SAN BERNARDINO, Calfornia -- As the 2005 racing season closes at Orange Show Speedway, division point championships have been decided in the nine different classes of stock cars at the ASA Member Track in southern California.
The Leno’s Rico Taco ASA Super Late Model Championship came down to the final event of the year where John Manke, Ramona and Ron Overman, Lakeside had waged a torrid battle all season for the top spot in the ASA Super Late Model division trading the lead back and forth each week with no more than two points separating them through most of the season. Manke prevailed by finishing one position ahead of Overman, giving him the 2005 Leno’s Rico Taco ASA Super Late Model Championship.
While these two former Cajon Speedway competitors dominated the division, Lakeside resident Rick Chavez finished third in points, winning the final three main events of 2005. Jeff Thompson, also from Lakeside finished in the fourth spot in the point standings and is the 2005 Leno’s Rico Taco ASA Super Late Model Rookie of the Year. Former Fontana Mayor David Eshleman and Dee Cable, a Santee resident and the first lady of Super Late Models, finished in a dead tie for fifth. Eshelman gets the nod for fifth simply due to the fact that he had a Main Event win under his belt. Cable, battled all season with two top five finishes and six top ten finishes and will take the sixth spot in points.
Frankie Gould, from Woodland Hills and the 2003 OSS Super Late Model Champion, finished a very frustrating year with new car woes in seventh place with rookie Brandon James finishing eighth in points. Rounding out the top ten are Gary Rodriguez, San Diego, and 2004 Leno’s Rico Taco ASA Super Late Model Champion Mark Shackelford of Riverside, in the tenth spot.
Shackelford encountered serious engine troubles and missed the final four events of this season. San Bernardino resident Tony Forfa II is eleventh with Jeff Eshelman twelfth and Butch Bruhn, Downey in the thirteenth. Bill Hoagland, from Alpine finished fourteenth and local racer Wade Riddering from Highland is fifteenth followed by Greg Beresford, Yucaipa, in the sixteenth spot. Rounding out the top twenty positions is A.C. Cambrie, Menifee; Jim Conklin, Big Bear; Joe Perez, Chino and Robbie Hewitt, Simi Valley.
For the 2005 season a total of thirty-one Super Late Model drivers competed at the Orange Show Speedway over eleven different event dates with car counts ranging from fourteen to twenty. The ASA Super Late Models will again be the premiere division at Orange Show Speedway in 2006, look for at least twelve dates on the schedule next year.
Orange Show Speedway is conveniently located at the NOS Events Center, home of the National Orange Show Festival in San Bernardino, California. Take the 215 freeway, exit at the Mill Street and go east to gate 3.
For more information on this or any other events at Orange Show Speedway, please call 909-888-6788, ext. 438.
