ELMA, Washington — Mitch Olson of Puyallup, Scott Miller of Shelton and Jay Biggs of Aberdeen all picked up their first feature wins of the season Saturday night at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma and the streak goes on for Reece Goetz of Snohomish.
Both Olson and Miller had their cars dialed in to perfection. Olson led from wire to wire in the 25-lap “360 Sprints” feature race which went green white checkered.
Miller came from five rows back at the start of the 25-lap “Modifieds” feature race to the front in just 4-laps and then ran away from the field as he lapped all but six of the 17 car field.
Goetz made it six feature wins in a row when he took the checkered flag in the 20-lap “Midgets feature race.
Biggs was the survivor in a caution filled scheduled 20-lap “Hobby Stocks” race which had almost as many yellow flags as completed laps.
Sprints
Olson was not to be denied his first feature win of the season on the Harbor. He had the pole position at the start of the race and quickly established his dominance in the race that only took 6:34 to complete.
He lapped five of the nine cars in the short field, finishing a full 7 seconds in front of last weeks winner, Henry VanDam of Enumclaw.
By lap-6 it was Olson, VanDam, Randy VanAagten of Shelton, TJ Hartman of Puyallup and Steve Vague of Kirkland in the top five.
The season point’s leader, Reece Goetz was a scratch for the night as he developed engine problem during qualifying and was unable to answer the bell for the feature race.
VanDam held onto second at the finish, VanAagten finished third, Hartman fourth and Jay Cole of Shelton edged out Vague for fifth late in the race.
Cole picked up a win in Heat 1 and Hartman got the win in Heat 2.
Midgets
Like most Saturday nights this season, it usually it just a question of how many laps it takes Goetz to take over the lead.
He started in the no eleven hole in the 11 car field and had passed nine cars by the end of the second lap.
Zack DeBakker of McCleary had the lead for the first 2-laps but was unable to hold of the youngster from Snohomish.
Garret Johnson of Poulsbo replaced DeBakker in second on lap-4 and looked like he might be able to challenge Goetz but it wasn’t about to happen.
The only caution flag of the race came out on lap-17 when Jeremy Miller of Montesano spun out in turn-4.
Johnson had to settle for second place for the second race in a row, defending series champion, Seth Hespe of Snohomish finished third, Gaylon Stewart of Everett edged out Ariel Biggs (formally of Hoquiam), no living in Lone Pine, CA.) For fourth.
Goetz and Hespe each picked up heat race wins earlier in the night.
Modifieds
The Modified feature got off to somewhat of a shaky start when Floyd Livingston of Hoquiam spun out before the first lap was completed which caused a complete restart of the race.
Miller picked up five spots to move into fourth by the end of lap-2 and had moved into second behind Jeff Foster of McCleary by lap-3 when the caution flag came out when Scott Westley of Centralia, Steve Signal of Olympia tangled up on the back stretch and Shane Rau headed to the pits with car problems.
Miller took over the lead on the restart and it was all over but the shouting from then on.
Craig Moore of Seabeck protested the pill draw for the invert for the start of the race and opted to go to the back of the field at the start.
After all of the heat races are completed and the points are added up for a race line-up, there is a pill draw to determine the number of rows that will be inverted for the start of the race. For the fourth week in a row the draw came out a six which resulted in a 12-car invert for the start.
Moore almost made good on his point as he came always the way from the back of the field to finish second. Chris Beaulieu finished third, Zack Simpson, who is doing double duty in both the “Hobby Stocks” and “Modifieds” finished fourth and last weeks winner, Greg Dineen of Aberdeen took fifth.
Moore took Heat 1, Simpson won Heat 2 and Joe German of Aberdeen took Heat 3.
Hobby Stocks
Unlike the other feature events of the night, the “Hobby Stocks” feature was not a thing of beauty.
There were six caution flags in the first 9-laps and a total of eight in the race as cars were either spinning out, losing wheels, burning up clutches or generally causing mayhem.
Will Madison of Port Angeles led the first lap, and then Cory Sweatman of Cosmopolis had the top spot on the second before Jack Parshall of Hoquiam took over the lead.
Parshall was able to hold onto the lead until lap-7 when he burned out the clutch on his car.
Biggs got the lead after Parshall was done, followed by Renny Marose of Tacoma, Ryen Haney of Elma, Eddie Blood of Olympia and Ross Watkins of South Prarie.
When another caution came out on lap-15, races officials decided enough was enough and checkered flagged the race under caution because of the time limit.
Biggs picked up his first feature win, Blood finished second, Cory Sweatman got third, and Haney and Marose dropped to fourth and fifth.
Zack Simpson won Heat 1, Tom Sweatman took Heat 2 and Biggs won Heat 3.
Top Finishers
Whitney’s Auto Group “360 Sprints” A Main. 1. Mitch Olson, Puyallup. 2. Henry VanDam, Enumclaw. 3. Randy VanAagten, Shelton. 4. TJ Hartman, Puyallup. 5. Jay Cole, Shelton. 6. JJ Hickle, Quilcene. 7. Steve Vague, Kirkland. 8. Jeff Bell, Marysville. 9. Cody Ridge, Snohomish. Heat 1. 1. Cole. 2. VanAagten. 3. Bell. 4. Vague. 5. Olson. Heat 2. 1. Hartman. 2. Hickle. 3. VanDam. 4. Ridge. Top Qualifier: Olson. 13.109 102.983 MPH.
Triple X Racing Ford focus “Midgets” A Main. 1. Reece Goetz, Snohomish. 2. Garret Johnson, Poulsbo. 3. Seth Hespe, Snohomish. 4. Gaylon Stewart, Everett. 5. Ariel Biggs, Lone Pine, CA. 6. Zak DeBakker, McCleary. 7. Todd Hartman, Bothell. 8. Renee Angel, Woodinville. 9. Garrett Thomas, McCleary. 10. Annika Johanson, Lacey. Heat 1. 1. Goetz. 2. Biggs. 3. Stewart. 4. Jeremy Miller, Montesano. 5. Angel. Heat 2. 1. Hespe. 2. Johnson. 3. Hartman. 4. DeBakker. 5. Thomas. Top Qualifier: Goetz. 16.535 81.645 MPH.
Ship Wreck Beads “Modifieds” A Main. 1. Scott Miller, Shelton. 2. Craig Moore, Seabeck. 3. Chris Beaulieu, Campbell River, B.C. 4. Zack Simpson, Hoquiam. 5. Greg Dineen, Aberdeen. 6. Blair Shoemaker, Moxee. 7. Jeff foster, McCleary. 8. Joe German, Aberdeen. 9. Randy Ward, Olympia. 10. David Bottoms, Ridgefield. Heat 1. 1. Moore. 2. Dineen. 3. Ward. 4. Steve Signal, Olympia. 5. Foster. Heat 2. 1. Simpson. 2. Miller. 3. Shane Rau, Shelton. 4. Shoemaker. 5. Dave Burns, Bremerton. Heat 3. 1. German. 2. Scott Westley, Centralia. 3. Beaulieu. 4. Del Schnitzer, Shelton. 5. Bottoms. Top Qualifier: Foster. 16.608 81.286 MPH.
Cut Rate Auto Parts “Hobby Stocks” A Main. 1. Jay Biggs, Aberdeen. 2. Eddie Blood, Olympia. 3. Cory Sweatman, Cosmopolis. 4. Ryen Haney, Elma. 5. Renny Marose, Tacoma. 6. Ross Watkins, South Prarie. 7. Brian Izzi, Olympia. 8. Will Madison, Port Angeles. 9. Scotty Madison, Port Angeles. 10. Brad Burnett, Puyallup. Heat 1. 1. Zack Simpson, Hoquiam. 2. Blood. 3. Haney. 4. W. Madison. 5. Chaz Wilder, Elma. Heat 2. 1. Tom Sweatman, Cosmopolis. 2. Jack Parshall, Hoquiam. 3. C. Sweatman. 4. Izzi. 5. Watkins. Heat 3. 1. Biggs. 2. Tim Phillips, Spanaway. 3. S. Madison. 4. Tom Hecker, Spanaway. 5. Marose. Top Qualifier: T. Sweatman. 18.290 73.811 MPH.
