|
NSCS: Year 1 in review
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
VANCOUVER, Wash. – The first season for the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series is in the books, capping off a 16-month period that saw the Northwest sprint car scene, especially in the 360ci class, significantly changed.
The NSCS was announced in September 2006 by former sprint car driver Shawna Wilskey, three months after Fred Brownfield was killed in an accident at Grays Harbor Raceway. The NSCS replaced Brownfield’s Northern Sprint Tour, which ran from 1996 to 2006.
While the NSCS ran at the same tracks as the NST previously, there were some changes. After the NST had begun to allow ASCS motors only, the NSCS elected to allow the open motors with restrictors back in at all events except those at Grays Harbor Raceway. Grays Harbor’s Evergreen State Sprint Challenge, which had paid $5,000 to win previously, was renamed the Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge, which now paid $10,092 to win.
July’s Northwest Speed Week, originally five races in six days, was expanded to seven races in nine days, with Grays Harbor opening Speed Week instead of closing it as it had previously. Weather, however, postponed the Brownfield Memorial until September.
The NSCS first came out with a 20-race schedule, but later it became 21 as a sixth race at Grays Harbor was added in August, the day before the World of Outlaws visited. Six tracks total in Oregon and Washington were to be visited by the NSCS. The series was scheduled to open its inaugural season with a two-night event at Grays Harbor on April 27 and 28, but the first night was rained out just as qualifying was about to begin.
Action finally got away on April 28, and it was four-time NST champion Roger Crockett of Medford, Ore. who scored the win in the historic first A-Main event. Former NST champion Bill Nutter of Central Point, Ore. came in second and British Columbia’s Travis Rutz finished third. Crockett’s win was the first of seven NSCS triumphs this year. After securing the points lead in the opener, Crockett would lead the NSCS standings the entire season.
The NSCS visited Skagit Speedway near Burlington, Wash. on May 11 and 12. Puyallup, Wash.’s Mitch Olson, who eventually finished second in season points, scored the first of his two victories this year on Friday night after an exciting duel with Brock Lemley. Lemley was clearly disappointed afterwards because a caution had wiped out his would be race-winning pass with only a few laps left. The next night, however, Lemley’s fortunes turned around as he won Saturday’s 40-lapper after inheriting the lead when Rutz crashed with a slower car. Lemley, who ran 11 times with the NSCS, spent his season running at Skagit weekly, earning the 410 sprint car division championship.
The NSCS continued the tradition set by the NST with the annual Memorial weekend visit to Oregon for three races at three different tracks. Willamette Speedway in Lebanon hosted the NSCS on Friday, May 25. Crockett earned his second victory and Olson was right behind him in second, which turned out to be the theme for the two drivers all weekend. Crockett finished second and Olson fourth the next night at Southern Oregon Speedway near Medford and on Sunday, May 27 at Cottage Grove Speedway near Eugene the same two drivers finished 1-2 again as Crockett was now a three-time winner.
At Southern Oregon, Dan Menne of Fort Jones, Calif. held off Crockett for his first victory with the Northwest’s touring 360 dirt sprint car series since his NST win at the now closed Portland Speedway in August 2000. Menne also had the distinction of being the only driver to win a NSCS A-Main this year with a non-ASCS motor.
Behind Crockett and Olson at Cottage Grove on Sunday, Robby Vaughn of Snohomish, Wash. finished third to cap off a long Memorial weekend for him and car owner Jeff Jansma. After severely damaging his car in a B-Main crash Friday at Willamette, Vaughn and crew towed all the way back to the team’s shop in Burlington to put the car back together and towed right back to Oregon to race Saturday at Southern Oregon, where they scored a top ten finish.
Vaughn’s hard work throughout the season paid off, as he finished sixth in points and earned NSCS Butlerbuilt Rookie of the Year honors.
The NSCS lost its second event to rain on Friday, June 29 when Willamette Speedway was rained on too much during the morning hours. The teams headed back north to Elma, Wash. for another show at Grays Harbor on Saturday, June 30. One of the most unreal feature events of the year took place that night. Crockett spun out early in the race, and still won. Shane Forte’ of Junction City, Ore. was leading, hoping for his first touring victory while Crockett was quickly picking off cars one by one.
Forte’ gave up the lead to Rutz for part of a lap before the two cars got together in turn four, which resulted in Rutz being struck by another car. Forte’ continued on as the leader, but Crockett, running on the high scary side around the wide, high-banked, 3/8-mile clay oval, was closing fast. On the final lap sailed around the top in turns three and four and got in between Forte’s outside and the wall as they exited turn four. Forte’ had led the entire race, but with the finish line so far down the front stretch at Grays Harbor, Crockett had the advantage with the momentum he got using the outside. He nipped Forte’ at the line by the mere front nerf bar. The margin of Crockett’s fourth win in seven races was .011 seconds.
Northwest Speed Week started in a very wet way on July 20 and 21 at Grays Harbor. What was left of a typhoon which earlier struck Japan made its way across the Pacific and drenched western Washington with November-like rainfall. The race teams gathered in Elma for the inaugural Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge instead got a very rare July rainout. Only once before in Northwest Speed Week’s history, which goes back to 1998, was a race rained out.
With Elma’s misfortune, Southern Oregon Speedway continued its tradition of opening Speed Week with a show featuring 50 cars on Monday, July 23. Shane Stewart, a former World of Outlaws driver out of Bixby, Okla. made his first of ten appearances in the NSCS driving for Mike and Janie Doyle, who won a few NST championships with Crockett as their driver. Stewart made an immediate impact, winning the curfew-shortened A-Main after surviving a double-spin with Crockett at the end. Brent Kaeding, who won this year’s Golden State “King of California” championship, finished second and Lemley was third.
Fifty-one cars, the highest car count of the season at that point, were on hand Tuesday, July 24 at Cottage Grove, but Stewart scored again anyway, winning what was perhaps the NSCS’s best A-Main of the season. The 30-lap event went non-stop and took less than eight minutes, but the race was a good one as Stewart bested local hero Dale Smith, who won the track championship this year, in a duel that thrilled the crowd on hand. The next night at Willamette, Crockett turned his luck around and earned his fifth victory in ten races while Stewart finished second and Kaeding earned his third podium finish in as many nights before returning to California.
The NSCS teams took off Thursday to travel before going to Skagit Speedway for the 18th Annual Bob’s Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals, which for the first time in its history was part of a traveling series schedule. An unreal 68 cars were in the pit area, beating the Speed Week record of 59 (Southern Oregon and Cottage Grove in 2005) and the NST’s overall record of 62 (Skagit in 2002), and all but one of those cars took to the track.
Due in part to a unique format that put him on the pole, Olson scored his second win of the year in the 30-lap preliminary feature on Friday, July 27. Grays Harbor regular J.J. Hickle finished second and Alberta visitor Casey Adams finished third in his first racing appearance at Skagit. Stewart had to come out of the B-main and had his worst finish in his 10 races with the NSCS, which was still a solid seventh place finish.
Stewart led all 40 laps the next night, July 28, to win $10,000 and earned another $2,000 for winning the Northwest Speed Week title. Lemley, the only driver to finish in the top five in all five Speed Week races, finished second to Stewart while Olson was third. Steve Kilcup, who went on to capture his second consecutive track title at Skagit in 360 sprint cars, earned a pair of top five finishes during the weekend. Kilcup and car owner Mike Anderson intends to race with the NSCS in 2008.
Sunday, August 26, the NSCS returned to Grays Harbor for a pre-World of Outlaws show and a few special racers were on hand. World of Outlaws regular Jason Sides threw a 360 motor in his own car and came out to play. A bigger surprise was the appearances of Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart, who both had their own sprint cars towed to Elma so they could race. Kahne and Stewart were racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup event just the night before in Bristol, Tenn.
Crockett, however, wasn’t fazed by all the attention surrounding the special guests on hand, winning for the sixth time. The surprise of the night was Jared Peterson, just turned 16, who came in second in his first race at Grays Harbor. Peterson plans to run for NSCS Rookie of the Year honors in 2008. Kahne made the A-Main but crashed out at the start while Stewart did not transfer out of the B-Main.
The series made its final visit to Oregon on September 7 and 8. Friday at Willamette, Lemley scored his second NSCS win and his first ever in Oregon. Seth Bergman of Snohomish, Wash. scored his best finish of the season as he moved all the way up to second in a brand new car. Olson finished third and Rutz was fourth. Saturday at Cottage Grove, Crockett scored his seventh and final victory of the year.
Bergman, the NST Rookie of the Year in 2006, struggled with his car earlier in the season. With a new car in the final six NSCS events, Bergman had five top-ten finishes and four of them were in the top-five, bumping him from sixth to fourth in points during that span.
The Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge was finally run on September 14 and 15 at Grays Harbor. Many special ceremonies were held and the Northwest sprint car community gave one last good bye to Brownfield. Brownfield’s grandson Seth Hespe raced both nights and also drove a memorial lap for his grandfather and paced the A-Main field for the four-wide salute to the fans on Saturday.
Shane Stewart returned and had his way all weekend, winning the dash on both nights, winning Friday’s 25-lap preliminary feature over Rutz and Shawn Rice, and then winning Saturday’s 40-lap feature, which award Stewart and Doyle $10,092. Crockett finished second and Rice was again third. Stewart had won five out of eight NSCS events in which he appeared at that time. Friday saw the NSCS’s third highest car count of the season, with 54 teams on hand.
The series closed its inaugural season with the traditional two-night show September 28 and 29 at Central Washington State Fair Raceway in Yakima during the big fair. A full house of fairgoers was on hand both nights and saw Stewart win easily on both nights, including Saturday’s 30-lap finale. Crockett finished second to Stewart again on Friday, but virtually had the NSCS championship clinched as Olson crashed out during the B-Main and missed the A-Main for just the first time all season. Needing only 15 points, Crockett clinched the title on Saturday by just signing in at the pit gate, which gave him 50 show-up points. Crockett again finished second later that night.
Stewart’s win Saturday was his unreal seventh in just ten races, tying him with Crockett atop the NSCS feature win list this season. Despite only being in those ten races and missing nine, Stewart still finished 12th in season points. Aside from the seven wins, Stewart’s other finishes were second (third race on July 25), seventh (fourth race on July 27) and then fifth (sixth race on August 26).
Crockett won the championship by 280 points because of his dominance. In 19 races he had 14 top-five finishes (five more than anyone else), 17 top-ten finishes, and six quick-qualifying awards (three more than anyone else). He was also in the dash 13 times out of 17 events where a true NSCS-style dash was held, and he won five times, two more than anyone else. Just being in the dash guaranteed Crockett a top-six starting spot in the A-Main each time as well. Crockett was also the only driver who made all 19 NSCS A-Mains and only had to go through the B-Main twice all year. Driving the Henderson Motorsports No. 7N, Crockett was the driver to beat all season. Combined with his four NST titles, Crockett has been the Northwest touring dirt sprint car champion five of the last seven years.
Despite missing the A-Main September 27, Olson still finished a solid second in points over Rutz, who only missed one A-Main and finished third despite not winning any races. Rutz and Olson were tied with Stewart for the series lead in heat race victories, scoring four times each. Olson was tied for second with nine top-five finishes in A-Mains.
Nutter ran third in points most of the season before being passed by Rutz in September. On the final night of the season, Nutter missed an A-Main for only the second time. As a result, he was passed by Bergman for fourth in points. Nutter had an unusually rough year with a lot of torn up equipment, but was still fifth points thanks to two top-ten finishes and being in the A-Main in 17 out of 19 races. Bergman’s hot streak over in September saw no victories but four top-five’s boosted his season total to six, which was fifth among all drivers.
Robby Vaughn, Jay Cole, Rob Held, Shane Forte’ and rookie J.J. Dishneau rounded out the top ten. Cole, a six-time former champion at Grays Harbor, finished seventh despite missing two events to race in Elma in weekly competition. Cole had four top-five finishes including a third place run at Elma on August 26. Dishneau, who missed one event earlier the year with reported motor problems, finished the year on a high note with a season-high sixth place finish in Yakima. Dishneau finished second to Vaughn in rookie points.
Car counts were generally strong for the NSCS in 2007, as the series averaged 42 cars per event. Drivers were plentiful, as 137 different drivers took part in at least one NSCS event. The U.S. states of Washington (65), Oregon (25), California (15), Idaho (4), Montana (4), Alaska (2), Iowa (2), Oklahoma (1), Tennessee (1), Indiana (1), and Hawaii (1) and the Canadian provinces of Alberta (9) and British Columbia (7) were represented.
Change was a big theme in 2007, and little more change is happening over this off-season. Wilskey announced at the NSCS banquet on September 30 that control of the NSCS was being turned over to Great Northwest Promotions, the same company who took control of Grays Harbor Raceway this year following Brownfield’s death.
More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be found online at http://www.racenscs.com.
- - -
NSCS Top 10
1. Roger Crockett, 2368
2. Mitch Olson, 2088
3. Travis Rutz, 2007
4. Seth Bergman, 1876
5. Bill Nutter, 1838
6. Robby Vaughn, 1736
7. Jay Cole, 1525
8. Rob Held, 1458
9. Shane Forte', 1428
10. J.J. Dishneau, 1414
- - -
NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
http://www.racenscs.com
|
