Frankie Althouse came into Mahoning Valley Speedway’s Octoberfast as the recently-crowned Late Model champion, a feat he was able to repeat for the second straight year.

What he was hoping to do in capping off a near-perfect season — that saw him finish either first or second in all but one feature — was knock off an Octoberfast win, something that has eluded him time and again. It appeared that his chance to add his name to the winners list was about to come to fruition until the final lap, when Mike Sweeney forced his way around and took a dramatic victory.

Sweeney and Althouse had rivaled all season long, with no love lost between them. They combined to win 15 of 18 races, and battled down to the wire for the class championship. All that was left was Octoberfast and Althouse, shunned from winning the event, wanted nothing better than to cap off his year with that victory. Sweeney was a two-time Octoberfast victor.

Leading from the outset, Althouse had all he could handle from Broc Brown, who has always been a tough adversary. Brown was racing outside and never gave Althouse a chance to breathe easy as he pushed hard trying to get the front spot. The battle remained intense as each lap, their side-by-side battle kept the enthusiastic crowd on the edge of its seats.

Persistence finally paid off for Brown, as he eked into the lead with 38 laps complete. Still neck and neck, Althouse retook the lead three laps later. Brown then made another attempt at going to the front, only to get loose and spin after contact with Althouse.

Then came Sweeney’s turn to challenge as he assumed the second spot. With 18 laps to go, he remained glued to Althouse’s rear bumper.

Then on lap 59 of 60, Althouse received the white flag and had his line into the last two corners. Sweeney, however, made a bold move when he bumped into the back of Althouse in turn four, which got him loose and forced the No. 22 car to back off the throttle or risk crashing. Sweeney dipped underneath him and took the gripping verdict.

“I knew he (Althouse) was backing up the center a little bit, and that was my only shot to give him the bump and run and try to get underneath him coming to the line, and it worked,” said Sweeney.

The win gave Sweeney the top ranking in Late Model wins with 54.

“If the shoe was on the other foot, he proved it that he uses the bumper too,” Sweeney said. “Neither of us are no angels, and it actually worked out for me this time.”

Althouse sat at his car afterward, clearly disheartened from what had just occurred, and tried to collect his thoughts from what was an oh-so-close shot at the win.

“It is what it is. We’ll rebuild, and we’ll get better. This will make us work harder, and give us motivation to come back next year and excel,” said Althouse.

Brown, Mark Hudson and Avery Arthofer completed the top five.

In the Street Stock portion of Octoberfast, Randy Schlenker capped off his year by bookending the season with victories. Schlenker won with a hard-driving effort that saw him lead all 75 laps.

However, with Eric Kocher and Randy Ahner Jr., on his tail for a major portion of the run, it didn’t make things easy for the venerable Schlenker, who had a tough time making his car stick to the bottom and protect his position.

“The car wouldn’t turn to save your life in the middle of the corners,” said Schlenker. “It came off good, but we just couldn’t get in. Thank God we started on the pole.

“You can never let your guard down here because anyone can win in this class. And when you have guys like Eric (Kocher) and Randy (Ahner Jr.) and then Mark (Martini), it makes things twice as hard.

Both Ahner and Kocher gave Schlenker a run for his money, with Kocher settling for a hard-fought second. Late into the event, Martini worked to third. 2019 Street Stock champ Jon Moser came on late to record fourth, while Ahner had to settle for fifth.

The 50-lap Hobby Stock main came down to a wild last-lap dash to the checkers that saw Devin Schmidt take the win.

Jacob Boehm led from lap three and was in command for much of the time. Boehm had built a lead until a lap-43 caution brought the field all together. As the race resumed for its final seven laps, Schmidt, along with Peyton Arthofer, amped up the pressure on Boehm.

With little room for error, the trio raced under a tight blanket, and on the final tour all three had one thing in mind – winning. As they came into turn four, the chaos unfolded. Arthofer wound up crashing hard into the wall, while Schmidt somehow found an opening to slip under Boehm and win his second Octoberfast.

The All-Star Slingshots and Junior Slingshots played a part in this year’s Octoberfast, with Dakota Kohler taking the victory in the All-Star race, and Tyler Ulsh notching top honors with the Juniors.

Late Model Feature Finish (60 laps)

: 1. Mike Sweeney, 2. Frankie Althouse, 3. Broc Brown, 4. Mark Hudson, 5. Avery Arthofer, 6. Brandon Turbush, 7. Samantha Osborne, 8. Geno Steigerwalt, 9. Dylan Osborne, 10. Jeremy Miller, 11. Todd Cooper, 12. Rich Cooper

Street Stock Feature Finish (75 laps)

: 1. Randy Schlenker, 2. Eric Kocher, 3. Mark Martini, 4. Jon Moser, 5. Randy Ahner Jr., 6. Mark Deysher, 7. Jill Long, 8. Bobby Kibler Jr., 9. Jared Ahner, 10. Todd Ahner, 11. Tucker Muffley, 12. John Bennett, 13. Todd Geist, 14. Josh Mooney, 15. Jamie Smith, 16. Stacey Brown, 17. Shayne Geist, 18. Dennis Buss, 19. Brennen Coulter

Hobby Stock Feature Finish (50 laps)

: 1. Devin Schmidt, 2. Jacob Boehm, 3. Al Arthofer, 4. Jayden Brown, 5. Rich Mutarelli, 6. Jessie Bollinger, 7. Peyton Arthofer, 8. Trisha Connolly, 9. Tucker Muffley, 10. Travis Solomon, 11. Cody Kohler, 12. Tyler Nemeth, 13. Austin Ahner, 14. Eddie Jones, 15. Cody Boehm, 16. Tad Snyder, 17. Keith Kutz, 18. Ralph Borger Jr., 19. Terry Peters, 20. John Petro

All Star Slingshot Feature Finish (25 laps)

: 1. Dakota Kohler, 2. Mike Mohr, 3. Matt Mertz, 4. Andrew Turpin, 5. Riley Hummel, 6. Wally Bell, 7. Kyle Herve

Junior Slingshot Feature Finish (20 laps)

: 1. Tyler Ulsh, 2. Talan Carter. 3. Aidan Donaldson