Ronnie Bloomfield Jr. survived and endured to win the fourth 200-lap/two-hour Enduro race of the season on a special Saturday night event at Oakshade Raceway.
A late afternoon rain shower coupled with mostly cloudy skies and a lack of wind allowed the track to retain moisture which kept speeds slower but also created a lot of action. Jeremy Grover held a commanding lead the first 100 laps of the race. John Brooks was running second the first 50 laps until he became part of a gaggle of cars that had collected at the bottom of turn two. Unable to free himself, Brooks tumbled through the running order. The same fate was in store for Grover who found himself caught up in the turn two melee shortly after halfway. Grover fought hard to free himself from group of cars and finally worked open a narrow path to get to the infield. Once there, Grover had to overcome a severe lack of steering and finally was able to finesse his car back to the pit area to return a little while later.
Ronnie Bloomfield Jr. had assumed the race lead despite losing all of the sheet metal on the right side of his car in an early race pile up. He overcame a slight setback after getting stuck on the bottom of turn two for a short while late in the race to hang on to pick up the victory after completing 183 laps when the two-hour time limit expired. Dan Dippman overcame quite a few issues, including some pretty heavy contact with Colin Walker about halfway through the race, to maintain a second place finish, 16 laps behind Bloomfield. After Grover returned to the track, his car was way off the pace he ran early in the race, but he completed 147 laps which was good enough for a third place finish. Ray Jackson soldiered on to a fourth place finish, just four laps behind Grover. Colin Walker finished fifth.
A full racing program highlighted by topless UMP Late Models is on tap for Saturday, September 14, at Oakshade Raceway. All Late Model drivers will have the roofs off of their cars for this event. The Sportsman, Bomber, Hornet and Sport Compact classes will also be back in action with gates opening at 4pm and racing 7pm.
