Photos Courtesy of Wings Off Photography
August 4th & 5th brought a new and exciting series to Cottage Grove Speedway for the first time ever. The Summer Thunder Sprint Series came to town to tear up the ¼ mile for 2 nights of racing. The Late Models were also in action for 2 nights. Street Stocks joined the field on Friday and Mohawk Metal IMCA Modifieds & Quality RV Hornets were added in on Saturday.
Friday night started off with a race against the clock in qualifying. Evan Britton was the quick timer in the Street Stocks with a 15.641, Late Model quick time was set by Collen Winebarger with a 13.159, and JJ Hickle set the fastest lap of qualifying for the Sprint Cars with a 10.887 putting all 3 quick timers starting 4th in their James Heating & Air Conditioning Heat Races.
Andrew Langan quickly got to the front and led all 8 laps of the Street Stock Heat. Preston Luckman and Collen Winebarger battled hard in Heat #1 for the Late Models with Winebarger eventually picking up the win over Luckman, Rob Williams led every lap of Heat 2 to win give him a front row starting spot next to Winebarger for the feature. 25 360 Sprints lines up for 4 separate James Heating & Air Conditioning Heat Races and Logan Forler, Roger Crockett, Cam Smith, and Garen Linder were the winners.
Hunter Bloom and Collen Winebarger picked up the Dot’s Trophy Shop Trophy Dash wins.
The fastest 8 Sprint Cars redrew for the top 8 main event starting spots and Trevor Cook and Robbie Price would share the front row.
Andrew Langan and Ray Bloom started side by side for the feature but after a couple failed attempts at a side by side start they would have to start from the back and Evan Britton and Hunter Bloom would share the front row. Hunter Bloom took the early lead followed by Britton but it didn’t take long for Langan to work back into the mix. Only 1 caution came out in the 20-lap feature and Britton would pick up another win over Langan, Hunter Bloom, Ray Bloom, and Garrett Barth.
Collen Winebarger and Rob Williams led the Late Model field to the green flag and Winebarger quickly took the top spot. Preston Luckman worked easily into the 2nd spot and the 2 raced hard for 25 laps, when the checkers flew it was Winebarger by .073 seconds over Luckman, Jimmy Whisler, David Schmidt, and Ryan Ronning.
24 Sprint cars would all start in a very impressive line-up of talented drivers. Trevor Cook led the first 2 laps of the night before Justyn Cox got by and took the top spot. Lap 13 brought out a red for fence repair after a tough break for Garen Linder. Crews filled turn 4 and made adjustments to cars while track crews made necessary repairs and after a short break in action Cox paced the field back to the green flag with Jason Solwold hot on his heels and 2 lapped cars separating Logan Forler from the top 2. Forler quickly got by the lapped traffic and the race was back on. Weaving in and out of lap traffic flawlessly Cox was able to hold the field off and pick up another win at Cottage Grove Speedway and his first with the Summer Thunder Series followed by Solwold, Forler, Chase Goetz and Kyle Miller.
After the final flag flew drivers got busy making necessary repairs and changes to their cars to get back out for another night of racing. Saturday was another hot one and the drivers were all ready to get back on the track for the final night of the weekend.
Quick times of the night went to KC Scott in the Quality RV Hornets, Kevin Williamson in the Mohawk Metal IMCA Modified, Jimmy Whisler in the Late Models, and new arrival Henry Van Dam hit the track ready to make it known he was back in town with the fastest lap of the night, an 11.105.
The dice roll was a 0 and so the winners of the James Heating & Air Conditioning Heat Races not only were winners but would also be main event pole sitters later in the evening for the Quality RV Hornets and the Late Models. Joe Maricle won the Quality RV Hornet heat and Jimmy Whisler got it done in the Late Models. Mohawk Metal Modified Heat Race wins went to Kevin Williamson, Nick Trenchard, and Curtis Towns ensuring they all got their point average and would start in the top 12 main event spots. Roger Crockett, Jason Solwold, Justyn Cox, and Seth Nunes won the 4 Sprint Car Heats locking them into the top 16 and getting their qualifying times back along with the next 3 finishers in each James Heating & Air Conditioning Heat Race.
Dot’s Trophy Shop trophies would go home with Jimmy Whisler in the Late Model, Joe Maricle in the Quality RV Hornet, and Kevin Williamson in the Mohawk Metal Modified.
4 Feature Events were all that was left for the weekend and the Late Models hit the track first. Curtis Towns joined Jimmy Whisler on the front row and Whisler got the lead on the start. Chuck Christian moved around Towns on lap 2 and gave it everything he could to chase down the 28 of Whisler but couldn’t quite make it happen and Whisler would lead all 25 laps and win the Feature over Christian, Towns, Ryan Ronning, and Nathan Augustine.
Quality RV Hornets were up next and with no invert it looked to be a battle between Joe Maricle and KC Scott but Mike Swaim was determined to make his presence known and quickly got by Scott and went to work on Maricle. Swaim took over the lead on lap 15 and kept it to the end winning over Scott, Maricle, Curtis Towns, and Dalton Bloom
Eric Fisher and Garen Linder pulled the top starting pills and shared the front row for the weekend’s final Sprint Car race. Fisher shot out front with Linder in 2nd for a while before Henry Van Dam took the number 2 spot and set his sights on Fisher. The lead cars quickly got into lap traffic and patiently worked thru it. Van Dam took the lead from Fisher on lap 13 and it looked like he would maintain it but Fisher wasn’t done and with just a handful of laps left Fisher took the lead back followed by Friday night’s winner Justyn Cox who came from a deep in the field 11th place starting spot to finish 2nd behind Fisher. Van Dam was 3rd, Linder 4th, and Jason Solwold rounded out the top 5.
Mohawk Metal IMCA Modifieds were the last feature of the night and it looked as tho Kevin Williamson would have his first clean sweep in the class as he started on the pole of the feature. Gus Cooper led the first 2 laps and on lap 3 Nick Trenchard took over the lead. Eric Ashley was running a strong 2nd until a lap 13 caution sent him to the rear of the field. The field bunched back up and went back to green where Grey Ferrando would take over 2nd place and he and Trenchard would give the crowd a great show as they battled for the win. Trenchard would get the checkers first over Ferrando, Mark Carrell, Curtis Towns, and Kreg Britton.
For full results click on the link https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1438716
Cottage Grove Speedway is back for another 2 nights of racing with a FREE FAST FRIDAY and Loggers Cup on Saturday! For more information call 541-942-7561 or go to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com!!
- Heather Boyce on Aug 06, 2017
- Article Date: 8/6/2017