By Scott Bender
More races were added this year in the sprint car division but
not even that could slow down Kenny Gilmore as he again was the class of the field. Gilmore collected 8 wins, missed 1 race due to illness, and lost out in a tie -breaker the other race. Congratulations to Kenny on an outstanding season. Randy Haydt turned in a strong 2nd half of the season, with 1 2nd place finish, and 4 3rd place runs, to come home 2nd in the final standing. Only 6 points behind, new comer to this class Shane Hiester was very competitive, scoring an early season win, and tallied 7 other top 5 finishes on way to a 3rd place finish. Only 5 points behind, Jim Levan was very consistent, with 2 2nd place finishes early in the year, and 5 other top 5 runs, capturing 4th in the final standing. Only 7 point behind Mark Williams used a strong 1st half of the season, including a win, and 4 other top 5 finishes, to close out the top 5 finishers.
6-10 – Sheldon Hiester also was a new comer to this field and was very strong as he collected 5 top 5 finishes including a 2nd place finish in March to finish 6th in the final standing. Billy Decker collected a 7th place finish in the standing, including a 2nd place finish in the season final race. Billy also had 2 other top 5 finishes. Scott Bender struggled all season with his equipment, except for a early season 3rd place finish, wound up in 8th. Bob Amore scored a 6th place finish in March helping him to a 9th place finish. "Rookie Of The Year" in this class Toby Reinhard was also very competitive in this tough field finished 10th.
11-15 The final 5 finishers included 4 "Rookies", Dennis Kersher finished 11th, with 2 top 10 finishes. Dale Stengele Sr finished 12th, Steven Kersher 13th ran 4 races had a 7th place finish in his season debut. Nick Wummer 14th, in 4 races had 2 12th place finishes. Allison Reinhard ran 4 early season races finishing 15th in the final standing.
FEATURE WINNERS: Kenny Gilmore – 8 Shane Hiester – 1, Mark Williams – 1
SPRINT STATS
Close sprint action as 17 point difference from 2nd to 5th. Billy Decker edged Scott Bender by 1 point for 7th.Toby Reinhard won Sprint car "Rookie of the Year" including a good 3rd place finish in December. Brett Gilmore was very strong in his 2 starts with a 2nd & 3rd place finishes. Don’t forget if your looking for a new sprint car body for the new year Bob Amore continues to do a fine job. If anybody is interested in helping out with donating anything for the annual 40 lap Sprint Car race later in the year se Mark, Monk or Scott.
