Good clean fun in the dirt. That’s the way the racing at Skagit Speedway was once described to me. The three-tenths mile banked clay oval in Alger is celebrating its 55th anniversary this year, and will be host to thousands of sprint-car fans this weekend at the 38th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup.
New additions to the final night of Dirt Cup include a qualifying challenge and a Midget car race. The Midget race will feature some of the best drivers in the Northwest, including Jonathan Jorgenson, Seth Hespe, Gaylon Stewart, Jeff Bell and more.
The fastest qualifiers from Thursday and Friday night face off on Saturday with a $1,000 bonus on the line. Both drivers will make a two-lap qualifying run, get a break to make adjustments, then run another two laps with the fastest overall time earning the prize put up by Industrial Resources and the Follman Agency.
Fret not, those of you that prefer racing on a different surface, or in a different direction. There is plenty of racing goodness on tap for you — a lot of it in your own backyard.
Saturday is Safety Night at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, with activities — including Monroe firefighters dismantling a car using extraction tools, a fire safety Hazard House, tours of emergency vehicles and more — beginning at 5 p.m. The racing begins at 7 p.m., including a Guns vs. Hoses grudge match featuring police officers and firefighters as well as the Super Late Model, Super Figure 8, Street Stock and Mini-Stock divisions.
The Olympics of Drag Racing will be held Friday through Sunday at Pacific Raceways in Kent (tickets/info: www.PacificRaceways.com). Featuring the Northwest Division of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, eight categories are scheduled to compete, including Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car.
A bit farther down the road — Northern California to be exact — NASCAR’s Sprint Cup drivers tackle the first of the season’s two road course races, the Toyota SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma (2 p.m., Sunday, TNT).
Also racing at Infineon will be the Camping World Series West with the Bennett Lane Winery 200 on Saturday (tape delayed on SPEED at noon on July 2). Ellensburg native Travis Bennett is on the entry list for the race, which last year featured a spectactular roll-over crash by Washington native Jeff Jefferson of Naches. Jefferson is racing in the Rocky Mountain Challenge Series this year, but footage of his Infineon wreck is being used by the speedway in it’s TV commerical for the Cup race (watch it on YouTube here. Note, too, that the car that took out Jefferson also took out his teammate, Jeff Warn (No 10) of Oregon).
Looking to the Midwest, NASCAR’s Nationwide and Camping World Truck series are at the Milwaukee Mile, with the trucks running the Copart 200 (6 p.m., Friday, SPEED) and the Nationwide drivers competing in the NorthernTool.com 250 (5:30 p.m., Saturday, ESPN2).
Open-wheel enthusiasts, you haven’t been forgotten this weekend, with both IndyCar and Formula One running. The Indy racers are back in my old neck of the woods for the The Iowa Corn Indy 250 (10:30 a.m., Sunday, ABC/Ch. 4), and F1 hits the Silverstone circuit for the British Grand Prix (tape-delayed at noon, Sunday, FOX/Ch. 13).
Sad to say, but you could fill a lot of books with what I don’t know about sprint-car and drag racing. But, these are Fearless Predictions, so here goes.
Against the odds that say a non-local racer has won it 34 times, I like two-time and defending 410 Sprint division champion Barry Martinez of Lynnwood to keep the Dirt Cup trophy at Skagit Speedway.
Picking Evergreen is getting tougher and tougher as you never know who may show up. I’ll go with James Mugge (Super Late Model), Nick Gunderson (Super Figure 8), Lane Sundholm (Street Stock), and Michael Fritz (Mini-Stock) to win. Oh, and the firefighters, too.
Elsewhere, let’s say Jeff Gordon wins the Cup race, Mike Bliss takes the Nationwide race and Ron Hornaday — Grampa is doing double duty this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile — finishes first in the truck race. For the open-wheelers, I’ll go with Danica Patrick in IndyCar and — who else? — Jenson Button for Brawn GP in the British Grand Prix.
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