ANDERSON, California -- SRL series regular Eric Schmidt took advantage of an off weekend and raced in the North State Challenge series season opener at Shasta Raceway Park on Saturday night, before a crowd of nearly 2,000 and took home the winner's $1500 share of the purse. The two time Win-River 150 winner made it look easy, leading 49 of the 75 laps after starting ninth.
Twenty four cars signed in but Brian Denton scratched after losing his power steering in Friday's practice and Howard Ford lost an oil pump in Saturday warm ups. Bill Binns served notice that he is ready to defend his NSCS title by topping the qualifying charts at 15.886. Roseville's Josh Bews was the only other driver in the 15 second bracket, posting a 15.997 followed by Ryan Foster's 16.013 and series rookie Derek Thorn's 16.043. Just missing the dash was Canadian Darrell Midgley at 16.095.
The 6 car inversion put Cottonwood's Randy Houston on the pole with Midgley on the outside of row one. At the drop of the green flag, Houston spun his tires and Midgley assumed the lead. The first yellow flew on lap 5 when Redding's Sean Hays broke a driveshaft. Midgley led the restart chased by Houston, Thorn, Foster, Binns, Bews and Schmidt. By lap 8 Schmidt had worked his way into 6th. Yellow flew again on lap 15 when Foster made just enough contact with Thorn to send him into the infield. Both went to the rear of the field. By this time Schmidt had worked his way into 3rd. On lap 19 he moved by Houston and set his sights on leader Midgley. Seven laps later Schmidt assumed the lead and never looked back. Lap 28 saw Foster and Fortuna's Luke Hall rub wheels causing Hall to pit with a flat tire. Series rookies Darin Snider and Zane Lovelace Jr. tangled with Carson City's C.J. Bawden, bringing out the caution flag again. Foster who'd worked his way back up to 12th retired under this caution with a broken trailing arm. By lap 45, Thorn had worked his way back to 9th position, mostly running the outside line. Binns got by Houston for 3rd on lap 46. In the final laps, Bews made repeated attempts to get by Houston but wasn't able to complete the pass. The finishing order was Schmidt, Midgley, Binns, Houston, Bews, Steven Gannon, Thorn, Bill Ward, Medford's Dane Smith, and Ukiah's Eric Graham.
"Our car wasn't good on cold tires," said Schmidt, " but once we got going it was good. We were lucky to be able to keep the fenders on it and get to the front." Third place finisher Bill Binns said, "Being the first race of the season, I wanted to keep the paint on the car. We had a 3rd place car tonight and we'll take that." Second place driver Darrell Midgley was disqualified after post race tech inspection for use of a tire softener.
Dash-Foster, Thorn, Binns, Bews
Main-Schmidt, Binns, Houston, Bews, S. Gannon, Thorn, Ward, Smith, Graham, Doss, Hopkins, Snider, Bawden, Stillman, Hall, Ken Scales, Foster, Lovelace Jr., Brad Wasmund, Sean Hays, Junior Roddy.
