The 2012 racing season came to a close this weekend at Oakshade Raceway with Season Championship Night on Saturday and a 250-lap Enduro on Sunday. Jeff Foks was the big winner on Saturday night with a Bomber Spectacular win which sealed up the Oakshade Bomber Championship and Mark Henderson dominated Sunday afternoon’s Enduro race.

Foks started on the outside of the front row in the 25-lap Bomber Spectacular and took the lead at the drop of the green flag. Multiple cautions kept the field tight early in the race. After a caution on lap seven, Foks tried to pull away from Adam Noonan who had been running second, but Noonan wouldn’t let him get away. Foks did manage a little separation from Noonan after both drivers had a some trouble getting passed a lapped car. Noonan closed back in on the final lap and tried to get to the inside of Foks. Foks was able to hang on and picked up his 11^th Bomber feature win of the year in an exciting finish. Noonan finished a very close second followed by Terry Rushlow in third. Joe Smith and Chane Stuckey, a couple of Sportsman regulars, rounded out the rest of the top five finishers.

With a full moon overhead, the Season Championship Sportsman feature rolled onto the track. Only one point separated Mike Jessen and Tim Line at the top of the point standings at the start of the race. Those two drivers started side by side in the second row. Bruce Stuart started on the outside of the front row and quickly took command of race after squeezing through the middle of a three-wide battle for the lead on the first lap. Caution after caution kept the competitors from getting into any kind of rhythm with the longest green flag run being only two laps. Tim Line’s title hopes went away on lap 11 after most of the front nose of his car came off on the the track which brought out the final caution for the debris. Line retired to the pits. Stuart led the entire distance and finished the season with three straight feature wins. Matt Lindsey got by Jamie Grochowski just before the finish to wind up second. Joe Smith followed up his fourth place finish in the Bomber Spectacular with another fourth place finish. Mike Jessen’s fifth place finish was good enough to win the points championship.

The four cylinder Hornet feature had one of the most exciting finishes of the night. William Cundick took the lead at the start and led a tight pack with Maverick Wright and Cody Laney running right in his tire tracks. Finally, thirteen-year-old Wright dropped to the inside of Cundick and made the last lap pass for his fourth feature win of the year. Cundick finished a close second followed by Laney and Drew Smith who wrapped up the point championship before the night began. Josh Froelich was fifth.

Exciting racing action continued in the UMP Sport Compact feature. Steve Miller hopped into the car his daughter, Stephanie Miller, usually runs to race in the feature. On the first lap, Steve Miller got into a dirt embankment that surrounds a light pole and rolled the car over on the first lap. Miller was OK, but the car was done for the night. Jeff Wells and Trent Delong put on a great show for the lead. Wells and Delong got together several times, the last of which ended up with Wells spinning on the backstretch on lap three. Delong went on to pick up the victory with Austin Casteneda finishing second. Wells recovered after his spin to finish third. Regan Ford and Scott Wilson were the rest of the top five finishers. Derek Morris did not finish the race, but had already wrapped up the points championship.

The final race of the year was Sunday afternoon’s 250-lap Enduro. Colin Walker set a fast pace very early in the race. Mark Henderson took the lead by lap 25 and never surrendered it. Walker continued to run second until shortly after the 75 lap mark when he lost control coming off turn four and caught the front stretch wall. Nick Fenner then took over second for awhile until he suffered some mechanical problems with his left rear wheel. Henderson kept out of trouble and picked up his third Enduro win of the year. Jeremy Grover finished second, seven laps behind Henderson. Ray Jackson survived to finish third with Ron Bloomfield Jr. ending up fourth after winning the Enduro two weeks ago. Marvin Howard finished fifth.

Haunted Hay Rides return to Oakshade Raceway on Friday and Saturday nights starting on October 12^th. Also coming up in October is the Oakshade Raceway Swap Meet on October 20^th at 9am. For more information, visit www.oakshaderaceway.com.

Oakshade Raceway hosted another full weekend of racing action that included the final UMP Late Model event of the year won by Jeff Babcock and the Celebrity Charity Race won by NBC 24’s Norm Van Ness on Saturday night. Then, Ronnie Bloomfield Jr. took over the Enduro points lead with an Enduro race win on Sunday afternoon.

The Celebrity Charity Race led off Saturday night’s main events with local “celebrities” representing various charities competing with borrowed rides from some very generous Bomber owners. Oakshade Raceway’s Dan “Links” Rice who was representing F.I.S.H. (Friends in Service to Humanity) led the first lap. Oakshade Raceway announcer Scott Hammer, representing the American Diabetes Association, dropped to the inside of Rice entering turn one and the two drivers got together which stacked up more than half the field. All drivers were able to continue. Eldora Speedway announcer Dustin Jarrett, representing the Alzheimer’s Association Research Center, inherited the lead by avoiding the melee. Hammer closed back in and took the lead on lap five of the ten lap event with Van Ness close behind. Van Ness made a move underneath Hammer to take the lead on lap eight. Hammer tried to battle back to the inside and the the two drivers traded some paint with Van Ness going on to earn his third Celebrity Charity Race win at Oakshade Raceway. With his win, The Village House of Fremont will receive the majority of the donations raised by the competitors that totaled over $1,000. Hammer maintained a second place finish with Jarrett finishing third. Rice was fourth, Fulton County Sheriff candidate Roy Miller ended up fifth and lead singer of the band The Undeserving, Clay Kirchenbauer, finished sixth. All charities represented will receive a portion of the funds raised.

Next, it was time to get down to business with the final UMP Late Model feature of the year with a twist. All Late Model competitors were topless, or at least their cars were. The roofs were taken off for the final night of Late Model competition at Oakshade. B.J. Gregory took the lead after starting on the pole. A big pile up occurred on lap two that involved Cody Houston, Casey Noonan, Kevin Reeve, Brian Ruhlman and Rob Anderzack with Anderzack ending up on top of Ruhlman’s car. That turned out to be the last caution of the race.

With Gregory leading, Jeff Babcock closed in. The two drivers raced side by side for a couple laps, with Babcock finally taking command on lap 11. Babcock proceeded to open up a sizable lead. Rusty Schlenk got by Gregory and began to chip away ever so slightly into Babcock’s lead late in the race, but Babcock managed to pull away again in lapped traffic to pick up the victory in the final UMP Late Model feature of the season. Unofficial 2012 Track Champion Rusty Schlenk settled for second. Devin Shiels posted a third place finish after starting 11^th. Dan Wallace ended up with another top five run to finish in fourth in what may have been his final career start. Casey Noonan recovered to a fifth place finish after getting caught up in the lap two pile up.

The UMP Sportsman division is poised for an exciting showdown in next week’s Season Championship night with only one point separating the top two. Defending Sportsman Track Champion Tim Line entered the night 20 points behind leader Mike Jessen. Line jumped out to the early lead. Newly engaged James Fox brought out the first caution on lap one. He had proposed to his girlfriend on the front stretch only a short while earlier in the night. Once back under green flag conditions, Joe Derbeck and Mike Jessen had some contact which prompted Jessen pull into the pits. At about the same time, Richard Patton spun to bring out another caution. Jessen rejoined the race a half lap behind shortly after the rest of the field took the green flag. With Line out front, it seemed Jessen would take a major hit in the points.

Bruce Stuart was the spoiler for Line. He raced side by side with Line for a few laps and finally took the lead with five laps to go. Stuart went on to pick up his fifth feature win of the year with Line finishing second. Bob Gregory, who is still in the points chase, finished third and closed to within 27 points of Jessen. Matt Lindsey and Tim Fisher were the rest of the top five finishers. Jessen drove back up to finish in eighth position which was just enough to remain atop the points by the slimmest of margins heading into next week’s season championship.

Jeff Geis and Brian Ruhlman raced hard for the lead early in the UMP Bomber A Main. Ruhlman took over the lead on lap six and drove off to the feature win. Jeff Foks opened up his point lead to 54 over Terry Rushlow with a second place finish. Geis slipped back to end up third followed by last week’s A Main winner Adam Noonan. Dave “Gumby” Golembiewski Jr. finished fifth.

Josh Froelich and Maverick Wright battled early for the lead in the Hornet feature event. Last week’s feature winner, Taylor Dippman, fell off the pace and rolled to a stop before making it all the way back to the pits on lap three. Drew Smith suffered the same fate after peaking in the third position a few laps later. Thirteen-year-old Maverick Wright earned his third feature win of the year. Cody Laney got by Froelich to finish in second. Breanna Franks took fourth followed by Danny Williams in fifth.

Jeff Wells started last in the UMP Sport Compact feature and drove around the outside of the competition to take the lead by the completion of lap one. Derek Morris, another top contender with five feature wins this season, retired to the pits just after completing the first lap. Trent Delong, with eight feature wins himself, ran second to Wells and could not reel him in. Wells took the easy win which was his second of the year. Delong was second followed by Austin Casteneda, Regan Ford and Stephanie Miller.

Curt Lancaster was the class of the UMP Bomber B Main and opened up a big lead at the start. Gregg Detray passed Todd Silvey for second on lap two, but was unable to mount a challenge on Lancaster who went on to take the checkered flag. Detray held on to finish second with Steve Morris getting by Silvey for third. Dan Shaffer started 10^th and finished fifth.

Joe Foks started on the pole of the final race of Saturday night, the UMP Bomber C Main, and led the first lap. Richard Riffe passed him high on lap two and shortly after Foks spun which knocked him out of the top five. Riffe, who was in Terry Rushlow’s car since Rushlow had borrowed his car earlier for the A Main, went on to pick up the C Main victory over Ramone Ortiz, Robert Meinen, William Sloan and Mike Plotts.

Racing continued on a beautiful late summer Sunday afternoon with a 200 lap Enduro. Mark Henderson held a six point advantage over Ronnie Bloomfield Jr. and Jeremy Grover at the start of the race, but ended up being a non-factor and finished outside the top ten. Colin Walker had things going his way leading the first 75 plus laps, but a visit to the pits shortly before halfway would drop him down in the running order. Ronnie Bloomfield Jr. took over the lead from Walker by the mid point of the race. Walker closed back to second by lap 125, but couldn’t make up the distance lost from his pit stop. Bloomfield survived a couple of close calls to finish all 200 laps and claim the victory as well as the point lead with only one race remaining. Walker finished second, three laps behind Bloomfield. Jeremy Grover ended up third followed by Chris Williams and Shawn Valenti.

The final Enduro race will be on Sunday, September 30 and will be a 250 lap event paying $1,500 to the winner.

Several point championships will be decided next weekend after Saturday night’s Season Championship Night for the UMP Sportsmen, UMP Bombers, Hornets and UMP Sport Compacts. Gates open at 4pm with racing at 7pm on September 22.

Tight point battles in the UMP Sportsman and UMP Bomber classes at Oakshade Raceway continue into the final couple weeks of competition. The top three in the UMP Bomber points all suffered bad luck in their feature event and Bruce Stuart dominated the UMP Sportsman feature to win his fourth of the season.

Stuart started on the pole and fended off a challenge from point leader Mike Jessen early in the race. Eventually Stuart was able to extend his advantage over Jessen while a great battle for third between Tim Line and Joe Derbeck ensued. The only caution of the 20-lap race was for a spin by Richard Patton on lap 15. A couple laps after the restart, Line passed Jessen to take over second but could not reel in Stuart who led the entire distance. Line’s second place finish got him five points closer to Jessen who finished right behind in third. Bob Gregory, the point leader at the beginning of last week’s events before posting a DNF in the feature, bounced back with a fourth place finish this week. Tim Fisher finished fifth.

The most eventful race of the night was the UMP Bomber A Main. Curt Lancaster led the first two laps until point leader Jeff Foks closed and took over the lead on lap three. Foks continued to lead until he caught some slower traffic running at the back of the pack. It appeared as if Foks misjudged the speed of that traffic that was running much slower than the leader. Foks had to check up which caused him to spin on lap 11. That brought out the caution flag and sent Foks to the tail.

Terry Rushlow, second in points, took over the race lead and seemed to be poised to either take over the point lead or greatly close the gap if he could hang on and win. Unfortunately for him, he slowed exiting turn four with the white flag in his sites. Rushlow cut left into the infield to keep from getting run over allowing Adam Noonan to take over the race lead. Noonan went on to take the checkered flag and at the same time further back in the field, Donovan Paskan lost control on the backstretch. Paskan spun and collected Foks and Richard Riffe in a hard crash. Jeff Geis, third in points, looked to gain a lot with Foks and Rushlow unable to finish. Geis finished third in the race just behind Lancaster, but post-race inspection revealed that his car had an illegal intake manifold which resulted in his disqualification. Dave “Gumby” Golembiewski Jr. got credit with a third place finish in the race followed by Amy Bernard and Chris Sands.

Taylor Dippman had a clean sweep in the Hornets with a heat race win and an impressive feature win. She grabbed the lead on the first lap of the race after starting last. It was her second feature win of the year. William Cundick finished second ahead of Drew Smith. Last week’s feature winner Maverick Wright survived a close call earlier in the race which put him near the back of the pack and fought back to finish fourth with Harley Sutton finishing fifth.

A newcomer to the UMP Sport Compact division remained undefeated with his second feature win in his second visit to Oakshade Raceway. Chad Tomczak from Sparta, Michigan, started deep in the field and took the lead at the drop of the green flag. Skyler Antonelli survived a scare when he almost got hooked into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch while battling in the top three. Antonelli chased the car up the track and held on to it, but lost a lot of ground to Tomczak. Tomczak made it look easy for the second week in a row and picked up the convincing win. Jeff Wells had to settle for second after being unable to catch Tomczak. Antonelli posted a third place finish followed by Regan Ford and Stephanie Miller.

Brad Brehm led the first five laps of the UMP Bomber B Main. Steve Morris appeared to take the lead on lap six, but a caution on the same lap gave Brehm a slight reprieve. Then Brehm got sideways in turn two just after the restart and fell back a few positions allowing Morris to take the lead. Todd Silvey followed Morris past Brehm and began to challenge for the lead. Silvey stayed in contact with Morris until the final lap when Silvey got held up behind some lapped traffic. That allowed Morris to take the easy victory. Silvey settled for second. Perry Cox finished third with Duane Fletcher and Shaun Sharp rounded out the rest of the top five.

Next week, the UMP Late Models are going topless! The roofs will be taken off for the evening’s competition. In addition to UMP Late Model, UMP Sportsman, UMP Bomber, Hornet and UMP Sport Compact action, the annual Celebrity Charity Race will take place as well on Saturday, September 15. NBC 24’s Norm Van Ness will attempt to beat the local celebrity competition for his second consecutive win. Gates open at 4pm with racing at 7pm. There is also a 200 lap enduro race scheduled for Sunday afternoon, September 16. Gates open at 12pm and the enduro race begins at 2pm. General admission is just $3 for the Sunday afternoon event.