Ramona-California's John Manke put on a superior performance to win a 40 lap ASA Super Late Model feature at the Orange Show Speedway. The June 17th event was part of a big night of racing on the quarter mile, paved, oval located at the National Orange Show Fairgrounds in San Bernardino.
Jeff Thompson and Ron Overman led the starters under the initial green flag. Overman led the first circuit and then was quickly passed by Thompson. One lap later, Manke moved to second and an intense battle began for the lead. The leader's race rhythm was disrupted on lap seven by a spin out in turn two. That incident put the first and second place cars bumper to bumper for the restart and that, in turn, launched one of the worst wrecks of the evening two laps later. Manke was racing hard to work his way into the lead when contact was made on Thompson's rear bumper. The Thompson car spun around on the front stretch and the result was a six car pile up that included three cars running in the top five.
From that point on it was all Manke who made quick work of building up a lead and running out the laps. His race rhythm was disturbed two more times, on laps 25 and 32, for caution flags due to spin outs. But there was still one more incident left in this 40 lap, wreck marred event, and it happened right after the leader crossed under the checkers. Some contact on the frontstretch saw the cars, which were running in the top five, go into a multiple spin out.
When it was all over Rob Keimele and Glenn Cummings were second and third. Frankie Gould got credit for fourth after spinning backwards under the checkers while Brian Fitzgibbons completed the top five.
In victory lane Manke commented on the lap nine crash and said "I got down close to him in turn two and then got inside of him going into three. He came down and then got loose. We never hit in three and four but he's probably a little bit unhappy. This is a short track and there's always a little bit of rubbing to be done. I apologize to all the guys who got caught up in that but that is just short track racing." Then Manke surprised everyone by saying "we think this is probably our last race this year due to sponsor reasons."
The Inex Legend car series were also a big part of this night at the Orange Show Speedway. Their 35 lap event only had one disruption, due to an opening lap crash that necessitated a complete restart, and from that point it was all Tom Landreth. The Fontana driver led all 35 laps and nearly had a full straightway led by the time the race was over. Matthew Hicks, Chad Schrug, Darren Amidon and Ryan Schrug completed the top five.
The Orange Show Speedway's small car divisions, the Bandeleros and the Mini Stockars, were also present on this night. In the Bandereo 20 lap main event, Lancaster's Andrew Anderson took command of the race on lap four and never looked back. Brent Scheidemantle, Tyler Fabozzi, Jeremy Birch and William Kozak II completed the top five.
In the Mini Stockar Senior Division 15 lap feature Dean Caskey was the big winner with his wife, Patty, right behind him in second. In victory lane Caskey was asked if he felt like his wife let him win because it was Father's Day weekend. Laughing, he replied "you know she did." Rick Walton, Mike O'Hara and John Reid completed the top five. In the Mini Stockar Junior Division feature, Benjamin Mahan led all of the laps for the win and was followed by Joey McKeag and Anthony Forfa IV.
