by Scott Wolfe

October 6, 2007 Stewart, Ohio: Fall racing in Southern Ohio is uncommon, but 2007 has been a dream season for area racing fans as all-star fields have packed the Skyline Speedway pits and produced some of the best side-by-side battles of the year. Piketon's Jimmy Nier win a barnburner over Keith Baxter in the 410 super sprints.

In his book "Stand on the Gas", Joe Scalzo called sprint car racing "hell, yet heaven." The wicked machines can be mean and nasty, but for Nier it was a little bit of heaven. For northern Ohio ace, Phil Gressman, it was the alternative as his hard charge was marred by his failure to cross the scales after a top five finish.

Gressman looked strong in the dash. He looked stronger in the feature. Gressman jumped into the early lead and bolted ahead of the pack in a wheelie-poppin' flat-footed style. Bryan Grove looped it on lap nine to bring out the only caution. On the restart, Keith Baxter in Freddie Staat's mount saw the chance he needed and dropped an anchor around the inside uke tires, where Baxter pulled Gressman down the backchute. Gressman pulled back alongside for what turned into a torrid two-lap battle. Pennsylvania champ Rod George rocketed into the chase and Dave Dickson started to move on the low side, bagging Gressman on the last circuit.

Baxter paced the field to lap 23, but each lap Nier, who had moved to the topside began to reel in the Chillicothe hotshoe. Nier, who started eighth, worked the traffic to his advantage to take the lead and charge on to the victory. The torrid 25-lap feature was run in less than thirteen minutes counting cautions.

Nier said of the win, "Keith showed me the low side on the restart and I made up some ground there, but I knew if I was going to make the pass I had to get back on the cushion. This JEI chassis worked great, and this track just gets better every week."

IRS late models and kids night festivities are slated for Skyline Oct. 13.

Qualifications) Rod George 11.62

Dash) Keith Baxter, Phil Gressman, Rod George, Caleb Griffith, Todd Kane, Nick Naber

Heat 1) Gus Wasson, Greg Mitchell, Jimmy Stinson, Cole Duncan

Heat 2) Jim Nier, Dave Dickson, Aaron Higgins, Roger Mossbarger

A-main (25 laps) 1 Jim Nier 00, 2 Keith Baxter (Staats 33), 3 Rod George 4, 4 Dave Dickson (Abbott 7a), 5 Caleb Griffith 12, 6 Greg Mitchell 001, 7 Todd Kane (Gresham 6), 8 Roger Mossbarger 95, 9 Gus Wasson (Ferkel 0), 10 Jimmy Stinson (Jarrell 22), 11 Aaron Higgins 51, 12 Adam Strausser 65, 13 Jason Dolick D12, 14 Brian Benson 11, 15 Bryan Grove 45, 16 Brandy Bower 06, 17 Nick Naber (Jarrell 22), 18 Cole Duncan 22, 19 Randy Fink 41. DQ Phil Gressman 83 (crossed fourth but did not report to scales) 410w