Saturday night marked the final night for late model competition for the 2002-racing season at Oakshade Raceway with the American Late Model Series presented by Sunoco.
Kris Patterson came into the evening’s events leading Greg Johnson by just four points in the ALMS point standings.
Rody Schroyer, who started next to Johnson on the front row of the 30-lap ALMS feature, led much of the race with Johnson following closely in his tire tracks.
Trouble occurred on lap four when Jeff Cohn, who is in the ALMS points chase, fell off the pace and Ken Hahn got turned into the wall coming off turn two as everyone scrambled to avoid Cohn’s slow car.
Later, there was more trouble when Jeep Van Wormer and Shane Yoder made contact resulting in a spin for Van Wormer just past the halfway point in the race.
Finally, with just four laps remaining, Greg Johnson squeezed by Rody Schroyer for the lead. A couple laps later, Schroyer fell off the pace and retired to the pits.
Johnson went on to the easy win with a great battle for the second spot between Kris Patterson and Shane Yoder that wasn’t settled until right at the checkered flag with Patterson holding off Yoder for the second finishing position. Patterson reported that his engine blew just after the finish of the race.
Yoder settled for third after moving up 14 spots during the race. Ron Miller was fourth and Rusty Schlenk finished fifth. Gaining the most positions in the race was Justin Paxton who took a provisional just to get into the race and moved up 15 spots to finish sixth.
Ron Schultz and Jason Smith ran the first couple laps of the sportsman feature door to door. Smith eventually took command after Schultz slowly faded back through the field.
A great race ensued behind Smith with Devin Shiels, Tim Fisher, Chris Smith and Jeremy Grover running in a very tight pack just behind Jason Smith.
On lap 6, Chris Smith shot out to the lead. Devin Shiels followed Chris Smith into second and the two of them had a heated battle for the lead the rest of the race.
Finally, after a little beating and banging, Chris Smith held off another challenge, this time on the final lap, from Shiels who got to the inside of Smith coming off of turn four. Smith held off Shiels down the front stretch to the checkered flag to win his ninth sportsman feature of the year.
A huge pile up in the bomber A Main slowed the event before a single lap could be completed. Brad Miller, Randy Miller, Jacob Gamber, Dan Bleikamp, Randy Roseman and Bob Rendel were some of the cars involved.
Once things finally settled down, Jim Scout found himself leading Brice Luttrell, Brian Stricklin and Rob Price.
The great racing continued out front and when the checkered flag waved after the time limit on the event expired, it was Jim Scout out front picking up his second bomber A Main win of the year. Stricklin finished second followed by Luttrell and Price.
Jarrett Rendel led all the laps in the bomber B Main to pick up the victory. Tony Tolles was on his way to a decent finish until he spun and got into Gary Domoe late in the race. Dan Shaffer was the second place finisher with Rex Strow finishing third.
A lot of trouble getting a lap completed without an accident resulted in a single file start of the bomber C Main. Once things got going, Billy Ruff took the lead. Scott Robertson quickly closed in.
Once Robertson caught Ruff, the two got together and Ruff got turned around. Ruff drove back to the pits and Robertson was forced to restart at the rear of the field. Todd Silvey inherited the lead and went on to the win.
This coming Saturday night is Season Championship night for the Sportman and Bomber divisions.
