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Jeff Koz (16) tries to stay ahead of John Shidler (64) and New Bremen's Drew Charlson during the Modifieds feature at Sunday night's Baltes Classic at Eldora Speedway.
ROSSBURG - Nineteen year-old, second-generation driver Tristan Chamberlain and veteran Nick Hoffman split the 25-lap Iron Man American Late Model Series (ALMS) twin feature events that highlighted the Baltes Classic at Eldora Speedway on Sunday night that kicked off World 100 week at the speedway.
The duo was joined on the victory stage by Jeff Koz and Nick Bowers who captured the UMP Modified and Eldora Super Stock main events.
Chamberlain, of Richmond, Indiana, led the entire distance of the first Late Model feature event to pick up his first career win at Eldora.
Tristan Chamberlain won the first feature of late model racing on Sunday at the Baltes Classic at Eldora Speedway.
"If you are going to win a race, this is the place you want to do it," Chamberlain said after the $5,000 victory. "This is by far the biggest race I've ever won."
Tristan joins his father, Duane, as an Eldora winner. Duane, the long-time driver for St. Henry car owner Bill Dues, won two ALMS feature events at Eldora.
2021 World 100 winner Brandon Overton drew even with Chamberlain several times through the middle stages of the race as the duo raced through lapped traffic but a lap 12 caution flag for Logan Nickerson's slowing machine opened the track back up for Chamberlain and he was not challenged the second half of the race.
"Being out front in clean air was everything," Chamberlain said. "I could feel my car get really loose as soon as I got to lapped traffic but thankfully we were able to hold them off until the caution and get this win."
Max Blair passed Overton on the restart and ran in second until the final lap, when Overton took the spot back and finished there over three seconds behind Chamberlain. Blair, Jerry Bowersock and Luke Morey completed the top five in the first feature event.
Jadon Frame, Freddie Carpenter, Brody Smith, Jason Riggs and Kody Evans completed the top 10.
Nick Hoffman took the second late model feature at Eldora Speedway on Sunday night.
Hoffman, of Mooresville, North Carolina, chased defending Baltes Classic and World 100 winner Ricky Thornton Jr. for the first 23 laps of the second main event. The duo zig-zagged through lapped traffic with Thornton holding the lead until slipping high in turn two, allowing Hoffman to shoot past and into the lead on the next to last lap.
He led the remainder of the event and beat Thornton by just under one second to collect another $5,000. It was Hoffman's fourth career Late Model win at Eldora.
"I could tell he was really fighting a push entering the corners and that was where I could really make up time on him," Hoffman said. "I was waiting for him to make a mistake, and Ricky doesn't make many, but when he did we were there and able to get by him."
It was Hoffman's second win of the season at Eldora, having also won the Flo Racing Night in America event in June, but it was his first win anywhere in the country since then.
"I haven't won since the Flo race here earlier in the year," Hoffman said. "At times it's been a struggle but we've had a lot of second and third-place finishes but have never quite been fast enough to win. I've read on Facebook that all I can do is finish second, so it feels pretty damn good to get one here."
Josh Rice ran a close third the entire race and finished there ahead of teenager Trey Mills and Tyler Erb, who brought the St. Marys-based Best Performance Motorsports machine home fifth after starting 11th.
Jason Jameson, Kyle Bronson, Steven Roberts, Michael Leach and Brenden Smith completed the top 10 in the second feature.
Koz, of Lima, was pressuring race-long leader Jeremy Rayburn in the UMP Modified 20-lap feature event when the leader spun out on his own in turns one and two on lap 17 bringing out the caution flag and handing Koz the lead, which he eventually turned into his third career Modified win at Eldora.
"Sucks to be him, but I'll take it," Koz said from victory lane with the $1,500 winner's check. "I'm not sure what happened to him, if he just missed his line or something but I got up on his outside and made him move around a little bit so maybe that just threw him off a little bit."
John Shidler made an aggressive move on the restart to take over the second position and he finished there beating Bradley Jameson, New Bremen's Drew Charlson and Dylan Woodling to the finish.
Jason Kinney, driving for Montezuma car owner Mike Chrisman, dropped out of the main event and was scored 23rd at the finish, while "Weasel" Philpot, driving for Burkettsville's Mike Garke, was involved in a crash during his heat race and did not return to the track.
Nick Bowers won the main event of the Eldora Stocks division at the Baltes Classic.
Bowers, of Piqua, dominated the Super Stock 15-lap feature winning by nearly five seconds. Brad Eitniear, Daniel Sanchez, Jeff Matheny and Rob Trent completed the top five.
Eldora officials now turn their attention to the "biggest event in dirt track racing," the World 100, which kicks off on Thursday night. Twin 25-lap preliminary features take place Thursday and Friday night, set the heat race lineups for Saturday's, 56th annual World 100 with the winner taking home $100,000 and the famed globe trophy.
