See Also KELLEN CHADWICK LEADS FINAL 3 ROUNDS FOR $5,100 06/15/2002

Elma, WA --

Making his first trip to Elma, Silver Dollar Speedway star Randy McDaniel from Marysville, CA led just the final 3 laps to win the 25 lap feature Friday night as Grays Harbor Raceway Park opened the two-day, $30,000 CenturyTel Northwest Modified Nationals. This event is the richest dirt modified event west of the Rocky Mountains and drew a 69 car field this year. McDaniel wheels a Harris Chassis using refinements from good friend and national dirt modified star Kelly Shryock with sponsorship from Golden Bear Alarm. An accident on the final turn of his second heat race forced McDaniel to start 16th in the A Main. McDaniel gained the lead when teenaged pacesetter Kellen Chadwick from Knightsen, CA hooked a rut trying to work a lapped car and ended up sitting in turn 2 infield. K Chadwick had set the pace from lap 9 when Medford, OR's Dennis Silva blew a left rear tire leading. The preliminary night win was worth $1,000 to McDaniel with the late action elevating Chad Chadwick, Kellen's father, to a $700 second. Jesse Williamson from Coburg, OR was a $500 third, another Medford regular Mark Wauge collected $400 for fourth and Cottage Grove, OR star Aaron Shealer was a $300 fifth. The huge car turnout made for a long night of racing as the show uses time trials, a double set of heat races (14 for the large field), a dash and D, C, B and A features on the first night. The drivers fought a badly rutted track surface.

One lap qualifying runs started the weekend's action with McDaniel's travelmate, Duane Cleveland from Yuba City, CA posting fast time honors with his 17.194 qualifying run. K Chadwick was second quick at 17.377 with former Portland Speedway regular Richard Whiteman gaining third quick honors at 17.407. Impressive Medford, OR rookie Jon DeBenedetti, a dwarf car star, ranked fourth at 17.462 with Siskiyou Motor Speedway point leader Roger Lorenzini Jr next with a 17.658. Silva ripped off a 17.723 lap and Medford's Mike Linder had a 17.724 lap. The fastest 17 qualifiers were all in the 17 second bracket and DeBenedetti, Silva and Linder wheel three of the five cars that Medford's Ron Martin entered in the rich race. The 2001 race winning car that Brian Poppa drove is also owned by Martin and was wheeled on this weekend by former Watsonville Speedway racer Skipper Klimcheck. The field then raced in 7 heat races completely inverted off the qualifying times, then ran 7 heats straight up off the qualifying runs. After a disappointing qualifying run that put him sixth on the grid, McDaniel beat back row starter Cleveland in heat 1 with fellow Chico racer Richard Papenhausen third. Shealer won heat 2 from third starting with Medford racer Jeremy Richey second over last starter K Chadwick. Cottage Grove racer Brett Jobe won heat 3 from 4th starting as C Chadwick came from 8th to finish 2nd over back row starter Klimcheck. Ron Possinger Jr from Medford won heat 4 from the pole with San Pablo, CA long tow Joel Hale second over Wauge. The fifth car owned by Martin, Tom Glover won heat 5 from fifth starting as Oregon commercial fisherman Dennis Sturgell ran second over Chico's Eli Zucker. Wheeling a Bob Pierce built car, Medford legend Dane Smith won heat 6 from third starting with Silva coming from the back row for 2nd over Larry Follett. Having replaced a motor that broke in time trials, Reno-Fernley Raceway dominator Robert Miller won heat 7 with Williamson second over fellow Cottage Grove racer Derek Ofenham. The straightup heat races were dominated by the front row starters. Papenhausen won heat 8 with McDaniel finishing at the rear when he was collected by a final lap spin by 2nd place finisher Cleveland. Shealer broke in heat 9 as K Chadwick won over Richey and local Scott Miller. Whiteman won heat 10 with C Chadwick second over Medford's Glen Lake. DeBenedetti won heat 11 from the pole with fellow Medford racer Scott Weldon second over Hale. Lorenzini won heat 12 from the pole with Sturgell second over Glover. Silva captured heat 13 from the pole with GHRP point leader Leroy Lawhead second over Follett. Williamson won heat 14 as R Miller lost another engine to end his weekend. Ageless Markey James ran second over Dale Underwood. After the time trial and heat action, the top six in points drew for their starting order in the dash that also set the starting order for the front 3 rows in the 25 lap preliminary night A Main. Outside front row starter Papenhausen beat pole starter Silva on the start and won the dash with Silva second over K Chadwick. C Chadwick ripped the rear end out of his mount in this event, but made repairs in time for the 25 lap A Main.

The 25 lap A Main finished after midnight as Papenhausen took a quick lead over Silva, K Chadwick and Richey. When Cleveland slowed on lap 3, Lorenzini and Sturgell tangled behind him with only Sturgell able to continue without pitting. Hale dropped out and leader Papenhausen pitted as he had lost his brakes. On the lap 5 restart, Silva was the new leader over K Chadwick and DeBenedetti. Admitting that he ran too low an air pressure, Silva blew his left rear tire leading on lap 9 with K Chadwick the new leader as Whiteman crashed for a caution flag. K Chadwick led DeBenedetti, Richey, 16th starter McDaniel and Glover on the restart, but Glover lost a wheel for a lap 10 yellow. McDaniel took third from Richey on the restart and Richey blew a tire on lap 13. A spin by James forced a lap 15 yellow flag and McDaniel got around DeBenedetti on the green flag for the second behind K Chadwick. Klimcheck lost a wheel on lap 19 and DeBenedetti broke a lap later. DeBenedetti is the runaway track point leader in Medford in his rookie dirt modified season. This moved C Chadwick into third over Williamson and Wauge. After leading from lap 9, K Chadwick had trouble lapping Ray Elwess and hooked a rut in the heavily rutted turn 1. K Chadwick ended up sitting in the turn 2 infield for the final 3 laps

as McDaniel gained the win over C Chadwick, Williamson, Wauge, Shealer, Silva, Linder, James and Elwess.

The final four spots in the 25 lap A Main were determined in a 20 lap B Main. This race got off to a ragged start as pole starter Ron Possinger Jr broke coming down for the green flag. Jobe led the first 5 laps and Lake broke running 2nd on lap 2. Wauge got inside Jobe for the lead on lap 6, but lost the spot back to Jobe on lap 7. Wauge took the lead for good on lap 8 as James ran third over Smith and Jon Swiglo. Jobe got shuffled out of the top 5 on lap 14 as James gained second over Smith, Shealer and Swiglo. Smith spun out of third on lap 17 and Rick Zuvich broke with Follett also off the pace. The threesome of Wauge, James and Shealer stayed in front for the first 3 transfer spots, but the three way duel for fourth between Lawhead, Cottage Grove star Chris Murphy and Swiglo saw them tangle on the backstretch. The trio crashed hard into the back wall and Murphy ended up sitting on top of Swiglo's car with Lawhead's car suffering the heaviest damage. The race was called complete with Linder the fourth transfer ahead of James Wolfard and Greg Dineen. Lawhead was a wire to wire winner in the 15 lap C Main over Murphy and Dan Jenner as only the top 2 advanced to the B Main action. Former Portland Speedway racer Scott Winebarger won the D Main with racer sponsor Glen Vincent second over Dale Underwood and Gary Morris.

Summary Fast Time-Duane Cleveland 17.194 Heat 1-Randy McDaniel, Cleveland, Richard Papenhausen, Ray Elwess, Rick Zuvich. Heat 2-Aaron Shealer, Jeremy Richey, Kellen Chadwick, Greg Dineen, Chris Murphy. Heat 3-Bret Jobe, Chad Chadwick, Skipper Klimcheck, Glen Lake, Richard Whiteman. Heat 4-Ron Possinger Jr, Joel Hale, Mark Wauge, Jon DeBenedetti, Scott Weldon. Heat 5-Tom Glover, Dennis Sturgell, Eli Zucker, Roger Lorenzini Jr. Heat 6-Dane Smith, Dennis Silva, Larry Follett, Jon Swiglo, Gary Morris. Heat 7-Robert Miller, Jesse Williamson, Derek Ofenham, Markey James, Glenn Vincent. Heat 8-Papenhausen, Cleveland, James Wolfard, Elwess, Steve Meyer. Heat 9-K Chadwick, Richey, Scott Miller, Dineen, Don Jenner. Heat 10-Whiteman, C Chadwick, Lake, Klimcheck, Craig Moore. Heat 11-DeBenedetti, Weldon, Hale, Wauge, Possinger. Heat 12-Lorenzini, Sturgell, Glover, Jon Trenchard, Zucker. Heat 13-Silva, Leroy Lawhead, Follett, Swiglo, Smith. Heat 14-Williamson, James, Dale Underwood, Mike Linder, Dan Fox. Dash-Papenhausen, Silva, K Chadwick, Richey, Cleveland, C Chadwick. D Main-Scott Winebarger, Vincent, Underwood, Gary Morris, Don Walker, Eddie Day, Kenny Miller, Clint Petty, Norm Countryman, Jeff Foster. C Main-Lawhead, Murphy, Jenner, S Miller, Vincent, Danny Daniels, Butch Betrozoff, Sonny Sayre, Richard Phillips, Trenchard. B Main-Wauge, James, Shealer, Linder, Wolfard, Dineen, Jobe, Follett, John Ireland, Smith. A Main-McDaniel, C Chadwick, Williamson, Wauge, Shealer, Silva, Linder, James, Elwess, K Chadwick, Richey, Glover, Lorenzini, DeBenedetti, Klimcheck, Sturgell, Whiteman, Hale, Papenhausen, Cleveland.

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