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| Courtesy Thomas Vick/Evergreen Speedway (click to enlarge)
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| Eventual winner and defending champion Lane Sundholm (00) avoids trouble in turn 1 of the bomber division feature race on Saturday, June 28 at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash. |
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Midseason Championship night at Evergreen Speedway
Posted
at
1:08 pm
by Scott Whitmore
Local racing package
What a great night of racing at Evergreen Speedway!
Jason Fraser and Naima Lang going side-by-side for lap after lap in the super stocks, Kris Harriss squeaking by Dale Creager at the finish line for a third-place trophy in the mini-stocks, and Mark Weedin and John Carlson maintaining their dominance in the mini-stocks and super figure eights, respectively.
You can read more about Saturday's action at Evergreen below.
For complete Evergreen Speedway Midseason Championship results, (CLICK HERE).
My Evergreen Speedway notebook is here (CLICK HERE).
Skagit Speedway results and race recaps are here: (CLICK HERE).
And if you just plain love cars, take a look at my feature story on Tim Divers, who built Ferrambo, the winner of the 2008 Ridler Award (CLICK HERE)
Also, don't pass up the chance to see Herald photographer Michael O'Leary's picture slideshow of Divers in operation (CLICK HERE).Evergreen speedway super stocks
There was big-time racing on Evergreen Speedway’s big track Saturday night.
Jason Fraser won an epic battle with points leader Naima Lang en route to victory in the 75-lap super stock feature race, the first time this season the late models competed on Evergreen Speedway’s five-eighths mile oval.
With Lang outside of him on the front row on a lap-57 restart, Fraser missed a shift and Lang took the lead heading into turn 1.
A lap and a half later Fraser pulled even with Lang, and the two raced side-by-side — Fraser on the inside, Lang on the outside — for the next seven laps.
“He’d pinch me off and I’d push him up the track,” Fraser said about Lang from victory stage. “We bumped and we slid into each other … I just have so much respect for him.”
“Our cars are set up absolutely identical,” said Fraser, who shares crew chief Jesse Jensen with Lang. “We knew how good our car was on the outside so we were a little worried he could be good out there.”
The marathon battle finally ended when the two front-runners came up on lapped traffic, and Lang had to break off to go around a slower car.
“That’s the hardest race I’ve ever raced on the five-eighths by far,” said Lang from victory stage while holding his second-place trophy.
Kelly Mann, who had the quickest time in qualifying but ended up near the back of the field after getting caught up in an early-race incident, passed defending champion John Zaretzke for third place on lap 70.
“I was trying really hard, but just didn’t have the car tonight,” Mann said after the race. “Toward the end I was just holding on.”
Zaretzke, who started outside of Tom Berrow on the first row, led nearly half of the race before Fraser got past him on lap 32 while coming out of turn 4.
Twelve laps later Lang got around Zaretzke, but Lang was unable to close the gap on Fraser until lap 52, when Michael Prudnick bounced off the wall exiting turn 4, clipping Mike Holden and sending Holden into the wall to bring out the caution flag.
A Holden was also involved in the other caution of the race, on lap 3 when Jeff Holden hit the wall in turn 4. After track officials repaired the wall, racing resumed on lap 8.
Fraser had to change an engine earlier in the day, and did not get a lap of practice in his car before qualifying. Although he ran the second-fastest time in qualifying, he was unhappy with the set-up and had crew chief Jensen change things before the race.Super figure eights
Series sponsor Pawn X-Change did double duty Saturday night, also serving as the Midseason Champion night sponsor.
Defending champion and current points leader John Carlson notched his >> victory of the year in the 40-lap feature, claiming both the trophy and a Pawn X-Change gift basket filled with chocolates, champagne, a $100 gift card and other items.
Second and third place winners Bill Wade and Doug Delfel also received gift baskets.Bombers
A race that was hard to start proved to be tough to finish, too.
Three restarts were required in the final six laps of the 40-lap feature, before defending champion Lane Sundholm was able to take the checkered flag for his first victory of the season.
With Sundholm leading and Russ Hales in second, Tony Deegan spun out in turn 2 of lap 31, bringing out the caution and setting up a restart for lap 34.
The first restart was waved off when Hales abruptly fell off the pace with a flat left tire. On the second, Sundholm was black-flagged — a warning only — for not maintaining pace car speed while bringing the field around to the green flag.
On the third try the restart was good and Sundholm went on to take the checkered.
“I’ve got to thank my crew for the set-up,” Sundholm said after the race. Asked if the victory would help in his title defense, Sundholm said “I can’t think about that yet … I’m just driving.”
Current points leader Jim Foti passed Darrel Lutosvky for second place on lap 36, then Jill Lang got by Lutosvky two laps later.
“That was the hardest (race) I’ve had in a long time,” Foti said from victory stage. Foti went on to thank his sponsors and family, especially his wife.
“My anniversary is tomorrow,” he said, waving his trophy. “So I guess I can go home tonight.”
Pole-sitter Kim Wilkinson spun out heading into turn 1 after taking the green flag, collecting Bill Mann, Ryan Hansen and Frank Cowgill in the process.
As the track crew was cleaning that up, points leader Foti followed Mann and Hansen into the pits to get a flat tire replaced, but returned before the second attempt at starting the race.
Shawn Carlson sat on the pole for the second green flag start, with Lutovsky on the outside of row 1.
Lutovsky passed Carlson for the lead on lap 2, but he fell back into third place 10 laps later when Russ Hales and Sundholm went around him on either side, putting him in the middle of a three-wide formation on the backstretch.Mini-stocks
Current points leader Mark Weedin passed defending champion Chuck Richards on lap 15 en route to his sixth victory of the season in the 35-lap mini-stock feature main.
Richards had one chance to get back in front on lap 19, when Weedin’s car slid high up on the three-eighths mile oval on the exit of turn 1.
“I thought I hit a slick and was going into the fence on the five-eighths (mile track),” Weedin said while clutching is victory trophy after the race. “That was a tough one.”
Weedin got back on the wheel and Richards had to be content with following his good friend across the finish line.
“He was toying with us,” Richard said of Weedin from victory stage. “I enjoy racing and we’re having fun and that’s what it’s all about.”
The real battle came for third place, where Kris Harriss just edged Dale Creager in a drag race down the frontstretch.
Harriss, the 2007 rookie of the year, spent the last few laps looking for an opening, and finally got under Creager in turn 3 of the white-flag lap. Harriss held a slim lead coming out of turn 4 with the checkered flag in front of them, but Creager came back strong and two raced to the line side-by-side.
“Heck of a finish, huh?” Harriss said after the race. “Dale got me by that much a couple races ago, what comes around goes around.”
Nat Barber held the pole position but pulled off before the race began, so Jon Roberts moved up to take the inside of row 1.
Roberts led for the first two laps before Bob Edwards, Eric Vickery and Andrew Schukar went off the backstretch while racing hard heading into turn 3, bringing out the only caution of the race.
Edwards ruptured his fuel tank, and the small grass fire that ensued was quickly put out.Stinger Eights
Defending champion Mike Middleton passed Ben Chandler on lap 17 of the 30-lap feature, then held on for his second victory of the year.
“Mike’s one of the best,” second-place finisher Chandler said from victory stage. “He’s really a defending champion.”
JJ Edwards, who said he had finished his racecar earlier in the day, took advantage of a late collision that took several top-five cars out of the picture coming out of the right-hand turn to finish third.
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