The 360 Sprint Cars, Shipwreck Beads Modifieds, Outlaw Tuners and the PHRA Dwarf Cars took to the 3/8 banked clay oval on Saturday night bringing some wild action to the fans.
PHRA Dwarf Cars:
The PHRA Dwarf Cars had their final appearance of the 2017 season at Grays Harbor Raceway, and one of their biggest payout of the year for the annual Pocket Change Race. The pocket change added up to $1,444, with an extra $600 dollars going to the winner, making it a total of $2,044. St.Helens, Ore driver Chris McCleary took the early lead over Andrew Lemmons of Longview. Brock Peters of Eagle Point, Ore joined in as well moving into second but the caution quickly flew as a multiple car incident in turn four brought out the caution. On the restart McCleary jumped out front with Henry Corbin III of Mollala, Ore moving into second. Portland Ore driver Ryan Martinez moved past Peter's and Corbin III to take over the second position working his way through the field and looked to track down McCleary for the lead. A lap 4 restart setup Martinez to make his move, as a pass out of turn four saw Martinez take the lead.
Corey Estaban of Gaston, Ore and defending champion of the Pocket Change Race worked his way from deep in the field to make it up to the top five, getting around Peters and Corbin III for second, looking to chase down Martinez for the lead. Estaban slipped by Martinez on lap 16 to take over the lead and put some slight distance between the drivers. Josh King of Red Bluff, CA sat in the third spot waiting for any mistakes by the top two drivers. Lap traffic became a factor as Martinez closed in closer to Estaban looking to the inside groove a handful of times for position. Martinez took over the lead out of turn four coming to the white flag. Estaban stayed close having one final chance to take the lead back, both drivers raced side by side coming to the checkered flag as Martinez picked up the win, holding off Estaban by 0.030 at the line. Making it a very close finish. King, Corbin III and Jeremiah Hester of Hillsboro, Ore rounded out the top five. Heat race winners were Corbin III, Lemmons, Troy Kunas of Nine Mile Falls and Martinez.
Shipwreck Beads Modifieds:
Shelton's Scott Miller led the field to the green flag jumping out front quickly as Oakville's Brian Harding and Cosmopolis driver Tom Sweatman battled for second. Just as the green flag flew, the caution waved for Spanaway's Tim Phillips, sitting sideways on the backstretch. Miller took the lead once again on the restart as Sweatman and Harding raced side by side for second. Campbell River, BC driver Lane Zerbin joined in on the battle getting by Harding for third bringing Kyler Moore of Seabeck with him. The yellow flag flew on lap 2 for Aberdeen's Shane Kerrigan and Tacoma driver Zack Fuller in turn two, after hard contact with each other. Sweatman led the field to the green with Miller and Zerbin looking to chase him down. Zerbin looked to outside of Miller and took over second. Sweatman had no room for mistakes as Zerbin was right at his back bumper.
A caution field feature saw Sweatman continue to lead. Miller and Zerbin raced side by side for a handful of laps. Hard contract between Shelton driver Shane Rau and Jason Tole of Hoquiam in turn three brought out the red flag on lap 13. Both drivers did walk away from the incident uninjured. Sweatman timed his restarts just right getting a good jump on the rest of the field. Moore and Miller battled for second as Hoquiam's Zack Simpson sat in fourth looking to make a move. At the end of the feature Sweatman picked up the win over Miller, Moore, Zerbin and Simpson. Heat race winners earlier in the evening were Scott Miller and Harding.
360 Sprint Cars:
A pair of brothers set the front row of the 25 lap feature as Snohomish drivers Reece and Chase Goetz brought the field to the green flag. Cam Smith of Mill Creek took the early lead from Reece Goetz going into turn one. Goetz took the lead back and both drivers battled for the lead for a handful of laps. A second battle was the race to watch as Puyallup's Trey Starks and JJ Hickle of Quilcene battled for third. Both drivers went back and forth for a handful of laps. The high side was the place to be on the 3/8 banked clay oval as Reece Goetz pulled away from Smith, Hickle and Starks.
Goetz continued to run hard as lap traffic became a slight factor for the driver. Goetz sliced and diced his way opening up a big lead on Smith. A caution free 25 laps saw Reece Goetz pick up the win over Smith, Hickle, Starks and Enumclaw's Henry Van Dam rounding out the top five. Heat race winners earlier were Chase and Reece Goetz with Starks picking up fast time.
Outlaw Tuners:
Devon Harper of Olympia led the field to the green flag for the 15 lap Outlaw Tuners feature. Harper ran the high side of the raceway, saw tough company as points leader Tyler Sundstrom of Aberdeen was right there making it a side by side race for the lead. Shelton's Dale Speas joined in on the battle making a pass on Sundstrom for second a few laps into the feature. Harper continued to lead as the battle for second continued on. Behind Speas and Sundstrom saw another battle between Trevor Dugent of Tacoma and Cory Sweatman of Aberdeen, both raced side by side and making passes until the caution flag flew for Jared Stevens of Shelton, stopped on the backstretch on lap 4.
Harper led the field back to green as Sundstrom made his move for the lead, taking the top spot in turn three. Harper looked to the inside and took the position back a lap later. Both drivers raced side by side with Sundstrom retaking the lead on lap 6. Sundstrom slowly pulled away as Speas looked to track down Harper for second. Sundstrom would go on and pick up the win over Speas, Dugent, Harper and Sweatman. heat race winners earlier in the evening were Sundstrom and Speas.
Racing will resume next Sunday and Monday night at Grays Harbor Raceway as Sunday September 3rd will see the Summer Thunder Sprint Series, Shipwreck Beads Modifieds and Northwest Focus Midgets Series in action, then Monday September 4th the Craftsman World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series presented by Lucky Eagle Casino & Hotel will take to the 3/8 banked clay oval. Also on hand will be the Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks. Gates will open at 5:30 on Sunday with racing at 7PM, and Gates open at 5PM on Monday with racing at 7PM.
Grays Harbor Raceway
August 26, 2017
PHRA Dwarf Cars:
Heat 1:
- 89Z Henry Corbin III, 2. 71s Chad Cardoza, 3. 8 Chris McCleary, 4. 4Z Mikie Clark, 5. 18W Chuck O'Connor, 6. 17 Max White
Heat 2:
- 33K Andy Lemmons, 2. 86X Josh King, 3. 2o Jeremiah Hester, 4. 11 Rich Holbert, 5. Leo Ward, 6. 4W Brian Taylor
Heat 3:
- 37W Troy Kunas, 2. 15K Chris Peterson, 3. 18K Noel Jackson, 4. 5W Steve Taylor, 6. 36 Corey Estaban
Heat 4:
- 9Z Ryan Martinez, 2. 2s Brock Peters, 3. 90z Henry Corbin II, 4. 94K Shane Youngren, 5. 8W Jason Fike
A-Main:
- Martinez, 2. Estaban, 3. King, 4. Corbin III, 5. Hester, 6. Lemmons, 7. Ward, 8.McCleary, 9. Peters, 10. Clark, 11. Kunas, 12. Cardoza, 13. Peterson, 14. Corbin II, 15. Holbert, 16. Brian Taylor, 17. Jackson, 18. Steve Taylor, 19. Fike, 20. White, 21. Youngren, 22. O'Connor
Shipwreck Beads Modifieds:
Heat 1:
- 26 Scott Miller, 2. 81 Lane Zerbin, 3. 97 Tyson Blood, 4. 43K Shane Kerrigan, 5. 87 Tyler Walker, 6. 46 Dan Kinnaman, 7. 40 Mike Knox
Heat 2:
- 28 Brian Harding, 2. 14K Kyler Moore, 3. 34T Jason Tole, 4. 34 Gene Miller, 5. 41 Tim Phillips, 6. 17X Cody Erskine, 7. 714 Zachary Fuller
Heat 3:
- 11 Tom Sweatman, 2. 12 Zack Simpson, 3. 4R Shane Rau, 4. 3 Cory Sweatman, 5. 8 Steve Bulpitt, 6. 86 Dave Howard, 7. 38 Josh Richardson
A-Main:
- Tom Sweatman, 2. Scott Miller, 3. Moore, 4. Zerbin, 5. Simpson, 6. Blood, 7. Erskine, 8. Walker, 9. Harding, 10. Knox, 11. Kerrigan, 12. Gene Miller, 13. Bulpitt, 14. Richardson, 15. Kinnaman, 16. Rau, 17. Tole, 18. Howard, 19. Phillips, 20. Fuller, 21. Sweatman
360 Sprint Cars:
Fast Time:
55 Trey Starks
Heat 1:
- 91 Chase Goetz, 2. 33V Henry Van Dam, 3. 55 Trey Starks, 4. 97R Jason Reed, 5. 15 Jeff Dunlap
Heat 2:
- 9R Reece Goetz, 2. 17 Cam Smith, 3. 0J Jay Cole, 4. 22R Mike Romig, 5. 3 JJ Hickle
A-Main:
- Reece Goetz, 2. Smith, 3. Hickle, 4. Starks, 5. Van Dam, 6. Chase Goetz, 7. Reed, 8. Romig, 9. Dunlap, 10. Cole
Outlaw Tuners:
Heat 1:
- 23 Tyler Sundstrom, 2. 12XXX Devon Harper, 3. 1 Cory Sweatman, 4. 911 Jason McCaslin, 5. 44 Jerry Harmon Jr, 6. 3 Timmy Phillips, 7. 5 Jared Stevens
Heat 2:
- 7 Dale Speas, 2. 29 Robert White, 3. 33X Dale Vacknitz Jr, 4. 555 Trevor Dugent
A-Main:
- Sundstrom, 2. Speas, 3. Dugent, 4. Harper, 5. Sweatman, 6. Zaragoza, 7. White, 8. McCaslin, 9. Vacknitz Jr, 10. Harmon Sr. 11. Phillips, 12. Stevens
- Social Media on Aug 28, 2017
- Article Date: 8/28/2017 by Aaron Reed