Part of the beauty of auto racing is that not everyone is watching the same cars.
And, while it’s always fun to watch the race leader often more important factors, like an impending track championship, turn the fan’s attention elsewhere. That was the situation in last Saturday night’s All-Pro Wingless Sprint Car feature at Petaluma Speedway where speedy Geoff Ensign of Sebastopol was leading nearly the entire race, on his way to his second victory of the season, but many eyes were focused further back in the pack on the division’s top four ranked drivers, who entered the contest separated by just seven points.
While Ensign’s second victory came at the end of a flawless performance by the 19-year-old and lifted him into a three-way tie for most divisional wins with Terry Schank Jr. and Ryan Bernal, much of the attention was aimed at championship hopefuls Schank, Devon Ostheimer, Bernal, and Arvo Backholm.
At the end of the race the results were mixed with points leader Schank, who finished fourth in the feature and second in his heat owning a six-point advantage over fast qualifier Bernal, who finished third in the feature. Ostheimer, who entered the night trailing Schank by a single point, had mechanical problems and was forced to drive a borrowed car. After a promising start in his victorious heat race the Morgan Hill teenager’s car didn’t have the power needed to contend with the frontrunners and finished a disappointing 12th in the 16-car field, and unofficially, 16 points behind Schank. Backholm fared even worse, and more than likely ended his championship dream, when the Santa Rosa driver, running second behind Ensign, flipped his race car 13 laps into the event, and finished 13th, with three points races remaining for the wingless division.
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