Saturday’s races at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash., had a bit of everything: three-wide racing, torn sheet metal, near-misses and hard wrecks and a first-time winner.
The Super Stock division went twice, the Stinger Eight’s held their World Championship and the Bombers, Crash Cars and Hornets each took a turn on the three-eighths mile oval.
My notes are included at the end of this post. For the complete — albeit unofficial — results from tonight’s action, CLICK HERE.
For the results of Night 2 of the 360 Nationals at Skagit Speedway, CLICK HERE.
Mike Holden was happy the top-tier Super Stocks had a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday at Evergreen Speedway.
Holden, who didn’t finish the opener because of a broken spindle, took the lead on lap 8 of the 50-lap nightcap and led the rest of the way to record his first career victory.
“That was a blast,” Holden said, standing on victory stage with his trophy. “We had such crummy luck on the first (race).”
In what has become a familiar sight, Naima Lang passed James Mugge for the lead on lap 30 en route to his seventh victory of the season in the Super Stock’s 50-lap opener.
Mugge, the rookie points leader, finished second in both races. Defending champion John Zaretzke came in third in both races.
Mugge passed Michael Prudnick for the lead on lap 3 of the first race, and he held off Kelly Mann on one restart before getting passed by Lang.
Holden’s car suffered a broken spindle in the first race, sending him to the pits for repairs before lap 10. His crew changed the spindle and A-arm between races.
Although Holden finished 13th — dead last — in the opener, he ended up with fresher tires than the rest of the field. Each car was allowed just four new tires for both races.
“Fresher tires didn’t hurt,” said Ryan Zahnow, owner of Holden’s car. “But Mike deserves it — he’s been working his butt off.”
Both races featured hard racing, with the opener ending with a one-lap shootout and the nightcap being halted by a red flag to clean up the results of a lap 14 spin-out by Jeff Knight.
Knight got loose exiting turn 2 and he collected Lang and Daniel Moore. Moore’s night was ended, but Lang returned — absent most of the sheet metal from the front of his car — and battled back to finish fifth.
That was the second wreck of the night for Moore, who spun in turn 4 on lap 26 of the first race, hitting Tom Hughs. Both drivers joined Holden in the pits, although Moore was able to return to finish the opener.
The second race required two attempts to get started. After the first green flag fell, Zaretzke — who found himself with nowhere to go in heavy traffic — left the track between turns 3 and 4.
Despite taking his car through the grass and back onto the asphalt of Evergreen’s five-eighths track, Zaretzke was able to fight his way to the front, passing Kelly Mann for third on lap 26.
The most entertaining race of the evening was the 50-lap Stinger Eight World Championship, won by Cody Koroshes.
Michael Durbin was second and Steve Peters returned to action to finish third.
“I know he’s a veteran,” Koroshes said of Peters after the race. “I was happy to keep up with him.”
Ben Chandler dropped back early in the race but fought his way to the front to come in fourth, and Nick Williams rounded out the top five.
The race featured several hard hits, including Seth Funden getting T-boned early in the race and Nick Gunderson going up on two wheels after contact.
A red flag halted the action on lap 33 after Ryan Barber rear-ended some slower cars, sending his car onto its roof near the intersection.
Koroshes and Peters exchanged the lead several times, both using lapped traffic and the intersection to advantage. Peters was pushed wide in the right-hand turn late in the race, giving up track position.
“My adrenaline was pumping,” Koroshes said. “I was just going where I could in the intersection.”
Russ Hales ran away with the Bomber race, getting past polesitter Mike Ebeling and Tim Widener early on, then building a good lead on the field.
“We’ve had our fair share of bad luck, but we’ve fought through it and here we are,” Hales said from victory stage. “It’s nice to be standing here now.”
The real action in the 30-lap race was for the spots right behind the leader, with points leader Jim Foti, last week’s winner Frank Cowgill, defending champion Lane Sundholm and former champion Travis Blackwood dueling and swapping positions two through five.
Foti ended up finishing second, with Cowgill getting third after Sundholm and Blackwood tangled coming out of turn 4 on the final lap. Blackwood got the better end of that one, coming in fourth, with Sundholm fifth.
Sundholm and Darrel Lutovsky won the heat races.
Pass the fuel: Jeff Knight, lead pastor for The Rock Church in Monroe, is usually called upon to offer a prayer after the pre-race drivers’ meeting.
In addition to asking for a safe evening for all teams and drivers, on Saturday Knight included a request that no cars run out of fuel.
That’s exactly what happened to Knight and several others including Jason Fraser, who was in second place at the time, near the end of the Super Stock’s 150-lap race on July 26 as part of the Washington 500.
Like-minded: Before Saturday’s race brothers Mike and Jeff Holden both said they preferred longer races like the 150-lapper on Evergreen’s five-eighths mile oval on July 26.
Jeff Holden, who finished third on July 26, said there would be “less carnage” in longer races as drivers would have more time to settle in. He also suggested races on the smaller three-eighths mile oval should be longer than the current 40 or 50-laps.
Who was that? Evergreen Speedway track announcers Terry Buell and Kelly Hale turned the microphone over to a guest announcer for the Bomber race.
Your fearless blogger called the race, and came away with an even greater respect for anyone who does it for real. It is amazing how quickly your mind goes blank in that situation, and when words do come out, how lame they sound.
Thanks guys, for letting me take a crack at it. Fortunately for the folks in the stands, I think most of it was drowned out by the cars going by. I’d say I’m not giving up my day job, but I don’t really have one.
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