Two titles are decided at Orange Show Speedway, but one of the winners wasn’t expecting a crown

SAN BERNARDINO, California — Two more California Speed Jams 2011 champions were crowned Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway. One coronation was expected. The other was a complete surprise.

Steve Smith, who went into the 35-lap Super Stock finale with a 10-point lead over Kyle Meyer, followed race-winner Meyer from start to finish and won the title by 8 points. But David Foster won the 35-lap Stock Cars USA main event and wound up a surprised class champion after bad luck struck the two drivers ahead of him in the standings when the night began.

Steven Clark had taken an 8-point lead over Mark Fletchall into the race and Foster was 14 points behind. That meant that in the scoring system used at OSS, with a race winner getting 50 points, second 48, third 46 and so on, Clark needed only to finish within four positions of Mark Fletchall. That became a certainty five laps into the race when Fletchall spun, was forced to pit with a flat right rear tire and lost two laps in the process. He finished eighth.

Foster, a Riverside body shop owner who as one of the founders of the USA class, lead the main event from start to finish to add a season-ending win to his season-opening victory and leap-frogged Fletchall for second place in the standings while Clark finished a comfortable second to claim his first title.

Then Clark was disqualified when engine irregularities were found during the post-race technical inspection. As a result, he dropped from first to fourth unofficially in the standings and Foster became the champion.

The Late Model, Pony Stock and Factory Four classes will crown their champions on Oct. 22, but in two of those three classes the fight may be over.

Brandon Loverock continued his domination of the Late Model division by taking the lead on a caution restart on lap 15 and finishing the 40-lap dash more than 4 seconds ahead of Tim Smith. Matt Goodwin was third and now trails Loverock by 12 points and Jesse James Lawson finished ninth to go from 10 points behind to 26 back.

Jeremy Perez of Chino (Ca.) won the Pony Stock main event and Erik Spring of Beaumont (Ca.) finished second to take a stranglehold on that division championship. The race was shortened from 35 to 25 laps because of six lengthy yellow flags, one on lap 16 for an incident involving Spring’s closest pursuer in the points standings, Jack Hughes.

Hughes, also of Beaumont, spun between Turns 3 and 4 and was hit by Lucas McCray. The damage to his Ford Pinto forced Hughes out of the race and relegated him to a 13th place finish. Hughes had been 16 points behind Spring going into the event. He now trails by 38 with only the Oct. 22 finale remaining.

The cautions slowed the winner’s average speed to 5.965 miles per hour, which may make it the slowest race in Orange Show Speedway’s 64-year history.

The only division race that tightened up was the one in the Factory Four class, where Danny Guiterrez of Redlands (Ca.) got his second straight win and fourth overall to pull within 6 points of leader Tony Forfa III, who was sixth. Still in the mix as well is reigning champion Dwayne Blay, who trails Forfa III by 12 points and Guiterrez by 6 after his third place finish.

The final night of the season, Oct. 22, will be highlighted by the $15,000 1-800LoanMart Street Stock Challenge, an open competition affair that will pay $4,000 to the winner and give one fan a chance to win $25,000.