1998 OVDCA/Ohio Caverns Touring Series Results
Saturday, September 5, 1998
Attica, Ohio
Attica dwarf feature to Fritter
September 5 - Labor Day weekend kicked off at Attica Raceway Park for the Ohio Caverns/OVDCA Touring Series. The top-notch Attica facility was in fine form, despite over 120 cars participating in the night's open wheel shootout featuring 410, 360, and 305 sprinters. For the third OVDCA race in a row, a first-time feature winner made to victory circle. Tracy Fritter of Zanesville, in the Extreme Motorsports sponsored #59 was the car to beat all night, winning both his heat and feature. Bob Miller kept Fritter on his toes, however, as he applied constant pressure throughout the feature, and fell just inches short at the finish line. Gary Denis followed up his feature win at Shady Bowl the previous week with a third place finish. Heat one foreshadowed the feature, as Fritter, Denis and Miller took the top three spots in a caution free race. Rick Brown was fourth, followed by Wayne Fitzpatrick. Heat two also featured a three-way battle between Buddy McBride, Mark Bernard, and Greg Watson, with McBride holding off all challengers for the win, and Bernard having an excellent run for second. The invert placed Fritter and Watson on the front row, but for the second week in a row, electronic problems reared their ugly head, stopping Watson before the green flag fell. This moved Miller to the front row, and set the stage for the two-car battle. Several spins shuffled the running order, as Fitzpatrick spun without bringing out the yellow, then Weisberg got into Rector, putting both to the tail. On the restart Fritter continued to hold the lead, as Miller looked high and low for an opening. Hard charging Gerald Jonas of Marietta was the big mover of the evening coming from twelfth starting spot to seventh. Rick Brown, last year's rookie of the year in his third race of the '98 season, continues to impress in a car he built himself, moving from seventh to fourth. As the laps wound down the leaders entered lapped traffic, enabling Miller to close. As the leaders came down to the checkered flag, Fritter went high around a lapped car, and Miller tried to slip by on the low side, but came up just short. Denis was third, followed by Brown, McBride, and Bernard. Fitzpatrick worked his way back to ninth to put himself solidly in the Ohio Caverns/OVDCA Touring Series points lead. Newcomer Jerry Davis took the Darrell Duncan owned 2C to eighth for that car's best ever finish. The Dwarfs travel to Shady Bowl tomorrow for the "Ohio Caverns Cup", with trophies for the top three finishers.
Heat One: Fritter, Denis, B. Miller, Brown, Fitzpatrick, Hostetler, Eagle, Carter
Heat Two: McBride, Bernard, Watson, J. Miller, Rector, Jonas, Evans, Davis, Weisberg
Feature: Fritter, B. Miller, Denis, Brown, McBride, Bernard, Jonas, Davis, Evans, Carter, Fitzpatrick, Weisberg, J. Miller, Hostetler, Eagle, Rector, Watson