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Olson scores second NSCS win in Skagit prelim
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
ALGER, Wash. – Mitch Olson is now "Mr. Friday Night."
The 26-year-old driver who calls Puyallup, Wash. home won a Friday night Northwest Sprint Challenge Series main event at Skagit Speedway for the second time as he took the preliminary main event of the 18th Bob's Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals.
Olson, who entered the night second in the NSCS point standings, was the benefactor of a 16-car invert as part of the Skagit 360 Nationals format that is drastically different from the usual NSCS format. Starting on the pole as a result, Olson took advantage and led all 30 laps.
With his second victory of the season, Olson became the third different winner in four nights in Northwest Speed Week, driving the Mike Olson No. 98m Shark-powered Rocket. Olson, who was fifth in Speed Week points entering the evening, took advantage of timely cautions that kept the track in front of him clear most of the race.
"It was definitely nice starting up front," Olson said in victory lane. "We hit the car pretty close and the yellows came nicely. We didn't have to deal with traffic. We're happy."
Olson's efforts put him sixth, good enough to qualify for Saturday's A-Scramble event, which will determine the first six starting positions of the 40-lap A-Main event, paying $10,000 to win.
"I think we've got a good shot at winning this," a quietly confident Olson said.
A couple of the biggest surprises of the evening were a pair of teenagers who finished second and third. Eighteen-year-old Casey Adams of LeDuc, Alberta made his first ever racing appearance at Skagit Speedway a memorable one as he ran second most of the race before yielding the second position to 17-year-old J.J. Hickle of Quilcene, Wash. Hickle, making only his second appearance at Skagit, took the runner-up position in the Vern Rengen No. 7 Shaver-powered Maxim while Adams took third in the Bryan Adams No. 12a Bell Maxim.
Hickle will start third in the A-Scramble while Adams has secured the seventh starting position in Saturday's A-Main.
Defending track champion Steve Kilcup of Sedro-Woolley, Wash. finished fourth in the M&S Motorsports No. 18 Shark-powered Eagle. Bellingham, Wash. driver Brock Lemley, leading the Skagit's 410 sprint car standings, moved up from 11th to finish fifth in the Kentch Bros. No. 40 Triple X. Lemley is the only driver to have finished in the top five in all four Speed Week races and was 18 points behind point leader Shane Stewart in the Speed Week standings going into Friday's races.
Stewart, the hired gun out of Bixby, Oklahoma driving the Mike Doyle No. 1 Shaver-powered Maxim, had to come out of the 20-lap B-Main, which he won, to get into Friday's feature. Starting 17th, Stewart slowly picked off one car after another during the event to finish a solid seventh. Having already won twice during Speed Week, Stewart's Friday point tallies from qualifying, his heat race and the main events were good enough to earn him the pole for the A-Scramble.
The eighth-finishing Roger Crockett, who started 14th in the Henderson Motorsports No. 7N Bailey Bros. Eagle, earned the outside pole position over Hickle based on a tiebreaker. Crockett, the NSCS point leader who has won five times this season, including Wednesday's race at Willamette Speedway, ran as high as seventh in the main event before being passed by Stewart late in the race
Tacoma's Shawn Rice, piloting the RAM Racing No. 76 Shark-powered Rocket, ran in the top ten the entire race and finished sixth. The ninth-starting Rod Perkins of Anacortes, Wash. ran as high as sixth before being passed by Hickle, Crockett and Stewart. Perkins, driving his own No. 69 Triple X, settled ninth.
St. Albert, Alberta's Jeff Hodgson, who came out of the B-Main and started 20th, came all the way up to finish tenth in the Ryan Hodgson No. V8 Wesmar-powered Rocket. Hodgson will join Stewart, Crockett, Hickle, Lemley and Olson in the A-Scramble on Saturday.
The brother of Casey Adams, 24-year-old Cody who also made his first appearance at Skagit Speedway, started sixth but spun out on lap eight. Cody Adams recovered to finished 11th in the No. 14, another Bryan Adams-owned Maxim and has earned the 13th starting position in the A-Main.
Fast qualifier Cory Chamberlain failed to transfer out of his heat race, but finished third in the B-Main to transfer to the A-Main, where he started 19th and finished 12th. Tim Gee of LeDuc, Alberta finished 13th after starting 21st. Reigning Golden State Challenge series champion Jonathon Allard started 22nd and finished 15th despite cutting down a tire and suffering damage to his Maxim frame earlier in the race. Allard, however, will have to start somewhere in the top six of the B-Main.
Billy Nutter, who entered the evening third in NSCS points and eighth in Speed Week points, saw his bad luck at Skagit Speedway continue when clipped the turn three wall rolled upside down while running tenth on lap 22. Nutter was credited with 21st and earned just enough points to take the 16th and final locked position in Saturday's A-Main field.
Following Nutter's crash, one more red flag was displayed on lap 26 when both Jay Cole and Jason Bloodgood went flipping upside down out of turn two, Cole doing so after contact with another car. Bloodgood and Cole were credited with 19th and 20th, respectively.
Another surprise lock into Saturday's A-Main was Jared Peterson. Peterson, who is only 15 years of age, finished 16th in Friday's feature and will start 14th on Saturday.
Stewart was followed in the B-Main by Nutter, Chamberlain, Hodgson, Gee and Allard, who all transferred to the A-Main. Defending Skagit 360 Nationals champion Travis Rutz, who entered the night fifth in points, spun out early in that event after starting fifth. After another early yellow flag, the rest of the race went non-stop and Rutz ran out of time, finishing ninth. Rutz, one of only four drivers who had made all previous NSCS A-Mains this season, missed his first of the season. He is now slated to start seventh in Saturday's B-Main.
NSCS rookie Jon Farrell won the 15-lap C-Main event, taking Seth Bergman with him to the B-Main. Idaho's Randy Pierce won the 15-lap D-Main. Former track champion Andy Jacobson finished second to transfer, while Josh DeWitt also transferred due to a scratch from the C-Main field.
Four ten-lap heat races with twelve cars each were held with the top four finishers going to the A-Main. Crockett, Kilcup, Casey Adams and Hickle earned victories. In a stunning development, several top qualifiers failed to transfer. Bob Stevens, who was eighth in qualifying, was the fastest qualifier who successfully transferred out of his heat race.
Chamberlain, out of Coquitlam, Brit. Col. paced the field in qualifying with a time of 12.089 seconds around the 3/10-mile, high-banked clay oval.
Sixty-eight cars took part in Friday's event, setting two records for the Northwest's traveling 360 sprint car series. The previous Speed Week record with the old Northern Sprint Tour was 59 in 2005 at both Southern Oregon Speedway and Cottage Grove Speedway and the record for all NST events was 63 at Skagit on May 10, 2002.
More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be found online at www.racenscs.com.
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Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
Night 1 – Bob's Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals
Skagit Speedway
Alger, WA
July 27, 2007
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
68 cars
Fast qualifier: 10c Cory Chamberlain, 12.089 seconds. Top 48 qualifiers are locked into four heat races. Qualifiers from 49th and back are locked into D-Main.
Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. 18 Steve Kilcup, 2. 8e Evan Funk, 3. 3p Dan Pierson, 4. 40 Brock Lemley, 5. 8 Travis Rutz, 6. 10c Cory Chamberlain, 7. 0 Jonathon Allard, 8. 4 Tim Gee, 9. 73 Danielle Huson, 10. 24 Jayme Barnes, 11. 5sp Jason York, 12. 66c Jason Cocking. Top four qualifiers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. 7N Roger Crockett, 2. 76 Shawn Rice, 3. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick, 4. 0J Jay Cole, 5. 3N Billy Nutter, 6. 5k Brian Kirkpatrick, 7. 66 Barry Martinez, 8. 19 Greg Sandquist, 9. 51 Jon Farrell, 10. 24e Nick Evans, 11. 08 Steve Vague, 12. 57c Chris Schmelzle. Top four qualifiers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. 12a Casey Adams, 2. 14a Cody Adams, 3. 69p Rod Perkins, 4. 38 Jason Bloodgood, 5. 1 Shane Stewart, 6. 7o Travis Jacobson, 7. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 8. 91 Derek Ingalls, 9. 3s Craig Stidham, 10. 65 Brendan Boyce, 11. 4x Chris Adams, 12. 9j J.J. Dishneau. Top four qualifiers transfer to A-Main.
Heat 4 (10 laps): 1. 7 J.J. Hickle, 2. 98m Mitch Olson, 3. 9p Jared Peterson, 4. 98s Bob Stevens, 5. 4r Robbie Vaughn, 6. 23a Seth Bergman, 7. 68 Rob Held, 8. 39c Marc Dupperon, 9. 4e Nick Engberg, 10. 26f Shane Forte', 11. 6x Kevin Pylant, 12. 77 Mike Sather. Top four qualifiers transfer to A-Main.
D-Main (15 laps): 1. 12p Randy Pierce, 2. 55 Andy Jacobson, 3. 7d Josh DeWitt, 4. 1m Drew MacDonnell, 5. 75 Kevin Smith, 6. 5x Chuck Ashe, 7. 15d Dan Dunlap, 8. 7ak Steve Martin, 9. 14 Kelleigh Johnson, 10. 22c Blake Cook, 11. 3c Daniel Cernich, 12. 92 Todd Heikes, 13. 22b Geoff Beck, 14. 2z Todd Zeitler, 15. 7t Wes Tyra, 16. 9a Steve Dyer, DNS – 11d Jeff Delte, 44h Michael Harris, 57a Bud Ashe, 99p Tyler Pinceman. Top two finishers transfer to C-Main. Josh DeWitt also transfers to C-Main due to scratch.
C-Main (15 laps): 1. 51 Jon Farrell, 2. 23a Seth Bergman, 3. 65 Brendan Boyce, 4. 3s Craig Stidham, 5. 4x Chris Adams, 6. 6x Kevin Pylant, 7. 19 Greg Sandquist, 8. 24 Jayme Barnes, 9. 9j J.J. Dishneau, 10. 24e Nick Evans, 11. 7d Josh DeWitt, 12. 08 Steve Vague, 13. 4e Nick Engberg, 14. 26f Shane Forte', 15. 73 Danielle Huson, 16. 5sp Jason York, 17. 55 Andy Jacobson, 18. 12p Randy Pierce, DNS – 66c Jason Cocking. Top two finishers transfer to B-Main.
B-Main (20 laps): 1. 1 Shane Stewart, 2. 3N Billy Nutter, 3. 10c Cory Chamberlain, 4. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 5. 4 Tim Gee, 6. 0 Jonathon Allard, 7. 7o Travis Jacobson, 8. 68 Rob Held, 9. 77 Mike Sather, 10. 8 Travis Rutz, 11. 23a Seth Bergman, 12. 57c Chris Schmelzle, 13. 91 Derek Ingalls, 14. 51 Jon Farrell, 15. 39c Marc Dupperon, 16. 4r Robbie Vaughn, 17. 5k Brian Kirkpatrick, 18. 66 Jason Cocking. Top six finishers transfer to the A-Main.
A-Main (30 laps): 1. 98m Mitch Olson, 2. 7 J.J. Hickle, 3. 12a Casey Adams, 4. 18 Steve Kilcup, 5. 40 Brock Lemley, 6. 76 Shawn Rice, 7. 1 Shane Stewart, 8. 7N Roger Crockett, 9. 69p Rod Perkins, 10. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 11. 14a Cody Adams, 12. 10c Cory Chamberlain, 13. 4 Tim Gee, 14. 98s Bob Stevens, 15. 0 Jonathon Allard, 16. 9p Jared Peterson, 17. 3p Dan Pierson, 18. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick, 19. 38 Jason Bloodgood, 20. 0J Jay Cole, 21. 3N Billy Nutter, 22. 8e Evan Funk.
Lap leaders: Mitch Olson 1-30
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NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
www.racenscs.com.
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NSCS Skagit 360 Nationals finale notes for July 28
Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist
ALGER, Wash. – One night remains in the 2007 Northwest Speed Week for the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series. Tonight, the NSCS races in the finale of the 18th Annual Bob's Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals, which is on the schedule of a traveling series for the first time.
Here are a few notes and tidbits for tonight's event…
* - Roger Crockett, the NSCS points leader, is looking for his second Skagit 360 Nationals triumph, first winning it as a 17-year-old in 1998. Ironically, it was in Roger Henderson's No. 7N machine that Crockett won it those many years ago. Crockett won the preliminary event at the 360 Nationals in 1999 but has not scored a victory at Skagit since. He had finishes of fifth and second in main events when the NSCS visited Skagit in May.
Tonight, thanks to his point total from Friday's show, where he finished eighth, Crockett is scheduled to start second in the A-Scramble race, which determines the first six starting positions for the 40-lap A-Main.
* - Crockett entered the weekend with a solid 93-point lead over Mitch Olson. It started at 85, only to crash down to 43 after two races in Oregon. Crockett got ship straight again won Wednesday's show at Willamette Speedway while Olson struggled, gaining 50 points in the process. Olson will try to keep pace tonight, as he is looking for his second win this season. Good news for Olson, his one win came at Skagit on May 11.
* - The record for single season victories in the old Northern Sprint Tour is six by Crockett in 2003. Crockett already has five this season with the NSCS and eight races remain, including tonight's Speed Week finale at Skagit.
* - The first question on the minds of most people: can Travis Rutz repeat? Last year, the 19-year-old out of Langley, Brit. Col. ran away with the win in last year's 360 Nationals. He will have to work for it tonight, missing an NSCS A-Main event for only the first time this season last night. He is scheduled to start seventh in the B-Main, which will transfer eight to the A-Main.
Rutz, who is fifth in the NSCS point standings entering this weekend, has not won on the NSCS circuit all season and would love to score his first win, and that $10,000 pay day, tonight at Skagit. Rutz will also attempt to be the third driver to score back-to-back triumphs in this event. World of Outlaws star Jason Solwold (1996 and 1997) and the now retired Steve Kent (2003 and 2004) are the only drivers to pull off that feat.
* - Shane Stewart, the hired gun from Oklahoma driving for Mike Doyle, has won twice this week and leads the Northwest Speed Week point standings over Brock Lemley, Jonathon Allard, Crockett and Olson. The team winning the Speed Week title scores $2,000. Stewart's other two finishes are second at Willamette Speedway and seventh on Friday night at Skagit.
* - Deuce: winning both the Dirt Cup and the 360 Nationals. There are three former Dirt Cup champions in the field this weekend who are looking to win their first Skagit 360 Nationals; Kevin Pylant (1995), Shane Stewart (2004) and Allard (2005 and 2006). Only two drivers have won both events: Bobby Burrow (1992 Dirt Cup and 1993 360 Nationals) and Steve Kent (1994 and 2001 Dirt Cups and 1999, 2003 and 2004 360 Nationals).
Stewart is secured in the A-Scramble, while Allard will be in the B-Scramble. Kevin Pylant will have his work cut out for him, as he is slated to start sixth in the C-Scramble.
* - Brock Lemley has finished in the top five in every Speed Week event this season, but is looking for his first win of the week. Lemley does have one NSCS win this season, and it came at Skagit on May 12.
* - The Adams brothers, 24-year-old Cody and 18-year-old Casey, from LeDuc, Alberta are both in the A-Main on Saturday, and they've done it in their first appearance at Skagit Speedway. Casey will start seventh and Cody is scheduled to start 13th.
* - Including the Adams brothers, Alberta has four drivers in the A-Main. Jeff Hodgson of St. Albert is locked into the A-Scramble while long time veteran Tim Gee is also in and scheduled to start 15th.
* - After Rutz failed to make the A-Main on Friday only three drivers have now made every NSCS A-Main: Crockett, Olson and Nutter. All three drivers have earned A-Main starting positions. Crockett and Olson are both in the scramble and Nutter got the 16th and final locked position, thanks to a tiebreaker over Dan Pierson.
More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series can be found online at www.racenscs.com.
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Skagit 360 Nationals – Past winners
1990 – Marc Huson
1991 – Rick Fauver
1992 – Jamie Cobby
1993 – Bobby Burrow
1994 – Jay Smith
1995 – Rick Fauver
1996 – Jason Solwold
1997 – Jason Solwold
1998 – Roger Crockett
1999 – Steve Kent
2000 – Jay Smith
2001 – Chad Hillier
2002 – Jason Solwold
2003 – Steve Kent
2004 – Steve Kent
2005 – Marc Huson
2006 – Travis Rutz
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NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
www.racenscs.com
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