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Rayton, Briggs Jr and Foster Win In Front of Huge Crowd!

The stands were packed full of race fans excited to see some awesome dirt track racing action at Grays Harbor Raceway on Saturday night. The Rolling Thunder Big Rigs made their yearly stop along with the Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks and Outlaw Tuners.

Rolling Thunder Big Rigs:

Caleb Thompson took the early lead in the Rolling Thunder Big Rigs 25 lap feature but a hard charging Tammy Rodstrom of Puyallup was right on his back bumper. Jay Steiger of Chehalis sat in third but had to hold off a hard charging Josh Sanaski of Napavine. Sanaski wasted no time to chase down Thompson and Rodstrom. Sanaski took over the top spot after racing side by side for a handful of laps. The battle for fifth between Rochester's Mike Gibbons, Dustin Smith of Renton and Scott Zahn of Rochester saw three wide for position. Lap 12 saw a caution come out for debris in turn two, stacking up the field and giving the rest of the field a chance at Sanaski for the lead.

Sanaski led the field to the green as Rodstrom and Olympia's Leo Norris look to chase him down. Joining in on the battle was Tom Rayton of Centralia taking over the third spot from Norris. Rayton ran the high side of the 3/8 banked clay oval looking to chase down Sanaski and Rodstrom. Rayton slipped back a few positions giving up the third spot to Smith. A late race charge saw Rayton get by Rodstrom and Smith, setting his sights for the lead. Rayton didn't waste time catching Sanaski, looking to the inside groove of the raceway out of turn two, making it a drag race down the backstretch. Rayton would go on to pick up the Rolling Thunder Big Rig feature. Smith, Sanaski, Zahn and Dave Bar of Centralia rounded out the top five. Heat race winners earlier in the evening were Sanaski and Gibbons.

Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks:

Ocean Shores driver Jeff Daniel brought the field to the green flag on the 20 lap Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks A-Main. Daniel took the lead, bringing Hoquiam's Jack Parshall with him. Arnie Case of Vancouver sat in the third position, looking to the outside of Parshall for second. Vancouver driver Craig Loomis moved past Case to take over the third spot bringing Aberdeen's Shane Kerrigan with him. Kerrigan looked to the outside of Loomis and took over the third spot looking to track down Daniel and Parshall. Daniel continued to lead but had no room for mistake as Parshall and Kerrigan were ready to strike. Kerrigan moved into the second spot on lap 7, and was right on the back bumper of Daniel waiting for a mistake. Lap 9 saw the caution flag fly for Kelly Fugate of Spanaway, slowing to a stop in turn one.

The restart saw Daniel continue to lead as Parshall, Kerrigan and Hoquiam's Jason Tole raced three wide off turn four. The caution quickly came out on lap 10 for a three car incident in turn one. Daniel had tough company as Parshall, Tole, Kerrigan and Don Briggs Jr of Woodland became a huge factor. On a lap 11 restart, race leader Daniel slowed as the green flag flew with a broken transmission bringing out the caution giving up the lead to Briggs Jr. A handful of restarts saw many chances for Kerrigan and Tole to make a shot at the lead on Briggs Jr. As the leaders took the white flag, Tole looked to the inside groove to make a pass at Briggs Jr for the lead, coming to the checkered it was a drag race as Briggs Jr held off Tole for the win. Kerrigan, Parshall and Loomis rounded out the top five. Heat race winners were Kerrigan and Tole, with Parshall picking up fast time.

Outlaw Tuners:

The 15 lap Outlaw Tuner feature saw Cory Sweatman of Aberdeen and Tumwater driver Nathan Foster set the front row. Sweatman took the early lead with Foster looking to chase him down. The battle for third between Tyler Sundstrom of Aberdeen, Shelton's Dale Speas and Ryan Zaragoza of Purdy saw all three drivers go three wide into turn three with Sundstrom taking over the third. The red flag flew on lap 2 for RJ Vacknitz of Ocean Shores going for a ride in turn one. He did walk away from the incident uninjured. Sweatman led the field to the green with Foster looking to chase him down. Foster looked to the inside and took over the lead out of turn two. Foster had tough company as Sundstrom moved into the second spot around Sweatman and made the pass for the lead in turn one on lap 5. Foster continued to sit in the second spot as Josh Wharton of Tenino looked to take over the position but couldn't make the pass. Contact with a lap car saw Wharton swipe the backstretch wall losing momentum, allowing Speas to catch him and take over the third position.

Foster continued to reel in Sundstrom for the lead, getting closer lap after lap, getting side by side in turn three on the white flag lap. Foster and Sundstrom both bumped coming off turn four with Foster making a last lap pass for the lead, picking up his first career Outlaw Tuner win. Sundstrom, Wharton, Speas and Olympia's Devon Harper rounded out the top five. Heat race winners were Sundstrom and Wharton.

Earlier in the evening the Outlaw Tuners ran a make up main event from the fair race that they didn't run do to rain. Josh Wharton held off a hard charging Devon Harper to pick up the win over Ryan Zaragoza, Trevor Dugent and RJ Vacknitz.

Racing will resume next Saturday night with the 360 Sprint Cars, Shipwreck Beads Modifieds, Outlaw Tuners and the final appearance of the year for the PHRA Dwarf Cars with their annual Pocket Change Race. Last years winner Corey Estaban of Gaston will look to go 2 in a row and pick up his third Pocket Change Race victory as he was the winner of the 2014 event. Gates will open at 5:30PM with racing beginning at 7PM.

Grays Harbor Raceway
August 19, 2017

Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks:

Fast Time:
9 Jack Parshall

Heat 1:

1. 43 Shane Kerrigan, 2. 01 Craig Loomis, 3. 9 Jack Parshall, 4. 14 Jeff Daniel, 5. 67 Ryen Haney, 6. 22X Kelly Fugate, 7. 42R Daryl Brumfield, 8. 00 Kirk McGinnis, 9. 99 Jim Solorzano

Heat 2:

1. 34 Jason Tole, 2. 13XXX Don Briggs Jr, 3. 33 Arnie Case, 4. 19 Taylor Miller, 5. 42 Scott Fritts, 6. 5X Tim Phillips, 7. 23B Matt White, 8. 3 Rodger Perry, 9. 5 Tom Hecker

A-Main:

1. Briggs Jr, 2. Tole, 3. Kerrigan, 4. Parshall, 5. Loomis, 6. Case, 7. Hecker, 8. Fugate, 9. Perry, 10. McGinnis, 11. White, 12. Fritts, 13. Brumfield, 14. Phillips, 15. Miller, 16. Haney, 17. Daniel, 18. Solorzano

Outlaw Tuners:

Fair Race A-Main Make Up:

1. 59 Josh Wharton, 2. 12XXX Devon Harper, 3. 19 Ryan Zaragoza, 4. 555 Trevor Dugent, 5. 9 RJ Vacknitz, 6. 33X Dale Vacknitz, 7. 3 Cory Sweatman, 8. 7 Dale Speas

Heat 1:

1. 23 Tyler Sundstrom, 2. 19 Ryan Zaragoza, 3. 3 Cory Sweatman, 4. 12XXX Devon Harper, 5. 9 RJ Vacknitz

Heat 2:

1. 59 Josh Wharton, 2. 7 Dale Speas, 3. 63 Nathan Foster, 4. 17 Jason Valentine, 5. #1 Car, 6. 33X Dale Vacknitz

A-Main:

1. Foster, 2. Sundstrom, 3. Wharton, 4. Speas, 5. Harper, 6. Zaragoza, 7. Dugent, 8. Valentine, 9. #1 Car, 10. Sweatman, 11. RJ Vacknitz, 12. Dale Vacknitz

Rolling Thunder Big Rigs:

Heat 1:
Josh Sanaski

Heat 2:
Mike Gibbons

A-Main:
Tom Rayton

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