5/22/2014
ASCS Northwest Region
ASCS-Northwest Region Season Openers: A History
ASCS-Northwest Region Season Openers: A History
By Ben Deatherage
(Photo Courtesy of Malcolm White Photography)
White City, Oregon- When the first green flag drops at the first American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region 2014 event on Thursday May 22nd at Southern Oregon Speedway it will open up the seventh season under the ASCS banner in the Pacific Northwest. In this article we will discuss some of the season openers in the past with the ASCS-Northwest Region.
In the very first race for the ASCS-Northwest Region Jayme Barnes was able to hold off Henry Van Dam to pick up the victory at the event held at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington. The following year in 2009 was the first time Southern Oregon Speedway hosted a opener and Roger Crockett would survive to earn the win on a wet and rough track.
In 2010 it looked like Seth Bergman was going to be the winner but mechanical problems would force him to give up the top spot to Jason Solwold who would go to victory lane at GHR. Solwold himself looked as he was going to be the winner in 2011 at Cottage Grove Speedway for the opener but Roger Crockett would get him on the last lap to bring the crowd to their feet.
Crockett would win the first race of the year at Gray Harbor in 2012 after seizing the lead around the halfway point and would dominate from that point on. But in 2013 it was a nail biter at Willamette Speedway with Roger Crockett and Kyle Hirst going back and forth lap after lap with Hirst picking up the victory in front of the Lebanon crowd.
Another staggering statistic is that every season, with the exception of 2013, the winner of the first main event of the season has eventually went on to win the series title. Four race tracks have hosted season openers in the six previous years with the “House That Fed (Brownfield) Built”, commonly known as Grays Harbor Raceway, hosting the honor three times. Cottage Grove, Willamette, and Southern Oregon have hosted one season opener each.
This year Southern Oregon Speedway will be the first of four consecutive nights of racing for the Triple Track Challenge. The series will venture north after the race at SOS on Friday May 23rd to Lebanon’s Willamette Speedway before concluding with a two-day affair at Cottage Grove Speedway on Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th.
Be sure and don’t miss a lap of the action as the ASCS-Northwest Region as the area’s best 360 Sprint Car drivers will contest on seven different race tracks in three different states that include Oregon, Washington, and California. For the latest news and informatio
Submitted By: Ben Deatherage