Spectators at Oakshade Raceway were treated with almost two entire racing programs in one on Saturday night with make-up races from the August 26 rain out for the UMP Sportsman and Bomber divisions in addition to it being Season Championship Night.
The action picked up with a UMP Sportsman heat from two weeks ago and eventually led to the first set of feature races.
UMP Sportsman points leader, Rusty Schlenk, worked his way up to second behind Tim Bernard on the first lap of the make-up feature and went around on the high side the next lap to take the lead. Schlenk then went on to open up his advantage until Lance Mitchell had problems and brought out the yellow flag on lap eight.
Schlenk once again pulled away with the lead once racing resumed with a great battle going on for second through fifth just behind him. Tim Bernard, Ray Klawitter, Josh Steinacker and Chris Smith all ran in an tight bunch often three-wide as they kept trading positions. Steinacker finally disposed of that bunch and took over second and tried to close in on Schlenk.
Steinacker, second in points entering the night, made up the ground on the leader and dove to the inside making it a side by side battle for the lead, but a caution on lap 17 put a damper on the exciting race for the lead.
Steinacker could not mount another charge on Schlenk who switched up his racing lines in the turns and was able to hold off the challenge from behind to win his seventh UMP Sportsman Feature of the year, essentially wrapping the points championship unofficially.
The 2005 Sportsman Track Champion Ray Klawitter finished third behind Steinacker with Tim Bernard fourth and Brian Fisher fifth.
Tom Ordway came into the night with the Bomber points lead in a tight battle over Jake Rendel and Jim Scout. Ordway started inside row two in the first Bomber A Main of the night and immediately grabbed the lead as pole sitter Andy Borton had trouble getting up to speed at the drop of the green flag.
Kevin Hanford applied some early pressure for the lead, but Ordway held him off and began to pull away. Then, while running second, Hanford suffered mechanical issues and came to a stop bringing out the yellow flag with two laps to go.
Craig Dippman took advantage of the situation by driving to the outside of Ordway after the restart to take the lead away. Dippman went on to win his first A Main of the year with Ordway settling for second. Brian Przepiora was third followed by Roger Davenport and Jake Rendel. Jim Scout finished ninth after starting at the rear of the field increasing the points spread among the top three in points.
Jerry Signor led most of the Bomber B Main until Chris Henry closed in after starting tenth and took the lead away with two laps remaining.
Henry went on to pick up the victory with Signor holding off Rob Anderzack, who started dead last, for second. Jody Burton and Ron Leonard rounded out the rest of the top five.
Chris Breckel opened up a big lead in the opening laps of the first Bomber C Main after starting on the outside of the front row.
Dustin Sautter had started on the pole and closed back in on Breckel. Sautter made a move to the inside on lap six to take the lead for good. Kyle Light finished second sending Breckel back to a third place finish. Joe Hefner was fourth and Mark Pollack was fifth.
Then after another round of preliminary events, it was time for the Season Championship Features.
Rusty Schlenk, the unofficial UMP Sportsman champ, packed it up for the night after the first feature and did not run in the second round of events.
Brian Fisher started on the pole of the final points awarding feature of the year and led the entire distance with a lot of racing going on just behind him, especially in the closing laps. It was Fisher’s second UMP Sportsman Feature win of the year.
Joe Derbeck ran second most of the race just behind Fisher, but Josh Steinacker, who started eleventh, got alongside Derbeck and just edged him out for a second place finish.
Chris Smith and Ray Klawitter were the rest of the top five finishers.
Tom Ordway didn’t fair as well in the second Bomber A Main of the night, having problems on the very first lap and spinning in turn two sending him to the tail for a complete restart.
Jake Rendel led Jim Scout and Brian Przepiora for much of the race.
Przepiora’s night ended after losing a tire on the backstretch on lap seven which brought out the yellow flag.
Scout began to slip back through the field in the final laps of the race ending up finishing seventh.
Rendel went on to win his sixth Bomber A main of the year. Dan Bleikamp recovered after being penalized for jumping a restart earlier in the race to finish second. Craig Dippman settled for third with Tom Ordway coming all the way back up through the field after his early problems to finish fourth, unofficially making him the 2006 Bomber Track Champion.
Rob Anderzack was running as high as second, but slipped back to finish fifth.
The Bomber B Main was marred by a slew of caution periods. Brad Brehm brought out the first after slamming into the front stretch wall.
With Hugh Snell leading, the car usually driven by Jim Guinn slammed the front stretch wall even harder, almost rolling over. The red flag was thrown to make sure Guinn was not injured, only it was not Guinn behind the wheel of the car. George Laney was the driver so Guinn not only had a heavily damaged car, but he was also disqualified for an unauthorized driver change.
A final caution set up a two lap shoot out to the finish with Hugh Snell still leading and Jody Burton in second. Burton got a little too anxious and jumped the restart setting up a crazy finish.
Snell and Roger Davenport were battling side by side for the lead behind Burton on the final lap and Davenport drove it in a little too hard in the final set of corners and slid way up the track allowing Snell to pick up the victory.
Dave Sibberson finished second behind Snell and Burton was credited with finishing third after being penalized two positions for passing too early on the restart. Ron Leonard was fourth and Davenport slipped back to finish fifth.
Finally the Bomber C Main, the 26th race of the night, took to the track with Dustin Sautter once again quickly assuming the lead.
Sautter pulled away and went to pick up his second Bomber C Main win of the night. Chris Howard finished second followed by Corrina Belcher, Rich Noonan and Joe Hefner.
The Fifth Annual Twin 25’s for the UMP Sportsmen will highlight a night of racing with the Bombers on Saturday, September 16. Gates will still open at 4pm with racing at 7pm throughout the month of September at Oakshade Raceway.