw did a diamond off of turn four to cut in front down the straight. On lap nine Philo and Jordan Mackison got together in turn one bringing out yet another yellow as Mumaw was now leading. On the restart Mumaw gets out in front and now Helms is pressuring Saldana for second. Helms passes Saldana and then Saldana passes Helms back. There is furious racing now as the leaders are in traffic. Saldana gets up on Mumaw again and they battle through traffic. On lap sizteen, Mumaw comes off turn two high but gets behind a lapped car..and at the same time Saldana gets a run down low off turn two. As Mumaw turns down to maneuver around the lapped car, both he and Saldana touch and both spin out! That leaves Helms as the leader with Tim Shaffer in second. Cole Duncan is now up to third followed by Kemenah, Conley and Ryan Smith. Too bad for Danny Mumaw. Man, was he fast! Helms stays in front after the restart and the action goes green until lap twenty nine when Spithaler spins out. Shaffer had pulled up almost even with Helms the last few laps in traffic until the yellow. Helms then holds on for his first All Star win and a $10,000 win at that! Good for him, a great job of driving. Shaffer comes home second and earns another $ 2,750 to run his weekend total to at least $17,050. Not bad. Andrew Paulker, after a motor change, charged from twentieth to ninth at the checkers, moving up more spots than anyone else in the feature.

A great race with great track prep and little dust and the feature was over by ten thirty! Nice job Wayne County Speedway! Thank you All Stars. What a great weekend. We will see the All Stars again at Wayne County Speedway on October 7!