September 19th was a beautiful day for racing at South Sound Speedway. Jim Jones held the point lead at the beginning of the night but Bobby Wheeler Jr. still had a chance to steal the championship trophy if things went his way.

The first casualty of the event was Henry Weichel who put his car on the trailer when his engine lost oil pressure. Fortunately for Weichel, Bob Fulmer lives nearby and the two were able to repair his car and return to the track in time for qualifying.

Kevin Rinkel was the fast car in time trials with a lap of 15:12 seconds, just a tick ahead of Jones’ 15:17 second lap.

Heat race B was lead off by rookie KC Peterson in only his second race start. He had Todd McCartney on his right. Ike Hoskinson and Kiel Hobbs followed them as the green flag was displayed. Jeff Peterson, KC’s dad, started in the third row but quickly made his way to the front with Dave Trapp close behind. Those two remained in first and second with John Mustered a close third at the checkered flag.

The A heat saw Charlie West Jr. sitting on the pole flanked by Robert Rux and followed by Wheeler and Weichel. In this race Mike Clother’s car was being driven by Scotty Rinkel, son of Kevin, out for his first start in a full size racecar. As the green flag flew the two Rinkels hovered at the rear enjoying a race all their own. Meanwhile West remained in the lead with Rux behind. Wheeler suffered a broken axle and headed for the pits while Jones worked his way toward the front from his third row starting position. West held on for the win with Jones second and Rux a close third.

Jeff Peterson sat on the pole for the scheduled 30-lap main event. Mustered, Trapp and West made up the remaining spots in the first two rows. There was very close, side-by-side racing for first several laps of the race. Dave Trapp was finally able to make a move to take over the lead followed by West and Mustered. Kevin Rinkel was working hard to get around Mustered while further back Clother was racing on the outside of Rux. Those two went at it for 3 laps before Clother’s car took a scary spin on the back straightaway that sent him sliding backwards toward the turn 4 wall. This happened on lap 13. Luckily Clother was able to back the car into the track exit lane, stopping against one of the huge tires that line that road and was able to return to the race with minimal damage. On lap 17 West was not so lucky. His engine expired, oiling down the track and the windshield of Rinkel who was just behind him. The race was stopped to clean up the track and officials decided to shorten the race to 25 laps. On the restart Trapp still lead with Mustered behind him and Rinkel in third. Jones had left the track early in the race but now returned to battle with Rinkel. On lap 23 they made heavy contact in turn 4 causing the officials to end the race with a yellow/checker. There was some confusion about who finished where but after the dust settled it was Dave Trapp winning with Mustered in second, Rux third, Wheeler fourth and Jeff Peterson rounding out the top five. Even with a poor finish in the main Jones held on to win his second consecutive championship. It was a great year of racing with the championship decided on the last night. Former champion Bobby Wheeler’s hope to steal it from Jones was not realized this time. Wait till next year.