Memorial weekend swing through Oregon next for NSCS
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
BURLINGTON, Wash. – With its first races in Washington in the books, the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series will make its first appearance in Oregon with a trio of races across the western part of the state this Memorial weekend.
Bill, Clair, and Evelyn Arnold's Willamette Speedway, located just outside of Lebanon, welcomes the NSCS on Friday, May 25. Rick Rapp welcomes the NSCS to Southern Oregon Speedway near Medford the next night, Saturday the 26th. The NSCS wraps things up at Bob and Russell Leach's Cottage Grove Speedway, just south of Eugene, on Sunday, May 27.
Drivers who raced with the former Northern Sprint Tour are hoping not to see a repeat of last year, which saw the whole weekend wiped out by excessive rainfall.
Willamette Speedway is a 3/10-mile, high-banked clay oval where patience is often required of drivers as passing is difficult on the tight track. In past events at Willamette it has not been unusual to see top qualifiers fail to transfer out their heat races, making for some star-studded B-Mains; and at times they still struggle to get into transfer positions then.
Two NST races were run at Willamette last year, and former NST champion Billy Nutter won last April's event. During Speed Week in July, nationally touring star Jason Sides of Tennessee scored the win in his first visit to Willamette Speedway. Friday's event is the first of four scheduled at Willamette Speedway this season.
Other past winners at Willamette Speedway include four-time NST champion Roger Crockett, Brent Kaeding, Jayme Barnes, Shawna Wilskey, and Jimmy Carter.
After losing their Memorial Saturday event at Southern Oregon last year, the NST ran once at the 1/3-mile, semi-banked clay oval when it opened Speed Week in July. Danny Horner scored his first series victory and used it as a launch pad toward the final NST championship. Crockett, who won the inaugural NSCS event last month at Grays Harbor Raceway, finished second. Finishing third in his coming out party was Seth Bergman, who went on to earn Rookie of the Year honors. Kaeding and Crockett are other recent former winners at Southern Oregon Speedway, as are Willie Croft and Barry Martinez.
After Memorial weekend, the NSCS races once more at Southern Oregon Speedway during Speed Week on Monday, July 23.
The ¼-mile, high-banked Cottage Grove Speedway has become well known as one of the fastest tracks of its size anywhere in the United States. Excessive speeds can sometimes lead to no passing, but that it never the case at the ultra-racy clay oval. A night after his first NST win at Southern Oregon, Horner made it a deuce at Cottage Grove during Speed Week. Bergman firmly established himself in the Northwest racing scene with his first career victory when the series visited Cottage Grove in September.
Crockett has long been dominating at Cottage Grove, where he won three straight Grove Classics and at one point won several straight NST races at The Grove. Crockett, however, has not won a touring series event at Cottage Grove since 2004. Kaeding has also won recently at Cottage Grove, as has the likes of Andy Forsberg and Travis Rutz.
The NSCS will visit Cottage Grove Speedway again during Speed Week in July and again in September.
More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be found online at www.racenscs.com.
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On the web…
Willamette Speedway – Lebanon, OR: www.trophymotorsports.com
Southern Oregon Speedway – White City, OR: www.sospeedway.com
Cottage Grove Speedway – Cottage Grove, OR: www.cottagegrovespeedway.com
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NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
www.racenscs.com
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