Chris Keller and Tim Fisher took top honors in the Sportsman Twin 25’s at Oakshade Raceway Saturday night.
Fast qualifier John Bailey drew for the inversion for the first segment of the Twin 25’s and ended up having the 12 fastest qualifiers inverted for the start. That put Rusty Smith on the pole and he took advantage of it by pulling away from Dale Cole with the early lead.
Keller worked his way up to second by lap nine after starting in the fifth position.
The first yellow flag flew on lap 11 when Randy Franks spun and Jackie Sheldrick plowed in late in turns three and four.
Keller took over the lead right after the restart as Smith began falling back through the field.
Jason Smith’s engine went up in smoke and his car came to a stop in turn two on lap 19 to bring out the second caution flag. Jason Smith was done for the night.
A series of cautions continued to slow the field in the final laps of the first 25-lap segment. Ray Klawitter spun on lap 21. Ron Shultz got into the rear of Brad Kendall (two-time Twin 25’s winner) sending the number 42 car around in turn three. Then on the ensuing restart, Shultz flew off the top of turn one for another yellow.
Tim Fisher was running third when his right rear tire went down. The caution came out for debris and Fisher went to the pits to get the tire changed. Fisher rejoined the race before the field went back to green.
Chris Keller went on to pick up his first feature win holding off Mike Jessen and Dale Cole in the first 25-lap segment of the Twin 25’s.
Lead lap cars were inverted for the start second 25-lap segment, which was run after the bomber A Main. That put Tim Fisher on the pole after his bad luck with the flat tire at the end of the first race.
A huge pile up on lap 31 (lap 6 of the second segment) brought out the only red flag of the night with the track almost completely blocked. The incident started when John Bailey and Mike Sudeth got together while battling for second in turn two. Dale Cole, Joe Derbeck, Bill Huston, Brian Fisher and Randy Franks were also involved.
Ray Klawitter took over second and put some pressure on race leader Tim Fisher for a few laps after the restart. Fisher eventually began to pull away with the lead.
Fisher went on to pick up the easy win in the second 25-lap segment of the Sportsman Twin 25’s. Mike Jessen took the second spot away from Klawitter on the final lap. Brian Przepiora finished fourth and Brad Kendall ended up fifth.
Andy Borton had trouble in the early laps of the bomber A Main. Borton spun to bring out the yellow after some contact with Bill Couts on lap two. Borton then spun just after the restart.
Matt Shipley led the first couple laps of the race until Dan Dippman got by on lap three. Shipley came to a stop coming off turn four the following lap and clipped Curt Lancaster, shearing off his wheel and sending Lancaster slamming into the front stretch wall and spinning down the front stretch.
Dippman continued to lead until Jake Rendel finally got by after several laps of riding on his back bumper. Two laps later on lap 13, Gary Domoe spun to bring out the yellow with just a couple laps left in the race.
Rendel went on to hold off Bob Gregory to pick up his fifth bomber A Main victory of the year. Bill Couts was third followed by Dan Dippman and Ron Tolles.
Steve Reeves and Jacob Gamber got together on the first lap of the bomber B Main causing another big wreck involving Brian Stricklin, Richard Patton, Gene Potridge, Al McKenzie and Rob Anderzack in addition to Gamber and Reeves. That resulted in a complete restart with the cars able to continue starting at the rear.
Joe Smith passed Karl Spores to lead lap one, but then Smith fell off the pace and went to the pits. Spores then held the lead until Dave Sibberson got by on lap five. Spores then slowed and retired to the pits the very next lap.
Sibberson led the remaining laps and was first to the checkered flag. Jared Rendel finished second ahead of Jody Burton, Chris Williams and Tim Zuver.
After a couple of early cautions in the bomber C Main, Jesse Burgett led a three car break away with Dan Drummond and Rob Price.
Burgett spun on lap five while being passed for the lead by Drummond to bring out another yellow.
Brad Blonde had luck on his side. He took second away from Rob Price with three laps to go. Then on the final lap, Dan Drummond had the checkered flag in sight coming off turn four, but Drummond got caught up with the lapped car of Sean Smith. Blonde took advantage and drove by Drummond to win his first bomber feature of the year.
Drummond managed to finish second with Rob Price third.
Topless late models (roofs cut off) and the 5th Annual Bomber Spectacular paying $1000 to the winner of the bomber A Main feature will highlight the final Saturday night racing program of the year at Oakshade Raceway on September 25.