It was championship night at the race track for the Rental Solution Mini Stocks, The Taco Bell Bombers and the Clover Hydro Jammers. The speedway has seen a lot of new faces around the track this year and also broke the attendance record at the track during the 2011 Deake Lyndall Memorial race over the Fourth of July weekend. Repeating for a second year in a row the Rental Solution Mini Stocks saw Sean Keown get crowned the champion for the second year in a row, even after starting the night at a points deficit to the points leader and Rookie of the Year Mike Peterson who gave him a run for his money all year long in the very quickly growing Rental Solution Mini Stock Division. The Clover Hydro Pro Jammers saw the two top contenders Eddie Klien and Ellis Thornton tied in points at the end of the Annual Jammer Jam, but after calculating the tie breaker based on wins the division saw Ellis Thornton take home the championship honors again for the 2011 season. The Jr. Jammer division saw Jackson Long who dominated all year long take home the Championship in the division and Brandi Cubbage of Cobb take home the honors in the Jr. Jammer division for Rookie of the Year. The Taco Bell bomber division saw the veterans at the top of the field battling it out for the title, and at the end of the evening it saw the father and son team from Nice of Mike and Rich Swaney take away the title over a tie in second place of Charlie Collins and Andy Norton. The Rookie of year honors went to the one and only “Mr. Excitement” himself Rich Mills of Kelseyville Ca. with being to pull out a 5th place in points over all. The Coors Light Modifieds have one more race to go till their champion can be crowned and with Rookie of the Year Contender Charlie Collins turning up the heat in the last half of the season he is putting the pressure on the two guys in front of him the current points leader Sean Sweeney and the guy in the brides maid spot at the current moment Aaron Hicks. The last points race for the Coors Light Modifieds will be held on the Bomber Bash on September 17th 2011 along with the first ever time at Lakeport speedway we will be starting a 30 car main event for the Bomber bash, that is going to be a must watch show of the year.
The Rental Solution Mini Stocks saw the point leader going into the night battle all through hot laps to try and find some more speed out of his car to keep up with the lighting fast car of Sean Keown. It however was Keown that broke the current track record with a new on of 13.696. This lead to an action packed race that saw Keown have to work his way up through traffic to make his way to the front of the field for hopefully another win on the year, but more importantly try to pass Peterson so that he could claim his second champion ship in a row. He worked his way through the field one car at a time, having to face two restarts and work his way back up the leader’s board. It ended up with Keown battling with Marcus Hatfield for the lead and at the checkers it was Keown taking the win and the Championship.
Bad luck had followed Charlie Collins of Nice in the last couple weeks at Lakeport Speedway where incidents have caused him not to finish the last two main events. He is chasing Sean Sweeney and Aaron Hicks for the championship in the Coors Light Modifieds, after already wrapping up the first ever Championship in the Lake County Off Road Extreme Asphalt Outlaws. The race saw Collins set fast time and with his normal luck draw for a full inversion of the field seeing him starting on the last row. Chuck Pruett of Finely jumped out to the early lead as the cars in the rear of the field worked their way up through the field, it was on lap 14 that 2nd year driver Alex Andrews made a pass for the lead, but without his knowledge Charlie Collins was picking his was through traffic latching on to Andrews bumper by lap 18 making the pass for the lead and not looking back on lap 20 not looking back for the next 20 laps. At the checkers if was Collins followed by Andrews, Hicks and Sweeney, with this finish Collins is making his mark on the Modifieds, letting the guys that he is a contender that is going to be there not only this year but in the future, the last points race is going to be one to watch and see who wins the crown.
The taco bell bombers saw Rich Mills of Kelseyville start on the pole with Kevin Bracket of Ukiah Ca. starting on the outside of the front row. The pair battled for the first few laps until Bracket faded back giving up the second spot to Robert Byers of Ukiah. Byers and Mills battle back and forth for many laps as the driver on the move was Collins making his way up through the field moving into second on lap number 10. The first caution fell for contact on the back straight away just after Collins made his move for second, after a brief clean up and removal of the cars to the infield, the restart saw Collins on the outside of Mills. The two battle back and forth with Mills holding his ground against the 2011 Champion Collins with Collins finally able to take the lead for a final time, only to have to hold off a late challenge of Sean Keown piloting the 37 car for Furia Motor Sports to a second place finish. At the checkers it was Collins, followed by Keown, Thorn, and Byers.
The interesting race for then night to watch was the Jammer Jam, where the Clover Hydro Jammers run on both dirt coarse in the infield as well as some on the normal race surface. Some of the drivers look forward to this race all year long with some racers dreading this event because it could make or break a champion ship. At the drop of the green flag the little Geo Metro that on a straight asphalt race has nothing for the bigger cars, jumped out to the lead with Jason Hunter at the helm. The rest of the cars battle back and forth with Pro Jammer Ellis Thornton getting a flat tire on the first lap, but not stopping because the championship was on the line during this race, with pro jammer driver Wayne Young jumping out to the lead in that division. The race was stopped for a brief caution when Trevor “Buff” Kollenborn collide with a tire coming out of turn number one. At the restart Jason Hunter was still in the lead to only lose the lead to Young when he lost control of his car and it would not restart late in the race. At the conclusion of the race it was Wayne Young of Kelseyville taking the win for the pro jammers, and Hayley Bishop taking the win for the Jr. Jammers.
The boat racers took to the wet and muddy track at the conclusion of the Jammer jam that took place half on the track and half on the infield. The field was stacked with veteran boat races of “The Bat Man” Tim LaPoint, Sean Sweeney, and Steve Olveria. The field of eleven boats took to the race track and with the large Limo of Dale Preston taking to the track this show was bound to have some good action in it. Taking the field from a standing start on the front straight away it did not take more than a couple of turns for complete chaos to break out clogging the track on the back straight away. Once the limo got sideways down the back straight it was like a wreck in the fog on I-5 everyone was involved. Track staff scrambled to clear the wreck as quick as possible to allow the race to continue. LaPoint by the restart had jumped out to a very good lead over Sweeney and Olveria and not it was for the three to put on a show of the night, as most the other cars where wrecking and losing boats along the way. The 2011 Lakeport Speedway Lake County Off Road Extreme Asphalt Outlaw Champion Charlie Collins of Lakeport took his hand to a boat car again, only to try and squeeze his car and boat through a hole that was big enough for the car, but the whole closed and popped his boat off his car like a child would pop a cherry into their mouth off a steam, leaving him to demolish stuff laying around the track, which he put on a show doing. It came down to a last effort by LaPoint to finish off Sweeney, but he missed then Sweeney gave a sitting boat a old full throttle jump which in the long run ended his night with something coming to a halt in his car. At the checkers it was LaPoint, Sweeney, and Olveria, and after the fans voted for the best performer of the night they ended up with the same finishing order.
Speedway staff had extra staff on hand this weekend to help an raise funds by selling the Speedway Scratchers for the victims of a fire that claimed a house in Upper Lake last week. The volunteers that were on hand to help and raise money for the fire victims were able to raise $1000.36 for the family. Lakeport Speedway wants to send a big thank you to their very caring fans for lending another helping hand to someone in need and look forward to see all of them in the future events at the speedway. The speedways next event will be during the Lake County Fair on Thursday Sept 1st where the Lake County Extreme Asphalt Outlaws will be running a race during the fair, along with the Lawnmower racers going at it in front of the pack fair crowd. If that action is not going to be enough we are back the show up on Friday night with a Master of Destruction Derby on Friday night under the lights. All these show are included in your admission to the fair. For complete event details visit www.lakeportspeedway.com or call the office at 707-279-9577. For complete fair information visit the fair website at www.lakecountyfair.com or call the fair office at 707-263-6181.
