1999 OVDCA/Ohio Caverns Touring Series Results
Friday, August 6, 1999
Limaland Motorsports Park
Lima, Ohio
Vallette Takes Lima Feature
by Shawn Sell
On an evening that saw one of the largest car counts of the season, Ed Vallette once again proved to be the class of the field, picking up feature win number three of 1999 at Limaland Motorsports Park. The dwarf�s second trip to the �-mile dirt oval featured plenty of hard racing on the track, as a full 20-car field took the green flag for the eleventh event of the 1999 season.
Bringing the field to the green were Tracy Fritter in the Extreme Motorsports-sponsored machine and Greg Watson in the Marvin Sweazy-owned Pro Bandit car. At the drop of the green Watson jumped into the lead, followed by Toby Boetcher of Columbus. Lurking in third place after moving up from his fifth position starting spot was Vallette. Vallette found his way around Boetcher on lap 2 and moved past Watson into the lead just a lap later.
The event�s first caution flew on lap 6 as Tom Rannoee and Dave Kaufman got together in turn four, spinning both cars out and ending the evening for Rannoee. Before another lap could be completed, the #2jo of Mike Stockmaster suffered mechanical problems, coming to a stop in turn one and bringing out the caution yet again. On the same lap, Mark Bernard, running in 7th position broke an axle, dropping him off the pace and Mike Sell in the #5J car spun. With Stockmaster and Bernard headed to the pits and Sell back in position, the field once again tried to resume racing. But the rough conditions on the track struck again, this time spinning out series point leader Jason Eddy.
As racing resumed, Vallette remained in the lead, followed by Watson and Fritter. Yet another caution flew a lap later as rookie Pete Stackhouse and Scott Riddle spun, sending them both to the tail. On lap 8, Boetcher and Bill Hostetler both found their way around Fritter as he slipped into 5th position. Fritter moved back around Hostetler on lap 10 and recovered third from Boetcher two laps later. Also moving through the field was Eddy, who recovered from his spin to regain 7th by lap 11 when the evening�s final caution flew. That caution was for rookie Larry Hubbard who spun following contact with Stackhouse, which forced Stackhouse to the infield.
Following the restart, Eddy found his way past Mike Rector and Hostetler back into the 5th position on lap 12. Further back in the pack a great battle was taking place for 8th place between Oscar O�Dell in the #04 car and Sell. In the end, Sell was able to find his way past the rookie as O�Dell�s car began suffering engine problems.
At the checker, Vallette was in front by a comfortable margin over Watson, who duplicated his second place finish from the dwarfs� earlier trip to Lima. Following Watson across the line were Fritter, Boetcher, in only his second Ohio Valley Dwarf Car Association appearance of the year, and Eddy who scored his tenth top 5 of the year. Also in the top 10 were Hostetler in 6th place, Rector in a season-best 7th place finish, Sell, Max Evans and O�Dell.
In heat race action earlier in the evening, Fritter and Vallette picked up the victories. Heat one was all Fritter, as he took advantage of starting on the pole to lead all eight laps and take the win ahead of Bernard, Stackhouse and Hostetler. Heat two produced an exciting battle between pole sitter Eddy, Vallette and Boetcher. By the checker, Vallette was able to find his way past the Eddy, with the rookie holding on for second, followed by Boetcher and Watson.
With yet another top 5, Eddy increased his lead to 155 over Watson. The engine problems suffered by Wayne Fitzpatrick at Shady Bowl were worse than first expected, causing the defending champion to miss his second race in a row, dropping him to fifth in the standings. Fitzpatrick�s misfortune benefited both Hostetler and Bernard who moved into third and fourth, respectively, in the OVDCA point standings. Top 10 runs by Evans and Sell allow them to maintain seventh and eighth followed by Keith Bailey and Rector. Fritter�s third place finish moved him into the top 10 for the first time since late June. The dwarfs return to action on August 21 when they make their first and only appearance of the year at KC Raceway near Chillicothe.
Heat 1: Fritter, Bernard, Stackhouse, Hostetler, Sell, Hubbard, Evans, Kaufman, Bailey, Wilcox.
Heat 2: Vallette, Eddy, Boetcher, Watson, Rector, O�Dell, Stockmaster, Riddle, Rannoee, B. Weisberg.
Feature: Vallette, Watson, Fritter, Boetcher, Eddy, Hostetler, Rector, Sell, Evans, O�Dell, Bailey, Kaufman, Hubbard, Riddle, Wilcox, B. Weisberg, Stackhouse, Bernard, Stockmaster, Rannoee.