Sunday, August 22, 2010

Big Diamond Champions To Be Decided This Friday

The 2010 racing season is flying on by us, QUICKLY...And this Friday night at BDR the 2010 championships will be decided....All three of the weekly divisions have close battles going on for the top spots, and all three can have changes happen in them in a blink of an eye.

Last Friday night it was a HUGE night for the top guys in the SBM and SPTS divisions, as the point leaders in both were NOT in the top spots when the racing action was over this past Friday night.

Craig Von Dohren (all time leading feature winner at BDR, but never won a championship)has basically been the point leader all year long....But a guy with the nickname 'The Handler' has been keeping CVD and his #1C in sight all year long....Doug Manmiller hasn't picked up a win this year yet, but week in and week out he's a finishing 'machine' in the Josh Biever owned #14.

Two out of the last three weeks have been disasterous for CVD and his title hopes, with seeing him head pitside before a lap in the feature race had been completed, and this past Friday was one of those weeks....When it was all said and done, CVD was credited with a 25th place finish, and Manmiller came home a strong 5th....Which now has Manmiller the NEW point leader going into the final points race this Friday night, with 1844 points and CVD behind in second, 30 pts behind with 1814....John 'The Ultimate Underdog' Willman looking for a career best third place finish in the standings with his own #74W, Rick 'The Quaker Shaker' Laubach holds down the fourth spot right now in the Johnny Rea owned #R1, and Jeff 'The X-Factor' Strunk sits in the fifth spot going into the final points race in the Gagliardo #41.

This past Friday night it was no different for the SPTS mod gusy either....As former track champ Brad 'Pap Pap' Brightbill was holding down the top spots for much of the summer months of racing....But like CVD in the SBM's, two out of the last three weeks have been disasterous also for Brightbill and his #19....Two weeks ago he was penalized for speeding in the pits (which has been discussed in the racing circles as being a questionable call at least) after making a quick stop and trying to rejoin the field....Last Friday night Brightbill was running in the top 10, but a mechanical issue sent him pitside once again ending his night....Enter racers Mike 'The FBI' Mamanna' and Craig 'Hook' Whitmoyer.

Both Mamanna and Whitmoyer have won SPTS races the past two weeks at BDR....Both have been hanging around the top 5 in points for weeks now....Both moved past Brightbill after this past Fridays action was in the books....Mamanna has his #71 in the top spot going into this Friday with 1625 points, Whitmoyer is second only three points behind the leader with 1622....Brightbill sits in the third spot with 1593, 32points behind and definitely not out of it....Last years champ Kevin Beach Jr and Mike Loney both sit tied for the fourth in the standings with 1566 points each.

In the always exciting Road Runner division at BDR, Elvin Brennan and his 'Forestville Mafia' #555 team sits on top of the standings....It's onle been recently that he has been able to take over the top spot from Ryan Olenick and his #45....Right now Brennan has 1869 points and Olenick has 1839 points, which means only 30 points seperate these two going into the final points showdown....Last years champ, Ryans' brother Kevin, sits in the third spot with his blue #450 and having accumulated 1801 points, 68 behind the leader and not totally out of it by any means.

So it's going to be a VERY entertaining night for the fans next Friday night, but for many of the race teams the word STRESSFUL will probably be the word they'll choose to use....And oh by the way, early forecast has it nothin' but sunny and nice next Friday night, so it looks like the championships will absolutely be decided on the race track, where they should be.

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