ATTICA, Ohio — It may have taken Zeb Wise until June to score his first Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 victory of the season, but to those in attendance at Attica Raceway Park, the victory was well worth the wait.
Wise put fans on their feet Friday night at the third-mile dirt track, outdueling Rudeen Racing’s Cory Eliason in all-out slider fest for a $6,000 payday.
The victory, the third of Zeb’s All Star career and his second at the Attica venue, was accomplished from the pole position, leading the first 17 laps before surrendering the top spot to Eliason.
Elbows deep in traffic, the pair commenced their slide-job exchanges on lap 20 beginning with Wise sliding Eliason for the lead at the exit of turn four. Wasting little time, Eliason returned the favor immediately, getting by Wise in the exact same manner on lap 21.
Not willing to give up, Wise maintained his momentum and quickly set the stage for another slider, again using the bottom to turn three and four to drive up and in front of Eliason on lap 22.
A few circuits later on lap 26, Eliason tried another slider on Wise, but the young Hoosier held tight and kept the No. 26 behind him. From that point forward, it was smooth sailing for the third-year All Star, utilizing a late race red on lap 32 to rid the surface of slower cars and dirty air.
Eliason would hold on to finish second, followed by Hunter Schuerenberg, Justin Peck and Tyler Courtney.
“How about that race? That was awesome,” Wise explained. “Man, what a race. There in lapped traffic it was so hard to tell where to be. I felt like I was going to slow on the bottom. I tried the top one time and I saw Cory on the bottom. The way the lapped cars were running it was so hard for me to stay behind them but that was the best thing I could have done.”
Paul Weaver won the 305 sprint car feature and Rusty Schlenk claimed the late model main event.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 10-Zeb Wise [1]; 2. 26-Cory Eliason [2]; 3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [3]; 4. 13-Justin Peck [13]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [10]; 6. 4-Cap Henry [12]; 7. 18-Cole Macedo [5]; 8. 3J-Trey Jacobs [15]; 9. 49X-Ian Madsen [7]; 10. 5T-Travis Philo [16]; 11. 97-Greg Wilson [22]; 12. 5-Byron Reed [20]; 13. 28-Brandon Spithaler [11]; 14. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [17]; 15. 19-Chris Windom [24]; 16. 11-Parker Price Miller [6]; 17. 17B-Bill Balog [9]; 18. 23-Chris Andrews [21]; 19. O9-Craig Mintz [4]; 20. 16-DJ Foos [19]; 21. 25R-Jordan Ryan [14]; 22. 35-Stuart Brubaker [8]; 23. 70-Henry Malcuit [18]; 24. 7-Scott Bogucki [23]; 25. 8-Zach Ames [25]