SNOWFLAKE ENDUROS LIVE UP TO THEIR NAME

Source: Kristy Palmer
Date: 01/02/2004

South Sound Speedway rung in the New Year with two Snowflake Enduros. And for the first year, there were real snowflakes in the air. Drivers from Oregon and southern Washington pulled in with stories of major snowfall in their hometowns. In Rochester, it was pure rain until the races started around 12:30. The V-8 cars took the track that was extremely wet and slippery.

Noel Graf of Astoria, OR and Jim Jussila of Centralia started on the front row. The first 30 laps brought a lot of small spins with no major accidents. Just a few who took spins were Neal Graf of Astoria, Nicole Reihl of Boring, OR, Mike Saylors of Olympia, Willy Thom of Dundee, OR, Mark Hubbard of Seattle and Greg Greer of Rainier, OR. Dan Walker of Longview took the lead early but fought to stay ahead of Scott Puncochar of Hillsboro, OR who took the lead a few times.

The only major accident took place on lap 42 when Robert Freund of Battle Ground spun. Nick Behn tried to avoid him and got into Darrell Hanson of Portland. Hanson then went straight into the backstretch wall and flew up off the track and back onto the raceway. It was an amazing sight. It began to snow a short while later and the race kept going with more and more single car spins. In the end, it was Dan Walker who finished first with Scott Puncochar not far behind. Taking third was David Knittle of Lacey. Willy Thom won the Best Appearing car award.

The 4-Cylinders got there race started a short while later with Dale Roberts of Enumclaw and Dan Woodward of Renton starting on the front. Roberts jumped out to a quick lead with Woodward close behind. Again, snowy conditions mad the track a virtual skating rink as many cars spun in the first few laps. On lap six Gary Lawrence, of Olympia, smacked right into one of the large tires that was marking the course on the backstretch. He continued to race but had some major mechanical problems for the rest of the day. Steve Canham of Portland took out another tire on the front stretch around lap 39. That was the end of the race for Canham whose car was painted so nicely and was in the running for Best Appearing. Unfortunately the car has to finish the race to be awarded Best Appearing.

Although fuel injected cars started one lap down they were still running fast and up front. The race was shortened to 275 laps because of visibility. It was snowing large flakes at this point and it was getting extremely dark. Chad Hinkle of Rochester was the only car on the lead lap until the very end when Dan Woodward got back on it but it was too late. Hinkle took home the first 4-Cylinder Enduro title and now leads the points. Woodward came in second with JJ Hamilton of Centralia in third. Jeff Swanson of Buckley was fourth and Jason Majors of Tacoma was fifth. Troy Drath of Portland took the Best Appearing Car honors.

See Also .:

• South Sound Speedway Track Page

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