Zack Mitchell Wins Birthday Race at Oakshade for Third Career Hell Tour Win
Zack Mitchell’s week has shown immediate success with the Coltman Farms Racing crew as he drove towards his first staple DIRTcar Summer National Late Models win in his fifth career start.
The Enoree, SC driver dominated the front at Oakshade Raceway after setting the night’s Quick Time, won his Heat race, and drove to his third flag-to-flag win with the Hell Tour.
Mitchell began the 40-lap Feature as the polesitter and took the conductor’s role, with Trey Mills in second and 2025 overall title contender Tyler Erb in third place.
While the Palmetto State driver continued to show the way, lapped traffic put his lead in jeopardy as Mills and Erb tightened the gap down to 0.4 seconds. Mitchell‘s No. 57 Longhorn Chassis had to muscle through the cars by forcing them up the racetrack to stop the other two from making a pass.
When the second pack of lapped cars approached the leaders, Mitchell took the risk of going to the middle line and kept his Late Model stuck to the line while Mills followed behind.
Though Erb was comfortably in third place through the majority of the 40-lap Feature, he had a second battle on his hands as overall points leader Jason Feger worked up into the top five after starting in 10th place to chase down the leaders.
When the caution waved with three laps to go, Feger sat in fifth as he strategized a last-gasp opportunity to keep Erb at bay for the win and a wider points gap in his favor.
Feger drove up to the cushion as the green flag waved while the field stayed at the bottom of the track. Entering Turn 1, Erb slipped up into Feger’s line as the two made contact through Turn 2. Erb spun to the bottom of the track and collected fourth-place Colten Burdette in the process. The moment ended the New Waverly, TX driver’s hopes of a prime points night in the Hell Tour’s penultimate event.
Erb and Burdette’s incident gifted the Bloomington, IL driver third-place positioning ahead of the final restart of the race. Mitchell ran away from Mills as he got to celebrate his first Birthday Race triumph.
“I was just trying to stay pinned around that bottom,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t know where Trey was, but I’m sure he was right up there on me, and I appreciate him racing me clean. Car was phenomenal. I couldn’t get through that hole down (in Turn 1) the last few laps. But, it feels good to get another win, and hopefully we can get another one around our week off.”
Feger’s finish helped gift the No. 25 a 90-point lead, with Erb finishing in 20th place. With the Jacksonville, FL teenager of Mills finishing second, he retains the Week 5 points lead over Mitchell by 11 points, leaving Saturday night at Oakshade.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models campaign of 2025 concludes on Sunday night as the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals join the Hell Tour for the finale at Wayne County Speedway on Sunday, July 13.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 57-Zack Mitchell[1]; 2. 14JR-Trey Mills[2]; 3. 25F-Jason Feger[10]; 4. 55-Eli Johnson[3]; 5. 75-Dillon McCowan[8]; 6. 91-Rusty Schlenk[12]; 7. 1N-Casey Noonan[7]; 8. 46-Colin Shipley[16]; 9. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 10. 31M-Tyler Millwood[19]; 11. 5-Mark Whitener[14]; 12. 06-Jake Rendel[20]; 13. 17SR-Brody Smith[13]; 14. 71R-Rod Conley[15]; 15. 75M-Dusty Moore[24]; 16. 57K-Steve Kester[21]; 17. 53L-Colten Burdette[4]; 18. 18B-Chase Burda[18]; 19. 51-Devin Shiels[6]; 20. 1-Tyler Erb[5]; 21. 8-Rob Anderzack[23]; 22. (DNF) 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 23. (DNF) 38-Thomas Hunziker[17]; 24. (DNF) 3M-Matt Miller[11]
