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Stewart takes NSCS win in first Medford race
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
WHITE CITY, Ore. - Shane Stewart didn't seem to be bothered by the fact he had never raced on Southern Oregon Speedway before. That became more evident when he won Monday's Northwest Speed Week opener in Northwest Sprint Challenge Series competition.
Monday's event saw one of the more bizarre endings in recent memory. Stewart had led all 18 completed laps of the scheduled 30-lapper when a green-white-checkered was called for as the track's weeknight curfew had arrived and gone. Following Stewart the entire race was NSCS point leader and four-time race winner Roger Crockett.
Crockett got underneath Stewart in turns one and two on the restart, but contact was made, sending both drivers spinning around. Crockett stopped in the Henderson Motorsports No. 7N Eagle, but Stewart managed to keep going and retain his top position and with checkers falling he had his first career NSCS victory aboard the Doyle's No. 1 Shaver-powered Maxim.
"I was just lucky to keep it going, honestly. Unfortunately, Mike Doyle's nice new ride has a scratch on it," Stewart, out of Bixby, Okla. joked quietly. Doyle, whom Crockett used to drive for and won Northern Sprint Tour championships with, had put together the ride with mechanical whiz Paul Silva for Stewart to drive this week as a hired gun. Stewart has spent much of this season in that role, recently winning the Ohio Speed Week title with the All-Star Circuit of Champions.
Golden State Challenge series point leader Brent Kaeding of Campbell, Calif. inherited second in his own No. 69 Shaver-powered Maxim at the finish as a result of Crockett's misfortune. The 12-time "King of California" has won the Monday Speed Week race at Southern Oregon four times. Bellingham, Wash.'s Brock Lemley, racing at Southern Oregon for the first time also, finished a strong third aboard the Kentch Bros. No. 40 Triple X. Reigning "King of California" Jonathon Allard of Chico finished fourth in the Morrie Williams No. 0 Kistler-powered Maxim.
Perhaps the biggest winner of the evening was Tacoma's Mitch Olson, who finished fifth in the Mike Olson No. 98m Shark-powered Rocket. Crockett's 85-point lead over Olson going into the evening took a hit as Crockett was credited with a 17th place finish, his only finish outside the top five in the NSCS all season. Olson, a feature winner earlier this season in NSCS competition, ran in the top ten the entire way and also ran ahead of Kaeding for a time.
Stewart, on two instances, was approaching slower traffic when cautions occurred to clear the track for him. The first was on lap 11 when Snohomish, Wash.'s Seth Bergman spun around in turn four after being tapped unintentionally by British Columbia's Travis Rutz. The other came on lap 16 when Billy Nutter, who entered the evening third in points, broke his front end suspension after contact with another car exiting turn four.
One more caution came with 18 laps complete when Rutz and Dan Menne, who won the May 26 NSCS event at Southern Oregon, got together and spun in turn four. That set up the fateful final restart that saw Stewart and Crockett tangle.
"(Crockett) was trying to win. I can't blame him," said Stewart, who became the fifth different driver to win an A-Main in the inaugural NSCS season. "There was loose stuff thrown on the track (from prior incidents), and that was the only reason I kept going. I'm sorry for the fans the race was cut short. I know curfews are strict around here."
Stewart was third fastest in qualifying before finishing third in his heat race and second in the dash to place himself outside Crockett on the front row of the feature. Stewart and Crockett dueled for two laps before Stewart established himself at the front of the field.
Fifth-place points man and top rookie contender Robbie Vaughn of Monroe, Wash. finished sixth from near the back of the 20-car field in the Jeff Jansma No. 4r Becker and recorded his fourth straight top ten A-Main finish since crashing out of the B-Main on May 25 at Willamette Speedway. Vaughn was scheduled to 18th but moved up a row following Steve Vague's scratch from the A-Main field.
In his first appearance with the NSCS California's Jeff Delte finished seventh after starting 14th while rookie Evan Funk of La Conner, Wash. finished eighth. After his earlier spin, Bergman recovered to finish ninth and earn his fifth top ten finish. Garen Linder of Central Point, Ore. rounded out the top ten.
Sultan, Wash.'s Derek Ingalls, who before Monday was the only driver to have successfully transferred out his heat race in all seven previous NSCS events, saw that streak end when he suffered a flat right rear tire and finished ninth in the third heat race. Ingalls, who was seventh in points going in, finished fifth in the B-Main but still transferred after Vague's scratch and drove his way to an 11th place finish.
After their earlier incident, Menne finished 13th and Rutz 14th, respectively. Rutz entered the evening eight points behind Nutter for third, and Nutter ended up finishing 19th after his earlier problems. Tyler Spath, who came into the night 11th in points, dropped out of the feature and was scored 20th.
Allard, a two-time former Dirt Cup champion at Skagit Speedway and the current 410 sprint car point leader at Silver Dollar Speedway in California, had an eventful evening on his way to his fourth-place finish. After setting fast time in qualifying, Allard blew his motor during the first heat race and was forced to put in an older motor for the 15-lap B-Main. Allard would finish second behind Rutz, who was second by Allard in qualifying. By finishing 1-2, both got their times back behind the six dash cars and Allard started seventh and Rutz eighth.
Finishing third and fourth behind Rutz and Allard in the B-Main were Menne and Jayme Barnes, who tagged the back of the A-Main field. Shane Forte' of Junction City, Ore. won the 10-lap C-Main after a last lap pass around Josh DeWitt.
The dash, which featured the six fastest qualifiers who transferred out of their heat races and set the first six starting positions for the A-Main, was won by Crockett over Stewart, Olson, Kaeding, Lemley and Bergman. Nutter, Kaeding, Todd Zeitler and Delte each won 10-lap heat races.
Allard's time in qualifying was 12.193 seconds around the 1/3-mile, semi-banked clay oval. The remaining top ten were Rutz, Stewart, Menne, Bergman, Kaeding, Hawaiian visitor Dean Freitas, Idaho's Randy Pierce, Crockett and Barnes.
Fifty cars, the largest field for a Northwest Sprint Challenge Series event this season, were on hand at Southern Oregon Speedway with drivers from eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces taking part. Along with Hawaii's Freitas and Oklahoma's Stewart, Alaska's Steve Martin also raced as did a handful of racers from Alberta and Montana. In years past, Southern Oregon served as the opening venue for Northwest Speed Week. That was not supposed to be the case this year, but Southern Oregon got to host the opener again anyway as last weekend's Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge at Grays Harbor Raceway in Washington was postponed by rainfall.
Northwest Speed Week continues Tuesday at Cottage Grove Speedway near Eugene and the Oregon portion of Speed Week concluded Wednesday at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon. Things close on Friday and Saturday with the Bob's Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be seen online at http://www.racenscs.com.
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Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
Southern Oregon Speedway
White City, OR
July 23, 2007
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
50 cars
Fast qualifier: 0 Jonathon Allard, 12.193 seconds.
Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. 3N Billy Nutter, 2. 98m Mitch Olson, 3. 23a Seth Bergman, 4. 7N Roger Crockett, 5. 65 Brendan Boyce, 6. 7d Josh DeWitt, 7. 0J Jay Cole, 8. 68 Rob Held, 9. 99p Tyler Pinceman, 10. 7ak Steve Martin, 11. 7r Randy DuBois, 12. 0 Jonathon Allard, 13. 10j Jeremy McCune. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. 69 Brent Kaeding, 2. 8e Evan Funk, 3. 110 Randy Rodgers, 4. 08 Steve Vague, 5. 24 Jayme Barnes, 6. 5 Todd Sparks, 7. 73 Danielle Huson, 8. 13 Ron Smith, 9. 36 Michelle Dodge, 10. 51 Jon Farrell, 11. 8r Travis Rutz, 12. 31 Dave Hibbard, 13. 64 Kevin Sharrah. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. 2z Todd Zeitler, 2. 22L Garen Linder, 3. 1 Shane Stewart, 4. KR14 Tyler Spath, 5. 7o Travis Jacobson, 6. 9h Dean Freitas, 7. 33t Jimmy Trulli, 8. 4c Charlie Cash, 9. 91 Derek Ingalls, 10. 87 Kyler Barazza, 11. 9j J.J. Dishneau, 12. 15 Dan Dunlap. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 4 (10 laps): 1. Jeff Delte, 2. 7 J.J. Hickle, 3. 40 Brock Lemley, 4. 4r Robbie Vaughn, 5. 1a Dan Menne, 6. 8w Vern Wheeler, 7. 86 Marc Mackay, 8. 12p Randy Pierce, 9. 22 Geoff Beck, 10. 57c Chris Schmelzle, 11. 5sp Jason York, 12. 26f Shane Forte'. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
C-Main (10 laps): 1. 26f Shane Forte', 2. 7d Josh DeWitt, 3. 0J Jay Cole, 4. 87 Kyler Barazza, 5. 5 Todd Sparks, 6. 64 Kevin Sharrah, 7. 9j J.J. Dishneau, 8. 15 Dan Dunlap, 9. 86 Marc Mackay, 10. 13 Ron Smith, 11. 36 Michelle Dodge, 12. 8w Vern Wheeler, 13. 31 Dave Hibbard, 14. 7r Randy DuBois, 15. 7ak Steve Martin, 16. 99p Tyler Pinceman, 17. 4c Charlie Cash, DNS - 5sp Jason York.
Dash (6 laps): 1. 1 7N Roger Crockett, 2. 1 Shane Stewart, 3. 98m Mitch Olson, 4. 69 Brent Kaeding, 5. 40 Brock Lemley, 6. 23a Seth Bergman. Finish determines first six starting positions of A-Main.
B-Main (15 laps): 1. 8r Travis Rutz, 2. 0 Jonathon Allard, 3. 1a Dan Menne, 4. 24 Jayme Barnes, 5. 91 Derek Ingalls, 6. 73 Danielle Huson, 7. 12p Randy Pierce, 8. 33t Jimmy Trulli, 9. 9h Dean Freitas, 10. 68 Rod Held, 11. 7o Roger Oudman, 12. 26f Shane Forte', 13. 65 Brendan Boyce, 14. 51 Jon Farrell, 15. 10j Jeremy McCune, 16. 7d Josh DeWitt, 17. 22 Geoff Beck, 18. 57c Chris Schmelzle. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main. Derek Ingalls also transfer as result of scratch from A-Main field.
A-Main (18 laps, curfew): 1. 1 Shane Stewart, 2. 69 Brent Kaeding, 3. 40 Brock Lemley, 4. 0 Jonathon Allard, 5. 98m Mitch Olson, 6. 4r Robbie Vaughn, 7. 11d Jeff Delte, 8. 8e Evan Funk, 9. 23a Seth Bergman, 10. 22L Garen Linder, 11. 91 Derek Ingalls, 12. 24 Jayme Barnes, 13. 1a Dan Menne, 14. 8r Travis Rutz, 15. 7 J.J. Hickle, 16. 2z Todd Zeitler, 17. 7N Roger Crockett, 18. 110 Randy Rodgers, 19. 3N Billy Nutter, 20. KR14 Tyler Spath.
Lap leaders: 1-18 Shane Stewart
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NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
http://www.racenscs.com
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