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Crockett takes NSCS title, Stewart the finale
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
YAKIMA, Wash. – There were two happy drivers in the pit area following Saturday's Northwest Sprint Challenge Series season finale at Central Washington State Fair Raceway. One just won his seventh race in ten starts with the series. The other was enjoying being champion.
Shane Stewart of Bixby, Okla. completed his second sweep of a two-day NSCS event in the last three weeks and his fourth straight NSCS victory was his seventh total, tying him for the series lead in victories even though he's run barely half of the schedule. Medford, Ore.'s Roger Crockett, the other driver with seven wins, finished second behind Stewart for the third straight race. Crockett, however, clinched the inaugural NSCS championship early in the afternoon by merely signing in at the back pit gate and drawing his qualifying pill.
Stewart, who has been almost unbeatable in a 360 sprint car since joining forces with the Oregon-based Mike and Janie Doyle in July, led all 30 laps on a track that was not as rough as it was the night before, but was just as difficult to drive because it was much faster.
"The track was unique, more than last night," Stewart said. "Last night you were just going slow and tonight you were going fast through the holes. A track with this much speed and being rough the way it is, unfortunately you're going to tear up some equipment."
Before Friday's event, the large 3/8-mile, slightly-banked clay oval located at the Central Washington Fairgrounds had sat unused since last year's Northern Sprint Tour finale. Despite work being done all week to get the clay surface as race ready as possible, rough conditions still prevailed and an interesting two nights were had by all of the NSCS teams.
Stewart himself discovered severe damage to the rear end of his car following the race. Stewart, however, was still impressed with the way his No. 1 Shaver-powered Maxim handled. Despite dealing with heavy traffic at times, he never felt any pressure.
"It's a testament to the car. I'm not fighting it. It goes wherever I want it to," Stewart said. "It's been a pleasure driving for the Doyle's. Hopefully we can keep it together for next year."
Crockett completed his unbelievable season of dominance with his 14th top-five and his 17th top-ten finish in 19 starts aboard the Henderson Motorsports No. 7N Bailey Bros.-powered Eagle. Crockett, the only driver who made all 19 NSCS features, led the point standings the entire season and won the championship by 312 points over Puyallup, Wash.'s Mitch Olson.
"The car's been awesome all year," said Crockett, who acknowledged there were races he wished he'd won. "Everyone has races they wished they'd won. We've had our share, and unfortunately some of them were $10,000 or more to win."
Crockett finished second to Stewart two weeks ago in the inaugural Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge at Grays Harbor Raceway, which Stewart and Doyle earned $10,092 for. In July, Crockett was running near the front in the Skagit 360 Nationals, another $10,000-to-win event, when a U-joint broke in his car. Still, Crockett and car owner Roger Henderson earned $10,000 for winning the NSCS championship.
Crockett ran third in the opening laps behind Idaho's Joe Ramaker and then took second on lap five. Crockett, however, broke a wing mount, which upset the aerodynamics of the car. Ramaker drove back around Crockett for second around lap 12. Shortly after, the red flag came out on lap 14 for the flipping Shane Forte'. Officials opened the track to crews to make quick repairs, which helped Crockett.
"Luckily the red flag came out and we were able to fix it. If it hadn't, we were screwed," Crockett said.
Crockett later inherited the second position back when Ramaker went to the pit area and was forced to retire for the remainder of the event with a broken birdcage, located in the rear of the car. Crockett, however, had too many slower cars to contend with to catch Stewart.
Everett, Wash.'s Rick Fauver, running only a handful of events this year, finished third in the Scott Pierce Motorsports No. 5sp Maxim. The former Northern Sprint Tour champion had virtually nothing but problems in the few events he has raced this year. Saturday's event was the first he finished. Friday night, Fauver won the B-Main but crashed in the warm-up lap before the A-Main and was unable to start.
"We finished. That's all I'll say," said Fauver, regarding his recent struggles and the track conditions.
British Columbia's Travis Rutz, who finished the year third in points, had an eventful night. Rutz set fast time in qualifying for the third time this year but failed to transfer out of his heat race after he rolled his car upside down. Rutz then won the 15-lap B-Main, getting his qualifying time back to start seventh behind the six dash cars. Rutz fell back to about ninth early but roared back at the end to finish fourth, his fifth top-five finish of the season in the Rutz Racing No. 8 Richmond-powered Triple X.
Shawn Rice of Tacoma, Wash. ran as high as fourth before being passed by Rutz in the closing laps. Rice finished fifth for his fourth top-five in the RAM Racing No. 76 Shark-powered Rocket. Maple Valley, Wash.'s J.J. Dishneau, second in the Rookie of the Year point standings, tied his season best finish with a sixth place effort in the Michael Newman No. 9J Shark-powered Eagle. A sign of how dominate Stewart was, Dishneau was scored as the last driver on the lead lap.
Seattle area driver Tayler Malsam, who expects to run the entire ARCA schedule in 2008, ran in the top ten throughout the event and finished seventh in the Rudeen Racing / Malsam Motorsports No. 26 Shark-powered Maxim. Snohomish, Wash.'s Josh DeWitt scored his best finish of the year with a eighth place run in the DIRT Inc. No. 7D Shark-powered Maxim. Rob Held of Sutherlin, Ore. turned in another top-ten effort and finished ninth in his own No. 68 J&J. Held earned an eighth place finish in the point standings.
Seth Bergman of Snohomish, Wash. scored his sixth straight top-ten finish as he rounded out the top ten in his father Steve's No. 23a Wesmar-powered Eagle. Bergman, last year's NST Rookie of the Year, entered the night fifth in points but with former NST champion Bill Nutter missing only his second NSCS A-Main of the season Bergman's effort was good enough to push him past Nutter for fourth in the final standings.
Olson finished 11th in the Mike Olson No. 98m Shark-powered Rocket, a night after missing a NSCS feature for only the first time. Olson unofficially finished 49 points ahead of Rutz for second in the standings. Six-time Grays Harbor Raceway champion Jay Cole, who finished seventh in points, finished 12th in the feature and Ramaker was credited with 16th.
Travis Cram, who finished sixth driving a different car on Friday, drove a second Winterhawk Racing car on Saturday, making the A-Main but flipped violently to bring out the red flag with just over half the race complete. Cram, a former Washington resident who now calls Iowa home, was credited with 17th.
Snohomish's Robby Vaughn, who finished sixth in points and earned this year's NSCS Rookie of the Year honors, finished ninth in the B-Main. He finished the year with four top-five finishes, three heat race victories and a dash win as well.
Rutz's victory in the B-Main came over Rice, Cole and Cram. Rice also got his qualifying time back by finishing second, but Cole and Cram, who finished third and fourth, had to tag the back of the A-Main field. Rutz had issues getting to the A-Main a number of times this year, including some trips through the B-Main, but Rutz missed only one NSCS feature this season.
Stewart started on the pole for the A-Main as a result of his third victory this season in the dash, which featured the six fastest qualifiers who transferred out of their heat races. Stewart won over Ramaker, Crockett, Fauver, Jayme Barnes and Kevin Kirkpatrick, who was racing for only the second time this year.
Because of time, the heat races which were usually ten laps in length were cut to eight laps. Olson and Stewart each scored their fourth win, tying them with Rutz for the most this season. Nick Engberg scored his second heat race victory and Dishneau earned his first.
Thanks to a faster and less bumpy race track, Rutz paced the 35-car field in qualifying with a time of 14.604 seconds, a full second and a half faster than Olson's quick time of 16.144 seconds on Friday. Second quick qualifier Danny Kirkpatrick and seventh quick Danielle Huson, driving the other Winterhawk Motorsports car from Alberta, were the only two top-ten qualifiers not to make the A-Main. The 51-year-old Kirkpatrick went for a series of flips on the front stretch on the start of the B-Main and collected the 17-year-old Huson, ending the night for both drivers.
The NSCS will crown its first champion and award others Sunday morning in its first banquet at the Central Washington Fairgrounds. Crockett and Henderson will receive their $10,000 first-place prize and Mitch Olson and father Mike will earn $5,000 for second.
More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be found online at www.racenscs.com.
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Top 10 NSCS points (unofficial)
1. 7N Roger Crockett, 2368
2. 98m Mitch Olson, 2056
3. 8 Travis Rutz, 2007
4. 23a Seth Bergman, 1878
5. 3N Bill Nutter, 1838
6. 4r Robby Vaughn*, 1708
7. 0J Jay Cole, 1525
8. 68 Rob Held, 1458
9. 26f Shane Forte', 1458
10. 9j J.J. Dishneau*, 1414
* - Rookie
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Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
Central Washington State Fair Raceway
Yakima, WA
September 29, 2007
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
35 cars
Fast qualifier: 8 Travis Rutz, 14.604 seconds (average speed 98.603 mph)
Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. 98m Mitch Olson, 2. 12p Randy Pierce, 3. 7N Roger Crockett, 4. 9x Jayme Barnes, 5. 39 Travis Cram, 6. 99e Alex Hantell, 7. 8 Travis Rutz, 8. 96 Eddie Evans, 9. 72 Phil Dietz. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. 1 Shane Stewart, 2. 68 Rob Held, 3. 98x Bob Stevens, 4. 7x Kevin Kirkpatrick, 5. 18 Steve Kilcup, 6. 4x Chris Adams, 7. 69 Rod Perkins, 8. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick, 9. 15 Dan Dunlap. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 3 (8 laps): 1. 9J J.J. Dishneau, 2. 23a Seth Bergman, 3. 26 Tayler Malsam, 4. 7D Josh DeWitt, 5. 39c Danielle Huson, 6. 3N Bill Nutter, 7. 76 Shawn Rice, 8. 3c Daniel Cernich, 9. 13c Colton Heath. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 4 (8 laps): 1. 4 Nick Engberg, 2. 98 Joe Ramaker, 3. 5sp Rick Fauver, 4. 26f Shane Forte', 5. 4r Robby Vaughn, 6. 5h Brad Holmes, 7. 08 Steve Vague, 8. 0J Jay Cole. Top four finishers transfer to A-Main.
Dash (6 laps): 1. 1 Shane Stewart, 2. 98 Joe Ramaker, 3. 7N Roger Crockett, 4. 5sp Rick Fauver, 5. 9x Jayme Barnes, 6. 7x Kevin Kirkpatrick. Finish determines first six starting positions of A-Main.
B-Main (15 laps): 1. 8 Travis Rutz, 2. 76 Shawn Rice, 3. 0J Jay Cole, 4. 39 Travis Cram, 5. 96 Eddie Evans, 6. 3N Bill Nutter, 7. 18 Steve Kilcup, 8. 08 Steve Vague, 9. 4r Robby Vaughn, 10. 69 Rod Perkins, 11. 99e Alex Hantell, 12. 72 Phil Dietz, 13. 15 Dan Dunlap, 14. 4x Chris Adams, 15. 3c Daniel Cernich, 16. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick, 17. 39c Danielle Huson, 18. 5h Brad Holmes, DNS – 13c Colton Heat. First four finishers transfer to A-Main.
A-Main (30 laps): 1. 1 Shane Stewart, 2. 7N Roger Crockett, 3. 5sp Rick Fauver, 4. 8 Travis Rutz, 5. 76 Shawn Rice, 6. 9J J.J. Dishneau, 7. 26 Tayler Malsam, 8. 7D Josh DeWitt, 9. 68 Rob Held, 10. 23a Seth Bergman, 11. 98m Mitch Olson, 12. 0J Jay Cole, 13. 98x Bob Stevens, 14. 7x Kevin Kirkpatrick, 15. 26f Shane Forte', 16. 98 Joe Ramaker, 17. 39 Travis Cram, 18. 12p Randy Pierce, 19. 4 Nick Engberg, 20. 9x Jayme Barnes.
Lap leaders: Shane Stewart 1-30.
NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
www.racenscs.com
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