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Spath hopes to remain in NSCS top ten
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
CHICO, Calif. – Until Memorial weekend, Tyler Spath was not having the best season competing with the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series.
After a rough weekend at Skagit Speedway, the 19-year Spath sat a disappointing 26th in the point standings after three races. Spath and his family, out of Chico, Calif. were considering pulling off the NSCS tour depending on how things went for them during a three-race swing through western Oregon.
They’re now probably glad they decided to go at it with the NSCS one more week. Spath had his best races of the season on Memorial Weekend and now finds himself tied for 10th in the points, which is really important to him as he wants to be eligible to run the Brodix 360 Tournament of Champions at the legendary Knoxville Raceway in Iowa on August 5.
“Coming into (the weekend), this was going to be an evaluation of our season up here. If we don’t run top ten in points, we may spend our money elsewhere,” Spath admitted. Spath is an experienced wingless racer who spent time racing out east. He plans to take the wingless car out to run in the Midwest again in August, but hopes to put the winged 360 car to use as he wants to race at Knoxville.
Spath has worked hard to get where he is. A student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Spath took out a school loan to race this season.
Spath’s big night was Friday, May 25 at Willamette Speedway, which like the other five tracks on the NSCS schedule he had never even seen before this season. In his first night on the difficult and tight 3/10-mile high-banked clay oval, Spath qualified third and made the A-Main for the first time this season when he finished third in his heat race. Spath ran fourth in the dash and went on to finish a solid third behind Roger Crockett and Mitch Olson in the 30-lap feature.
Spath made the biggest jump in points that night, going from 26th to 12th aboard the NorCal Performance No. KR14 BMB Machine-powered Rocket.
The finish at Willamette was a huge improvement from the first three races. At Skagit’s two-day show, Spath ended up fifth in the C-Main on the first night and 12th in the B-Main on Saturday after getting caught up in an earlier melee. Two weeks earlier Spath also failed to make the A-Main at the inaugural NSCS event at Grays Harbor Raceway, finishing seventh in the B-Main.
“This turned us around big time,” Spath said following his podium finish at Willamette. “If we can keep this momentum going, we’ll do good. Skagit killed us. The car was faster there, after we crashed.”
Spath backed up his Willamette performance from the previous night on Saturday, May 26 at Southern Oregon Speedway where he transferred out of his heat race again and finished seventh in the A-Main after starting 12th. Spath now found himself tenth in points going into the Sunday, May 27 show at a very fast Cottage Grove Speedway. Spath missed the transfer out his heat race by only one position and then dropped out during the B-Main event. Despite the misstep that night, Spath remained in tenth, tied with Idaho’s Randy Pierce.
On Friday, June 29, Spath will return to the site of his season-best finish when the NSCS makes its second appearance of the season at Willamette Speedway. Spath hopes to turn his luck around the next night when the NSCS returns to Grays Harbor Raceway in Washington.
More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series, including a profile with sponsors for Tyler Spath, can be found online at http://www.racenscs.com.
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NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
http://www.racenscs.com
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