The Raybestos Brakes Northwest Tour will make South Sound Speedway its next stop. Appearing with this touring series will be the Northwest Legends and Bandoleros and the Nascar Weekly Racing Series' Top Notch Trailer Street Stocks.
There are 23 drivers pre-entered for the exciting "Pepsi 125" race on Saturday May 11th. South Sound former track champion Wes Rhodes of Olympia will be on hand to wow the home crowd just as he did last week with an excellent showing in the Late Model Super Stock class. Another hometown favorite is Ralph Hubbert of Chehalis who came out and showed off for the crowd a few weeks ago. Drivers from all over will be on hand as well as fans from Victoria to California. Even a special grudge match is planned
Kevin Hamlin of Snohomish, last year's Tour champion and current points leader, and former champion Gary Lewis of Bothell will be racing a one on one, ten lap event, organized by Bill Bailey. Bailey is the new head guy of the Northwest Legends and Bandoleros. The race idea stemmed from the March 30th race at Evergreen. Apparently, Hamlin got into Lewis with some nose to tail contact exiting turn two. This move allowed Hamlin to take the lead and eventually win. The event will allow Hamlin and Lewis to relive the race in a smaller version. Jason Dickhoff of Sumner will lend his car to Hamlin while Larry Best of Bonney Lake will lend his to Lewis.
This will be the Northwest Legends second time back but first time to race. They were rained out about six weeks ago. Bob Kronenberg of Olympia is currently leading the Masters division points. In the Pro division, Rich Spooner of Tacoma leads and in the Semi-Pro division, Jeff Harris leads.
In the Top Notch Trailer Street Stocks, the tough Ford drove by Jim Jussila of Centralia beat all the Chevy cars. He will be back this week to see if he can make it two for two. Let's hope Brad Borton of Graham has blown all his smoke for the year and will be back out with a rebuilt transmission. We will also see if Joe Swanson of Gresham, Oregon got a new throttle cable installed so he can keep the pedal to the metal and get another commanding lead like he had last week.
All this hot racing action begins at 6:30 pm with time trials at 5:00 pm. The front gate opens at 3:00 pm for spectators. South Sound Speedway is located off I-5 exit 88 or 88A. You can see the final race results at www.southsoundspeedway.com.
