Cooler weather had a lot of racers chomping at the bit for the racing to start Saturday night because the track was so right. By the end of practice, oil leaks and ventilated engine blocks along with the drying agent to clean up the mess made for the slickest track most racers had ever driven on! In fact I was talking with someone who made the comment, "There's no way in *@#$ that anyone will break a track record tonite!" Fast times were much slower for The Les Schwab Mini Sportsmen with Chuck Keifer from EW timing in at 16.385. For the Pepsi Mini Super Stocks, Wenatchee's Darald Schall recorded a 15.112, Okanagan's Darrin Goetz drove his Jerry's Auto Supply Grand National to a 15.400. As for the Dicks Heating and A/C Thunder Cars, the track record was beat 4 times! Wenatchee's John Wagner broke it on both of his qualifiing laps, as did Russ Kain who ran the quickest with a 16.550. The heavier cars were still able to stick to the Oval when the lighter cars were in for a ride.
As for the Trophy Dashes, Wenatchee's Chris Noakes ran real good all night long, with Hornet phenomenon Gustavo Martinez driving the car in a heat race, won for the Les Schwab Mini Sportsmen, EW's Larry Jobe had lots of thanks for the crowd for the well wishes after his nasty wreck a month ago, the #34 car is getting back to normal and won for the Pepsi Mini Super Stocks. John Wagner is having a lot of success in his 1969 Impala, as he added another trophy to the case in the Dicks Heating and A/C Thunder Car class, and EW's Rob Richards got his first win of the season for the Jerry's Auto Supply Grand Nationals.
In the first heat for the Mini's, Daniel Pirestani got his 2nd heat race win of the year with Chuck Keifer, Bill Russell, Gustavo Martinez, Todd Wells, Erik Brown and Ken Guffy following. In heat 2, Tony Daggett won for the first time this year, but his consistency has him 2nd in points. Behind him was Chad Davis, Brandon Knouf, Justin Hamlin, Teddie Shales, Bob Moore and Tyson Daggett.
The Supers had to deal with the talent of Bryon Goetz as he raced up front all night amoungst the 6 or 7 others who can win on any given night in this highly competitive class. Points leader Kevin Dietrich eventually won the first heat, with Goetz in 2nd, followed by Larry Sweeney, Larry Hyde, Darald Schall, Wes Childress, Larry Jobe and Darrin Dietrich. Heat seems to have someone new shine every week, Saturday evening it was Jeff Tarrant. Jeff and his crew have been making changes every week trying to get the Celica up front, one of their goals was reached with a heat race win. Jan Gall came in 2nd with Sid "Ziggy" Grunert, Bob Coffey in the back up car after punching another hole in a block during practice, Randy England, Mike Pease and Brett Shanholtzer behind him.
John Wagner is making a habit out of winning heat races, but the big heavy Impala is set up right apparently for the Thunders. Russ Kain in his Z-28 came in 2nd with Chuck Wagner in 3rd followed by Bill Harvey, EJ Caveness and Terry Osborn.
Heat 1 for the GN's was good for Amanda Rowe as she won her second heat of the year, followed by Mitch Kleyn, Andy Stibal, Terry Osborn, Darren Goetz, Mike Sims, Tom Wentz, Lloyd Sims, Jason Ogle and Rob Richards. Heat 2 was won by Kurt Kleyn, his 2nd heat win of the year also. JW Jones placed 2nd for his best showing this year, Mike Ledbetter came in 3rd with Scott Jones, Joe Ludeman, Lacey Ledbetter, Kenny "Road Rage" Evans, Kevin Gates in Jerry Rowe's car for the night, and Jeremy Osborn following.
Main Event for the Les Schwab Mini Sportsmen was full of cautions as drivers pushed a little to hard on the slick track. EW's Bill Russel ended up on top to help his 12th in points standing, EW's Chuck Keifer came in 2nd to improve to 5th in points, Wenatchee's Erik Brown finished 3rd to hang on to his points lead, Wenatchee's Chris Noakes in 4th, second in points Tony Daggett came in 5th, 10th in points Chad "Hollywood" Davis from Chelan in 6th, Brandon Knouf moved to the Mini's this week and was rewarded with a 7th place finish, EW's Daniel Pirestani who's 6th in points came in 8th with Camano Islands Justin Hamlin in 9th, Chelan's Ken Guffy in 10th to hold onto his 3rd spot in points with 4th in points Wenatchee's Teddy Shales in 12th, an Chelan's Bob Moore, 7th in points in 13th.
The Pepsi Mini Super Stocks is a tough class to break into, even tougher to stay on top. Chelan's Kevin Dietrich keeps finding a way to hold onto his points lead and win races consistently. His win Saturday wasn't easy at all, there is so many real good cars and drivers in this class, adding to the list of possible winners every week is Okanagan's Bryon Goetz who races a Super Late Model for the Big 5. This was only the 3rd time Goetz has been in the Super this year and with a 2nd in the heat, and a second in the Main, Bryon can definitely keep up. Chelan's Darrin Dietrich remains 4th in points with a 3rd place finish, Wenatchee's Wild Wes Childress stays 3rd in points finishing 4th, Chelan's Larry Sweeney keeps on having fun being 6th in points and placed 5th. Bob Coffey pulls all the way from Centralia every week, is 2nd in points, threw a rod, climbed in his backup car for 6th place. Mr fast time Darald Schall who is 5th in points came in 7th, with EW's Brett Shanholtzer in 8th, Rock Island's 9th in points Randy England in 9th place, and Cashmere's 73 years young Larry Hyde in 10th with Jeff Tarrant, Sid Grunert, Jan Gall, Mike Pease, Larry Jobe following.
The heavier Dicks Heating and A/C Thunder Cars hooked up fine on the oval and the 19 year old EJ Caveness jumped out to a quick lead and held it for two-thirds of the main until he got help spinning out coming out of turn 2. John Wagner took advantage of the situation for the win to stay 6th in points, with Maliga's Bill Harvey, who had a lot of family in the stands for the night came in 2nd, the best finish of his first season and still in 3rd for points. Wenatchee's Terry Osborn is still the points leader, and drove the 1973 Firebird to 3rd place. EJ Caveness, from Wenatchee drove hard from the back of the pack to finish 4th, with new track record holder Russ Kain in 5th followed by Chuck Wagner.
The first half of the Main Event for the Jerry's Auto Supply Grand Nationals had been seen before, Orando's Andy Stibal works his way through traffic and takes the lead. The second half of the 40 lapper was great to watch as Darren Goetz moved into second place and decided to try the outside to pass Stibal. A couple of times Goetz moved behind Andy for a corner or two, then back beside Stibal he went and stayed that way to the end with the Stibal's winning margin being maybe an inch! Monitor's Lloyd Sims proved once again that it doesn't matter if he or Rod Pogue is driving the #0 car, it runs up front, Lloyd was 3rd. Wenatchee's Tom Wentz held onto his 3rd in points with a 4th place finish, Quincy's Mitch Kleyn, who's 2nd in points came in 5th with EW's Rob Richards in 6th, Wenatchee's Terry Osborn in 7th to stay 7th in points, Pashastin's Jason Ogle keeps getting better with more seat time and finished 8th, Wenatchee's Amanda Rowe won her heat, and placed 9th in the main. Ephrata's Kurt Kleyn remained 5th in points finishing in 10th. Wenatchee's Mike Ledbetter in 11th, Joe Ludeman from Waterville in 12th, followed by Scott Jones, JW Jones in 14th, Lacey Ledbetter in 15th, Jeremy Osborn in 16th, Kevin Gates in 17th, Kenny Evans in 18th and Mike Sims in 19th.
Wednsday night at the Super Oval the USAC Sprint Cars are in town! We will run the Wild and Crazy Hornets with them for a great show. Saturday night it's back to the point chases again with the Hornets, Mini's, Supers and Grand Nationals!
