6/1/2013
ASCS Northwest Region
ASCS-Northwest Opens Up With Willamette Thriller
ASCS-Northwest Opens Up With Willamette Thriller
By Ben Deatherage
(Photo Courtesy of Northwest Racing Productions)
After two nights of unfortunate rain outs the week previous the 2013 season is finally away for the American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region. Starting the year off on a gorgeous Friday May 31st evening the series would pay visit to the Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon. A total of twenty-five cars converged on the historic 1/3-mile clay oval. And what a race it was between some of the best drivers on the West Coast.
Defending series champion Roger Crockett of Medford, Oregon was looking to start off his quest for the fourth ASCS-Northwest Region title of his career by capturing the win at Willamette from the pole. Crockett would get an excellent start, in his SKS Racing/Al Parker Racing Engines/Champion Racing Oil #11 KPC mount, on the initial start and was fast out of the gate. The front runners set such a rapid pace that lapped traffic was thrown into the mix by lap three.
As Crockett blazed the trail in lapped traffic he would receive some damage to his front nose wing knocking it askew. The cosmetic damage didn’t slow him down too much but before too long he had to worry about a strong challenge by Kyle Hirst. Hirst, of Loomis, California, was in the cockpit for the weekend for the acclaimed Finley Farms/CLT Logging #77 A.R.T. entry and was coming in a hurry.
Hirst would really start to work on Crockett but couldn’t make a pass and before too long a caution would come out with ten laps complete. On the restart again it was Crockett and Hirst running first and second and keeping in stride with one another until lapped traffic came into play yet again.
Hirst would make a daring move on lap twenty to earn the lead but would momentarily lose it to Crockett. A caution would come out bunch the field up and reverting to the last completed lap Hirst was scored as the leader.
Still Crockett had one last chance to try and win the race. On the final restart Hirst would jump out to a large lead but would have that interval cut apart due to the tail end of the lead field working both the bottom and top of the race track and blocking his route to get around. Crockett gave chase and tried to pull all the stops and nearly made the pass with a few laps to go as the two exchanged slide job after slide job.
As the laps continued to wind down Hirst and Crockett nearly collided in turns three and four but managed to keep themselves going in the right direction. Hirst would hold on to the lead at the finish line to win the 2013 opener for the ASCS-Northwest Region and his first win with the series since 2010.
“I hope the fans enjoyed that when me and Roger slid each other back and forth,” commented a smiling Hirst in victory lane, “we got to lapped traffic and it was really racy. I got to thank Jason and Scott Finley for putting me in this thing this weekend and all the guys helping on the car. I haven’t been here since they remodeled and it’s an awesome joint I wish it was closer to home so I could run it more often.”
Finishing in second would be Crockett while Trey Starks of Puyallup, Washington placed his Starks Timber Processing/Blue Dot Fabrication/MASCO Petroleum #55 Schnee in a solid third. Completing the top five finishers was the Great Western Transport/Elma Lanes/ Speedmart Inc. #9R Eagle of Reece Goetz of Snohomish, Washington in fourth and the Myer Electric/Kitsap Powdercoating #3 XXX of Quilcene, Washington native J.J. Hickle was fifth.
“When the wing got knocked down I was waiting to get passed,” stated Roger Crockett, who would finish in second, “we had a heck of a race with Kyle it’s just frustrating with the nose wing. The fans definitely got to see a great race. Last week I was in Tulare and saw Kyle and Jason Meyers trade sliders so I guess it was my turn.”
“We had a good car but we didn’t have a whole lot for them under green,” said Trey Starks third place finishers, “we got jumbled up in lapped traffic and it was like a maze the first time we hit it [traffic]. I got to watch an exciting race and had fun tonight.”
Earlier in the evening heat race winners were Roger Crockett, Kyle Hirst, Roseburg, Oregon’s Jake Waddell in the Double R Powdercoating/Rocket Designs #10J XXX, and the LRB Manufacturing/Canales Racing #83SA A.R.T. driven by Zach Zimmerly of Ridgefield, Washington in the Rod Tiner Jr. owned machine. A twelve lap consolation race was ran and was won by Tony Thomas from Mill City, Oregon in the Mark Herz owned Herz Precision Parts/Wolverine Chassis/Applied Suspensions #28TT Eagle.
The ASCS-Northwest Region returns to action on Saturday June 1st with a visit to the Cottage Grove Speedway. The date will mark the final stop of the doubleheader weekend for the series. Front gates open at 4:00 PM with racing scheduled to begin around 6:45.
The American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region is the western most arm of the American Sprint Car Series sanctioning body located in the Pacific Northwest the series hosts 360 Sprint Car racing on dirt tracks throughout Oregon and Washington from May to September. For more information on the latest news and stories about the series log onto their website at www.ascsnorthwest.com or www.ascsracing.com.
Race Summary
ASCS-Northwest Region Race #1
Friday May 31st, 2013
Willamette Speedway
Lebanon, Oregon
25 Entries
Heat Race Winners: Roger Crockett (1), Jake Waddell (2), Zach Zimmerly (3), Kyle Hirst (4)
B-Feature: 1. Tony Thomas, 2. Colton Akerstrom, 3. Cale Brooke, 4. Mike Romig, 5. Jesse Thistle, 6. Brenton Nugent, 7. Allison Journey, 8. Jeffrey Rivers, DNS Jared Ridge
A-Feature: 1. Kyle Hirst, 2. Roger Crockett, 3. Trey Starks, 4. Reece Goetz, 5. J.J. Hickle, 6. Justyn Cox, 7. Henry Van Dam, 8. Randy Pierce, 9. Zach Zimmerly, 10. Kenny Allen, 11. Jake Waddell, 12. Zack Spaulding, 13. Mike Romig, 14. Colton Akerstrom, 15. Cale Brooke, 16. Brent Hoover, 17. Tony Thomas, 18. Shane Forté, 19. Kyle Miller, 20. Cam Smith
Submitted By: Ben Deatherage
