Mother nature played nice this weekend allowing the 3/8 banked clay oval of Grays Harbor Raceway to see some action as the 360 Sprint Cars, Shipwreck Beads Modifieds, Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks and the Outlaw Tuners started the season off under blue skies and sunshine.
Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks:
Hoquiam's Jack Parshall picked up where he left off in the 2017 season, and that is in the winner circle. Parshall set the front row with Scott Fritts of Montesano. Parshall took the early lead. Fritts had tough company as Spanaway driver Tom Hecker looked to take over the second spot. Contact between Ocean Shore's Jeff Daniel and Hecker caused a interesting battle for third. Hecker maintained the spot. Lap 9 saw the yellow flag come out for Elma's Ryen Haney and Matt White of Aberdeen. Contact from White sent Haney spinning, which also caused White to spin to a stop.
Hecker, who continued to stay at the back bumper of Parshall, looked for any mistake to take over the top spot. After being involved in a early race caution, Haney moved into the third spot getting around Fritts, Daniel and Cory Sweatman of Aberdeen. At the end of the Street Stocks feature, Jack Parshall picked up his first win of the year. Hecker, Haney, Daniel and Fritts. Heat race winners earlier in the evening were Daniel, and Hecker, with Haney picking up fast time.
Shipwreck Beads Modifieds:
Sam Carlisle of Cosmopolis took the early lead in the Shipwreck Beads Modified feature over Elma driver Tyler Walker. Zack Simpson of Aberdeen quickly moved into the second position looking to track down Carlisle. Running the low side in turns three and four, and the middle of turns one and two, Carlisle pulled away from Simpson and third place running Tom Sweatman of Cosmopolis. Lap 5 saw the caution flag come out for Josh Richardson of Tacoma, as he spun to a stop on the backstretch. Carlisle timed his restart just right as Sweatman moved into the second spot. Oakville's Brian Harding and Jeremy Martin of Warren, Ore battled for the fourth position, racing side by side, and real close for a handful of laps. Lap 8 saw the caution flag once again, this time for race leader Carlisle, spinning to a stop in turn two.
Sweatman took over the lead on the restart, with Simpson on his back bumper early. Seabeck driver Kyler Moore moved his way the field after starting near the back, moving into the second spot. Moore set his sights on Sweatman for the lead. Many restarts plagued Moore's chances, as he would get side by side, and even take the lead, before the caution flag flew, and he would have to go back to the second position. Sweatman would hold on and pick up his first win of 2018 over Moore, Scott Miller of Shelton, Nick Bessette of Battle Ground, and Vernonia, Ore driver Doug Davenport rounded out the top five. Three heat races earlier in the evening saw Simpson, Sweatman, and Carlisle take the top spot, with Moore winning the B-Main.
360 Sprint Cars:
Kelso's John Stuart and Tyler Anderson of Everett brought the 360 Sprint Car field to the green flag. Anderson took the lead, as Lance Sargent of Spanway moved into the second spot. Shelton's Jay Cole moved into third for a moment before a bobble in turn four allowed Stuart to take over the third spot once again. Anderson quickly pulled away from the field until a lap 7 red flag for Stuart brought the race to a halt. Stuart made contact with tractor tire on the inside of turn three causing him to get upside down. He did walk away uninjured. On the restart Sargent looked to take a shot at the lead in turn one. Anderson had more momentum and continued to lead. Anderson went on to lead every lap of the Sprint Car feature and picking up his first career win. Sargent, Cole, Jeff Dunlap of Renton, and Stuart rounded out the top five. Heat race winner earlier in the evening was Sargent with Cole picking up quick time.
Outlaw Tuners:
2018 Outlaw Tuner champion Tyler Sundstrom of Aberdeen looked to pick up where he left off as he took the early lead of the Outlaw Tuner feature. Olympia driver Devon Harper looked to make it a battle for the lead before problems plagued his night early in the feature. Max Sanford of Belfair moved into second and quickly caught up with Sundstrom, looking to take over the lead. Don Briggs Sr of Wishkah looked to make it a three car battle as he was right there waiting for a mistake by Sundstrom and Sanford. Aberdeen's Cory Sweatman looked to join in on the battle as lap traffic became a factor for the top three. Sweatman went from fourth to second out of turn four and made a move for the lead racing side by side with Sundstrom for a handful of laps. Sweatman took the lead from Sundstrom with a few laps to go, but it was the white flag lap where Sundstrom had one last shot at the lead. As both drivers raced hard into turn three and four, contact between Sundstrom caused Sweatman to spin. Sundstrom continued on down the front stretch with a flat tire, picking up his first win of 2018. Sanford, Briggs, Jeremy Jones of Wishkah, and Trevor Dugent of Tacoma rounded out the top five. Heat race winners earlier in the evening were Sundstrom and Harper.
Racing will resume next Saturday night with the 360 Sprint Cars, Shipwreck Beads Modifieds, Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks, and the Northwest Focus Midgets Series. Gates will open at 5:30PM with racing at 7PM.
Grays Harbor Raceway
April 21, 2018
Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks:
Quick Time:
67 Ryen Haney
Heat 1:
- 14 Jeff Daniel, 2. 42 Scott Fritts, 3. 67 Ryen Haney, 4. 61 Dave Larson, 5. 00 Kirk McGinnis, 6 86 Erick Doss
Heat 2:
- 5 Tom Hecker, 2. 9 Jack Parshall, 3. 23B Matt White, 4. 97 Rodger Perry, 5. 55 Wayne Lemmon
A-Main:
- Parshall, 2. Hecker, 3. Haney, 4. Daniel, 5. Fritts, 6. Larson, 7. Perry, 8. Doss, 9. 1s Cory Sweatman, 10. White, 11. McGinnis, 12. Lemmon
Shipwreck Beads Modifieds:
Heat 1:
- 12 Zack Simpson, 2. 87 Tyler Walker, 3. 40 Mike Knox, 4. 87K Brenton Schnitzer, 5. 75C Casey Smith, 6. 17 Brian Izzi, 7. 86 Dave Howard, 8. 98 Dan Kinnaman
Heat 2:
- 11 Tom Sweatman, 2. 28 Brian Harding, 3. 8D Doug Davenport, 4. 44 Del Schnitzer, 5. 8 Steve Bulpitt, 6. 14K Kyler Moore
Heat 3:
- 18X Sam Carlisle, 2. 99 Jeremy Martin, 3. 26 Scott Miller, 4. 44B Nick Bessette, 5. 714 Zachary Fuller, 6. 38 Josh Richardson, 7. 17E Cody Erskine
B-Main:
- Moore, 2. Erskine, 3. Richardson, 4. Howard, 5. Izzi, 6. Kinnaman
A-Main:
- Sweatman, 2. Moore, 3. Miller, 4. Bessette, 5. Davenport, 6. Carlisle, 7. Simpson, 8. Harding, 9. Brenton Schnitzer, 10. Fuller, 11. Martin, 12. Smith, 13. Richardson, 14. Bulpitt, 15. Knox, 16. Erskine, 17. Del Schnitzer, 18. Walker
360 Sprint Cars:
Quick Time:
0J Jay Cole
Heat Race:
- 33s Lance Sargent, 2. 0J Jay Cole, 3. 24 Tyler Anderson, 4. 8X John Stuart, 5. 15 Jeff Dunlap
A-Main:
- Anderson, 2. Sargent, 3. Cole, 4. Dunlap, 5. Stuart, 6. 23 Michael Millard
Outlaw Tuners:
Heat 1:
23 Tyler Sundstrom
Heat 2:
12XXX Devon Harper
A-Main:
- 23 Tyler Sundstrom, 2. 3 Max Sanford, 3. 13XXX Don Briggs, 4. 77 Jeremy Jones, 5. 555 Travor Dungent, 6. 75 Chad Norton, 7. 0 Zach Dalrymple, 8. 7P Joseph Palmer, 9. 1s Cory Sweatman, 10. 12XXX Devon Harper
- Social Media on Apr 23, 2018
- Article Date: 4/23/2018 by Aaron Reed