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[Pappy]

Our final race of the 2009-2010 race season is in the books. Not a bad turn-out but I would have liked to have seen a few more. We did have two new comers to the Ohio Valley Series, Ross Bowman and his daughter Zoe. Both did a great job and will be a force to reckon with next year. Plus Ross paints some of the prettiest bodies you've ever seen, and he has a four lane 12' x 24' Grandstand in his basement that is smooth and fast.

I'd like to thank Ed and Ruth Gray of Fast Eddie's World of Speed for their usual hospitality and for providing us with a great place, track and pit space to race. Not to mention the free snacks.

The day pretty much belonged to Tony Jackson who won all four races, three of them without much difficulty. Tony recorded the fastest lap in all four races.

As always we started the day with F1. We only had 6 racers in this one but it was still a fun race. Tony turned the fastest lap of the race with a 4.109 on yellow. I had a really good car turning the second fastest lap with a 4.11 something but after about 3 lanes my car got real loose and hard to drive. Plus my driving was nothing to brag about. When everything was said and done Tony easily bested the second place finisher Neil Easterday by 8 laps with Ken Green 6 laps behind Neil.

1. Tony Jackson 333 laps 4.1095 on yellow
2. Neil Easterday 325 laps
3. Ken Green 319 laps
4. Butch Dunaway 317 laps
5. Jason Echelbarger 305 laps
6. Gary Echelbarger 290 laps

Both concours prizes for Best Looking and Most Realistic were won by Gary Echelbarger

Our second race was the Can Am race. We had 11 for this one so we ran an eleven man round robin. Ed's printer was down so the race director would just write the results on a piece of paper and give it to me. I just now noticed as I'm writing this report that he didn't put down anyone's laps except the winner. So all I can give you is how everyone placed but not by how much.

1. Tony Jackson 348 laps fastest lap 3.9488
2. Ken Green
3. Neil Easterday
4. Jason Echelbarger
5. Butch Dunaway
6. Gary Adams
7. Ross Bowman
8. Billybob Newland
9. Steve Dieters
10. Gary Echelbarger
11. Zoe Bowman

In Concours the winner for best looking car was Zoe Bowman and for Most Realistic was Billibob Newland

The third race of the day was JK Spec. We had a full field but not enough turn marshals so we ran an 11 man round robin with three blinds. It worked out really good as we always had enough marshals and between 5 and 6 drivers for each lane. As it was for all our races Tony Jackson was the winner. But he didn't have such an easy victory in this one. Starting the last lane Tony was leading me by 41 laps. Tony was sitting out the last lane and I was on Red. Red is the slowest lane on this track but I'd been averaging about 42.5 laps a lane and I was only about 20 feet from the lap counter at the start of the lane for my first lap. I figured if I ran a good clean heat I could still beat Tony. I ran a great heat not coming out at all but I had to stop 5 times for the turn marshals to clear a car from my lane. When the dust settled Tony had me by about 40 feet.

1. Tony Jackson 337+ laps 4.0076 on Green
2. Butch Dunaway 337 laps
3. Gary Echelbarger 319 laps
4. Jason Echelbarger 303 laps
5. Billibob Newland 302 laps
6. Ross Bowman 288 laps
7. Zoe Bowman 285 laps
8. Steve Dieters 284 laps

We finished the day with GT Coupe. Again we had 8 racers so we ran an 11 man round robin so we would have turn marshals. In this one Tony was really flying setting the best lap of the day with a 3.6793 on Blue. Falcon 7 motors really run good on Ed's track. In the end it was.

1. Tony Jackson 338 laps 3.6793 on Blue
2. Ken Green 327 laps
3. Jason Echelbarger 315 laps
4. Butch Dunaway 301 laps
5. Steve Dieters 296 laps
6. Ross Bowman 288 laps
7. Zoe Bowman 285 laps
8. Gary Adams 60 laps

I'd like to thank all the participants that raced in our series this year, it made for a great year. I'd also like to thank all the track owners, Mike and Cindy McMasters at Tom Thumb, Rick Blackson at T/R's Motorplex, Ed and Ruth Gray at Fast Eddie's and Malcolm Lovelace at Roadster Raceway for all your hospitality.

A special thanks goes out to Jerry Kulich at JK Products for all his great prizes and beautiful plaques and to Ron Hershman / Outisight Bodies for all the concours prize bodies. And to everyone who volunteered in any way they could to make this possible.

Next year the Ohio Valley Series will be in the capable hands of Mike McMasters and Ron Hershman and I'm looking forward to a great season of racing.

C'ya in the fall

[Steve Deiters]

It was one full, fun day of racing.