Crockett, Ireland, Blythe, And Smith Sunset Feature Winners On Saturday Night
By Ben Deatherage
(Photos Courtesy of Ken O'Neil)
A good crowd was on hand at Sunset Speedway Park on Saturday August 24th to witness some fantastic racing. A full card of racing was on tap with the American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region in the house alongside the Street Stocks, 4-Bee’s, and Womens divisions.
Roger Crockett took full advantage of his outside front row starting position to capture the lead on the opening lap and the entire distance to win his tenth ASCS-Northwest Region feature of 2013. The Medford pilot was again able to negotiate lapped traffic and make some key passes to keep his SKS Racing/Al Parker Racing Engines/Champion Racing Oil #11 KPC while out in front. The “Banks Bullring” would keep the fans on their feet as several tight battles throughout the field.
The only caution would occur on lap seven to bunch the field up and would give everyone an opportunity to get a chance to get to overtake Crockett. Crockett would propel himself back to the front as the green flag would drop and reestablish his large margin. As the green flag got longer and longer Reece Goetz would start to catch Crockett .
Goetz, from Snohomish, Washington in his Great Western Transport/Elma Lanes/Speedmart Inc. #9R Eagle, attempted to reel Crockett in but would run out of laps. In addition to it being his tenth win of 2013 with ASCS-Northwest Region it was Crockett’s third series win at SSP.
Reece Goetz would finish a respectable second followed by Henry Van Dam of Enumclaw, Washington in his Kovash Logging/Johansen Excavating #33V A.R.T. in third. The balance of the top five would consist of Kyle Miller from Eugene, after starting twelfth, in the Hedge Carter owned Huddle Automotive Repair/Oregon West RV/Steelhouse Metal Roofing Supply #71 XXX in fourth and the Double R Powdercoating/BC Motorsports/Rocket Designs #10J XXX of Jake Waddell from Roseburg in fifth.
A thriller of a Street Stock race was on hand as a late race pass for the lead would occur. The Buz’s Equipment Trailers/City Sprint Delivery/Liberty Welding #01 Camaro of Craig Loomis from Vancouver, Washington was in dominant form as he looked for yet another win. He would have a couple of cars challenge for the lead but managed to keep them all behind him.
By lap thirty-two John Ireland of Banks, in his Transaction Transmission/Ireland & Ireland At Law #88 machine, would obtain the lead on lap thirty-two but would have to protect it on two restarts. Ireland would close out the rest of the race out in front to win his second main event of 2013 in the division.
Brian Roden of West Linn in the Club Sport Oregon/Discount Race Car Parts #14 Camaro was second followed by Craig Loomis in third. Crossing the stripe in fourth was Stan Asonovic of Forest Grove in his #26 and the #87 of Ron Jermann from Hillsboro was fifth.
Jason Blythe of Buxton in his #12 mount was extremely dominant once he got the lead in the 4-Bee ranks. Blythe would get to the front and led the rest of the distance of the feature and built a huge lead after mastering lapped traffic. It would be Blythe’s third win of 2013 at SSP.
The #14 of John Oyler from Scappoose ended his night in the runner-up position and finishing in third would by Buxton native Travis Koch piloting his #21. Summing up the top five finishers were Banks’ Mike Mastrangelo in the #00 machine in fourth and John Gartner of Hillsboro in the #48 in fifth.
In the Womens division it was the Freya Smith show once again. Smith would earn the lead on lap three and would slow down for nothing as she was in brilliant form the rest of the way. It would be Smith’s ninth visit to victory lane in her Sweere’s Auto Body/Sweere’s Trucking/Tire Factory of McMinnville #37 Camaro.
Gabrielle Hollinger of Timber was second in the All In Property Investments/Duncan Automotive/Avenue Settlement Corporation #60 Camaro while finishing behind her in third would be the #02 of Marcie Treat from Cornelius. The #23 of Banks driver Cori Vandercoevering was fourth and ending the evening in fifth was Portland’s Theresa Gartner in her Ram Light Truck Salvage/Napa Auto Parts #33 machine.
The Sunset Speedway Park will be dormant Labor Day weekend but will get back into the thick of things on Saturday September 7th. For more information log on to www.sunsetspeedwaypark.com or call the Northwest Hotline at (360)-699-RACE.
Race Summary:
Saturday August 24th, 2013
Sunset Speedway Park
Banks, Oregon
4-Bee's
A Feature: 1. 12-Jason Blythe[6]; 2. 14-John Oyler[1]; 3. 21-Travis Koch[3]; 4. 00-Mike Mastrangelo[5]; 5. 48-John Gartner[7]; 6. 33-Barry Lambert[10]; 7. 99-Ronald Sweere[11]; 8. 122-Chad Blanchfield[14]; 9. 77-Jacob Henry[15]; 10. 15-Mason Brooks[9]; 11. 5-Chris Gaboury[8]; 12. 22-Nick Henry[4]; 13. 53-Scott Hoodenpyl[13]; 14. 68-John Henry[2]; 15. 82-Bo Jones[16]; 16. 27-Russ Krein[12]
Heat 1: 1. 12-Jason Blythe[7]; 2. 22-Nick Henry[8]; 3. 68-John Henry[2]; 4. 48-John Gartner[6]; 5. 15-Mason Brooks[1]; 6. 99-Ronald Sweere[5]; 7. 53-Scott Hoodenpyl[3]; 8. 77-Jacob Henry[4]
Heat 2: 1. 00-Mike Mastrangelo[1]; 2. 21-Travis Koch[7]; 3. 14-John Oyler[2]; 4. 5-Chris Gaboury[5]; 5. 33-Barry Lambert[6]; 6. 27-Russ Krein[4]; 7. 122-Chad Blanchfield[3]; 8. 82-Bo Jones[8]
Street Stocks
A Feature: 1. 88-John Ireland[4]; 2. 14-Brian Roden[6]; 3. 01-Craig Loomis[2]; 4. 26-Stan Asanovic[5]; 5. 87-Ron Jermann[14]; 6. 70-Johnny Adams[16]; 7. 37-Freya Smith[9]; 8. 32-Robert Summerhalder[10]; 9. 17-Bert Pegg[13]; 10. 56-Tom Lauzon[7]; 11. 53-Terry Houck[19]; 12. 71-Ben Sauter[18]; 13. 16-Tim Gosch[8]; 14. 43-Mike Lockwood[12]; 15. 19-Tony Catalano[1]; 16. 65-Robert Chapin[15]; 17. 3-Earl Claypool[3]; 18. 5-Marc Farrar[11]; 19. 92-Tyler Cannon[17]
Heat 1: 1. 14-Brian Roden[2]; 2. 88-John Ireland[4]; 3. 01-Craig Loomis[5]; 4. 56-Tom Lauzon[6]; 5. 37-Freya Smith[8]; 6. 5-Marc Farrar[9]; 7. 17-Bert Pegg[1]; 8. 65-Robert Chapin[3]; 9. 92-Tyler Cannon[7]
Heat 2: 1. 3-Earl Claypool[7]; 2. 19-Tony Catalano[10]; 3. 16-Tim Gosch[1]; 4. 32-Robert Summerhalder[3]; 5. 43-Mike Lockwood[5]; 6. 87-Ron Jermann[4]; 7. 70-Johnny Adams[6]; 8. 71-Ben Sauter[2]; 9. 53-Terry Houck[8]; 10. 26-Stan Asanovic[9]
ASCS Sprints
A Feature: 1. 11-Roger Crockett[2]; 2. 9R-Reece Goetz[4]; 3. 33V-Henry VanDam[8]; 4. 71-Kyle Miller[12]; 5. 10J-Jake Waddell[6]; 6. 21T-Zack Spaulding[3]; 7. 26F-Shane Forte[7]; 8. 5-Mitch Hoffses[11]; 9. 4-Jesse Thistle[1]; 10. 22-Garen Linder[5]; 11. 28N-Brenton Nugent[10]; 12. 4J-Allison Journey[9]
Heat 1: 1. 10J-Jake Waddell[1]; 2. 33V-Henry VanDam[5]; 3. 26F-Shane Forte[2]; 4. 9R-Reece Goetz[6]; 5. 4J-Allison Journey[3]; 6. 5-Mitch Hoffses[4]
Heat 2: 1. 22-Garen Linder[2]; 2. 11-Roger Crockett[3]; 3. 21T-Zack Spaulding[4]; 4. 4-Jesse Thistle[5]; 5. 28N-Brenton Nugent[1]; DNS 71-Kyle Miller
Women's
A Feature: 1. 37-Freya Smith[5]; 2. 02-Marcie Treat[3]; 3. 60-Gabrielle Hollinger[4]; 4. 23-Cori Vandercoevering[2]; 5. 33-Theresa Gartner[1]
Heat 1: 1. 37-Freya Smith[2]; 2. 60-Gabrielle Hollinger[4]; 3. 02-Marcie Treat[5]; 4. 23-Cori Vandercoevering[1]; 5. 33-Theresa Gartner[3]