Wayne County Speedway
Larson gets first High Limit victory; Gunn leads local contingent at Wayne County
ORRVILLE – Few expected an O’Reilly Auto Parts Wayne County Speedway regular to win Tuesday’s High Limit Sprint Car Series’ Sheldon Haudenschild Buckeye Brawl. In fact, very few wagered a significant amount on any of the speedway’s Fast Five weekly competitors in attendance to make the show.
It was no surprise, then, that NASCAR and dirt car racing star Kyle Larson won the $35,000-plus to-win main or event namesake Haudenschild thrilled the hometown crowd with a cushion-bouncing high-flying act from the fifth row to as high as second late in the 35-lap feature.
Napolean’s Tyler Gunn – in the Wooster-based Sid and Beth Eikleberry and Jim Sipes-owned 91, solidly made the show, however, and led a WCS contingent that raised the bar with their performance against one the stoutest fields of sprint cars and stars assembled.
Gunn, along with last week’s Pine Tree Towing and Recovery feature winner Tyler Street, former WCS track champion Danny Mumaw, two-time WCS 2023 competitor Brandon Spithaler, and young charger Leyton Wagner all threatened to claim an automatic transfer spot with top-7 finishes in their respective 14-car heat races., while Ricky Peterson and Henry Malcuit finished 1-2 in the C main.
Gunn timed 10th quick, and 14th overall, in Group A qualifying and Malcuit 12th, while Street and Sean Rayhall stopped the clocks 13th and 14th, respectively, in Group B just behind Anthony Macri and Danny Dietrich, two of the top central Pennsylvania stars.
“The quality of this field is amazing, just crazy good,” said Dunn. “We were third here last Saturday and closing at the end, but our focus shifted afterward to just trying to make the field, which is a huge accomplishment for our team.”
Dunn did just that by finishing a close second in a loaded B main after a spirited duel with Sye Lynch, Spithaler, and 2022 Eldora Kings Royal champion Brent Marks. “We were fast all night long, and it really got us pumped up when we ran down (Brent) and passed him.”
Street narrowly missed a spot in the A main by finishing seventh in the B after a race-long battle with Marks and Knoxville (Iowa) multi-time champion Brian Brown. Brown went on to finish fourth in the A and garnering the night’s Hard-charger award after starting 25th.
Gunn, who joined the Eikleberry-Sipes team in March, plans to run for the WCS track championship and will be part of the speedway’s Fast Five program this Saturday. “Tonight, was just our third time ever in this car,” Dunn said. “I’ve known (Jim Sipes) for a while and got an unexpected phone call from him this winter and it just worked out. We’re really looking forward to racing here this summer with a lot of big shoes still on the schedule.
“We keep this thing at my shop in Napolean, and l have a top-quality mechanic in Zach Holloway, who has been on the road before with a few traveling teams. We’re really looking forward to a good season. Tonight was a good start by making the show and rolling it back in the trailer in one piece.”
Gunn was credited with a 21st place finish.
Californian Justin Sanders kept Kevin Swindell’s 39 in the runner-up spot behind Larson, with Justin Peck third, Brown fourth, and Rico Abreu fifth. Chris Windom, former Pete Jacobs Memorial winner Aaron Reutzel, Marks, Haudenschild, and Australian James McFadden rounded out the top-10.
Larson led the 54-car field, that included 19 states, Australia, and Canada in qualifying with a lap of 14.059.
WCS returns to action this Saturday with a full Fast Five program of 410 sprints, super late models, modfieds, super stocks and mini stocks. Saturday also marks the season’s first Best Western Motel and Conference Center King of the County series for the super late models.
Qualifying (Group A) : 1. 57-Kyle Larson, 00:14.059[24]; 2. 83-James McFadden, 00:14.160[19]; 3. 9-Chase Randall, 00:14.312[18]; 4. 24-Rico Abreu, 00:14.413[15]; 5. 21H-Brady Bacon, 00:14.415[10]; 6. 11-Cory Eliason, 00:14.459[16]; 7. 19-Brent Marks, 00:14.468[26]; 8. 5T-Ryan Timms, 00:14.469[27]; 9. 4-Chris Windom, 00:14.486[22]; 10. 91-Tyler Gunn, 00:14.556[14];
11. 21-Brian Brown, 00:14.664[21]; 12. 70M-Henry Malcuit, 00:14.696[25]; 13. 29C-Cole Macedo, 00:14.756[3]; 14. 26-Parker Price Miller, 00:14.784[23]; 15. 49X-Cale Thomas, 00:14.817[8]; 16. 81-Lee Jacobs, 00:14.846[13]; 17. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr, 00:14.868[11]; 18. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:14.895[12]; 19. 3J-Dusty Zomer, 00:14.963[2]; 20. 29-Sye Lynch, 00:14.982[1];
21. 38-Leyton Wagner, 00:15.071[17]; 22. 38K-Chris Myers, 00:15.094[20]; 23. 101-Kraig Kinser, 00:15.325[4]; 24. 2MD-Conner Morrell, 00:15.404[9]; 25. 20B-Cody Bova, 00:15.445[6]; 26. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:15.500[7]; 27. 187-Tyler Wiles, 00:16.646[5]
Qualifying (Group B) : 1. 39-Justin Sanders, 00:14.396[11]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:14.471[1]; 3. 8-Aaron Reutzel, 00:14.497[6]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 00:14.584[27]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:14.618[15]; 6. 70-Scotty Thiel, 00:14.643[17]; 7. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 00:14.677[13]; 8. 13-Justin Peck, 00:14.680[22]; 9. 45-Tim Shaffer, 00:14.708[20]; 10. 71-Michael Kofoid, 00:14.740[21];
11. 39M-Anthony Macri, 00:14.802[5]; 12. 48-Danny Dietrich, 00:14.804[23]; 13. 4*-Tyler Street, 00:14.826[2]; 14. 19P-Sean Rayhall, 00:14.832[7]; 15. 55B-Jake Swanson, 00:14.832[12]; 16. 33W-Cap Henry, 00:14.902[10]; 17. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:15.026[3]; 18. 97-JJ Hickle, 00:15.072[14]; 19. 16-Danny Mumaw, 00:15.111[9]; 20. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni, 00:15.121[8];
21. 2-Ricky Peterson, 00:15.145[25]; 22. 25R-Jordan Ryan, 00:15.169[26]; 23. 1-Justin Henderson, 00:15.391[24]; 24. 20-Danial Burkhart, 00:16.236[4]; 25. 6-Frank Rodgers, 00:16.317[16]; 26. (DNS) 3TJ-Trey Jacobs, 00:16.317
Heat Races
Heat 1 (10 Laps – Top 5 Advance) : 1. 57-Kyle Larson[1]; 2. 9-Chase Randall[2]; 3. 21H-Brady Bacon[3]; 4. 4-Chris Windom[5]; 5. 29C-Cole Macedo[7]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[4]; 7. 38-Leyton Wagner[11]; 8. 21-Brian Brown[6]; 9. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[9]; 10. 101-Kraig Kinser[12]; 11. 3J-Dusty Zomer[10]; 12. 49X-Cale Thomas[8]; 13. 187-Tyler Wiles[14]; 14. 20B-Cody Bova[13]
Heat 2 (10 Laps – Top 5 Advance) : 1. 83-James McFadden[1]; 2. 5T-Ryan Timms[4]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 4. 11-Cory Eliason[3]; 5. 26-Parker Price Miller[7]; 6. 91-Tyler Gunn[5]; 7. 29-Sye Lynch[10]; 8. 81-Lee Jacobs[8]; 9. 99-Skylar Gee[9]; 10. 38K-Chris Myers[11]; 11. 70M-Henry Malcuit[6]; 12. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[13]; 13. 2MD-Conner Morrell[12]
Heat 3 (10 Laps – Top 5 Advance) : 1. 39-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 4. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[4]; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri[6]; 6. 4*-Tyler Street[7]; 7. 33W-Cap Henry[9]; 8. 45-Tim Shaffer[5]; 9. 25R-Jordan Ryan[12]; 10. 55B-Jake Swanson[8]; 11. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[11]; 12. 97-JJ Hickle[10]; 13. 20-Danial Burkhart[13]; 14. (DNS) 3TJ-Trey Jacobs
Heat 4 (10 Laps – Top 5 Advance) : 1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 3. 13-Justin Peck[4]; 4. 71-Michael Kofoid[5]; 5. 48-Danny Dietrich[6]; 6. 22S-Brandon Spithaler[8]; 7. 16-Danny Mumaw[10]; 8. 1-Justin Henderson[12]; 9. 19P-Sean Rayhall[7]; 10. 2-Ricky Peterson[11]; 11. 70-Scotty Thiel[3]; 12. 6-Frank Rodgers[13]; 13. 22-Riley Goodno[9]
LCQ
C-Main (Top 4 Advance) : 1. 2-Ricky Peterson[4]; 2. 70M-Henry Malcuit[7]; 3. 55B-Jake Swanson[2]; 4. 97-JJ Hickle[8]; 5. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[6]; 6. 22-Riley Goodno[14]; 7. 3J-Dusty Zomer[5]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[11]; 9. 2MD-Conner Morrell[15]; 10. 187-Tyler Wiles[13]; 11. 101-Kraig Kinser[1]; 12. 6-Frank Rodgers[10]; 13. (DNS) 38K-Chris Myers; 14. (DNS) 49X-Cale Thomas; 15. 20-Danial Burkhart; 16. (DNS) 20B-Cody Bova; 17. (DNS) 3TJ-Trey Jacobs
B-Main (Top 4 Advance) : 1. 70-Scotty Thiel[2]; 2. 91-Tyler Gunn[3]; 3. 29-Sye Lynch[7]; 4. 22S-Brandon Spithaler[6]; 5. 19-Brent Marks[1]; 6. 21-Brian Brown[9]; 7. 4*-Tyler Street[4]; 8. 16-Danny Mumaw[10]; 9. 45-Tim Shaffer[12]; 10. 17S-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[13]; 11. 33W-Cap Henry[8]; 12. 38-Leyton Wagner[5]; 13. 70M-Henry Malcuit[19]; 14. 25R-Jordan Ryan[16]; 15. 2-Ricky Peterson[18]; 16. 99-Skylar Gee[15]; 17. 55B-Jake Swanson[20]; 18. 1-Justin Henderson[14]; 19. 19P-Sean Rayhall[17]; 20. 81-Lee Jacobs[11]; 21. (DNS) 97-JJ Hickle
Dash
The top 2 from each heat advanced into the dash. This sets the front four rows of the feature:
Dash (6 Laps) : 1. 9-Chase Randall[1]; 2. 39-Justin Sanders[2]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[6]; 4. 83-James McFadden[4]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 6. 8-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 7. 52-Blake Hahn[3]; 8. 5T-Ryan Timms[7]
Main Event
$32,023 to win
1. 57-Kyle Larson[3]
2. 39-Justin Sanders[2]
3. 13-Justin Peck[12]
4. 21-Brian Brown[25]
5. 24-Rico Abreu[11]
6. 4-Chris Windom[13]
7. 8-Aaron Reutzel[6]
8. 19-Brent Marks[26]
9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[10]
10. 83-James McFadden[4]
11. 48-Danny Dietrich[20]
12. 22S-Brandon Spithaler[24]
13. 21H-Brady Bacon[9]
14. 29C-Cole Macedo[17]
15. 39M-Anthony Macri[18]
16. 71-Michael Kofoid[16]
17. 26-Parker Price Miller[19]
18. 29-Sye Lynch[23]
19. 5T-Ryan Timms[8]
20. 9-Chase Randall[1]
21. 91-Tyler Gunn[22]
22. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[5]
23. 11-Cory Eliason[15]
24. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[14]
25. 70-Scotty Thiel[21]
26. 52-Blake Hahn[7]
