Source: NSCS/Peter Moss
Date: 07/30/2007

The North State Challenge Series presented by Scottfeild Executive Hotels visited the beautiful Douglas County Speedway, on Saturday night, to contest the Windmill Inns 250. Local racer, Riley Watson was first to the checkers in a wild finish that featured four late restarts. Watson, a former DCS regular, stepped up to the NSCS in 2007 and scored the big win in just his fifth series start.

Defending champ Mike Doss finished second after making several serious bids for the lead over the final few laps. Another local, Winchester’s Kyle Pope, finished third, his best result of the season. Junior Roddy’s string of strong runs continued with his fourth place finish, as he moved into second in the point standings. Local veteran Mike Sackett rounded out the top five in his first NSCS appearance of 2007.

Local veteran Dale Roth set fast time with a fine 15.294 besting Carson City’s C.J. Bawden’s 15.303 and went on to win the trophy dash. He drew an inversion of 10 putting Dundee, Oregon’s Willie Thom on the pole next to Mike Sackett. Sackett jumped to the early lead until Thom claimed the point on the 29th circuit. Roth retired on the next lap.

Over the middle portion of the race, Thom put a big distance between himself and the trio of Watson, Doss, and Ford, with Sackett a bit farther back. Doss got by Watson on lap 88, in the 100-lapper and set his sights on Thom. Thom’s huge lead evaporated when Dave Miller spun and brought out a yellow on lap 94. As the NSCS doesn’t race back to the yellow flag, but reverts to the previous lap, lap 94 was run three times after quick cautions for incidents back in the pack.

Thom held the lead on the ensuing restarts until Doss got to his outside and the race was on! Doss nosed ahead but couldn’t quite clear Thom. On lap 96, Doss got loose in the marbles, and made a great save, but fell back to fourth. Ford saw an opening and shot to the inside of Thom for the lead. As Thom came down, he and Ford contacted and Thom spun, bringing out the final yellow flag. By NSCS rules, both cars went to the tail end of the lead lap. Watson held the point on the final restart and managed to hold off Doss’ hard charge, on the outside, over the final four laps. Again, Doss could get beside Watson, and even nose ahead, but he couldn’t clear him.

“We were racing hard,” Doss said, “and nobody was giving anything. It was fun! That was a good show. If you didn’t like that, you don’t like racing!”

“I didn’t even know if we were going to make the race,” said the happy winner. “We were up all night trying to get the car fixed. We didn’t have the best car tonight. I had nothing for those guys. They gave me the win, but I’ve been on the other end of these deals plenty of times. It’s about time we had some good racing luck!”

“Those yellows at the end killed me,” said a disappointed Thom. “It was good hard racing and it was fun. These things happen.”

Fast Time – Dale Roth 15.294

Trophy Dash – Dale Roth, Mike Obrist, C.J. Bawden. Adam Whitlock

B Main – Alan Cress, Larry Bayless, Joe McDonald, Wade Koens, Randy Hvall, Brad Wasmund, Hank Hilton, Jay Sauls

A Main – Riley Watson, Mike Doss, Kyle Pope, Junior Roddy, Mike Sackett, Willy Thom, Dave Miller, Howard Ford, Mark Pothoff, Rod McCombs, Rod Scevers, Allen Gibney Jr, CJ Bawden, Alan Cress, Adam Whitlock, Mike Obrist, Greg Baumgartner, Randy Houston, Dale Roth, Larry Bayless

See Also .:

• Riley Watson Driver Card
• Douglas County Speedway Track Page

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