Vallette Breaks Pendleton's OVDCA Stread at Shady Bowl
Saturday, May 9, 1998
Shady Bowl Speedway
Vallette Breaks Pendleton's OVDCA Streak at Shady Bowl
May 9 - Ed Vallette of Columbus picked up the Ohio Valley Dwarf Car
feature win at Shady Bowl Speedway this past Saturday, as the dwarfs
returned to action after losing the Columbus Motor Speedway event to
rain. Vallette topped the hard charging Chad Pendleton, who was looking
for his third consecutive victory of the young season.
The OVDCA dwarfs joined the NAMARs midgets for a special show at the
unique DeGraff Ohio asphalt oval. Pendleton and Vallette shared the heat
race win honors. Pendlton won a hard fought heat one battle over Wayne
Fitzpatrick, with Jeff Staggers in third, Mike Sell fourth and Scott
Botkin fifth. Vallette and Bob Miller had a good fight in heat two
until Miller lost a cylinder just short of the finish. Vallette took
the win, while Miller hung on for second ahead of Ike Carter, Mark
Bernard and Greg Watson.
Pendelton drew the number one pill, and led the feature field to the
green flag in his Sam's Rentals sponsored sedan. Vallette was able to
follow Pendelton from his fifth starting spot, chased by Fitzpatrick and
Staggers. Pendleton drew out a small advantage over Vallette until he
made contact with the car of Keith Bailey. Both Pendelton and Bailey
spun, handing the lead to Vallette, with Fitzpatrick in second. Further
back in the pack the cars of Botkin and Watson were making their move,
coming from the ninth and tenth starting spots respectively. Pendelton
quickly moved from the tail to once again join the leaders, but was
unable to reel in Vallette before the checkered flag fell. Pendleton
ended up second, with Fitzpatrick, Carter and Botkin making up the top
five. Watson, Staggers, Sell, Bernard and Wallace rounded out the top
ten. Due to the increased pit pass cost for the NAMARs show, Shady
Bowl's promoter Charlie Stapleton added to the regular OVDCA purse,
paying out $330 to win and $80 to start.
While Pendleton and Vallette have been consistent top performers in the
OVDCA, several other drivers has made their presence felt in the '98
season. Wayne Fitzpatrick, in the Hall's Electronics/MSP/Accurate
Fabrication #2 has performed well on both dirt and asphalt, to move into
second place in the OVDCA/Ohio Caverns points series behind Pendelton.
Ike Carter, in the Oak's Machine #3 had his best ever asphalt
performance at Shady Bowl, as did Scott Botkin, who in his second season
of dwarf competition is holding down the fifth spot in the points. The
Marvin Sweazy owned #11M driven by Greg Watson has also been a factor
this season, moving into fourth place in points behind the Staggers
Dwarf Sports car of Jeff Staggers.
The dwarfs return to action on May 23rd for their first visit to the 3/8
mile dirt oval of KC Raceway, located outside of Chillicothe Ohio.