The 9th and 10th races of the Mike Cook Northeast Challenge Series took place on September 13 and 14th in Redwood, NY on beautiful Crystal Lake. The weather was not cooperating on Saturday as a cold, windy, wet and rainy day greeted the drivers. All racing was postponed until Sunday building even more suspense into the Challenge Series. You know it was a rainy wet day when 5 South Shore members ended up meeting over at the local laundromat in Alexandria Bay, drying wet clothing! Billy Allen, Steve Noury (with Maureen), Alex Poliakoff, and Alan Akerstrom took turns feeding the dryers with quarters.

On Sunday the two races were run back to back. The first race had Mike Akerstrom continuing his winning ways with a first place over Scott Reed in second and Adam Allen in third. Michael Rorke added more points to his tally with a fourth over Steve Noury in fifth who had been going neck and neck with Akerstrom in the overall points battle.

The second race again found Mike Akerstrom taking first followed by Scott Reed, Michael Rorke and Adam Allen. With a DNF for Steve Noury the shakeup in points would have the pencil pushers up all night trying to figure out where all the challengers stood in the overall points battle.

After taking into consideration throwaway races to get to your best eight, “Young Gun” Mike Akerstrom would lead the “Cagey Veteran” Steve Noury by four points going into the Kingston, NH showdown, 80 to 76. It will all boil down to if you win both days, you win the Series. Anything other than that will be a nail biter. Saturdays second race will only be one heat so there is only one bonus point available. They are the only two drivers with a mathematical chance at the Title. However, third thru fifth is a dogfight among Wild Bill Forster, Tim Noury and Michael Rorke. Forster has a slim one point margin over Tim Noury and Rorke only sits ten points out of third. Six thru ten is pretty much set in the standings with Howie Nichols, Thom Noury, Scott Reed, Jesse Swain and Adam Allen all finishing in money positions.

Stay tuned for the final story from Kingston, NH on Saturday, September 20th when the Series will wrap up and the Mike Cook Northeast Challenge Series Champion will be crowned.