COTTAGE GROVE, Oregon — The Interstate Sprint Car Series has seen three races in its inaugural season leading up to the Independence Day Weekend Doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday at the Cottage Grove Speedway for the series’ third visit to the venue. And out of those three races the winner had been the same driver when it came to feature time, that driver being Roger Crockett. Crockett went into the weekend with an impressive record of domination in the ranks of the ISCS in the first three outings. Twenty four cars made it out for the first night of action for the highest car count for the series with cars coming from the states of Oregon, California, and Washington.
The first night of action saw the second ever clean sweep by any single driver and that coming from the #11 of Roger Crockett. Setting fast time of the night, winning his heat race, trophy dash, and completing the night with the main event victory for the clean sweep and his fourth straight win with the brand new series. The Medford pilot also kept his record at the Cottage Grove Speedway untarnished as every event he has entered in he has won every feature.
The main event saw pole sitter Crockett get out to the early race lead but five stoppages didn’t allow him to get deep into lapped traffic. Two of the incidents required the red flag to come out including a two car flip on lap seven which included Dale Smith of Cottage Grove and Garen Linder of Central Point. Two more yellows would come out in the final ten laps and gave Crockett enough of an open track to develop a lead without dealing with lapped cars.
“I didn’t see that #10 my crew said he was rolling in on the bottom, which I don’t know how in the heck he was doing that, but fortunately we started ahead of him tonight and who knows what would of happened if we would of stayed green in traffic,” said now four-time winner Roger Crockett, “(On the red) I didn’t ask what Kyle was doing we really didn’t make any changes on our car we just had a little leak with the rear end and they made sure fluid was in it and I just drove it one hundred percent that’s all you can do.”
Second place would be finished in a valiant fashion by Eugene’s Kyle Miller after starting in eleventh place. It was also notable due to Miller’s recovery from a tragic wreck on the backstretch in a Non-Wing Sprint Car the previous week. It was Miller’s third time he was able to finish in the runner-up position with the ISCS.
“I was actually surprised myself Brian Crockett did a great job getting this two groove’s for the feature my car was really good on the bottom and it was okay on the top I was fast enough to get around cars,” commented second place finisher Kyle Miller, “We had a couple of people slip off the bottom when we were going to the front that gave us a couple of spots and I was mainly being patient and running the bottom and once I seen Roger I thought I might have had something for him but the bottom slicked off a little too much and I wasn’t able to carry the speed that I had had earlier in the race.”
Nate Morelock of Eugene finished up the podium for his second third place finish of the season with the series. The newlywed ran second for much of the race until Miller’s pass on lap twelve relegating him to third but late in the race Morelock was looking to make a contest of it in the closing laps only to finish third.
“The first ten laps the car felt real good I got to thank my crew they worked their tails off I wish I could have gotten a better finish for them but it could have been worse I could have been one of those guys upside down,” said third place finisher Nate Morelock.
The remainder of the top five was Rob Held of Sutherlin finishing in fourth for, ironically enough, the fourth time with the ISCS. Fifth place went to Jayme Barnes of Everett, Washington making his ISCS debut with the Roger Henderson owned #7N. The top ten was finished in the following order; Chad Groves of Bend, Colin Baker of Cottage Grove, Shane Forté of Junction City, Ryan Gomes of McKinleyville, California, and Todd Zeitler of Medford.
Earlier in the evening fast time of the night went to Roger Crockett at 11.041 seconds. Three eight lap heat races were ran with the top six qualifiers able to get a position in the dash if they finished in the top five. Winners of the three races were Crockett, Kyle Miller, and Dale Smith. As mentioned previously Crockett won the dash which the starting order was done by a random exchange of envelopes containing numbers pertaining to the starting position for the five lap race.
The Interstate Sprint Car Series is a brand new winged 360 sprint car series primarily based out of Oregon but will sanction and host races in Montana and California. The series is slated at ten total point events reaching as far north as the Cottage Grove Speedway and as far south as the Siskiyou Motor Speedway in Yreka, California. The series currently has a current sum total of $9,000, but growing, end of the year points fund that will be awarded at the end of the season. For any teams or drivers wishing to learn more or for a complete list of rules log on to http://www.iscssprints.com or contact series director Brian Crockett at (541)-510-0757 for more information.
Interstate Sprint Car Series Notebook
Quick Time- Roger Crockett was the night’s quick clocker with a time of 11.041 seconds around the high-banked quarter mile oval at an average speed of 81.514 miles per hour. Crockett would earn ten bonus championship points while Nate Morelock (nine), Rob Held (eight), Chad Groves (seven), Seth Nunes (six), Shane Forté (five), Ryan Gomes (four), Garen Linder (three), Todd Zeitler (two), and Jayme Barnes (one) would also earned their respected bonus championship points.
Winners- So far there have been four races for the Interstate Sprint Car Series inaugural season. Winners include: 1. 11-Roger Crockett (Cottage Grove Speedway on June 4th, June 17th, and July 2nd; Coos Bay Speedway June 18th)
Website- For the latest information on all things about the Interstate Sprint Car Series log on to http://www.iscssprints.com for more information.
Interstate Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Cottage Grove Speedway; Cottage Grove, OR; July 2nd, 2011
Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett, Medford 11.041; 2. 33-Nate Morelock, Eugene 11.050; 3. 68-Rob Held, Sutherlin 11.211; 4. 25C-Chad Groves, Bend 11.239; 5. 5N-Seth Nunes, Medford 11.264; 6. 26F- Shane Forté, Junction City 11.265; 7. 55-Ryan Gomes, McKinleyville, CA 11.288; 8. 22-Garen Linder, Central Point 11.300; 9. 2Z-Todd Zeitler, Medford 11.316; 10. 7N-Jayme Barnes, Everett, WA 11.339; 11. 10J-Jake Waddell, Roseburg 11.384; 12. 10-Kyle Miller, Eugene 11.436; 13. 17M-Nick McCulloh, Sacramento, CA 11.447; 14. 41-Dale Smith, Cottage Grove 11.471; 15. 23B-Colin Baker, Cottage Grove 11.477; 16. 75-Heath Shelton, Drain 11.645; 17. 45-Brent McGrath, Eagle Point 11.679; 18. 88-Brent Hoover, Eugene 11.735; 19. 4-Jesse Thistle, Creswell 12.065; 20. 1-Raquel Ivie, Eugene 12.207; 21. 8J-Justen McConnville, Dundee 12.417; 22. 22R-Mike Romig, Vancouver, WA 12.459; 23. 21-Mike Griffith, Fall Creek 12.538; 24. 11X-Kady Adelman, Salem 12.592
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett; 2. 7N-Jayme Barnes; 3. 25C-Chad Groves; 4. 55-Ryan Gomes; 5. 75-Heath Shelton; 6. 17M-Nick McCulloh; 7. 22R-Mike Romig; DNS 4-Jesse Thistle
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 10-Kyle Miller; 2. 23B-Colin Baker; 3. 88-Brent Hoover; 4. 2Z-Todd Zeitler; 5. 68-Rob Held; 6. 26F- Shane Forté; 7. 11X-Kady Adelman; 8. 8J-Justen McConnville
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 41-Dale Smith; 2. 22-Garen Linder; 3. 33-Nate Morelock; 4. 10J-Jake Waddell; 5. 5N-Seth Nunes; 6. 45-Brent McGrath; 7. 1-Raquel Ivie; DNS 21-Mike Griffith
Dash (5 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett; 2. 33-Nate Morelock; 3. 68-Rob Held; 4. 5N-Seth Nunes; 5. 55-Ryan Gomes; 6. 25C-Chad Groves;
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett [1]; 2. 10-Kyle Miller [11]; 3. 33-Nate Morelock [2]; 4. 68-Rob Held [3]; 5. 7N-Jayme Barnes [9]; 6. 25C-Chad Groves [6]; 7. 23B-Colin Baker [13]; 8. 26F Shane Forté [16]; 9. 55-Ryan Gomes [5]; 10. 2Z-Todd Zeitler [8]; 11. 88-Brent Hoover [15]; 12. 1-Raquel Ivie [19]; 13. 22R-Mike Romig [21]; 14. 75-Heath Shelton [14]; 15. 45-Brent McGrath [18]; 16. 17M-Nick McCulloh [17]; 17. 11X-Kady Adelman [22]; 18. 8J-Justen McConnville [20]; 19. 5N-Seth Nunes [4]; 20. 22-Garen Linder [7]; 21. 10J-Jake Waddell [10]; 22. 41-Dale Smith [12]
Lap Leaders: Roger Crockett (1-30)
Cautions: 2
Red Flags: 2
Hard Charger: Kyle Miller +9
Long Tow: Nick McCulloh (Sacramento, CA 455 Miles)
