It was a rainy and cloud covered day at Ona Speedway as Jake Keaton finally decided to jump down into our other classic to run against Jason for the first time. They grew up racing against each other in the virtual world of videogames and would always be tough to beat until they took each other out racing for the win. Many were scared putting these two together on the track at the same time in real cars. Others looked forward to it Like Jake and Jason. Jake would be running the old #14 classic that Rick had run in the early days and that Jason ran at the end of last year. Jason had the much better car but Jake has much more racing experience.
Practice obviously showed that Jason had the much faster car but Jake was still to be had with by most of the rest of the field. Problems arose earl for Jake though as he was overheating when he pulled into the pits. Some radiator work and resetting of the timing fixed that problem and Jake was guaranteed to race again. Jake drew 3rd position and Jason drew 5th placing them right in the middle of the seven car field.
The start came and the leader David Cottrel jumped out to an early lead. Jason pushed Jake into 2nd and moved into 3rd right behind him. He ran about 2 laps behind him and gave Jake a slight bump in turn 3 nearly sending Jake spinning but he hung onto it only to get loose the next lap letting Jason slip underneath and take 2nd. Jason set his sights dead ahead on the leader charging up to him in no time and riding his bumper the whole way around the track. Some bumping and nudging persued as Jake hung in 3rd a few car lengths back. Jason had to try the high side as the leader David was running the low line. Jason ran door to door for the lead lap after lap in what was an exciting race for the top spot. Jason inched into the lead one lap but was not given an all clear by his spotter and left the bottom open letting David back in. The battle raged on until a caution came out midway thoughr the race. Jake still ran 3rd right behind Jason for the restart.
On the restart Jason did not relize the green flag was about to fly and was pounded by Jake when the green came out Jake too k 2nd while Jason tried to gather the car back up and go racing. Jason quickly caught Jake after a lap. Jake came off of turn 2 with 8 laps to go and was extremely loose. Jason ducked underneath almost going in the grass to give Jake enough room to gather it back up. Jakes steering locked on him though and he side swiped Jason as he passed low. Both drivers thought it was over and they would spin into the turn 3 wall head on. But both of them held on and managed to not wreck. Jason caught the leader again and ran door to door some more for the lead untill another caution came out for a spin. Jake ran the remaining laps in 3rd watching the lead battle while Jason tried all that he could to get under Cottril for the win. At the end of the night though they wound up 2nd and 3rd with a lot of memories and close calls from there first race together. Jason took the points lead and Jake vowed to be back in classics at Ona.
Jake leads Jason at the green flag and early into the race
Jason pushed Jake a few times
Jason ran door to door lap after lap
Jason outside of the leader
Until caution emerged
Jason trailed the leader the rest of the race
Jake finishes 3rd in his first classic race
Jason was sleeping on the start and Jake took second place
Finish: 3rd
