The Supermodifed Division of the SRL visited Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Oregon on July 16, 2005, for the first time. There were a mix of Supermodifieds and Sprint Cars meeting SRL specs contesting bragging rights at the Western Oregon oval. But Utah resident Mike Baisch claimed the most bragging rights and the biggest chunk of the purse on balmy Oregon evening.
The evening started with two qualifying laps for all the competitors. When the dust had settled, Rick Brown had posted fast time with a lap of 12.698 seconds. Troy Regier was second at 12.980 followed by Craig Deaver at 12.986, Andy Alberding at 13.053, and Jim Birges at 13.293. Second place SRL points runner, Jeff Russell, suffered a rare rear axle tube failure and wound up in the first turn wall. With the drive line damage and the resultant collision damage, the 85 team was out for the night.
Although the Supermodifieds rarely run trophy dashes, but there was one for the top four qualifiers at Roseburg. Andy Alberding and Craig Deaver sat on the front row for the four lapper. They were pursued by Troy Regier and Rick Brown. Deaver grabbed the lead from his out side starting position while Regier split the cars of Alberding and Brown to grab second place. Brown passed Alberding for third on lap three. Finish was Deaver over Regier, Brown, and Alberding for the non-points dash.
There were two ten lap heat races scheduled for the original fifteen car field. The first ten lapper featured Rick Veenstra, Brett Smith, Jim Birges, Craig Deaver, Rick Brown, Mike McCann, Rob Carlotto, and Jim Pasquin. Smith elected to start at the rear and this moved Deaver to the outside pole. Deaver took the lead at the green followed by Veenstra, McCann, Birges, and Brown. The order at the front remained the same through lap four when Smith exited the track. The status quo was maintained until lap eight when Birges headed for the pits and Carlotto moved into the top five. Finish order was Deaver over Veenstra, McCann, Brown, and Carlotto.
Heat two lined up with Mike Baisch on the pole with A.J. Russell, Andy Alberding, and Troy Regier in hot pursuit. The field was rounded out by Mike Ford and Rick Cameron. At the drop of the green, Baisch and Russell ran hard into turn one and came out of two nearly side by side. Baisch maintained a small lead that he expanded coming off turn four. Regier jumped up to third followed by Alberding and Cameron. And that’s the way they finished. Baisch won over Russell, Regier, Alberding, and Cameron.
The forty lap feature race had the top nine qualifiers inverted via the drawing of a ten pill and relegation of the tenth place car to the non-inverted pack for being over a second slower than the top qualifier. The inverted cars included Rick Veenstra, Mike Baisch, Brett Smith, A.J. Russell, Jim Birges, Andy Alberding, Craig Deaver, Troy Regier, and Rick Brown. The rest of the field consisted of Mike Ford, Mike McCann, Rick Cameron, Rob Carlotto, and Jim Pasquin.
Mike Baisch led lap one from the outside pole followed by Veenstra, Russell, Birges and Alberding. Uncharacteristically, Regier smacked the wall coming out of turn two and dropped to the back of the pack. Pasquin headed for the pits on lap two while the pack at the front climbed all over one another. Baisch, Veenstra, and Russell were going wheel to wheel while Birges Alberding and Deaver sat back a few car lengths having a dice game of their own. At the ten lap mark, Baisch was leading over Veenstra, Russell, Birges, and Alberding. Deaver, Brown, McCann, Regier, and Cameron rounded out the top ten. The yellow flew on lap twelve when Russell’s engine dumped its innards through turn three and the car half spun in its own oil and then stopped high in turn four. Birges slid through the oil and managed to pass by the high side of the number seven without contact.
The restart order showed Baisch, over Veenstra, Birges, Alberding, Deaver, Brown, Regier, Cameron, McCann, and Ford, all on the lead lap. Having decided the rear end was not going to fall out of the 98 car, Regier had begun to charge to the front even though the rear end had been displaced laterally nearly two inches by the lap one wall contact. Regier passed Brown on lap fifteen, and nailed Deaver on lap 20. Top five at half way included Baisch, Veenstra, Birges, Alberding, and Regier. Regier grabbed fourth on lap twenty six and began a pursuit of Birges from half a straightaway behind. Lap thirty showed the top five to include Baisch, Veenstra, Birges, Regier, and Alberding.
Birges slowed dramatically on lap 31 and then headed to the pits a lap later. Cameron had also slowed to crawl and stopped on the backstretch on lap thirty two to bring out a yellow. The cars bunched up for the restart with Baisch leading over Veenstra, Regier, Alberding, and Deaver. It took only a lap for Regier to grab second and set out after Baisch. He was able to close the gap several times, but his wounded mount just wasn’t up to the task of making that final pass. Mike Baisch won his first race of the year with Regier in a well deserved second place. They were followed by Veenstra, Alberding, and Deaver.
For a first time visit, the teams of the SRL put on a great show for an appreciative crowd. Everyone enjoyed the SRL’s first visit to Douglas County Speedway and look forward to returning in the future. The teams now head home to prepare for the final three races of the year in California. The Supermodifieds next race at Shasta Raceway in Anderson, California, on August 6, 2005.
