For immediate release, Evergreen Speedway (9/5/09)
MONROE, Wash. — The Speedway Chevrolet Super Late Model started off the evening and track officials looked like heroes for shuffling the schedule because as soon as the checkered flag flew, the rain started to fall.
A limited field of cars didn’t leave a limited amount of action. Steve Ptacek was very fast all day and led early. After relinquishing the lead, Ptacek brought out the caution with a long slow spin coming off of turn four. Daniel Moore in the Work N’ More car also looked very strong early on running up front with defending champion Naima Lang and former champion Tom Moriarty. Jeff Knight once again was a victim of bad luck, after making a very nice pass going through turns one and two and heading down the back stretch, Knight and Moore made contact and Knight ended up parked in the tire barriers on the back stretch. The damage was significant enough that he was unable to continue. On the restart Moriarty and Lang battled side by side lap after lap until about 3 laps to go when Lang was finally able to take over the lead and the victory.
Next up on the grid were the stinger eights. Joselyn LaFleur led early and had a great battle going with Don Bennett, the two swapped positions a couple of times. The intersection became a factor and LaFleur and Bennett both tried to shoot through a gap in the traffic. Bennett made LaFleur didn’t ending her night early (in the stinger 8’s) with a big hit in the intersection. On the restart, Bennett remained out front with Lance O’Grain and Ben Chandler close behind. O’Grain took the lead and looked to be cruising for a victory with the other races battling for position behind him. Coming down to take the checkered flag, O’Grain had a big hit in the intersection as well as Bennett. Points leader and mathematical champion for the 2009 season, Seth Funden, slipped into the lead to take the win.
The Foster Press Mini Stock division had excitement for the entire race. The field of cars strung out around the race track as all the drivers tried to navigate the wet race track. The two cars that seemed to have figured out the wet surface vaulted out to a big lead over the rest of the field, Scott LaCross and Jon Roberts. The two racers swapped positions back and forth Roberts running the high line and LaCross running the low groove. Roberts in his Mazda was sideways almost every corner and LaCross showed his experience putting down one smooth lap after another. As the rain stopped and the track started to dry a little the two battled very close all the way to the finish. At the stripe it was Roberts taking the win with LaCross in second.
The Les Schwab Tires Street Stocks took to the track next. The track wasn’t completely dry but it wasn’t wet either. With the clean race surface, the action at the drop of the green flag was intense. Coming down to finish the first lap 3rd through 9th place were 3 wide 3 deep and bumper to bumper. A spinning car brought out the caution flag, double duty driver Joselyn LaFleur making her street debut gave the car owner a tense moment as she squeezed between the 42 of Tony Deegan who was parked on the front stretch. Up front on the restart, Jim Foti and Casey Branch had a terrific battle up front. As the laps wound down Branch tried everything he could to get by the veteran driver of Foti. Foti held off the hard charger to take the victory.
The final race of the evening was the Pawn X-change Super figure 8’s. Bruce Wilson started on the point and held off the entire field for the first 20 laps of the race. Wilson had the preferred line being in the lead. The groove he was running was dry. Every time a faster car that was behind the leader tried to pass on the outside, they would get into the wet groove and lose ground. The caution came out as Dale Larsen and Glen Davis ended up in a pile. After an extended caution flag, the track had time to dry out. On the restart, Doug Delfel made a pass on Wilson and brought a couple of cars with him. With laps running out Delfel held on for the victory. On victory stage, “The Grizz” was very happy to except the trophy. Wilson who led for 20 laps shuffled all the way back to 6th.
Super figure 8’s
1 01 Doug Delfel 0
2 50 John Carlson 0
3 76 Ricky Deitz 0
4 22 Troy Siminer 0
5 40 Seth Funden 0
6 95 Bruce Wilson 0
7 43 Richard Shaver 0
8 67 Shane Sawin 0
9 32 Glen Davis 0
10 02 Dale Larson 0
Super late models:
1 00 Naima Lang 0
2 12 Tom Moriarity 0
3 06 Steve Ptacek 0
4 94 Natalie Sather 0
5 16 Daniel Moore 0
6 70 Jeff Knight 0
Mini Stocks:
1 64 Jon Roberts 0
2 99 Scott LaCross 0
3 12 Kris Harriss 0
4 2 Michael Fritz 0
5 32 Bob Emery 0
6 24 John Schukar 0
7 30 Jeff Miller 0
8 3 Rod Helmuth 0
9 16 Travis Woodward 0
10 53 Jim Cutrell 0
11 33x Clint Lang 0
Street Stocks:
1 85 Jim Foti 0
2 71 Casey Branch 0
3 99 Joe Kneeland 0
4 53 Darrel Lutovsky 0
5 76 Frank Cowgill 0
6 54 Tim Widener 0
7 8 AJ Baxter 0
8 00 Lane Sundholm 0
9 26 Brian Cottrell 0
10 05 Dwayne Humenney 0
11 06 Joselyn LaFleur 0
12 46 Brandy Hatch 0
13 42 Tony Deagen 0
14 25 Duane Schoesboek 0
15 15 David Stewart Jr 0
16 67 Rich Brown 0
17 45 Kyle Johnson 0
18 17 Nikki Bristol 0
Stinger 8’s:
1 40 Seth Funden 0
2 99 Ben Chandler 0
3 30 Steve Peters 0
4 22 Josh Young 0
5 74 Lance O’Grain 0
6 84 JJ Edwards 0
7 51 Rob Dykstra 0
8 73 Todd Stillwell 0
9 5 Cody Koroshes 0
10 10 Kyle Schukar 0
11 26 Don Bennett 0
12 82 John Carlson 0
13 44 Dave Collis 0
14 42 John Lewis 0
15 69 Nick Vandenbausch 0
16 007 Zach Bristol 0
17 04 Jessica Gray 0
18 28 Brian Wheeler Jr 0
19 06 Joselyn LaFluer 0
20 88 James Waters 0
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