By Scott Hall: ROSSBURG, OH — It was a night of firsts Saturday night at Eldora Speedway in the All Star sprint 30-lap feature. The season opener for Eldora Speedway paid $5,000 to 20-year-old Blake Feese for his first career Eldora win and first career All Star win. The win for the Saybrook, IL driver came by a quarter lap over Jeff Shepard and Kenny Jacobs.

"This is pretty amazing," the youngster revealed in victory lane. "I’ve loved this track since the first time I came here. To run 30 laps and stay out of trouble and get through lapped traffic was lucky. I had a couple of close calls in lapped traffic. I had to tell myself to be calm, it’s only 30 laps. It’s an awesome feeling to be standing here."

Feese’s winning ride was a Maxim owned by his father and utilized a Don Ott engine and Hoosier tires. Feese also credited former driver Charlie Fisher for his advice throughout the evening.

Jim Nier started on the pole with Rodney Duncan alongside, and Todd Kane and Chad Kemenah were in row two, followed by Kenny Jacobs and Feese. Nier jumped out to the initial lead, leading Kemenah until the lead duo entered lapped traffic, allowing Kemenah to duck under Nier and lead lap five. As Kemenah came out of turn three in the next lap, his machine lost power with a blown engine right in front of Nier, resulting in Nier catapulting over the right rear of the leader and slamming into the turn four concrete very hard and flipping. Although Nier’s machine was destroyed by the impact, he emerged uninjured.

This handed the lead to Feese for the lap six restart over Jacobs and Jeff Shepard, up from 11th. Feese pulled away from the pack on the restart, with Jacobs still in second when the leaders entered lapped traffic again on lap nine. Shepard was able to move up on Jacobs and challenge for second in lapped traffic, but it took careful driving by the pair to avoid the backmarkers.

As Feese stretched his lead, Shepard was right on the car of Jacobs and he finally made a low groove move into second on lap 19. A Mike Wagner spin on lap 21 brought out the final caution of the race. Feese had a cushion of five lapped cars for the restart over Shepard, in his first drive for the Denny Ashworth team, Jacobs, Butch Schroeder and Dean Jacobs, who started last after engine trouble in time trials. Dean Jacobs passed Schroeder for fourth on lap 23, and that’s how the race finished, with Feese winning by a quarter lap. Behind the Jacobs brothers it was Schroeder fifth, Duncan sixth, Danny Smith seventh, Todd Kane eighth, Leonard Lee ninth after starting 14th and Ed Lynch Jr. was tenth.

The Crown Battery heat fell to Jeff Shepard, the B&B Products heat went to Dustin Trost, the Engler Machine and Tool heat was won by Paul McMahan and the TP Wings heat fell to Danny Smith. Butch Schroeder won the B Main and Todd Kane captured the Haulmark Dash. Feese was the top qualifier at 13.167 seconds for a speed of 136.705 mph. Phil Gressman scratched from the A feature lineup, allowing alternate Mike Miller into the field.

Time Trials: 1. Blake Feese, Feese 1f, 13.167; 2. Kenny Jacobs, Jacobs 6, 13.176; 3. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 13.223; 4. Todd Kane, Pullins 29, 13.254; 5. Jimmy Stinson, Stinson 84, 13.324; 6. Butch Schroeder, Courtad 9x, 13.348; 7. Scott Nietzel, Nietzel 2w, 13.386; 8. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 13.390; 9. Rodney Duncan, Harrison 22, 13.411; 10. Jim Nier, Nier 00, 13.417; 11. Paul McMahan, Johnson U2, 13.439; 12. Danny Smith, Webb 51, 13.470; 13. Jeff Shepard, Ashworth 92, 13.498; 14. Mike Wagner, Wagner 55, 13.506; 15. Ed Lynch, Jr., Lynch 2L, 13.579; 16. Leonard Lee, Lee 16L, 13.649; 17. Tom Busch, Busch 4B, 13.653; 18. Dustin Trost, Wood 81, 13.673; 19. Phil Gressman, Reidling 9, 13.751; 20. Kent Wolters, K&L 12, 13.828; 21. Kevin Frey, Kevlar 2K, 13.885; 22. Nick Naber, Jarrell 22, 13.900; 23. Bill Rose, Rose 6B, 13.997; 24. Barry Ruble, Ruble 63r, 14.029; 25. Matt Westfall, Howard 9, 14.059; 26. Mike Miller, Miller 82, 14.169; 27. Shawn Chaney, Chaney 27c, 14.215; 28. Darren Long, Long 7, 14.221; 29. Scott Bonnell, Bonnell 3, 14.227; 30. Hud Horton, Mossbarger 80, 14.400; 31. Bruce Robenalt, Robenalt 98, 14.708; 31. Mark Aldrich, Aldrich 1a, 14.713; 33. Jim Dayton, Dayton 2x, 14.760; 34. Tony Kennedy, Kennedy 14K, 14.778; 35. Brandon Ferguson, Ferguson 15x, 14.899; 36. Randy Fink, Fink 41, 18.088; 37. Tom Davies, Davies 44, 18.709; 38. Dean Jacobs, Baker 34, NT; 39. Sean Walden, Walden 7J, NT.

Crown Battery Heat (8 laps): 1. Shepard 2. Frey 3. Duncan 4. Busch 5. Feese 6. Bonnell 7. Westfall 8. Stinson 9. Dayton 10. Davies.

B&B Products Heat (8 laps): 1. Trost 2. Naber 3. K. Jacobs 4. Nier 5. D. Jacobs 6. Schroeder 7. Wagner 8. Horton 9. Miller 10. Kennedy.

Engler Machine & Tool Heat (8 laps): 1. McMahan 2. Gressman 3. Kemenah 4. Lynch 5. Rose 6. Nietzel 7. Chaney 8. Robenalt 9. Walden 10. Ferguson.

TP Wings Heat (8 laps): 1. Smith 2. Wolters 3. Long 4. Kane 5. Lee 6. Wilson 7. Ruble 8. Aldrich.

Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. Kane 2. Kemenah 3. K. Jacobs 4. Duncan 5. Nier 6. McMahan.

B Main (12 laps): 1. Schroeder 2. Wagner 3. Nietzel 4. Bonnell 5. Miller 6. Chaney 7. Robenalt 8. Horton 9. Walden 10. Davies 11. Westfall.

A Main (30 laps): 1. Blake Feese 2. Jeff Shepard 3. Kenny Jacobs 4. Dean Jacobs 5. Butch Schroeder 6. Rodney Duncan 7. Danny Smith 8. Todd Kane 9. Leonard Lee 10. Ed Lynch Jr. 11. Kent Wolters 12. Tom Busch 13. Mike Miller 14. Mike Wagner 15. Scott Bonnell 16. Dustin Trost 17. Bill Rose 18. Nick Naber 19. Kevin Frey 20. Chad Kemenah 21. Jim Nier 22. Paul McMahan 23. Scott Nietzel 24. Darren Long.