Natural Bridge Speedway
October 2, 2011
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Shaver collects Sunoco Fall Classic victory at the Natural Bridge Speedway

NATURAL BRIDGE, Va. (October 2) - The 2011 season at Natural Bridge Speedway is officially in the record books.  The Sunoco Fall Classic brought the curtain down on the 2011 season this past weekend.  Mother Nature made her presence known this past weekend as rain postponed action on Saturday night.  The feature events were then rescheduled for Sunday afternoon.  Fans braved the cool, windy conditions Sunday afternoon highly anticipating the biggest event of the year at Natural Bridge Speedway.  When the checkered flag flew on the sixth annual Sunoco Fall Classic it was Vienna, West Virginia’s Steve Shaver going to victory lane.  Shaver picked up over $9,500 for his win.

Drivers from all over the mid-Atlantic were on hand to battle for the super late model winner’s check.  Preliminary events were held on Friday night.  Ronnie Dehaven, Jr., Jamie Lathroum, and Scott LeBarron were heat race winners.  Brian Tavenner was victorious in the last chance race.  Steve Shaver won the Dash for Cash.  By virtue of winning the Dash for Cash, Shaver earned the right to start on the pole for the fifty-lap main event.  Shaver and two-time defending champion of the Fall Classic, Jamie Lathroum started on the front row.  At the drop of the green flag Shaver got the advantage and took control of the race.  Daytime racing always presents a tricky racing surface as a number of drivers experienced trouble on the 3/8’s mile oval.  Several early cautions kept the leaders in check.  However, with each restart Shaver and Lathroum distanced themselves from the field.  At one point the two leaders were nearly a half lap ahead of the rest of the field.  Lathroum stayed glued to the back bumper of Shaver and at times seemed to have the better of the two cars.  

Though positions stayed relatively the same at the top of the leader board, the racing action was fierce throughout the field.  Lathroum had his best shot at making a move on Shaver as the two drivers encountered lapped traffic midway through the event.  As the two drivers exited turn two, Lathroum made a run at Shaver on the bottom of the speedway.  The two made slight contact in turns three and four but both drivers straightened out their machines and continued on without losing a position.  Several late race cautions gave Shaver a clean race track as he raced to the checkers to claim his first win at Natural Bridge Speedway and his first Fall Classic triumph.  Shaver led every lap to take home a $1000 in lap money, making his weekend total $9,500.  Lathroum settled for second after his race long battle for the win.  Jeremy Miller, who won the Three State Flyers race at Natural Bridge earlier in the season, made a late race move on DJ Myers to claim the third position.  Myers right rear tire went flat in the closing laps dropping him to a twelfth place finish.  Ronnie Dehaven, Jr., who was the fastest qualifier among all super-late model entrants, crossed the stripe in fourth.  Booper Bare scored his second top five finish of the night as he rounded out he top five.  

A-Main
1 6 Steve Shaver
2 6 Jamie Lathroum
3 1M Jeremy Miller
4 1D Ronnie DeHaven, Jr.
5 37 Booper Bare
6 119 Jimmy Bernhisel
7 00F Bo Feathers
8 43 Jason Covert
9 4 David Watts
10 7 Kyle Lear
11 19 Greg Roberson
12 70J DJ Myers
13 10 Denny Bonebrake
14 24 Kenny Moreland
15 87 Walker Arthur
16 37 Brian Tavenner
17 119B Bryan Bernhisel
18 7 Darryl Hills
19 8 Joey Leavell
20 93 Tony Crim
21 33 Chris Meadow
22 100 CS Fitzgerald
23 87 Dwayne Harbaugh
24 8L Scott LeBarron
25 74 Tyler Hershey