After winning the Barney Oldfield Race a week before, Kris Patterson was once again victorious at Oakshade Raceway Saturday night.
Fifty-two late models checked in to participate in the second American Late Model Series event of the year at Oakshade. Kris Patterson came into the night already with three feature wins at Oakshade including the first ALMS feature in May.
Patterson, the ALMS points leader, started on the pole for the 30-lap ALMS feature event along side Justin Paxton. With Patterson assuming the lead at the start, Paxton ran second but was closely pursued by Shane Yoder.
The battle behind Patterson for second through fourth got even more interesting as Brian Ruhlman entered the fray and eventually got by both Yoder and Paxton for second.
Ruhlman’s charge to the front was cut short on lap 18 when Yoder got back by the 11 car of Ruhlman. A couple laps later, Ruhlman fell off the pace and went to the pits.
A caution on lap 23 tightened up the field for the final seven laps. On the restart, Patterson jumped down the low groove to protect his lead while Yoder moved up to the high groove to clear some lapped cars and try to close in on the leader.
Once again, Patterson proved to be too strong as he went on to pick up the checkered flag and the check for $2,000. Yoder settled for second and Paxton held on to a third place finish.
Jeff Brown suffered a bit of bad luck early on in the sportsman feature event. With Ray Klaywitter leading, Jeremy Grover and Brown were battling for the second spot until Brown lost a tire, ending his night.
Rob Liaeff eventually got by the 47 of Jeremy Grover and put a little pressure on Klaywitter for the lead. A few laps later, Grover, who was running third at the time, got turned around coming off turn two bringing out the yellow flag forcing him to restart at the back of the pack.
Liaeff managed to get alongside Klaywitter on the ensuing restart to battle side by side, but he could not complete the pass.
Joe Derbeck started in the middle of the pack and worked his way up to the front, getting by Liaeff for second and then challenging Klaywitter for the lead. Derbeck completed the pass on Klaywitter as the two came to the white flag.
Derbeck went on to win his second consecutive sportsman feature and his third of the year. Klaywitter, who led all but the final two laps, finished second ahead of Rob Liaeff, Devin Shiels and Brad Kendall.
Josh Steinacker jumped out to a huge lead early in the bomber A Main feature event. A caution on lap 11 wiped out the lead Steinacker had opened up on the rest of the field and after a few more quick cautions, Brice Luttrell moved up after starting tenth, to take the lead away from Steinacker.
Luttrell went on to win his fourth bomber A Main of the year with Steinacker finishing second and Jim Scout finishing third after having to restart at the tail of the field early in the race.
Tom Ordway took the lead from Troy Wickman on lap two of the bomber B Main. Ordway maintained his lead for much of the race until Robert Gregory caught him and took the lead away with two laps remaining.
Last week’s bomber A Main winner, Robert Gregory, took the checkered flag in this week’s B Main. Ordway settled for second and Adam Bokor finished third.
John Brooks went on to the easy win in the bomber C Main after taking the lead from Karl Spoores on lap number 3. John Clark finished second and Patrick Bell came home third.
Randy Murday looked to be on the way to an easy win in the bomber D Main until he spun all by himself in turn four relinquishing the lead to Jeff Summers. Summers’ lead was short lived though as Tom Lance took control and went on to the easy victory.
This coming Saturday, the UMP late models, sportsman/trucks and bombers will all be in action at Oakshade Raceway.
