Middletown — Chris Shultz has felt good about his small-block modified car from the day he got it.

On Saturday night Shultz worked his way up from the eighth starting spot, took the lead just before the midway point and held off speedy David Van Horn for the 358 victory before a large fireworks-inspired crowd at Orange County Fair Speedway.

"When I stepped on the gas I knew we had a good car,'' Shultz said. "We had a jingle on the first lap and we got it right back. It got us to the front. The car was dynamite.''

Shultz said the track surface was ideal since it had been just watered during intermission. He moved into the top five on lap four, took fourth on lap six, third on lap eight and jumped two spots into the lead on lap 12 when leader Jimmy Bobbitt bobbled and lost two positions.

Tommy Meier, Brett Hearn and Jerry Higbie Jr. rounded out the top five.

Shultz said the track went away a bit before the modifieds closed the evening, but you could hardly tell the way Rick Mill was running. He passed pole sitter Chris Whitehead on lap 11, and pulled away to a dominating 4.1-second victory.

"The car was running pretty good,'' said Mill, who has a win at Accord in May (with a different car) and had two big block wins at OCFS in 2007. "We weren't that good in the heat (race). We were a little worried, so we made a bunch of little changes and it seemed to work out pretty good.''

Donnie Wilson started on the second row and finished second. Chuck McKee surged early from the eighth starting spot and settled for third. Van Horn, Meier, Higbie, Steve Dodd, Michael Storms, Mike Kolka and Kirk Horton rounded out the top 10 running order.

Hearn started 15th and soon dropped back to 19th before his car shut down on lap 11 — he finished 24th, his worst finish of the OCFS season. Hearn also had a car break down on Friday night. Defending Eastern States champ Jeff Heotzler of Wallkill is still feeling sick, and pulled off after one lap as soon as he got his 20 points.

Pole sitter Joe Conklin went flag-to-flag for the sportsman triumph. Kevin Ward started sixth and grabbed the runner-up spot by lap four but could draw no closer. Erik Holmgren, John Lieto and Eddie Burgess finished 3-4-5 and last week's winner, Shane Jablonka, was sixth. Points leader Mike Ruggiero started 15th and finished eighth.

"We had a bad couple of weeks,,'' Conklin said, "and this is good. This gets us a little forward here.''

Don Carlson won from the sixth spot on the grid, beating Bobby Schade to the finish stripe by one second in a crash-marred pro stock feature. Mike Dutka, Steven Shortway and Mike Vigiletti rounded out the top five.

Jay Pepin denied runner-up John Aumick a third consecutive victory in the veteran pure stock division. Ray Tarantino, John Dore and Emerson Cargain Sr. finished 3-4-5.

Mike Consales wobbled a bit but won a one-lap shootout with Kyle Pepin in the amateur pure stock class. Les Laska, Willie Lenci and Tom Shortway rounded out the top five.

In a rare circumstance, Mel Lewis' sportsman car climbed over the wall in turn four during a heat race, and he was uninjured.

In a Super DIRTcar Series modified race on Thursday at Ransomville Speedway, Billy Decker was the winner and Brett Hearn was 17th. At Rolling Wheels Park on the same night, Don Carlson was second, Bill Pascual was fourth in a Super DIRTcar Series pro stock feature.

A host of OCFS racing legends will be on hand for Saturday's Nostalgia Night race card. Among the long list of guests will be Buzzie Reutimann, Frankie Schneider, Tighe Scott, Joe Romer Jr., Eddie Haenelt, Sonny and Johnny Strupp, Robbie Green, Carl Van Horn, Carl Pittenger, Roger Horwath, Jackie Dubois and Billy Descovick.