LAKE ODESSA, Mich. — July 17, 2010 was a date that stood as a reminder of Rusty Schlenk’s last win with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals. That was, until Wednesday.
The 2018 DIRTcar Late Model national points champion from Jackson, Mich., returned to victory lane on the Hell Tour for the first time in nearly 16 years in front of a packed home-state crowd at I-96 Speedway to celebrate his third career series victory.
“I’m a sore loser, man. I hate losing and I know it’d be different if I knew we couldn’t win them,” Schlenk said. “We’re competitive with these guys; we always run good with them. I knew we could do it, so I kept trying. I love the Hell Tour. We’re always in contention; we just could never pull off another one. We’ve had stuff break, crashes, you name it. So, thank goodness we got it done tonight.”
The 30-lap main event in the Hell Tour’s return to Lake Odessa for the first time in five years started with a three-car battle for the lead in the opening laps between Sam Seawright, Frank Heckenast Jr. and Tanner English.
Seawright took the lead on Lap 1, but behind them, Schlenk was on the move as he charged to the front of the field from fifth on the starting grid. On Lap 6, Schlenk found momentum off the exit of Turn 2 and crossed under Heckenast to take third as he set his sights on the lead duo of Seawright and English.
Schlenk continued to work his way around the three-eighths-mile oval on the top side in pursuit of the leaders, and by Lap 13 had closed the gap to their rear bumpers. When Seawright and English both went low in Turns 1 and 2, Schlenk powered by both on the top, getting both cars in one corner to take the lead on Lap 14.
Schlenk hit lap traffic just after the halfway point, but a caution on Lap 17 for a slowing Heckenast in Turn 1 paused the action gave him a clear track for the restart.
English was strong on the bottom as the field went back to green, but Schlenk was too strong on the cushion, pulling away over the final 13 laps and leading the field back around to the checkers.
“Winning is cool but winning in front of your home state crowd is even cooler,” Schenk said. “We moved back to Michigan this year, so I consider this one of our home tracks. I’ve won a lot of races around this place, and it’s always been one of my favorites. I got a whole bunch of fans up in the stands, so to do it in front of them, it’s absolutely huge.”
English finished second with Feger third. Travis Stemler and Luke Morey rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 91-Rusty Schlenk[5]; 2. 96-Tanner English[4]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 4. 4-Travis Stemler[12]; 5. 49-Luke Morey[6]; 6. 42-Chad Finley[11]; 7. 21B-Rich Bell[9]; 8. 51-Devin Shiels[10]; 9. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[7]; 10. 74-Mitch McGrath[18]; 11. 87-Rich Neiser[17]; 12. 07-Rylee Knoll[22]; 13. 46-Colin Shipley[20]; 14. 27-Eric Spangler[21]; 15. 94-Bill Bray[16]; 16. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 17. 23-Brian Ruhlman[13]; 18. 16S-Sam Seawright[2]; 19. M14-Brandon Thirlby[8]; 20. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[1]; 21. 1*-Kyle Moore[14]; 22. 21N-Logan Nickerson[15]
