Local racers put on a strong show

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 5, 2007

MONROE – The locals showed the visitors how to put on a show at Evergreen Speedway.

Most of the thrills during Saturday’s Washington 500 – three NASCAR divisions competing in three races totaling 500 laps on the five-eighths mile oval – were provided by Evergreen’s own super stocks and bombers.

Brian Ickler of San Diego and Mike Duncan of Bakersfield, Calif., ran away with the feature race, the NAPA 300, the annual visit of the Grand National Division West Series to Evergreen.

“The best part of (my team) is consistency,” Ickler said. “They were telling me ‘easy, easy, easy’ … we kept pacing ourselves and we won.”

The only other driver in the 20-car field to finish on the same lap as the leaders was third-place finisher and series points leader Mike David of Modesto, Calif. Travis Bennett of Ellensburg was fourth, two laps back.

Duncan won the pole with a track-record qualifying time of 23.328 seconds, eclipsing the mark of 23.352 set by Mark Krogh in 1996. Ickler also qualified better than the previous track mark, turning a time of 23.344 to start on the outside of row one.

“It was definitely a joy to set the fast time with such a field of fast cars,” Duncan said. “Everything worked pretty good, we just finished one car short.”

Jeff Barkshire of Auburn qualified third and dueled with Ickler and Duncan through the middle laps, but faded and finished seventh, six laps behind.

By the time the fireworks went off at the start of the NAPA 300, fans already had witnessed 200 laps of racing and two exciting finishes.

In the closest race of the night, James Mugge passed Darin Stordahl on the final lap to win the Central Welding 50, the feature event for the Whelen All American Series bombers.

Stordahl turned in the top qualifying time but started in the middle of the 27-car field because of the invert. He worked his way to the front and passed Mugge – after several laps of side-by-side racing – for the lead on lap 39.

Stordahl tried to pull away, but Mugge stayed with him, catching the leader in turn 3 of the white-flag lap when Stordahl was blocked by a lapped car.

Kelly Mann was third and Travis Blackwood finished fourth.

It was the first time the bombers had raced for points on the five-eighths mile oval. There was just one caution, on lap 16 when Jill Lang, who entered the night as the points leader, blew an engine.

In the top-tier super stock event, points leader John Zaretzke led all 150 laps to win his seventh race of the year. Rob Touchette survived a black flag to finish second, Roger Habich was third and Darin Hall fourth.

Touchette was sent to the back of the lead group on lap 123 for bumping then-third place Kelly Mann into the wall in turn three, but he worked his way back to the front and challenged Zaretzke for the lead on the final lap.

Former Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine, driving Lang’s super-stock car, blew an engine on lap 108 and finished 14th.

There were nine yellows in all, with nine of the 19-car field dropping out before the checkered flag fell.

For complete results, see the Scoreboard on Page C6.