Because of prior commitments — try telling my wife that it would be OK to skip out on my daughter’s wedding for a race — I was fortunate to enlist the help of Evergreen Speedway’s own Nikki Bristol to recap the action at the track.
Bristol lives in Everett and works for the local Jackson Hewitt Tax Service as the franchise general manager. This business has a total of six offices from Everett to Arlington.
She is also a regular in the Street Stock division at Evergreen Speedway, and has been driving in that division for ten years. Bristol is also active in supporting the Three-Day Breast Cancer Walk, raising money at the speedway and through a massive 3-day garage sale.
Thanks, Nikki, for helping me out.
Before I go on and mention what happened at the track from my own personal point of view, I do need to thank my brother Zachary Bristol for helping me out. There were times when he took notes when I had to get my car staged, or I was in the race that was written about. As always look to the track’s website for the official finishing order.
I do not have anything on the Stinger-8 division as it is the one race I missed; I do apologize to the Stinger-8 drivers about that shortfall. (Ed: according to Evergreen Speedway’s Web site, the Stinger 8 feature was won by Steve Peters, with Seth Funden, Cody Koroshes and Ben Chandler finishing second through fourth.)
Here is my own take on the events for August 22, 2009.
The car counts were average for what has been running this year. The Super Late Models had eight cars, with Chris Preston and Michael Prudnick joining the regulars. In the Street Stock division, there were seventeen cars that showed up, with a couple new faces. Jason Fraser drove the #27 that Jill Lang traditionally drives, and Kyle Johnson (formally of the Stinger 8 Class) drove his Street Stock debut in his black #45.
For the Mini-Stocks, I counted nine cars at one point and this may not be precisely accurate. The Figure-8s had 10 cars and the Stinger-8s had twelve cars, these just like the Mini-Stocks may need some adjustment in actual final numbers.
Heat races
The heat races ran smoothly for the most part, however there were a couple wrecks in the first Street Stock heat and the only Super Late Model heat.
In the first Street Stock heat, the cars were barely able to take the green before a wreck involving the #15 of David Stewart Jr. and the #99 of Joe Kneeland happened. Stewart lost a wheel going into turn one right after the green flag threw, tangling up with Kneeland. Stewart and Kneeland both went to the pits, with Kneeland done for the night. Stewart was able to get his car back together for the main event.
Due to this wreck, the whole race line up schedule got changed around and the Street Stock race was moved from second on the line-up to last.
For the Super Late Model heat race, the race ran relatively smooth until the last lap of the event. Coming out of turn two on the back stretch at the end of the heat race, the #94 of Natalie Sather and the #16 of Dan Moore got together with the Moore driving over the left front of Sather going down the straightaway. Both of the cars were able to make the start of their feature race later on during the night.
Feature races
First race up of the night would be the Mini-Stocks, and they led a clean race. Due to my point of viewing, I did not see a whole lot of what was going on. However, the #64 of Jon Roberts did take the lead early on during the race and took home the checkered flag along with a tire purchased by Foster Press. Kris Harriss, Mikey Fritz and Nat Barber rounded out the top four.
During the Super Late Model race, there was a wreck immediately at the beginning of the race. Sather and Jeff Knight got together going into turn one right after the green flag dropped. Knight proceeded to go into the pits to have his car repaired as there was heavy front damage to the car. When he left the pits, his car left looking like a modified.
Dan Moore had a great night, taking the lead from Preston on lap 5 and finishing in second by the end of the race. Before the race ended, there was more carnage to be had.
On lap 14, the #94 of Sather and the #26 of Prudnick get together on the backstretch coming out of turn two, with Sather’s car slowing down afterwards and coming to a complete stop just at the start of turn one on the 5/8ths track. Sather and Prudnick were both done for the night due to the damage on her car, and the officials telling Prudnick’s spotter that they were done for the night.
Naima Lang ended up taking home another win at the end of the night with Moore in second, followed by Steve Ptacek and Tom Hughs for the top four.
In the Super Figure 8 division, Bruce Wilson in the #95 took the cars to the green flag. On lap 5 John Carlson in the #50 took over the lead and never looked back. The only caution for the race happened on lap 12 when the #17 of Dave Brandenburg slowed and left the track. On the last lap, the #76 of Ricky Deitz started to gain ground on Carlson, but Carlson was able to hold him off for the win followed by Deitz, Shane Sawin and Glenn Davis.
The last race of the night was the Street Stock division and despite all the spins that happened, there was only one caution on lap 19. AJ Baxter took the lead on the first lap, with Ryan Hansen taking the lead over from him on lap 4 when Clark Casey and Andy Sole bumped a little bit on the lap. Casey Branch took over the lead from him on lap 6 and held onto that position until lap 20.
Before then on lap 8 the #15 of Stewart and the #8 of Baxter gets together with Baxter receiving the black flag and no caution for the wreck. The only caution to take place happened on lap 19 when the 45 of Johnson spun, and the 65 of Casey spun as well.
Lane Sundholm took the lead right after the restart from Branch and won the race followed by the #71 of Branch, #53 of Darrel Lutovsky, and the #27 of Jason Fraser rounding out the top four.
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