Sherman Rules With Modified Mayhem At Limaland

(5/1/15) – The first day of May greeted competitors and racing fans alike with a near perfect evening of conditions as an impressive collection of K & N UMP Modified cars gathered to do battle. Ironically, the racer who has been the statistically most dominant in the 18 seasons of UNOH operation of the facility, Indiana’s Todd Sherman, made the 20-lap `Modified Mayhem’ feature event his own playground.

Through the heat races and inversion draw, Sherman found himself on the pole to start the marquee event. He led through the opening lap, but quickly found himself fighting off an aggressive challenge from Shawn Valenti. Sherman raced through the middle to low grooves on the track, with Valenti choosing a much higher outside line. Jeff Koz and Zeke McKenzie were also in the mix at the front through the opening six circuits.

Following the restart on lap number seven, Sherman made a slight adjustment to his racing line and proceeded to roll through what would ultimately be a flag-to-flag leading performance. “I have a guy on the backstretch, signaling me, and he said go higher,” revealed Sherman in the winner’s circle. “I think it was the right move as we pulled away a little bit. It’s a total team effort with this deal as there are no rear view mirrors on these cars.”

It marked the 42nd career feature win at Limaland for Sherman and he was designated by on-track announcer Greg Stolly as a true “Legend of Limaland.”
Sherman, standing next to his familiar #65 Modified, was humble as he became the initial two-time winner for the 2015 campaign. “It’s pretty cool to be a Legend of Limaland. As a young kid I always dreamed of being a race car driver.”

The K & L Ready Mix NRA Sprint Invaders took over for their 25-lap feature, looking for a third different winner on the young 2015 season. Previous winners J.R. Stewart and Kyle Sauder were both relegated to mid-pack starting slots, while traditional top contenders Tim Allison and Randy Hannagan had much preferred first and second row starting positions.

The veteran Allison had a runner-up finish at the track two weeks ago, and on this night roared to the early lead. He took his #11 machine on a high side ride around the ¼-mile oval and controlled the event through a 15-lap stretch of racing from the opening green flag. The restart following a caution period at lap 16 saw Allison trying to hold off Dustin Stroup, Hannagan, and former winners Max Stambaugh and Jared Horstman.

A second quick yellow flag forced another restart on lap number eighteen, and had Randy Hannagan in hot pursuit of Allison. The sprint car veteran from California was able to execute a clean pass inside of Allison through turn three on lap number 20. Allison had a chance to recapture the lead with a final restart of the race on lap 21. He slipped a bit and that’s all the advantage Hannagan needed to solidify his lead and storm to the checkered flag.

“Tonight everything worked for us,” stated the Yoakam Motorsports driver. “When I got up to Tim’s bumper, this car just worked like it is supposed to. We started to find it last week in the feature and it showed as we went from 12th to fifth. We were the same as last week in the main event and now here we are. I want to dedicate this win to (owner) Dennis Yoakam’s brother Donald who is getting ready for some serious surgery in the next few weeks.”

It is Hannagan’s 17th career win at Limaland Motorsports Park and he becomes a third Sprint car to qualify for the season-ending Reineke Family of Dealerships King of the Quarter Mile races.

The Budweiser Thunderstocks division also had different winners through the first two weeks and this night would produce another first-time 2015 winner. Veteran Shawn Valenti looked to be a formidable competitor as he started from the pole after finishing either first or second in the previous two features this season.

There was some vehicle contact on lap number four between Valenti and Jordon Conover. Both drivers maintained control while moving forward with Conover occupying the race lead and setting sail on a top-of-track stroll. Longtime stock car ace Tony Anderson gradually got into contention from his 12th place starting position. Anderson muscled through the bottom of the track and Conover continued to blast around the top. He was producing some rooster tails of dirt as he ripped through some of the loose dirt near the wall.

A final restart with two laps remaining was not enough for Anderson to overtake Conover at the finish. “This car is phenomenal working through turns 3 and 4. Turn number two was a little slick tonight compared to the first two weeks,” said an excited Jordon Conover, on the occasion of his second career feature win. “I couldn’t do this without my dad. He had a stroke and we weren’t much last year. But if it wasn’t for his work, we wouldn’t be sitting here tonight. My whole crew and family are just great. I can’t thank them enough.”

Limaland Motorsports Park returns to action on Friday, May 8, with Meet the Drivers Night, featuring the K & L Ready Mix NRA Sprint Invaders. Also the K & N Filters UMP Modifieds and Budweiser Thunderstocks will compete. Gates open at 5:00 p.m. with hot laps at 6:30 p.m. Racing begins promptly at 7:30 p.m.

All the latest news and information about America’s premier quarter-mile dirt track can be found at www.limaland.com.

Limaland Motorsports Park – 5/1/2015
K&N Filters Night

McDonald’s Dash (5 Laps)
1. X-Jerry Bowersock; 2. 65-Todd Sherman
3. L5-Casey Luedeke, 4. 22T-Tony Anderson

K&L Ready Mix NRA Sprints
Heat 1 – (8 Laps – Top 7 Transfer)
1. 10X-Dustin Stroup, 2. 23-Devon Dobie, 3. 49-Shawn Dancer
4. 28H-Hud Horton, 5. 83-Kyle Sauder, 6. B20-Butch Schroeder
7. 5W-Jeff Williams

Heat 2 – (8 Laps – Top 7 Transfer)
1. 22H-Randy Hannagon, 2. 6M-Max Stambaugh, 3. 8J-Jess Stiger
4. 57-Mike Dunlap, 5. 12R-Nick Roberts, 6. 12J-Tyler Moore
7. 27R-Kyle Locke

Heat 3 – (8 Laps – Top 7 Transfer)
1. 11-Tim Allison, 2. 35-Ron Blair, 3. 17-Jared Horstman
4. 6S-Jr Stewart, 5. 22R-Kevin Roberts, 6. 31N-Rod Henning
7. 16B-Dakota Busche

A-Main – (25 Laps) [#]-Starting Position
1. 22H-Randy Hannagon[3]; 2. 6M-Max Stambaugh[5]; 3. 11-Tim Allison[2];
4. 17-Jared Horstman[9]; 5. 10X-Dustin Stroup[4]; 6. 23-Devon Dobie[1];
7. 28H-Hud Horton[10]; 8. 6S-Jr Stewart[12]; 9. 49-Shawn Dancer[7];
10. 35-Ron Blair[6]; 11. 22R-Kevin Roberts[15]; 12. B20-Butch Schroeder[16]; 13. 57-Mike Dunlap[11]; 14. 83-Kyle Sauder[13]; 15. 31N-Rod Henning[18];
16. 8J-Jess Stiger[8]; 17. 16B-Dakota Busche[21]; 18. 12J-Tyler Moore[17];
19. 5W-Jeff Williams[19]; 20. 27R-Kyle Locke[20]; 21. 12R-Nick Roberts[14]

K&N UMP Modifieds
Heat 1 – (8 Laps – Top 4 Transfer)
1. 9V-Shawn Valenti, 2. 34X-Brandon Vaughan, 3. 20K-Bill Keeler,
4. X-Jerry Bowersock, 5. L5-Casey Luedeke, 6. 17T-Michael Tarlton
7. 18N-Derrick Noffsinger, 8. 96-Pete Wormcastle

Heat 2 – (8 Laps – Top 4 Transfer)
1. 18-Ryan Sutter, 2. 16-Jeff Koz, 3. 46-Andy Bibler
4. 10L-Nathan Loney, 5. 35-Bobby Stremme, 6. 57-Tyler Fitzpatrick
7. 17-Nick Felkey

Heat 3 – (8 Laps – Top 4 Transfer)
1. 24-Zeke Mckenzie, 2. 3W-Dylan Woodling, 3. 4-Jason Kinney
4. 22T-Tony Anderson, 5. 28-Chad Rosenbeck, 6. 36D-Tom Conrad Jr.
7. 19B-Brandon Ordway

Heat 4 – (8 Laps – Top 4 Transfer)
1. 65-Todd Sherman, 2. 10-Scott Bowersock, 3. 71-Joel Ortberg
4. 2B-Darryl Banks, 5. 19-Ryan Ordway, 6. 1-Andy Galgoci
7. 11H-Mike Hohlbein

B-Main – (8 Laps – Top 4 Transfer)
1. L5-Casey Luedeke, 2. 35-Bobby Stremme, 3. 28-Chad Rosenbeck
4. 19-Ryan Ordway, 5. 1-Andy Galgoci, 6. 18N-Derrick Noffsinger
7. 17-Nick Felkey, 8. 57-Tyler Fitzpatrick, 9. 17T-Michael Tarlton
10. 96-Pete Wormcastle, 11. 36D-Tom Conrad Jr., 12. 19B-Brandon Ordway
13. 11H-Mike Hohlbein

A-Main – (20 Laps) [#]-Starting Position
1. 65-Todd Sherman[1]; 2. 9V-Shawn Valenti[4]; 3. 24-Zeke Mckenzie[2] 4. 3W-Dylan Woodling[7]; 5. 10-Scott Bowersock[8]; 6. 46-Andy Bibler[10] 7. 71-Joel Ortberg[12]; 8. 22T-Tony Anderson[15]; 9. 10L-Nathan Loney[14] 10. X-Jerry Bowersock[13]; 11. 16-Jeff Koz[6]; 12. 4-Jason Kinney[11];
13. 34X-Brandon Vaughan[5]; 14. L5-Casey Luedeke[17];
15. 35-Bobby Stremme[18]; 16. 28-Chad Rosenbeck[19];
17. 2B-Darryl Banks[16]; 18. 18-Ryan Sutter[3]; 19. 20K-Bill Keeler[9] 20. 19-Ryan Ordway[20]

Bud Thunderstocks
Heat 1 – (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. 26-Justin Long, 2. OOP-Dean Pitts, 3. 1-Jared Spalding,
4. 89-Keith Schockery, 5. 2-Jordon Lawrence, 6. 23-Casey Barr
7. 22X-Rich Smith, 8. OOW-Corey Wooten

Heat 2 – (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. 7B-Shawn Valenti, 2. 99-Andy King, 3. 71-Barney Craig
4. 53-Shane Aeschliman, 5. 52G-Stacey Gazarek, 6. 54-Dan Wooten
7. 1W-Mark Wooten, 8. 32-Scott Boyd Jr.

Heat 3 – (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. 7C-Jordan Conover, 2. 27-Frank Paladino, 3. 82-Chris Douglas
4. 22T-Tony Anderson, 5. OO-Paul Norris, 6. O1-Austen Raybourn
7. 17J-Jarrod Klay, 8. 21X-Rk Smith

B-Main – (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. 23-Casey Barr, 2. O1-Austen Raybourn, 3. 1W-Mark Wooten
4. 17J-Jarrod Klay, 5. 32-Scott Boyd Jr., 6. 54-Dan Wooten
7. 22X-Rich Smith, 8. OOW-Corey Wooten, 9. 21X-Rk Smith

A-Main – (15 Laps) [#]-Starting Position
1. 7C-Jordan Conover[3]; 2. 22T-Tony Anderson[12]; 3. 27-Frank Paladino[6];
4. 71-Barney Craig[8]; 5. 1-Jared Spalding[7]; 6. 7B-Shawn Valenti[1];
7. 2-Jordon Lawrence[13]; 8. 99-Andy King[5]; 9. 26-Justin Long[2] 10. 53-Shane Aeschliman[11]; 11. 89-Keith Schockery[10];
12. 82-Chris Douglas[9]; 13. OO-Paul Norris[15]; 14. O1-Austen Raybourn[17] 15. 17J-Jarrod Klay[19]; 16. 32-Scott Boyd Jr.[20]; 17. 23-Casey Barr[16] 18. OOP-Dean Pitts[4]; 19. 1W-Mark Wooten[18]; 20.52G-Stacey Gazarek[14]