|
Dale Smith earns first non-wing triumph with NWWT
Andrew Kunas, NWWT Publicist
COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. - Dale Smith added to his legacy at Cottage Grove Speedway when he picked up his first career non-wing sprint car victory Saturday night with the IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour.
Smith, out of Cottage Grove, is a several time Cottage Grove Speedway champion and is considered as one of the all-time greats out of the state of Oregon, but wingless racing was something Smith had never done before this season. In just his third ever start without the wings, Smith had gotten used to how wingless sprint cars drive and he used his familiarity with Cottage Grove Speedway to score the decisive victory.
Driving his brother Marvin's No. 41 Rodgers-powered Rocket, Smith started the 30-lap feature outside the third row. A good start put him in the third position early on behind Eugene's Kyle Miller and Portland's Keary Morris. Smith got by Morris on Lap 3 for the second position.
Miller was strongest on the bottom of the track getting around the turns and Smith couldn't gain any ground on him until Smith discovered that the top side of the track would work well for him. Smith moved upstairs and by Lap 11 he was challenging Miller for the lead. On Lap 13 Smith took the lead coming out of Turn 4.
Miller fought back, motoring his car hard out of the turn, but couldn't get back by Smith. While Smith and Miller separated themselves from the rest of the field, Miller never truly threatened Smith for the lead the rest of the way and settled for second place aboard the Scott Miller No. 10 Springer-powered XXX.
"We've been struggling, missing setups. We setup for a tacky track and it goes dry. Tonight it was perfect," Smith said. "Kyle pulled away on the bottom, so I moved up and blew off enough loose stuff that you could keep your momentum up. The longer I was up there the better I was."
Miller entered the night five points behind Morris atop the IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour point standings. Even with the strong run keeping him around the top of the standings, Miller isn't patting himself on the back as he knows there are still more races to run and he is still looking for his first NWWT victory.
"We're just going to keep running our race. That win will come to us," Miller said about the race and his season. "The bottom went away and Dale got us. He made the right move at the right time. We got Elma coming up, and we're excited for that, and a couple more here. (Points) should be tight and it will come down to the end."
"It was (another) good, clean race. We got a lot of green flag racing. This series is really starting to take off I think," Miller also said.
Smith commented that the wingless car is a different car from what he's used to, and it was a little hard for him to adjust to it, though he did nearly score a win on his first try with the NWWT on May 23rd. He had the lead until he bicycled and lost it in that race. On Saturday night, Smith said he had a lot of fun.
Gary Davis of Albany, Ore. passed two cars in the final laps to secure third place in the Bob Farwell No. 30 Chevy-powered XXX. Davis found the bottom of the track to his liking and took advantage of others who tried going high. Mill City, Ore.'s Tony Thomas, running with the NWWT for the first time, finished fourth in the Jim Helm No. 49 Stetson-powered J&J.
The run of the night came from Cottage Grove's Mike Carrothers, one of the local limited sprint car racers who did double duty with the very same car. After running the limited sprint car feature, Carrothers removed his wings and started at the back of the field of 18 cars that started and drove all the way to finish fifth with the smaller motor in his No. 18 Maxim.
After running in the Top 5 almost the entire race, Morris would eventually finish sixth in his own No. 11x Chevy-powered Eagle. Vancouver, Wash.'s Mike Romig took seventh in his own No. 22 Rayburn-powered Eagle. Joe Bosso Jr. of Troutdale, Ore. took eighth in the Bosso Racing No. 69 S&J-powered Gambler. Newberg, Ore.'s Nick Tomlinson took ninth in the Mafia Motorsports No. 16 MMB-powered XXX.
Kelso, Wash.'s Dylan Olsen rounded out the Top 10 in the Scott Olsen No. 7 Chevy-powered TCR, unofficially creating a tie between himself and Sammy Wright for the lead in the Rookie of the Year chase.
The main event was slowed four times, all yellow flags for incidents in Turns 1 and 2. No one could take advantage of the last two yellows to make any moves on either Miller or Smith for the top two positions.
Mark Nichols of Eagle Creek, Ore. struggled with handling in qualifying, first spinning out on his first lap and then doing a wild set of 360-degree spins in Turn 4 and a crowd-wowing wheelstand in the middle of that on his second trip around the track. Nichols, however, had his car in working order in the evening's first heat race and ran away with the victory. His margin of victory was almost six seconds. The second heat race saw another impressive performance, this one coming from Smith as he came from the seventh starting position to win.
Kyler Barraza, who won the first two IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour main events this season, walked away unharmed from a frightening crash in the second heat race. Barraza flipped violently off the track in Turn 3 and went right through the catch fence, destroying his car in the process. Fearing the worst, the Cottage Grove Speedway crowd gave applause after Barraza climbed out his car in one piece. Jeff "Ozzie" Osburn loaned his limited sprint to Barraza to start the feature and earn main event points. Barraza was third in the IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour point standings entering the evening.
Miller paced the 20-car field in qualifying with a time of 13.560 seconds around the 1/4-mile, high-banked clay oval.
The next IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour sprint car event is scheduled for August 15th at Cottage Grove Speedway. On September 5th, the tour makes its debut at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. More information on the IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour can be found online at http://www.nwwinglesstour.com.
- - -
IXL NorthWest Wingless Tour - 360 sprint cars
Cottage Grove Speedway - Cottage Grove, OR
July 18, 2009
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
20 cars
Fast qualifier: 10 Kyle Miller, 13.560 seconds
Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. 64 Mark Nichols, 2. 22 Mike Romig, 3. 28 Mark Herz, 4. 7k Kyle Mehner, 5. 7 Dylan Olsen, 6. 75 Gary Barnes, 7. 16 Nick Tomlinson, 8. 2k Sterling Kane, 9. 2 Mitch Holte, DNS - 18 Mike Carrothers.
Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. Dale Smith, 2. 45 Jeff Rivers, 3. 30 Gary Davis, 4. 14 Theo McCarty, 5. 1w Sammy Wright, 6. 11x Keary Morris, 7. 10 Kyle Miller, 8. 49 Tony Thomas, 9. 69 Joe Bosso Jr., 10. 87 Kyler Barraza.
Feature (30 laps): 1. 41 Dale Smith, 2. 10 Kyle Miller, 3. 30 Gary Davis, 4. 49 Tony Thomas, 5. 18 Mike Carrothers, 6. 11x Keary Morris, 7. 22 Mike Romig, 8. 69 Joe Bosso Jr., 9. 16 Nick Tomlinson, 10. 7 Dylan Olsen, 11. 64 Mark Nichols, 12. 75 Gary Barnes, 13. 45 Jeff Rivers, 14. 7k Kyle Mehner, 15. 28 Mark Herz, 16. 1w Sammy Wright, 17. 2 Mitch Holte, 18. 01 Kyler Barraza, DNS - 2k Sterling Kane, 14 Theo McCarty.
Lap leaders: Kyle Miller 1-12, Dale Smith 13-30
- - -
IXL Northwest Wingless Tour
http://www.nwwinglesstour.com
|
