Mitch Olson at Skagit Speedway. Pit Princess photoMitch Olson takes 8th at Skagit 360 NationalsAfter a couple of weeks racing with the ASCS Northwest Region and the ASCS National Tour, Mitch Olson returned to Skagit Speedway to compete in the 20th annual Bob’s Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals, which featured more than 50 cars. When it was all over, Olson went home with a solid 8th place finish in Saturday’s 40-lap finale.Driving the Mike Olson No. 98m Shark-powered KPC sponsored by SC Fuels, Olson Bros. Excavating, Pro-Vac, PRS Group and PMI Truck Bodies & Powder Coating, Olson first took the track on Friday, July 31st for preliminary competition. In qualifying Mitch turned in a time of 12.072 seconds around the 3/10-mile, high-banked clay oval, good for 12th fastest out of 54 entries.Making the invert, Olson had a good starting position for the evening’s second heat race, which would only transfer three cars to the preliminary feature. Olson finished second to Brian Kirkpatrick and secured his place in the main event. In the 30-lap feature, Olson ran in the Top 10 early on and ran as high as sixth place on Laps 12-14 before finishing a respectable 14th.Earning enough points in Friday’s events, Olson got to start mid-pack in the 40-lap Skagit 360 Nationals feature. In practice Olson was eighth fastest with a time of 12.357 seconds. In the feature, Olson got to 11th on the initial start and on Lap 6 he lost it to Colton Heath. Heath would have problems and on Lap 11 Olson got back by Mike Melwicks, a former Skagit Speedway champion, to get the tenth position.Two laps after passing Melwicks, Mitch passed another former track champion, Travis Jacobson, to move up to ninth. On Lap 17, Mitch inherited the eighth position when ASCS National Tour champion Jason Johnson dropped out.Mitch then engaged in a battle with Texas visitor Travis Rilat, who had won the Fred Brownfield Memorial at Grays Harbor Raceway two weeks earlier. Rilat passed Olson for eighth on Lap 18, but Olson fought back and on Lap 20 took the spot back. On Lap 25, Jacobson came back and passed both Rilat and Olson to move up to eighth, and then Rilat got back around Olson to bump him back to tenth a few laps later.Olson lost two more positions to Seth Bergman and Jason Solwold, but Mitch kept at it and found himself back in 11th by Lap 34. Then came the bizarre happenings on Lap 37 as a slower car got out of control and tangled with the leaders, taking out the first, third and fourth place cars and nearly doing the same to the second place driver, Tim Crawley, who held on to win the race after that. Olson and the others avoided the carnage that happened ahead of them, and just for staying out trouble Olson found himself up a few more spots and after the last few laps Olson finished a very respectable eighth place.The next firm event on the schedule for the Olson Racing team is a pair of ASCS Northwest Region events in Oregon on August 14th and 15th. The tour returns to Cottage Grove Speedway on the 14th and on the 15th Mitch and crew will make their first visit to Coos Bay Speedway, located by the southern Oregon coast. Mitch currently sits fourth in the ASCS Northwest Region point standings, 98 points behind leader Roger Crockett.Mitch Olson has established himself as one of the top sprint car racers in the Pacific Northwest, having main event victories at Skagit Speedway and Grays Harbor Raceway and several more Top 5 and Top 10 finishes elsewhere on the west coast to his credit. More information on Mitch Olson and his race team can be found online at http://www.mitcholsonracing.com.ASCS Northwest Region - Top 5 in points
1. Roger Crockett, 1830
2. Jared Ridge, 1810
3. Steve Tiner, 1796
4. MITCH OLSON, 17325. Henry Van Dam, 1705- - -Mitch Olson’s 2009 sponsorsSC Fuels
Olson Bros. Excavating
Pro-Vac
PRS Group
Conoco Phillips
PMI Truck Bodies & Powder Coating- - -Mitch Olson online
http://www.mitcholsonracing.com |
