Defending champions win at Evergreen Speedway

Published 1:55 am Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Evergreen State Fair is in full swing in this, it’s 100th year (I’m told there is some question about that claim, but I’m going with what they told me).

Plenty of exciting action at Evergren Speedway too, with the Figure Eight Nationals and some oval-track racing, too.

In an interesting coincidence, the defending champions from the three divisions in action on Saturday night all won.

For those of you who like your racing on dirt, Saturday night’s story and results from Skagit Speedway can be found RIGHT HERE.

After 97 laps, the checkered flag and Figure Eight Nationals trophy were so close Troy Simianer could see them.

“More than see them,” said a disappointed Simianer after the race.

With just three laps to go to his first victory of the season, Simianer was collected when two slower cars tangled, which allowed defending Figure Eight Nationals and Super Figure Eight division champion John Carlson to take the lead and the race.

“That’s how it worked out,” Carlson said after the race. “There was all kind of stuff going on.”

Simianer took the lead on lap 73, moving up from the third position when leader Steve Cox and second-place Jim Downey came together exiting the right-hand turn.

Carlson moved up to second-place on lap 77, bumping past Cox who then got together with Sean Peters in the intersection.

“I knew there was still plenty of laps to go,” Carlson said. “It was just getting to the intersection and seeing what happened.”

The cars of Cox and Peters became stuck together after contact, which brought out the caution flag. On the restart Simianer jumped out to a good lead, and appeared to have plenty of car left to stay ahead of Carlson as the laps ran down.

“When I had a five-car length lead I thought (Carlson) was laying back,” Simianer said after the race. “But when it was 10 (lengths), I knew he wasn’t.”

Downey was second, Rick Dietz came from the rear of the 27-car field to finish third and Cox, a two-time Nationals winner, was fourth.

Cox went around Nick Gunderson for the lead on lap 39 when Gunderson slowed for oncoming traffic at the intersection. Gunderson had moved to the front of the field on a restart on lap 12.

Less than half of the starting field — 13 cars — took the green flag for the final restart on lap 85.

“That was crazy,” Carlson said about the action on the track. “There isn’t anyplace better to race than Evergreen Speedway in the figure-eight class.”

Thirty-two cars were at the track trying to make the field for the Figure Eight Nationals. The field of 26 was set through a process of qualifying, heat races, a B main and two drivers earned “promoter’s” provisional spots.

The top 10 qualifiers were guaranteed a spot in the Nationals, as was the first former winner — Cox — who registered for the race. The top three finishers in each of the three heat races were also granted spots, as were the top four finishers in the B main.

Speedway promoter Lex Johnson chose the final two drivers: Nick Gunderson and Gary Buse — Mr. Dizzy.

Even though he didn’t have to, Cox took part in qualifying, turning a lap that would have guaranteed him a starting spot in the top 10.

Defending champion Lane Sundholm came from deep in the field to not only win Saturday’s Bomber division main, but also to climb to the top of the points list.

Sundholm started on the inside of the sixth row, but had moved up to second place when the yellow flag flew on lap 13.

Restarting outside of David Stewart Jr. on lap 15, Sundholm jumped out to the lead entering turn 1. He then held off Stewart for two more restarts before taking the checkered flag for his second victory of the season.

“I wasn’t stopping until I came all the way from the back, passing every car on the outside,” Sundholm said after the race.

Stewart, who started on the pole and led the first 15 laps, finished second. Travis Blackwood was third and Duane Schosbeck came in fourth.

Sundholm trailed Jim Foti by 11 points entering Saturday’s race, but it was announced after his feature victory that the defending champion had pulled ahead.

Sundholm was helped by winning one of the Bomber heat races Saturday, and the fact that Foti finished the feature two laps down after getting collected in Jill Lang’s spin-out on lap 20.

Lang also had a part in Sundholm’s heat-race victory. With Sundholm behind her, Lang was running second to Stewart on the white-flag lap. She was black-flagged after contact with Stewart on the backstretch, which allowed Sundholm to move up for the win.

Asked after the race if he had been worried about being second in points so late in the season, Sundholm said: “The point thing doesn’t bother me, the not winning bothers me.”

Blackwood and Schosbeck won the other two heat races.

A tight points battled in the top-tier Super Stock division got even closer after Saturday’s feature, in which three-time defending champion John Zaretzke recorded second straight victory.

Zaretzke passed Tom Berrow for the lead on lap 34, en route to his third win of the season.

Berrow finished second, James Mugge was third and Billy Weber was fourth.

Weber, making his second appearance at Evergreen Speedway this season, started on the pole and led the first 13 laps before Berrow passed him.

Points leader Naima Lang was moving forward after starting on the fourth row, but he spun out after contact with Mugge and finished sixth.

Lang led Zaretzke by 17 points entering Saturday’s race. Zaretzke also won a heat race — Lang finished second in his heat — so that margin will shrink when the points list is updated.

Kelly Mann won the other heat race.

Weber, 21, is a warehouse manager from Tacoma, and has been racing at South Sound Speedway in the Limited Late Model division. “Different competition,” was what Weber said when asked why he planned on finishing the season racing at Evergreen.