Ray Klawitter won the 25-lap Sportsman Season Championship Feature at Oakshade Raceway, but could not defend his points championship from 2003 ending up second this year.
Tim Fisher took a 104-point advantage into the evening’s races over Ray Klawitter and despite some bad luck suffered by Fisher in the feature, he unofficially claimed the 2004 Sportsman Track Championship.
Things got exciting early in the sportsman feature with Brian Fisher leading the first lap after going three wide. Klawitter would snatch the lead away two laps later and never looked back.
The first yellow flag came out on lap nine for Steve Kester. While under the yellow, Tim Fisher suffered a flat tire and gave up a top five position on the track to change the tire back in the pits. Fisher rejoined competition just as the field was going back to green.
Chris Keller started 12th and worked his way up to second by lap 14.
A few late cautions kept the field tight with Klawitter continuing to lead Keller. The last caution came out with two laps remaining after Jeremy Grover spun and collected a couple other cars including the 4 car of Tim Fisher. Fisher retired to the pits for the final two laps.
Klawitter went on to hold off Chris Keller to pick up his sixth sportsman feature win of the year. Brian Fisher took third with Brian Przepiora and Brad Kendall rounding out the rest of the top five finishers.
Josh Steinacker led a much tighter bomber points race with a 33 point lead over Jim Scout and a 41 point cushion ahead of Jake Rendel as the night began. Steinacker started on the pole of the feature, but suffered mechanical problems early in the race and did not finish.
Billy Ruff started on the outside of the front row and took the lead early over Josh Steinacker.
Bob Rendel got loose in turn four on lap three and got into Ron Tolles to bring out the first yellow of the race. Both cars ended up going to the pits.
Andy Borton was running third and got sideways on the backstretch and Danny Hogrefe got into him to bring out the second yellow.
On lap six, Josh Steinacker dove to the inside of Billy Ruff to challenge for the lead, but then fell off the pace and parked his car in the infield.
Ruff then had to hold off Bill Toedter and Chuck Leininger for the lead after Steinacker’s troubles.
Leininger took the lead on lap 12 and began to pull away. Toedter had trouble coming off turn four and brought the yellow with two laps to go.
Shortly after the restart, Leininger drove his car too hard going into turns three and four, as the field was about to take the white flag. Leininger had to check up after driving way up on the top of the turns and watched at least three cars get by to the inside. One of those cars was the 65 of Bob Gregory who inherited the lead and went on to pick up the victory.
Curt Lancaster posted a second place finish with Tom Ordway finishing third. Leininger slipped back to finish fourth ahead of Jim Scout.
The official points had not been tabulated at press time, but Josh Steinacker will be the 2004 Bomber Track Champion by less than 20 points over Jim Scout, unofficially.
Bill Williams led from start to finish in the bomber B Main.
Williams led Craig Dippman and Jeff Foks Jr. in a three-car breakaway from the rest of the field. They went three wide for the lead on lap five, but Williams was able to maintain his lead.
Jeff Foks Jr. gave up third under a caution midway through the race to visit the pits. He made it back out before racing resumed, but had to restart at the back.
Williams went on to the victory and Dippman followed in second. Rob Price made a rare appearance this year to finish third ahead of Brad Blonde and Jeff Foks Jr.
Rob Anderzack closed in on Ben Thomas early on in the bomber C Main.
A wreck on lap two that involved David Goben, Steve Dempewolf, Jason Deshler and Dan Drummond brought out the first caution flag.
Anderzack challenged Thomas for the lead on the restart and finally took it on the next lap and went on to win the race. Thomas held on to second followed by Dave Sibberson, Dan Drummond and Chris Williams.
Jeff Foks Jr. started at the front of a special Australian Pursuit race sponsored by Racer’s Connection in Adrian, Michigan to finish off the evening and led the entire distance to pick up the victory.
Come on out to Oakshade Raceway on Saturday, September 18 for the exciting Third Annual Sportsman Twin 25’s. It will be the final night of competition for the sportsman division in 2004. The bombers will also be in racing action.
