Warm night makes for great racing at Ephrata Raceway Park
Published 1:33 pm Sunday, September 13, 2009
By Keith Danson, Ephrata Raceway Park announcer (9/13/09)
EPHRATA, Wash. — A record 94 degrees and five classes of racing made a great setting at ERP for the next to last evening of racing.
The Kim Janke State Farm Agent Youth Hornets, Pioneer Muffler 2 Adult Hornets, Schaeffer Oil Mini Stocks, Pepsi Cola Street Stocks and the Northwest Legends stopped by to provide fun for all! Only one class, the Adult Hornets, had their championship decided with Dallas White too far ahead for anyone to catch, and he performed like a champ all night to seal the deal. The remaining classes are still too close to call, so lots of racing and very little wrecking of race cars was the norm. Can’t wait for next Saturday evening! Qualifiing was first and here’s who ran the quickest:
MS- #88 Jeff Hector, Ephrata, 16.50
Street- #68 Bart Hector, Othello, 15.74
Legends- #06 Travis Archer, Black Diamond, 15.44
The Hector race team was off to a fast start that wouldn’t slow down till the cars were on the trailer. This night was one of the last chances to take home a trophy from ERP and the fans were treated to great racing from the start of each race. Here’s who took home the shiny stuff:
B YH- #72 Kelly Olsick, Soap Lake
A YH- #11 Jatender Veenstra, RC
AH- #09 Dallas White, RC
B MS- #07 Rod Whited, ML
A MS- #84 Doug Brown
B SS- #12 Rick Bretches, Quincy
A SS- #68 Bart Hector, Othello
B Legends- #5 Garret Archer, Black Diamond
A Legends- #55 Tom Matheson, Kennewick
Congrats to Jatender on her first Trophy Dash win to back up her first Heat race win last time out. Same for Rick Bretches who would back up his trophy with a Heat win later. With Heat races comes the valuable points, and with the chases so close for all but one class, the front runners were pushing it! Here’s how they all finished:
YH- #68 Bart Hector Jr, Ephrata
#16 Taylor Blackburn, Ephrata
#72 Kelly Olsick, Soap Lake
#11 Jatender Veenstra, RC
#00 Dylan Adamson, ML
#77 Bobby Bailey, Ephrata
#32 Chase Kirk, Wen, DNF
#15x Derick Burck, Ephrata, DNF
AH- #42 Lance White, Ephrata
#09 Dallas White, RC
#72 John Olsick, SL
#32x Jacob McGraw, Wen
#66 Mike Savat
#9 Michael White
#63 Nathan Schell, ML
#32 Terry McGraw, EW, DNS
B MS- #1 Nick “Old” Gardner, Quincy
#81 Alan Dixon
#18 Jeramy Razey, ML
#19 Troy Lannoy, Ephrata
#43 Elvin Brincefield, Ephrata
#99 David Gross, ML
#07 Rod Whited, ML, DNF
A MS- #88 Jeff Hector, Ephrata
#84 Doug Brown
#96 Austin Schooler, Ephrata
#52 JR Minor, ML
B SS- #12 Rick Bretches, Quincy
#77 Robert Kirk, Wen
#41 Sam Todd, Odessa
#10 Fred Moore, Ephrata
#18 Jeramy Razey, ML
#38 Drew Dixon, RC, DNF
A SS- #68 Bart Hector, Othello
#64 Ron Stewart, ML
#9 Randy Pugh, ML
#81 Alan Dixon
#21 Skyler Leseman, Ephrata, BF
Legends- #55 Tom Matheson, Kenn
#06 Travis Archer, BD
#17 Jon Vangesen, Port Orchard
#2 Jesse Branham, Everson, Wa
#81 Ben Matheson, Ken
#99 Aaron Stowe, Puyallup
#x5 Jarod Alseath
#5 Garret Archer, BD, DNF
Looking at the points chases a little closer, at the beginning of the night, Bart Jr was 63 points behind Taylor Blackburn for first place in the Youth Hornets. Winning his Heat race helped, but needed to win the Main to really gain any ground, since Taylor always runs well. As said before, Dallas White doesn’t even need to show up next week to take the Championship in the Adult Hornets. Jeff Hector was only 24 points ahead of Jeramy Razey in Mini Stock, and needed to finish well to hold onto his lead, and Ron Stewart started the night 46 points ahead of good friend Randy Pugh. Ron just needs to show up and finish next week to win the Street Stock title. But that’s why the races are run, since rookies and veterans have came out of hiding to make things interesting. To me, the most interesting race was going to be the Mini’s Main with the persistent Doug Brown back in 5th place points wise, giving Jeff Hector a run for the win. Then there’s the 16 year old Austin Schooler who, in Jeff’s absence, has racked up 2 wins, 2 Fast Times, and was involved in a bad first lap wreck in three appearances. The patient kid started way back and used the high line to carefully work his way to 4th. After a restart he moved into 3rd behind Brown and Hector, then Doug’s engine had enough and and oily track had to be cleaned up. With one lap left the kid was on the rear bumper of the master and the 1976 Vega ran on the outside again to make a great finish maybe 6 inches behind Hectors front bumper! What a race! Here’s how the Main Events ended up:
YH- #68 Hector
#15x Burck
#16 Blackburn
#11 Veenstra
#72 Olsick
#00 Adamson
#77 Bailey
#32 Kirk
AH- #09 Dallas White (Champ)
#42 Lance White
#72 John Olsick
#66 Savat
#9 Michael White
#32x Jacob McGraw
#32 Terry McGraw, DNS
#63 Schell, DNF
Mini’s- #88 Hector
#96 Schooler
#81 Larr
#18 Razey
#1 Gardner
#52 Minor
#99 Gross
#19 Lannoy, DNF
#84 Brown, DNF
#07 Whited
Street- #68 Bart Hector
#64 Stewart
#9 Pugh
#84 Jeff Hector
#12 Bretches
#38 Dixon
#10 Moore
#18 Anderson
#21 Leseman, DNF
#41 Todd, DNF
#77 Kirk, DNF
#48 Hastings, DNF
Legends- #5 Garret Archer (Semi-Pro)
#06 Travis Archer
#2 Branham
#17 Vangesen (Master winner)
#55 Tom Matheson (Pro winner)
#81 Ben Matheson
#99 Stowe
#x5 Alseath
Congrats to all the winners Saturday Night, the racing was awesome! Next week will be the last of the stock car racing for this season, do what ever you have to do and be there! All classes except Big Cars will be running and we will be crowning Champions! Gates open at 5, racing at 6.
