Jordan Welch Victorious in the 305 Race Saver Sprints

Written By: Randy Worrell

ORRVILLE – Jordan Welch hasn’t had the greatest start to his season, in fact it has been since the 2020 campaign since the Hoosier state driver had visited victory lane.  

The Clayton, Ind. racer changed all that with a wire-to-wire victory in the 20-lap Ohio Thunder RaceSaver series feature that put a wrap on the Duffy Smith Memorial Ohio Sprint Speedweek stop at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Wayne County Speedway Monday evening. 

Welch charged to the lead from his outside second row starting spot, then survived six yellow flags and the challenges of Michael Helterbran in picking up his first win of the season in the black and orange Justin Posey Motorsports 23. 

“There was a lot of fast race cars behind me, but the track surface was great, and l could move around a little in traffic,” Welch said. “It’s been a tough year so far, but this sure helps. We’ll try to make it back out here to Wayne County in September (the 305 Race Savers are part of the Sept. 4 Pete Jacobs Memorial race).” 

Helterbran kept his 00 machine within striking of Welch for the majority of the event, but was three car lengths short at the stripe. Bryce Norris and Justin Clark, last year’s 305 RaceSaver Pete Jacobs Memorial winner, exchanged third and fourth place on numerous occasions during the event, with Norris eventually claiming third with Clark and Vivian Jones rounding out the top five. Sixth through tenth went to Austin Powell, Roman Jones, Kyle Kruger, Caleb Erwin, and Jacob Stickle. Zach Miller took a nasty tumble in turn 4 during the feature while running in the top five. Miller escaped injury. 

Wayne County Speedway will return to action on Saturday with Late Models, Modifieds, Super Stock and Mini Stocks highlighting the card with the Mod Lites joining the action for the first time this season. The 410 Sprints will return to the speedway Saturday June 25 with the FAST sprint car series making their only visit of the year to “Orrville’s Historic Oval.” 

305 RaceSaver sprints 

Heat 1 – 37-Norris, 23-Welch, 17-Powell, 78-Clark, 20-V. Jones, 14-Stickle, 16-Erwin, 4-Dylan Troyer, 71-Joe Coggin 

Heat 2- 9-Kruger, 86- Miller, 00-Helterbran, 8-Lewie Christian, 82-R. Jones, 25-Jarrett Rosencrance, 97-Chad Hyatt, 9-Matt Warner, 1-Hunter Young 

Feature- 1. Welch, 2. Helterbran, 3. Norris, 4. Clark, 5. V. Jones, 6. Powell, 7. R. Jones, 8. Kruger, 9. Erwin, 10. Stickle, 11. Hyatt, 12. Troyer, 13. Miller, 14. Christian, 15. Rosencrance, 16. Young, 17. Coggin, 18. Warner, 19. Ron Hamlin