10/11/2008

Jeremy Grover didn’t have the fastest car in Saturday’s 200 lap enduro race at Oakshade Raceway, but it was the most consistent and that paid off for him with a win.

Jim Scout jumped out front to an early lead, but only a few laps after the start, he made the first of many visits to the pits which took him out of contention.

Craig Dippman led most of the race and appeared to have the car to beat with Ryan Desgrange, the winner two weeks ago, running second. Desgrange’s chances of a repeat came to an end after completing 75 laps when he smacked the wall exiting turn four which broke the steering on the car making it nearly impossible for him to get back to the pits.

Dippman relinquished the lead briefly between lap 100 and 125 for a visit to the pits turning things over to Jeremy Grover. Dippman came back out and made up time on the track to regain the lead by lap 150. From that point on, Dippman began to open up his lead by a couple laps over second place Grover.

With the finish in sight, Dippman had a problem and headed to the pits after completing 192 laps. Grover continued making circuits around Oakshade Raceway and regained the lead as Dippman’s crew worked diligently in the pits. Shortly thereafter, Dippman rejoined competition but was a couple laps down. Dippman fought to get one of his laps back in the closing moments but could not recover enough as Jeremy Grover soldiered on to take the checkered flag. Dippman settled for second with Chris Williams finishing third. Brian Joy was another driver that was not the fastest on the track, but continued making laps when others had problems earning him a fourth place finish with Joe Cordes coming home fifth.