local racing
Fisher shows class in waiting, losing on track
Friday, July 11, 2008
The latest points totals haven't been posted, but there's a good chance that 16-year-old Hamilton driver Samantha Boitnott is either at or near the top of the Tri-State Dragway Junior Dragster standings.
She turned in a pair of semifinal finishes over the July 4th weekend to make a major gain on points leader Kenny Carson Jr. of Trenton.
And for at least a few of the points she garnered along the way, Samantha should buy Franklin's Amanda Fisher and her entire crew soft drinks as a way of saying thanks.
While enjoying Saturday's drag races at Tri-State Dragway, I saw a bit of sportsmanship that I just couldn't ignore.
It was Round 2 of the Junior Dragster competition and Boitnott and Fisher were the second of five pairs of racers set to go.
But there was some kind of a technical glitch in Boitnott's engine and she wasn't ready to roll when it came her time to run.
Fisher could've thumbed her nose at the Hamilton points contender and enjoyed a free pass down the track uncontested for a certain win. But instead, she and her crew did a very sporting thing.
They waited.
As the Boitnott family pulled Samantha's car back behind the burnout area to try and fix the glitch in her engine, the Fisher clan did the same thing.
They pulled out of their lane and chose to let Sam and her crew get her Junior Dragster in running order.
The other three pairs of Junior Dragsters ran their rounds, including Amanda's brother Robbie who defeated Carson Jr., and soon the Boitnott crew had Samantha's car running again.
When both cars finally answered the bell, Boitnott won the round.
She then beat Robbie Fisher in the next round before bowing out to eventual race winner Samantha Lee of Cincinnati in the semis.
As tight as the Junior Dragster points race has been thus far this season, those were 10 valuable points Boitnott earned over the Fishers on Saturday alone.
Had Fisher not shown a lot of class by waiting for Samantha to race, those would've been someone else's points.
Fisher is proof that sometimes winning isn't the only thing that matters. Sometimes it's best to play the game with a lot of class, and lose.




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