Championship Fourpeat and Checkers for Stephens at Sandusky Season Finale Posted on 10/13/2014 at 10:17:47 PM by Jarrett
During the season finale for the MSA supermodifieds late Sunday afternoon, Trent Stephens knew on the final lap that he had the 2014 BioBased.US Midwest Supermodified Association championship pretty well in hand, and with the power of this knowledge, Stephens took his #19 ACME Racing supermodified sponsored by Kasper Auto Group and he powered his way alongside 2010 MSA champion "Chargin' Charlie" Schultz. At the line, the 2011-2014 MSA points champion would beat Schultz’ #7 Design Engineering Inc. sponsored car at the line by less than one tenth of a second. The race was marred by several caution periods including a short red flag to patch the Sandusky Speedway’s weathered surface. DJ Shullick made history Saturday afternoon by becoming the fastest man to ever circle the historic half-mile with a lap time of 14.045 seconds in his #95 Elios Financial Group sponsored roadster nicknamed “Ice” for its beautiful blue graphics scheme. Stephens, Kyle Edwards, and Jon Henes won their heat races Saturday evening.
Matt Marlowe in the BioBased.US sponsored #37 sat on the pole position for the forty lap grind alongside supermodified veteran Jon Henes. Henes would rocket to the lead on the start in his #36 Perfection Fabricators car followed by the #77 Frank May Garage car of AJ Lesiecki. The second circuit would see the caution come out for the #22 “Ketchup ‘n’ Mustard Special” of Mike McVetta spin on the front straightaway. Unfortunately, this caution period would turn into a red flag as Trent Stephens stopped his burnt-orange #19 at the flagstand to alert officials that the track surface was coming apart near the wall. Thirty minutes, a few bags of asphalt, and some torchwork later, the race would be back underway with one lap in the books. McVetta would be out of the race at this juncture with broken brake components, as would the #63 Burdette Bennett owned supermodified driven by Kevin Feeney. The running order would be Henes, Lesiecki, Marlowe, Dave McKnight, and Charlie Schultz.
The restart would see Henes rocket away from Lesiecki; however, Marlowe and the #70 car of Canadian supermodified legend Dave McKnight would slip backwards in the lineup, allowing Schultz and DJ Shullick to take third and fourth respectively on lap four. The following lap, the #07 piloted by Kevin Jaycox Jr. would spin on the front straightaway, requiring a caution to re-fire the BioBased.US sponsored car. The running order at this juncture of the event was Henes, Lesiecki, Schultz, Shullick, and McKnight.
The restart would see Henes once again continue his flawless starts, pulling away from the field as Schultz stormed by May Motorsports teammate AJ Lesiecki for second place on lap seven. DJ Shullick would pull the same move on Lesiecki for third on lap eight, but the effort would be for naught as Larry Lehnert spun in turn two in the #92. This caution would have polesitter Matt Marlowe retire from the race, along with Kevin Shirey in the Joe Gillingham #5 roadster and Hannibal, New York’s veteran supermodified innovator Howard Page in his new #18. The top five for this restart would be Henes, Schultz, Lesiecki, Shullick, and 2014 MSA points champion Trent Stephens. The three retirees had sealed Stephens’ fourth consecutive title at this juncture of the race.
The restart with seven laps in would play out with Henes continuing dominance over Charlie Schultz, however DJ Shullick would pressure for and finally take the third running position from AJ Lesiecki on the restart. Stephens would pass Lesiecki on lap seventeen followed by Kyle Edwards and the two-time winner of Oswego Speedway’s Budweiser International Classic 200, Davey Hamilton. With nineteen laps in, just prior to the halfway mark of the race, Kevin Jaycox Jr. would once again loop his #07 Rhode Law Offices supermodified on the front straightaway. The car was determined to be leaking oil from the driveshaft area, and officials sent Jaycox to the pits for the remainder of the event. Dave McKnight was also black flagged by his crew to pit for adjustments at this early stage of the race. The running order was Henes, Schultz, Shullick, Stephens, and Edwards.
Henes would lead at halfway as Shullick and Schultz battled for the runner-up position. Shullick would finally find a way around on lap twenty-four to give chase to the leader. Danny Shirey, driving the #49 ACME Racing hotrod part-time in 2014, would spin with eleven laps to go. This caution period gave DJ Shullick, the fastest man to ever circle the Sandusky and Oswego Speedways, the chance to pass the dominant Jon Henes with a good restart. Charlie Schultz, Trent Stephens , and Kyle Edwards rounded out the top five, continuing their points battle to the very end of the 40 lap affair.
On the restart both Henes and Shullick got loose in turn four, causing contact and a spin on the front straightaway. Shullick, with front end damage, was out of the event at this point, while Henes lost the lead after a dominant first three-quarter of the race, getting sent to the tail end of the dwindling field for bringing out the caution. This turn of events gave Charlie Schultz the lead with Stephens, Edwards, Jim Paller, and Davey Hamilton rounding out the top five. “Chargin’ Charlie” blasted to the lead with Stephens on his bumper for nearly the entire final eleven laps. However, on the final lap, Schultz would allow Stephens under him in turn one, forcing him to make a defensive move off of two to maintain the lead, but Stephens would charge to the outside in turns three and four, providing a drag race to the finish rivaling some of the best in speedway history. Stephens would edge Schultz by seven hundredths of a second at the line, followed by Edwards, Paller, and Hamilton rounding out the top five. AJ Lesiecki, Dave McKnight, Rich Reid, Danny Shirey, Jon Henes, and Mark Miller would round out the finishing field in the forty lap grind that started nineteen of “the world’s ultimate short track racecars”, the winged supermodifieds.