YAKIMA, Washington -- Scott Walker, the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series late model points leader, captured the 100-lap mid-season championship and extended his lead over Ken Olson to 26 points as the second-half of the season gets underway at Yakima Speedway.
Shane Mitchell came home second in the late model main event with Bob Dexter, Mike Longton and Olson rounding out the top-5.
Jeff Sisk held off a determined Erick Hargraves for the 50-lap mid-season victory in the Boomers Roadside Bar & Grill Street Stock division. Jack Anderson rode out a third place finish with Andy Beaman and Harold Seekins netting fourth and fifth place respectively.
In the Better-All Auto Sales Super Stock 20-lap main event, Kriss Clark earned his first main event win of the season, beating Shawn Mathews by five car lengths. Jeff Sisk captured third place in his first career start in the division with Erick Hargraves coming home fourth. Four cars were unable to take the green flag as a result of damage in a heat race incident in turn No. 4.
Troy Trammell led the late model field to the green flag and held the point for seven laps. Dexter closed on Trammell’s back bumper and cleared the rookie driver exiting turn No. 2 on lap 8.
Fast Qualifier, Shane Mitchell, started sixth based on the invert, but moved to fourth place by lap 13. Bill Mills made contact with the front stretch retaining wall, resulting in the evening’s third caution of the race at lap 26. On the restart, Dexter and Longton began a side-by-side duel for first place on lap 30. Dexter held the lead, but Walker was able to reel in the leaders and sat in third place with the completion of lap 34.
Walker used the outside groove of turns No. 1 and 2 to get past Longton for second place and set his sights on Dexter and the lead. Longton was shuffled back to third place as a hard charging Mitchell took over second place on lap 50.
Dexter held the inside line on Walker for several laps before finally giving way on lap 73. Walker set a torrid pace until the evenings final stoppage on lap 99 for Ben Reid who had struck a tree off turn No. 1. The resulting red flag condition bunched the field up for a green-white-checkered flag finish.
On the restart, Walker was able to pull away, but Mitchell caught Dexter and made a bold pass for the runner-up position in a drag race down the front stretch.
After building a good lead on the field, Walker admitted the red flag had him nervous. “The toughest part about it (sitting and waiting under the red) was all the heat coming off the motor and we haven’t run a 100-lap race all year so you have to be in good shape.
“That red gave me way to much time to think about what could happen. I knew if I kept it on the white line everything would be okay. The guys behind me gave it a good run and I would not be here if it wasn’t for the hard work from my crew on a hot day like it was today.”
In the 50-lap main event for the Street Stock division, Hargraves was shooting for his fourth straight win and got things off in fine fashion with a new track record in qualifying. Hargraves run of 23.054 seconds lowered his previous record, but the resulting fast time meant he would be starting 16th on the field based on a complete invert.
Casey Merrill led lap one for the Street Stock main event with Anderson able to move into second place by lap 3. Anderson passed Merrill on the front stretch at the completion of lap 4 to take over first place.
Sisk, who had yet to win a main event in 2003, moved into second place on lap 5 and caught Anderson by lap 14. Hargraves moved to third place and sat back as Sisk and Anderson put on a great battle for the lead over the next 13 laps.
Sisk moved to the inside of Anderson for the lead, which opened the door for Hargraves to jump into second place past Anderson exiting turn No. 4 on lap 27.
Hargraves rode behind Sisk for the next 15 laps before making a move to pass to the outside. The leaders touched bumpers, but maintained control as lapped traffic coming into view. Hargraves made one more attempt to pass Sisk, who was lapping a slowing Ashley Beaman. Beaman went high to allow Sisk the inside, which blocked Hargraves run on the outside groove for the lead on the white flag lap.
The Better-All Super Stock division had eight cars go through inspection prior to qualifying. Tom Cartman became the first casualty of the evening when he lost and oil pump while warming the motor in his pit area. In the heat race, Jason Trujillo lost a right rear wheel and spun in turn No. 4 collecting Norb Barthel. Both cars would retire for the evening. Jack Anderson’s Super Stock developed handling problems in the heat race and he was forced to sit out the main event.
Clark took an early lead in the main event and never looked back for his first main event win of the season as Mathews came home second to assume the points lead over Greg Kuhlmann who choose to sit out the event.
- Main
- 1) Scott Walker 2) Shane Mitchell 3) Bob Dexter 4) Mike Longton 5) Ken Olson 6) Ron Bemis 7) Troy Trammell 8) Jack Eby 9) Ben Reid 10) Christopher Kalsch 11) Jeff Barkshire 12) Josh Jones 13) Bill Mills
- Fast Time
- Shane Mitchell, 19.052 seconds
- A-Dash Winner
- Longton B-Dash Winner: Olson
- Main
- 1) Jeff Sisk 2) Erick Hargraves 3) Jack Anderson 4) Andy Beaman 5) Harold Seekins 6) Rick Christopherson 7) Ted Wilburn Sr. 8) Terry Cook 9) Waylan Huffines 10) Jason Trujillo 11) Ashley Beaman 12) Tony Huffines 13) Jason Wilmoth 14) Casey Merrill 15) Shannon Mitchell 16) Chris Anderson 17) Chris VanAmburg
- Fast Time Winner
- Erick Hargraves, 23.054 seconds (track record)
- A-Dash Winner
- Hargraves B-Dash Winner: Andy Beaman
- Main
- 1) Kriss Clark 2) Shawn Mathews 3) Jeff Sisk 4) Erick Hargraves DNS- Jack Anderson, Norb Barthel, Jason Trujillo and Tom Cartman
- Fast Time
- Erick Hargraves, 20.571 seconds
- A-Dash Winner
- Clark
- B-Dash Winner
- Anderson
