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Rilat gives NWWT a taste of Texas, wins at Grays Harbor
Andrew Kunas, NWWT Publicist
ELMA, Wash. - Travis Rilat is best known for his ability to drive a winged sprint car, both with 410 and 360ci motors, but Rilat reminded everyone that he's no slouch when the tops are removed from his car either as on Thursday night he won the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour event at Grays Harbor Raceway.
The ASCS National Tour star from Forney, Texas was in town a day early for this weekend's Fred Brownfield Memorial event, and late in the day on Thursday Rilat decided to remove his wings and go after the $1,200 first place prize. The decision paid off for Rilat, who led 29 of 30 laps to take the victory in his own No. 29 Shark-powered XXX.
Ironically, Rilat's motor comes from Washington sprint car great Marc Huson and his frame is from Triple X Race Components, which is also based in Washington.
Rilat started the feature race outside the second row and needed only a couple of laps to chase down initial leader Dustin Morgan of Owosso, Okla. Rilat motored away and maintained a steady lead for most of the race, but while that was happening 20-year-old Oklahoma star Brady Bacon was putting on a show for the fans in attendance as he was moving forward from the back of the field and in the end made a brief challenge against Rilat for the lead.
Bacon, who originally started 6th and was a main event win away from sweeping the entire evening, cut down a tire on the initial start and had to go to the back of the field. At the halfway point, Bacon was up to sixth place as he continued to almost abuse his car, backing his car into the turns like non-wing "traditional" cars are famous for. On Lap 17, Bacon got around local star Shawn Rice for fifth, getting Evan Margeson for fourth place the lap after that.
Bacon's pass around Josh DeWitt for third place on Lap 20 was negated by a yellow flag, but Bacon got him on the restart while Rilat continued to pull away. On Lap 22, he began challenging Morgan for second, making the pass on the next lap. Rilat was approaching slower cars, allowing Bacon to close in on the final laps, but a yellow flag came out with two laps remaining to clear the track ahead of Rilat.
Bacon, however, was not through as on the final restart he attempted a big move on the bottom of the track in Turn 1 and briefly got to the inside of Rilat, only to bicycle the car and get out of shape, allowing Rilat to drive away over the final lap and a half for the win.
Bacon, who given a strong applause by the Grays Harbor Raceway fans for his efforts, came in second in the Dennis Marshalla No. 87 Wells-powered XXX. Morgan finished third in the M&M Motorsports No. 93 Wesmar-powered JEI.
DeWitt, out of Snohomish, Wash. finished fifth in the DIRT Inc. No. 5d Maxim after being a late arrival at the track. Perhaps most impressive of the local drivers was Tacoma's Evan Margeson, a midget champion on both the dirt and the pavement who made his sprint car debut on Thursday, finishing fifth in the Margeson Racing No. 50 Shark-powered Eagle.
Shawn Rice, who finished second in last year's Big E Non-Wing Challenge at Grays Harbor finished sixth in the RAM Racing No. 76 Shark-powered KPC. Dallas Melby, who did not qualify or run a heat race after an accident in warm-ups, came from the tail end of the field to finish a strong seventh place in the John Starks No. 55 Shark-powered JEI. Mike Romig finished eighth in his own No. 22 Rayburn-powered Eagle, followed by Theo McCarty in the Ron Brown No. 14 entry and Kyle Mehner unofficially rounded out the Top 10 in the Don Mehner No. 7k Gaertepowered DSR.
Bacon opened the evening by setting fast time in qualifying with a time of 14.712 seconds around the 3/8-mile, high-banked clay oval. He also won the evening's first heat race and later topped Rilat in the trophy dash. The other heat races were won by Rice and Rilat.
The next event for the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour is Friday, July 30th at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. followed by an event the next night at Sunset Speedway Park in Banks, Ore. The NWWT will return to Grays Harbor Raceway on Saturday, September 4th for the 2nd Annual Big E Non-Wing Challenge.
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Margeson sweeps NWWT midget program
While he was making his debut in a sprint car, Margeson was continuing his winning ways in the NWWT midget division, which made its debut at Grays Harbor Raceway on Thursday. Margeson, the defending series champion, first set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 15.608 seconds. He later won both heat races and the dash as well before taking the feature in the Margeson Racing No. 50 Esslinger-powered Beast.
Mike Gehringer of Pismo Beach, Calif. finished second in his own No. 27 Fontana-powered Edmunds. Allison Journey of Sprinfield, Ore. finished third in the Journey Motorsports No. 4j Nutter-powered Beast.
The NWWT midgets will join the traditional 360 sprint cars at Willamette Speedway on July 30th.
More information on the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour can be found online at http://www.nwwinglesstour.com.
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IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour
Grays Harbor Raceway
Elma, WA
July 15, 2010
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
19 cars
Fast qualifier: 99 Brady Bacon, 14.712 seconds
Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. 99 Brady Bacon, 2. 5D Josh DeWitt, 3. 50 Evan Margeson, 4. 28 Mark Herz, 5. 2k Sterling Kane, 6. 54 Mike Gable, DNS - 55 Dallas Melby.
Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. 76 Shawn Rice, 2. 22 Mike Romig, 3. 11x Corey Esteban, 4. 14 Theo McCarty, 5. 8 Tony Offutt, 6. 9 Jeff Bell.
Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. 29 Travis Rilat, 2. 93 Dustin Morgan, 3. 7k Kyle Mehner, 4. 15d Dan Dunlap, 5. 10 Bill Winsley, 6. 7 Dylan Olsen.
Dash (4 laps): 1. Brady Bacon, 2. 29 Travis Rilat, 3. 50 Evan Margeson, 4. 55 Dallas Melby.
Feature (30 laps): 1. 29 Travis Rilat, 2. 99 Brady Bacon, 3. 93 Dustin Morgan, 4. 5D Josh DeWitt, 5. 50 Evan Margeson, 6. 76 Shawn Rice, 7. 55 Dallas Melby, 8. 22 Mike Romig, 9. 14 Theo McCarty, 10. 7k Kyle Mehner, 11. 54 Mike Gable, 12. 10 Bill Winsley, 13. 8 Tony Offutt, 14. 28 Mark Herz, 15. 2k Sterling Kane, 16. 11x Corey Esteban, 17. 15d Dan Dunlap, DNS - 7 Dylan Olsen, 9 Jeff Bell.
Lap leaders: Dustin Morgan 1, Travis Rilat 2-30
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IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour
Upcoming events
July 30 - Willamette Speedway - Lebanon, OR (Sprints & Midgets)
July 31 - Sunset Speedway Park - Banks, OR (Sprints only)
August 14 - Southern Oregon Speedway - White City, OR (Sprints & Midgets)
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IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour
http://www.nwwinglesstour.com
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