It's tough to say who loves Altamont Raceway Park more, Jason Fensler or Burney Lamar.
The Tracy track saw Fensler win the Shell Tri-Track Challenge season finale -- his third win in three races at the half-mile track. But Lamar finished fourth to win the 11-race series.
The race was marred by several accidents that saw the 100 laps last almost two hours. The track's program began at 6 p.m. Saturday and ended at 12:17 a.m. this morning.
"It feels great," Lamar said. "To run with fields like this all year and win the series. That's an accomplishment."
Fensler was impressive at all three races at Altamont. He took the lead on Lap 27 and never looked back.
"If it's up to me we'll just have all 12 races here next year," Fensler joked. "The car just works so well here."
If there was any doubt of Lamar winning the series title, it ended when Oakdale's Mike Terpstra -- the only driver with a realistic chance of catching him -- was involved in a multiple-car wreck on Lap 59 with Sonora's Nathan Tucker and Modesto's Kevin Gottula.
Lamar subjected his fans to some suspense when he pitted on Lap 62 after being involved in another accident with several cars. But he got out of the pits in time for the green flag, ending Terpstra's hopes.
"I was nervous until the checkered flag," Lamar said. "We needed to beat Mike by 13 spots and they kept telling me on the radio there were 15 out there."
But Lamar ended up passing Terpstra and finishing ahead of him by one spot. Terpstra finished second in the series, followed by Fensler, Escalon's Eric Holmes and Tucker.
"This series brings out the best drivers out of all three tracks," Lamar said. "This is an awesome feeling."
The Street Stock Northern Nationals got flag-happy fast. The 100-lap race, which lasted a little over 90 minutes, had five yellow flags in the first 13 laps. It took the 30-car field almost 45 minutes to complete the first 25 laps.
Livermore's Jeff Anthony held off Riverbank's Charlie Kramm for his second straight Northern National win.
After two successful seasons at Altamont, Anthony has started thinking about moving up a division.
"We're working on getting a Late Model Sportsman car for next year," Anthony said. "We'll still run the Super Sportsman, but we'll also probably runn all the Tri-Track races here next year."
NOTES -- Because Bobby Hogge IV didn't show up, Sacramento's Gary Matranga won the rookie-of-the-year award. ... Escalon's Eric Holmes won the UTB Qualifying award. He beat Lamar 33-32. ... Tracy's David Philpott, who left before the main event began because of engine problems, won the Pick-N-Pull passing points award for passing the most cars throughout the series.
