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Three in a Row, Stephens Flexes Muscles at Sandusky MSA

Todd Ridgeway
Area Auto Racing News
June 21, 2014

SANDUSKY (OH) - Car Owner Steve Stout made it three victories in a row in the BioBased.US presented Adkins Glass/Hoosier Tires Midwest Super Modified Association (MSA), this time at Sandusky (OH) Speedway, home of the Supermodifieds. Piloted by three-time series Champion, Trent Stephens went to the front with the Kasper Auto Group/Schaeffer’s Racing Oil burnt orange No. 19 and set sail from there. This was the first time since 2007 that any MSA driver has won three races in a row. Stephens has nailed it at three different tracks; Lorain, Toledo, and Sandusky. Ironically, Dave Shullick Jr. was the last to do it in 2007 and did so in another Steve Stout wrenched and owned car.

The AAA Ohio Auto Club 30 lap MSA feature would get under way when veterans Jon Henes and Denny Fisher would bring the field to the start. Henes would bolt right out to the front and blast off turn two down the backstretch with the field of fire breathing big blocks in tow. A very fast first ten laps, a blistering pace, and Stephens would make his way to the front from the ninth starting position as he and Henes would race side by side for two complete laps with Stephens on the outside. Stephens would drop in behind Henes once again and then in turn one muscle his way to the inside for the short way around and off turn two he got the bite he needed and to the point he went. Three laps later Shullick Jr. made his way past Henes and into second he went chasing after Stephens. A very quick half it was the same three as Stephens now opened up a half straightway lead. The first yellow flew at lap 23 for a spinning race car in turn three. Quickly pushed back off and straightened out the field would get the green for the restart. Shullick Jr. looked to take a shot but Stephens would have nothing to do with it and sailed off. With five laps to go the second and last yellow of the night would fly when Charlie Schultz in the familiar May Motorsports No. 7 experienced a flat left front tire. A quick tire change and to the tail Charlie went and the green dropped. Again Stephens drove off. At the checkers Kyle Edwards came up to third and Mike McVetta sailed home fourth, as Jim Paller would round out the top five in his Precision Welding/Morris Farms familiar No. 64.

A happy winner Stephens was all smiles. “I knew D J would be coming, and that’s what he did the last few races here was get to the front quick. I got passed by him the last race here and I was going to make sure he did not this time. I just sailed to the outside and hoped it stuck, it did and we sailed to the front. On those restarts, I knew he was close. I know he is good on restarts here. I was just making sure I got a good start, a good bit, and not spin the tires. I just wanted to hook the power up and run hard and fast and not screw up. I think I did a good job at that. I cannot thank my guys enough. I race this car hard and never have any issues. It would be nice to win four in a row; no one has ever done that. Heck, I never won two in a row and I was pretty excited about that,” finished Stephens.

“Yeah, we had a good run,” said runner up Shullick Jr. “We were a little off. We tried some new stuff tonight and for the feature we just went back to our base line. We just didn’t have our “A” game tonight. I just could not get any traction on the restarts and spun my tires. For the last restart I tried something different and it didn’t work either. But, that’s ok; you just can’t win them all. Hat’s off to Trent and those guys, they ran a hell of a race, we will come back next time,” finished Shullick Jr.

“We just missed the setup a little bit,” noted Edwards. “I just didn’t work traffic as well as Trent and D J did. But, the car had speed, we just missed the stager. We got the speed in the race car, and I am happy with that. We are making gains there slowly. We will be ready for Lorain. I just want to thank BioBased.us, Blue Arc Design, FK Rod Ends, my Dad he is probably my biggest sponsor. I just want to thank everyone that helps with this car,” finished the third place finisher.

Both Stephens and Schultz won the heat races as Shullick set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 14.462. The BioBased.US MSA group will see action next at Lorain (OH) County Speedway on July 5.

Feature Finish:

19 Stephens
94 Shullick
11 Edwards
22 McVetta
64 Paller
7 Schultz
36 Henes
5 Shirey
77 Riser
8 Marlowe
81 Fisher



Todd Ridgeway
ridgewayphotos1@roadrunner.com
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