Evergreen Speedway’s Summer Showdown features competitive field

MONROE — There will be a new Summer Showdown champion crowned this year.

Tayler Riddle, the defending champion of Evergreen Speedway’s premier event for Super Late Models, withdrew from the race Thursday.

However, Riddle’s absence only takes a tad of the shine off what’s a strong field for the sixth edition of Summer Showdown, which takes place Friday and Saturday.

“It’s a really awesome, competitive field,” Evergreen Speedway president Doug Hobbs said at Thursday’s media luncheon. “We’ve got a lot of the great drivers from throughout the northwest, Canada, we have some K&N champions, we have midwest champions, we have drivers all the way from North Carolina. So it’s really a strong field. When you go into a lot of races you usually have two or three or four favorites. But there’s probably a good 10 or 12 people at least who could win this race. So it’s a big deal.”

Summer Showdown is the fourth of Evergreen Speedway’s six-race Budweiser Crown Series, which was started this year to attract top drivers. No doubt Summer Showdown’s $100,000 purse — with $25,000 going to the winner — also served as a draw. As of Thursday afternoon there were 39 cars entered for the race, which takes place on Evergreen’s 5/8ths mile track.

Two drivers who made long treks to Evergreen Speedway are among the favorites.

Derek Thorn, from Lakeport, California, finished third at the 2015 Summer Showdown and was the runner-up to Riddle last year. This year the three-time Spears SRL Southwest Series champion and former K&N West champ is hoping to take that final step to the top of the podium.

“One of us is going to hit it just right, they’re going to be perfect, their car is going to be great, you’re going to be chasing them all weekend,” Thorn said when asked what it’ll take to win. “It’s just a matter of testing yourself and your team to get your car the best you can to the best of your ability. Hopefully its good enough to put yourself in front at the right place at the right time.

“You look at these tracks on TV, people are repaving tracks and spending all this money to redo them,” Thorn added. “This place here, the beauty of it is the fact it’s old and worn out. It gives it character. It gives us drivers a different way of attacking the race. You can’t just go out and lead every lap and think you’re going to be the same as you are at the beginning. So it’s a lot of strategy, a little bit of thinking involved. You may have a guy who goes flying by on lap 20 but by lap 50 maybe you’re flying right back by them again. It’s kind of a cat and mouse game.”

The other non-local favorite is Preston Peltier. Peltier, a native of Fort Lupton, Colorado, led for 160 laps at last year’s Summer Showdown before succumbing to a mechanical failure in the race’s final laps. This time the former Pro All Stars Series champion is looking to get his car across the finish line at full speed.

“I don’t think that you really want one win more than another, you just want to win,” Peltier said. “It was definitely a hearbreaker for us (last year). If we had one less caution or a shorter red flag — six laps to go and the battery starts to die and there’s not much you can do, just pull over and let them go.”

Another favorite is veteran northwest driver Garrett Evans. Evans, from East Wenatchee, is a seven-time Touring Late Model champion. However, the 61-year-old has never won Summer Showdown in four previous attempts, finishing second in both 2014 and 2015.

“I probably don’t have too many years left. Time is running out, so it’s pretty important,” Evans said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Among the local drivers, Monroe’s Jeff Knight and Trenton Moriarity are the top contenders. Knight, who has the most victories at Evergreen Speedway this season with three, finished third at last year’s Summer Showdown. Moriarity, who’s the current points leader at Evergreen, crashed out of last year’s Summer Showdown, an accident that left him with a concussion.

Qualifying and heat races take place Friday. Those will set the lineup for Saturday evening’s 200-lap main event, which starts at 7 p.m.