YAKIMA, Washington — Chris Marang continued his march towards an H&H Pure Stock Championship with his third consecutive victory in the division to pad his points lead over Rob Allen and the hard charging Tim Hitchcock.
Hitchcock kicked the night off by grabbing the division's fast time award and followed up with a pair of second place finishes in the A Trophy Dash and main event respectively. Allen rebounded from a fourth-place finish in the dash to net a third-place run in the main event.
Kyle Wade and Mike Denton rounded out the top-5 finishing order for the Pure Stocks as the season heads into the second-half.
In the Speedway Mini-Stock class, Cody Denton rose to the occasion when it mattered most as the points leader ground out a win to continue his chase for the classes first-ever championship. Denton missed setting fast time and ran third in his trophy dash but was able to take advantage of main event leader Mike Valchich's misfortune.
Denton moved to the top spot in the running order when Valchich suffered motor trouble and yielded to the field as he pitted.
Josh Parmentier and Jesse Eaton closed out the top-3 finishing order for the Mini-Stocks.
Just when it appeared that Lucas Valdez had gotten control of a sub-par season the sophomore jinx continued for the Tri-Cities driver.
Sailing to the top of qualifying in the Burger Ranch Sportsman division appeared to set the table for Valdez to claim his first victory of the season at Yakima Speedway but mechanical difficulties forced the division's defending Rookie of the Year to pit and as a result a finish at the tail end of the field.
With Valdez pitting the focus was on defending champion and current points leader, Buck Noel Jr., who gave the crowd a thrill show with a four-lap shootout between himself and Kyler Conduff. The drivers took a low and high line respectively on the night's final caution and tore off into Turn No. 1 with Noel edging the Naches native out of the top spot. From there Noel held Conduff off for a victory that continues his points lead while Conduff netted his best finish of the season.
Brad Morrison, Jerry Walker Jr. and Don Klang rounded out the top-5 finishing order for the Sportsman division.
Jeff Ball has had the hot hand in the CWI Security/EZ Credit Auto Sales Hornet division but the racing luck was not on the points leaders side as he suffered damage in a main event incident that forced him to the pits. This opened the door for a new race winner as Nathan Voyles finally broke through for his first win of the season with Rodger Eaton and Bailey Broers in tow. Ball continues to lead the chase for the 2012 division championship but will have competition in the form of Voyles and Broers through the remainder of the season as the pair have been improving each race.
Chris VanAmburg built a Sea Galley Bump-to-Pass car in June for the chance to keep racing after his Sportsman car's engine expired. Since debuting the Bump-to-Pass car in early July VanAmburg has been the talk of the class as he appears to be the driver who can challenge points leader Josh Aguirre as well as Todd Nunn and Dennis Clouse for victories. Such was the case on Saturday night as the always popular class closed out the racing schedule with a grueling match between VanAmburg, Aguirre, Clouse Shannon Davis and Tim Sutton.
When the dust settled, only VanAmburg, Davis and Nunn were left running and thus brought home top-3 finishes. It was VanAmburg's second victory of the year in the class.
Yakima Speedway returns to action next weekend with the 360 Cast Iron Nationals for Winged Sprint Cars that features some of the top sprint car drivers in the region. Also racing will be the West Coast Vintage Racers and vintage Modifieds. For more information log onto yakimaspeedway.us or the tracks page on Facebook. For ticket and other information call the Speedway Hotline at (509) 248-0647.
July 28, 2012 Yakima Speedway Results-
Finishing Order:
Pure Stocks
Fast time: TJ Hitchcock 24.094
B Trophy dash:
Joe Estep
Mike Denton
Eric Coble
A Trophy Dash
Chris Marang
TJ Hitchcock
Kyle Wade
Rob Allen
Main Event
Chris Marang
TJ Hitchcock
Rob Allen
Kyle Wade
Mike Denton
Joe Estep
Eric Coble
Mini Stocks:
Fast Time: Josh Parmentier 25.078
B Trophy Dash:
Owen Berglund
Jesse Eaton
Tim Breshears
Kenny Mullins
Joshua Reiners
A Trophy Dash
Josh Parmentier
Mike Valchich
Cody Denton
Kyle Wade
Main Event
Cody Denton
Josh Parmentier
Jesse Eaton
Owen Berglund
Tim Breshears
Kenny Mullins
Kyle Wade
Joshua Reiners
Mike Valchich
Sportsman:
Fast Time Lucas Valdez 22.849
C Trophy Dash
James Norman
Larry Norman
Trevor Flora
B Trophy Dash
Don Klang
Brad Morrison
Derek Denton
A Trophy Dash
Jerry Walker Jr
Kyler Conduff
Lucas Valdez
Buck Noel JR
Main Event
Buck Noel JR
Kyler Conduff
Brad Morrison
Jerry Walker Jr
Don Klang
Derrick Denton
Larry Norman
James Norman
Trevor Flora
Terry Cook
Chris Morrison
Lucas Valdez
Hornets:
Fast Time: Jeff Ball 17.727
B Trophy Dash
Bobby Stewart JR
Robert Patton
Paul Townsend
Cory Weishaar
Joshua Reiners
A Trophy Dash
Rodger Eaton
Nathan Voyles
Bailey Broers
Jeff Ball
Main Event
Nathan Voyles
Rodger Eaton
Bailey Broers
Bobby Stewart Jr
Joshua Reiners
Robert Patton
Paul Townsend
Jeff Ball
Bump to pass
Fast Time Josh Aguirre 16.079
C Trophy Dash
Todd Nunn
Justin Heigh
Dennis Clouse
Tim Sutton
B Trophy Dash
Kellie Zacharias
Bobby Trujillo
Tacoda Rojas
Alex Marquis
A Trophy Dash
Chris VanAmburg
Shannon Davis
Joe Stevens
BJ Tidrick
Main Event Top-3
Chris VanAmburg
Shannon Davis
Todd Nunn
