DELAWARE -- It's never too late to go back to school, even at age 38. But Dion Verhoeven's classroom hasn't been in a traditional school house.

Instead, when he's not feeding the chickens or combining the wheat on his 300-acre Kerwood farm, Verhoeven's classroom is his CASCAR sportsman race car.

"You're never done learning on these darn things," Verhoeven said last night at Delaware Speedway, where he is in a tight battle for the division championship.

Verhoeven's string of two straight feature wins ended last night when Steve Robblee of Dorchester, making a rare regular Friday night appearance, won before 2,907 fans.

Verhoeven finished second. Points leader Scott Lindsay of St. Marys was third.

"We did a bunch of learning through the winter," Verhoeven said of his success this year. "It's all about learning. You do one thing, then work on it for a while, then you go on to another thing."

He said it's been a long time since he's been in school, "but you're always learning on a farm."

Verhoeven started racing in the endurance division in 1989 and did that for three years.

"We raced the same car all three years, amazing enough," he said of that wreck-em class. "Mind you, we had to stretch it back out a few times."

In 1992, he moved up to street stock, satisfying his need to go faster.

After winning street stock championships in 1995 and '96, he moved into sportsman.

After finishing seventh in the division last year, Verhoeven is battling Lindsay and Jay Doerr and Doug Stewart, both of London, for the crown.

"It's a close division," said Verhoeven, second in points, five behind Lindsay. "It's been fun. It's nice we've got a bunch of cars running close."

Verhoeven has what it takes to make the move into the CASCAR Super Series -- everything except the time and the money.

"Even if I had the money, the biggest thing is time, and a crew that has the time, too," he said.

"You've got to travel and take two weeks off (when the series goes to the Calgary and Vancouver), and the chickens don't quit laying eggs.

"I was off the field today at 4:30, getting off the combine (the wheat's coming in right now), then it was rushing here to the track."

Defending street stock champion Dave Lawrence of London won his fifth feature after starting 11th to take over the points lead, nine ahead of J. D. Paton of St. Thomas.

Defending truck champion Brian Verberne of Strathroy won his first feature of the year, after also starting 11th. Points leader Chad Rijnen of Dorchester finished second.