KALISPELL, Montana — Jeff Jefferson used a 1st place qualifying position and excellent heat race positioning to set his Gary Mears Trucking/Bemis Appliance Chevrolet on the pole for the 22nd running of the Coors Light Montana 200 powered by TTC and Kalispell Toyota.
Jefferson set a fast pace and never let up during the 200 lap main event. BJ Tidrick started on the outside front row and kept the pressure on Jefferson in the opening laps. Jason Fraser and defending Coors Light Montana 200 winner Shane Mitchell applied equal pressure during the race.
On lap 20 the first caution came out, as Alex Lessor got into Chris Skelton causing him to spin in turn four. Skelton damaged his car and was unable to return to racing. This set up the first double file cone restart. Jefferson went low and Tidrick went high. On the start Jefferson got a run and held his position in first.
Teammates Blake Williams and Shelby Thompson got together on lap 26 bringing out another caution. This setup another cone restart with Jefferson on the inside and Tidrick on the Outside.
On Lap 30 Fraser overtook Tidrick to claim second and try to hunt down Jefferson. Fraser and Tidrick raced each other hard for 16 laps until the pair swapped positions on lap 46. The pair continued to swap positions during the entire event. This tight racing allowed Jefferson to gain up to a 8 plus car-length lead.
Trevor Emond and Alex Lessor connected in turn four with 54 laps to go until the 100 lap break. Both cars had damage, but were able to keep racing. This caution re-aligned the field again. This time Jefferson took the inside lane and a new driver challenged him on the restart, Jason Fraser. Jefferson jumped the start, allowing Tidrick to pull up with Fraser to fight for second position.
Four more laps were checked off the 200 lap main when Emond, Tim Elliot, and Dave Garber spun in turn two. Erick Hargraves spun to avoid colliding with the trio. After the restart the top six cars spread out, but the side by side racing was just heating up from seventh position back. Jonathon Gomez, Mike Longton, Mitchell, and Lewis were all paired up door to door for five laps.
Ryan Wells started 15th in the 200. He made calculated moves, which put him in the right places at the right time. Wells passed Lewis and Longton on lap 56. This moved him to 9th place.
A major accident occurred on lap 87 when Mike Longton got sideways on the backstretch. This collected Owen Riddle, Braden Havens, Alex Lessor, and Dave Garber. The race was red flagged while safety crews worked to get the cars pulled apart. This wreck ended the night for Longton, Havens, Lessor and Riddle.
At lap 100 the drivers exited to the pits to make adjustments and install fresh rubber. Jefferson again took the inside on the cone restart for lap 100 with Fraser on the outside. The top five at the halfway point also included Fraser, Wells, and Mitchell. Jefferson and Fraser stayed side by side on the restart. Fraser tried to get a run on Jefferson, but Jefferson pulled away again.
On lap 102 Wrango West spun bringing out the caution. West spun due to fluid put down on the track by Jonathon Gomez. On the restart Tidrick got a jump on Fraser, but Fraser regained his second place position.
Jefferson and Fraser got together, but did not spin. The cars behind them stacked up causing a multi car spin in turn 2 on lap 105. Tidrick and Mitchell got caught in the wreck. This sent them to the pits. Both cars were able to get back on the track and make a charge back to the front.
Jefferson, Fraser, and Ryan Wells rounded out the top three at lap 167 when Gary Lewis and Bodie Morton touched tires, causing Morton to cut a tire and hit the turn 3 wall. This accident ended Morton’s night.
Ryan Wells kept working on Fraser in the remaining laps and made a clean pass to secure second place. Fraser fought back and regained second, but Wells was not about to give up. The final caution of the race came out on lap 185 for debris. This aligned the field for a 15 lap shootout to the finish. A very dominant Jefferson took the inside and Fraser chose the outside. Wells lined up behind Jefferson.
Wells passed Fraser for second place with six laps to go. Jefferson was working on a 4 car-length lead on Wells. When the checkers flew for the 22nd Annual Coors Light Montana, Jeff Jefferson became the forth driver in the history of the event to win more than one Coors Light Montana 200. Ryan Wells had his best ever finish in the event with a second place and Jason Fraser took third with a very respectable finish. Garrett Evans and Shelby Thompson rounded out the top five positions.
In the Last Chance Qualifier Jonathon Gomez bounced back from car problems on Friday and took the checkers, this advanced him into the main event. Other transfers included Wrango West, Tim Elliott, Shelby Thompson, Agni Howell, and Dave Garber.
This coming Saturday Montana Raceway Park will be closed. We will reopen on August 4th when State Farm Insurance presents Mid Season Madness featuring the Super Stocks, Bombers, CHS Legends, and Bandoleros. Time trials will start at 6pm with racing at 7pm. For tickets and the most up to date information log onto montanaracewaypark.com, call 406-257-7223, or like us on Facebook.
| 22ND Annual Coors Light Montana 200 presented by TTC & Kalispell Toyota |
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| FAST TIME #42 Jeff Jefferson - 13.070 D-DASH Pos No. Name 1 14 Don Staggs 2 25 Kirk Hennefer 3 09 Clint Habart C-DASH Pos No. Name 1 7 Mark Sundberg 2 54 Joe Farre 3 12 Giles Thornton 4 38 Grant Brown B-DASH Pos No. Name 1 31 Jason Fraser 2 64 Garrett Evans 3 17 Trevor Emond 4 12o Dan Obrist A-DASH Pos No. Name 1 99 Shane Mitchell 2 72 BJ Tidrick 3 42 Jeff Jefferson 4 37 Mike Longton FAST 14 HEAT #1 Pos No. Name 1 05 Eric Schmidt 2 97 Jason Jefferson 3 77 Bodie Morton 4 10 Owen Riddle 5 73 Gary Lewis 6 64 Garrett Evans 7 31 Jason Fraser 8 99 Shane Mitchell 9 72 BJ Tidrick 10 17 Trevor Emond 11 42 Jeff Jefferson 12 83 Braeden Havens 13 37 Mike Longton FAST 14 HEAT #2 Pos No. Name 1 42 Jeff Jefferson 2 72 BJ Tidrick 3 31 Jason Fraser 4 99 Shane Mitchell 5 37 Mike Longton 6 10 Owen Riddle 7 64 Garrett Evans 8 83 Braeden Havens 9 77 Bodie Morton 10 05 Eric Schmidt 11 73 Gary Lewis 12 97 Jason Jefferson 13 17 Trevor Emond FRIDAY C-MAIN Pos No. Name 1 22 Jonathon Gomez 2 36 Wrango West 3 93 Dave Garber 4 38 Grant Brown 5 12 Giles Thornton 6 14 Don Staggs 7 09 Clint Habart 8 7 Mark Sundberg 9 25 Kirk Hennefer 10 88 Cory Wolfe 11 67 Tim Johnson 12 1K Mitch Kleyn 13 49 Brian Levant 14 54 Joe Farre FRIDAY B-MAIN Pos No. Name 1 5 Ryan Wells 2 6 Chris Skelton 3 16 Blake Williams 4 53 Alex Lessor 5 24 Cameron Hayley 6 27 Tim Elliott 7 1 Agni Howell 8 22 Jonathon Gomez 9 93 Dave Garber 10 36 Wrango West 11 7 Mark Sundberg 12 77v Greg Vangool 13 20 Ryan Tarr 14 14 Don Staggs 15 14t Shelby Thompson 16 55 Billy Salmonsen 17 12 Giles Thornton 18 09 Clint Habart 19 38 Grant Brown 20 51 Erick Hargraves 21 76 Brian Johnson Jr. SATURDAY LCQ Pos No. Name 1 22 Jonathon Gomez 2 36 Wrango West 3 27 Tim Elliott 4 14t Shelby Thompson 5 1 Agni Howell 6 93 Dave Garber 7 51 Erick Hargraves 8 76 Brian Johnson Jr. 9 09 Clint Habart 10 88 Cory Wolfe 11 38 Grant Brown 12 20 Ryan Tarr 13 12 Giles Thornton 14 77v Greg Vangool 15 1K Mitch Kleyn 16 67 Tim Johnson 17 14 Don Staggs 18 7 Mark Sundberg 19 25 Kirk Hennefer 22ND ANNUAL COORS LIGHT MONTANA 200 Pos No. Name 1 42 Jeff Jefferson 2 5 Ryan Wells 3 31 Jason Fraser 4 64 Garrett Evans 5 14t Shelby Thompson 6 99 Shane Mitchell 7 12o Dan Obrist 8 22 Jonathon Gomez 9 1 Agni Howell 10 73 Gary Lewis 11 93 Dave Garber 12 16 Blake Williams 13 97 Jason Jefferson 14 36 Wrango West 15 77 Bodie Morton 16 72 BJ Tidrick 17 24 Cameron Hayley 18 27 Tim Elliott 19 37 Mike Longton 20 10 Owen Riddle 21 83 Braeden Havens 22 17 Trevor Emond 23 53 Alex Lessor 24 05 Eric Schmidt 25 51 Erick Hargraves 26 6 Chris Skelton |
