Yet another beautiful evening at the Super Oval with the linger of the USAC Sprint Cars in the air, and with the extra rubber on that little used second grove, would it make for more chances to pass on the outside? As I wandered through the pits Saturday afternoon, stopped and talked with Randy Dietrich about chasing that #17 car driven by Gustavo Martinez, and Randy's string of new track records set in qualifing. Randy told me that the car couldn't go any quicker and that there would be no more records set. What about the extra rubber laid down Wednesday evening? Sure enough, the Hornet was even quicker, and Randy dropped the standard to 17.560. For the Les Schwab Mini Sportsmen, #43 Jeff Bryant ran a 16.036, for the Pepsi Mini Super Stocks, Wild Wes Childress' #4 ran a 15.104, and for the Jerry's Auto Supply Grand Nationals, Rob Richards #12 recorded a 15.395.
In the Trophy Dashes, Gustavo Martinez(EW) started another winning streak for the Hornets, Chris Noakes had the fastest Mini Sportsmen car, Darald Schall was up front at the end for the Mini Supers and Quincy's Mitch Kleyn had the fastest Grand National, on the mic, Mitch said he would be back to talk to me again! He said his car was that good.
The first heat race for the Hornets also brought out the first caution flag of the evening which moved many of the front runners back in the pack. Josh Ingram was able to keep ahead of the BMW 320i of Lucas Merrill to help both of their points runs. Gustavo Martinez didn't win a heat race! His amazing run is up to 8 wins in 12 races! Randy Dietrich the points leader was in 4th, with Robert Sutton in 5th, Jeff Linterman in 6th, Don Meza in Lyle Purdy's #55 in 7th, Brian Gill in 8th and Russ Pipken in 9th.
In Heat 2, Bobby Jarolimek won her 2nd heat race this season, Jerimiah Voss in 2nd, 17 year old Nick Vanassche in 3rd, Paul Jarolimek is finally back after battling a nasty infection for well over a month and finished 4th. Brad McFarland came in 5th, Motley Johnny Huson in 6th and Lee Jarolimek in 7th place.
Heat race 1 for the Les Schwab Mini Sportsmen ended with Tony Daggett winning his first race in a while, with Bill Russel in 2nd, Chuck Kiefer in 3rd, Jeff Bryant in 4th, Randy England driving David Patty's usual #61 in 5th and points leader Erik Brown in 6th. Heat 2 had more drivers in others cars. Ken Guffy climbed into Daniel Pirestani's #99 car and drove it to the win, with Brandon Knouf racing in the Sportsmen class for only the 2nd time after moving from the supers came in 2nd, Justin Hamlin pulled all the way from Camano Island to take 3rd, Chad Davis in 4th, Teddie Shales in 5th and Chris Cormier in 6th.
The Pepsi Mini Super Stocks have become so competitive that track position is all important. Passing is getting more difficult, and the cars are not heavy enough to really stick on the outside. Darrin Dietrich got a good start and proceeded to win heat 1 with bro Kevin the points leader on his tail. Bob Coffey in his back up car held on to 3rd, with Wes Childress in 4th. Darald Schall in 5th, Larry Jobe in 6th and Tom Ripley in 7th.
Randy England was doing double duty Saturday night, in his own car #68 picked up the win in heat 2 for the Supers. Jan Gall drove well to get 2nd with Sid (Ziggy) Grunert in 3rd, Larry Sweeney in 4th, Mike Pease in 5th, Jeff Tarrant in 6th and Marty Wason in 7th.
Heat races for the Jerry's Auto Supply Grand Nationals saw Mitch Kleyn back up his post trophy dash comment and took the win away from 1st full year racer Jason Ogle, who has been getting the needed seat time and is able to run up front with the fast guys lately and placed 2nd, in fact points leader Andy Stibal was in 3rd! Tom Wentz drove to 4th, with Scott Jones in 5th, Rob Richards in 6th, Amanda Rowe had problems with the rear gear in her #21 car, so they went home to grab Jerry Rowe's #31 and she made 7th, Kenny Road Rage Evans in 8th and JW Jones in 9th.
In heat 2, Lacey Ledbetter got through one of the 3 messes involving Trucker Moore's return to the Oval and won the heat with cars sliding and spinning around behind him. Terry Osborn came in 2nd, with Joe Ludeman in 3rd, followed by Keli Ray, Trucker Moore, Kurt Kleyn and Mike Ledbetter.
Eight car inverts for everyone! The Main Event for the Hornets went as usual with squeeling tires and trading yellow paint and a few caution flags while Gustavo Martinez (EW) 11th in points, working his way quickly to the front, staying where no one can pass him and easily winning. Lucas Merrill (Wenatchee) 5th in points, came in 2nd and on the mic said that Martinez was letting him catch up when I pointed out that he was getting closer at the end. Jeff Linterman (EW) 2nd in points, in 3rd, Wenatchee's Robert Sutton, 6th in points in 4th, Badger Mountains Brad McFarland in his 1973 Toyota Corina in 5th, 8th in points Wenatchee's Johnny Huson in 6th, 9th in points, also from Wenatchee Nick Vanassche in 7th, Cashmere's Jerimiah Voss in 8th, Wenatchee's Bobby Jarolimek, 7th in points in 9th with Lee right behind her, points leader Randy Dietrich from Chelan in 11th, Paul Jarolimek in 12th, Brian Gill, Russ Pipkin and 3rd in points Josh Ingram, all from Wenatchee in the back.
The Les Schwab Mini Sportsmen do a lot of passing and in a main, the fans enjoy the show. Wenatchee's 7th in points Jeff Bryant got a little bit of help from the one he has been helping, Gustavo Martinez, a new engine did it's part as Jeff took the main event ahead of Rock Island's Randy England driving his own car, but usually David Patty wheels the #61. Randy adapted easily to get second. 2nd in points Tony Daggett (EW), has been quiet for most of the year, now when things count, he's running up front for 3rd. EW's Bill Russel isn't in the points chase, but keeps doing well for 4th. EW's Chuck Keifer is 3rd in points without a sponser, and came in 5th. Chelan's Chad Davis, 10th in points, camein 7th, with Wenatchee's Brandon Knouf in 8th. Chris Cormier just moved from Wenatchee to Lake City over by Seattle, but still makes the haul on Saturday afternoon and came in 9th. Wenatchee's Chris Noakes drove the #8 to 10th with Ken Guffy from Chelan who's 6th in points driving Daniel Pirestani's car in 11th, Wenatchee's Teddie Shales, 5th in points in 12th and Camano Islands Justin Hamlin in 13th.
Well over half of the Pepsi Mini Super Stocks class could win on any given night, so the 8 car invert hurt the fast one's, but made for a fun race to watch. Chelan's Larry Sweeney took home the big trophy moving him to 6th in points. Wenatchee's Darald Schall, who's 5th in points and fast qualifier raced to 2nd. Centralia's Bob Coffey is having one of those problem years, but he's 2nd in points and helped his cause with a 3rd place finish. 4th in points, Chelan's Darrin Dietrich stayed out of trouble for 4th place with Wes Childress in 5th to hold onto 3rd in points. Goldbar's Mike Pease is 7th in points and came in 6th. Wenatchee's Jeff Tarrant is 10th in points and finished 7th. Pashastin's Tom Ripley in 8th, Wenatchee's Jan Gall in 9th, Oriville's Ziggy Grunert in 10th, points leader Kevin Dietrich from Chelan was running in 2nd, made his move to the outside to go for the lead and something went wrong with the car and he finished in 11th. Larry Jobe (EW) is 8th in points and was in 12th. Rock Islands Randy England is 9th in points and ended up in 13th, and Chelan's Marty Wason in 14th.
Driver out intro's for the 40 lapper to finish the warm evening for the Jerry's Auto Supply Grand Nationals started 19 cars, 2 from Canada. Kevin Vankalkeren from Osoyoos, and Jeff Jansen from Pentictin BC made the trip to get banged around a little, but ran well and had fun. In the end it was Wenatchee's Tom Wentz helping his run for points taking the win and holding onto 3rd in points. Points leader, Orando's Andy Stibal got past 2nd in points Mitch Kleyn from Quincy with just a few laps left to pad the lead a little more. Wenatchee's Terry Osborn leads the points for the Thunder Cars and is 7th in points for the GN's, he finished in 4th. Pashastin's Jason Ogle ran well again, this time ending up in 5th, with Waterville's Joe Ludeman in 6th, EW's Rob Richards in 7th, Ephrata's 5th in points Kurt Kleyn finished in 8th. Wenatchee's Scott Jones stayed 4th in points with a 9th place, and the Ledbetters from Maliga, Mike is 8th in points came in 10th, Lacey is 9th in points and ended up 11th, followed by Manson's JW Jones in 12th, Wenatchee's Amanda Rowe remaining 6th in points with a 13th, Jeremy Osborn from Wenatchee in 14th, Manson's Kenny Evans in 15th, Waterville's Keli Ray in 16th and Trucker Moore's return to the Oval was full of fender bending and he ended up in 17th.
This Saturday Night the Big 5 is back! The Super Late Models, Sprint Cars and the Wild and Crazy Hornets will be qualifing by 6, racing at 7!
