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Nancy
Feldner photo - Brian Ruhlman stand victorious after winning the fourth
Annual Baltes Classic Sunday at Eldora Speedway.
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Ruhlman wins Baltes
Classic
By George Starks
ROSSBURG - If one thing can be said about Brian Ruhlman, it's this...
He's learned what it takes to win at Eldora.
Despite threatening weather at the local speed plant, the fourth Annual
Baltes Classic went off without a hitch Sunday and Ruhlman won the
event in classic Ruhlman style.
On a night marred with cautions, it was a caution that played into
Ruhlman's hands. Like so many times in the past, Ruhlman, running
second, sat back and played the waiting game. With the yellow flying
and the green about to fall, Ruhlman, behind an unsuspecting Ryan
Vandeerveen, hit the gas, dropped to the bottom of the track, made the
pass and waved good-bye.
“Is this car great or what,” Ruhlman said. “This is only the second
time I've been here this year. Man I love this place.”
Starting in a three-wide format, and a wet track, fighting to stay
alive was the key in victory for Ruhlman.
“I knew we just had to keep our nose clean,” Ruhlman stated. “I just
had to let the car do its work. The car was running perfect and the
set-up was great. We were a little rough at first but once the track
came in, we came in.”
By the fifth lap, it looked to be a two car race with Vandeerveen and
Andrew Reaume running away from the field as Ruhlman was a distant
fourth, no less than three seconds off the pace of the 33 lap race.
Even by lap 16, Ruhlman was third but nowhere on the radar of the
leaders.
Then it happened.
Reaume made a pass on Vanderveen and in the process, swapped some major
paint, bringing the Reaume car off its wheels. Somewhere in that
transition, something broke loose from the 88 of Reaume's car and oil
started to burn. On lap 21, a caution was out, Reaume pulled off and
now it was Ruhlman's race to win, as the loss of Reaume would put
Ruhlman in second place.
Ruhlman had little time to interview as he was forced to jump from his
late model to his modified. He would not get two wins on the night as
Matt Westfall and Mike Babcock would finish ahead of Ruhlman in third.
In the stock feature, Union City's Mike Dirksen would get the win.
Feature Results:
Baltes Classic for Late
Models
1. 49-Brian Ruhlman [5]; 2. 9r-Curtis Roberts [17]; 3. 13-JR Hotovy
[10]; 4. 23v-Ryan VanderVeen [3]; 5. 1b-Jerry Rice [9]; 6. 95j-Jerry
Bowersock [10]; 7. 77-Steve Kester [18]; 8. 99m-Devin Shiels [15]; 9.
15a-Phil Ausra [4]; 10. 46-Tim Rivers [13]; 11. 11-Jon Henry [27]; 12.
6-Dona Marcoullier [16]; 13. 18r-Chris Ross [12]; 14. 93-Jim Cochran
[23]; 15. 33-Don Gordon [22]; 16. 11-Jeff Babcock [6]; 17. wd40-Dusty
Moore [8]; 18. 88-Andrew Reaume [2]; 19. 34-Ky Harper [7]; 20. 1z-Doug
Zartler [25]; 21. 7-Brandon Fouts [14]; 22. 6-Donnie Marcoullier [24];
23. 21rh-Greg Heskall [19]; 24. 3-Austin Dillon [11]; 25. 20-Shawn
Phillippi [21]; 26. 23-Duane Chamberlain [1]
Modifieds:
1. 20h-Matt Westfall [2]; 2. 555b-Jeff Babcock [6]; 3. 49-Brian Ruhlman
[5]; 4. 26-Mike Dirksen [7]; 5. 5x-Jerry Bowersock [17]; 6. 67-Ed
Shaner [10]; 7. 555-Justin Coulter [14]; 8. 43-Justin Gregory [9]; 9.
3b-Bob Burch [16]; 10. 5x-Tim Richardson [23]; 11. 0-Brent Hole [8];
12. 15j-Jimmy Hayden [19]; 13. 00-John Brooks [11]; 14. 11-Rob Williams
[21]; 15. 15-Nick Katterhenry [12]; 16. 09d-Joel Dick [22]; 17.
55-Justin Matson [15]; 18. d48-Derek Groomer [1]; 19. 8-Cory Bevard
[24]; 20. 45p-Brian Post [18]; 21. 20-Josh Morton [3]; 22. 5*-Bryant
Dickinson [20]; 23. 225-Jesse Bitterling [13]; 24. 88-Scott Orr [4]
Eldora Stocks:
1. 26-Mike Dirksen [1]; 2. 00-Dean Pitts [5]; 3. 3b-Rob Trent [8]; 4.
2-Ed Johnson [11]; 5. 20-Shawn Phillippi [12]; 6. 49-Eric Sandlin [16];
7. 1m-Jeremy Creech [7]; 8. 19-Wayne Williams [15]; 9. 65-Rodney Lacey
[20]; 10. 46-Troy Staton [21]; 11. 98-Cale Ramey [13]; 12. 55-Bradley
Caudill [18]; 13. 11d-Colton Oda [23]; 14. 99-Andy King [2]; 15.
5g-Anthony Goode [9]; 16. 71c-Barney Craig [4]; 17. 01-Earnie Woodard
[3]; 18. 62-Kevin Gossard [6]; 19. 29-Mike Ford [14]; 20. 18-Bob Sutter
[10]; 21. j2-Amanda Smith [17]; 22. 7-Dan Wooten [19]; 23. 27-Mark
Wooten [19]; 24. 88-John Phlipot Jr. [24]
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