Out front place to be at Grays Harbor

By Jack Fordyce, Grays Harbor Raceway

ELMA, Wash. — The pole position was where you wanted to start Saturday night at Grays Harbor Raceway. Glenn Borden Jr. Raymond, Josh Muller, Montesano, Zack Simpson, Hoquiam and Brian Izzi, Olympia, all parlayed the pole position to feature wins.

Borden Jr. in the 30-lap Whitney’s Auto Group “360 Sprints” feature race, Muller in the 30-lap Ship Wreck Beads main event, Simpson in the 23-lap Cut Rate Auto Parts “Hobby Stock” feature and Izzi in the HiLine Homes “Hornets” main event. All four of the drivers never trailed from the green flag to the checkered flag.

Seth Hespe, Snohomish and the driving team of Travis Brearty/Henry Dawson, Elma were the only feature event winners that didn’t win their trophy dash race but went on to win their feature race.

Hespe took the checkered flag in the Triple X Racing “Midgets” 25-lap feature race and Brearty/Dawson in the “Cruisers” 10-lap main event.

In a modified format for Mid-Season Championship races, the top six drivers in each class were locked into a six-car 6-lap trophy dash, with how you finished in the dash determining the first three rows in the starting grid.

Sprints

Borden set quick pace at the start with defending champion, Jay Cole, Shelton, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, Shawn rice Tacoma and Logan Forler, Orting right behind.

Forler dropped out of the front runner’s just 2-laps into the race and was replaced by Steve Vague, Kirkland.

Hickle moved into the second spot at the mid-point of the race but was unable to gain any ground on the speedy Borden.

Rice took over the second spot when Hickle spun out on the final lap after Borden took the checkered flag, winning by a margin of 1.518 seconds. Cole settled for third, Vague fourth ands Otto Jorgenson, auburn fifth while Hickle dropped to sixth.

Midgets

Hespe didn’t have the pole position, that honor went to Brandon Daniel, McCleary, but it didn’t matter as Hespe grabbed the lead on the first lap, followed by Daniel, Jonathan Jorgenson, Auburn, Allison Journey, Springfield, OR and Jeremy Miller, Montesano.

Jorgenson put a move on both Daniel and Hespe on lap-15 for the lead and held onto the front spot until Hespe took it back with just two laps left in the race.

Daniel edged Jorgenson for the second spot and Journey and Miller held serve for fourth and fifth.

Modifieds

Muller dominated the “Modifieds” feature race leading at times by almost a full straight-away over former track champion Scott Miller, Shelton, Joe German, Aberdeen, Jim Oien Jr. McCleary, and Greg Dineen of Aberdeen.

Miller and Dineen dropped out of the top five when they got tangled up in a three car melee on lap-8, with Miller out of the race and Dineen relegated to the back of the pack for the restart.

That moved Leroy Lawhead, another former series champion and David Wolfard into the top five.

Lawhead only lasted one lap before mechanical problems sent him to the pits.

First German, then Wolfard and Craig Moore tried their luck at overtaking Muller, but none were successful.

Moore ended up second, Wolfard third, German fell to fourth and Shane Rau, Shelton made a late charge for fifth.

Hobby Stocks

Simpson normally doesn’t get the pole position but Saturday was the exception and He took advantage of it.

It was really a one car race with Simpson out for a Saturday night drive and Eddie Blood, Olympia, Keith Knowlton, Bremerton, Brian Izzi, Izzi was doing double duty Saturday night, driving his “Hornets” car earlier in the night and his “Hobby Stock” in this race.) and Roy Borgeson, McCleary, vying for what was left.

Blood and Izzi both left the track on lap-13 with mechanical problems.

Borgeson finished second, Knowlton third, Jeremy Blood, Hoquiam picked up fourth and rookie Weston Smith, South Bend fifth, for his best finish this year.

Hornets

Izzi had no problem as he was well out in front of the rest of the field.

Rory Clevenger, Olympia was the only car even close to the leader, but could make no inroads on the front runner Izzi.

Clevenger was followed by Clifford gill, Aberdeen, Kevin Krenz, Elma and Travis Blood, Olympia.

Izzi took the checkered flag a full five plus seconds in front of Clevenger, Krenz made a last lap pass on Gill for third, and Alex Coumbs, Olympia finished fifth.

Cruisers

Brearty/Dawson entered victory lane for the first time. They took advantage of a complete restart on the first lap to grab the lead from the driving team of Dana Austin, Olympia/James Hinkley, Centralia.

Brearty/Dawson kept the rest of the field in their rear view mirror for the entire race.

Dan Green, Aberdeen/Brad McCutcheon, Shelton edged out Austin/Hinkley for second, Jim Atkinson, Grayland/Mike Clingen took fourth and Ray Tucker, Ocosta/Jeff Stuben, Aberdeen fifth.

Next weekend is the Third Annual Brownfield Memorial, combined with the end of the ASCS Northwest Region and an ASCS National event all rolled up into one two day event.

The sprints will be completing five races in six days, with three races at Oregon tracks, Medford on Monday, Cottage Grove Tuesday and Lebanon on Wednesday before coming to Elma for races both Friday and Saturday nights.

The Triple X Racing “Ford Focus Midgets” will also be on the card both nights in Elma.

Gates open at 4:30 with racing around 7:00.

Grays Harbor Raceway Top Finishers

Whitney’s Auto Group “360 Sprints” A Main. 1. Glenn Borden Jr. 2. Shawn rice. 3. Jay Cole. 4. Steve Vague. 5. Otto Jorgenson. 6. JJ Hickle. 7. Dan Dunlap. 8. Randy VanAagten. 9. Logan Forler. 10. Rob Johnson. Trophy Dash-Borden Jr. Top Points (Unofficial.) Borden Jr.-941, Cole-896, Hickle-874, Rice-860, Vague-855, Forler-777, Dishneau-731, O. Jorgenson-679, D. Dunlap-673, J. Dunlap-622.

Triple X Racing “Ford Focus Midgets” A Main. 1. Seth Hespe. 2. Brandon Daniel. 3. Jonathan Jorgenson. 4. Allison Journey. 5. Jeremy Miller. 6. Lee St Paul. 7. Ariel Biggs. 8. Todd Hartman. 9. Bailey Studer. 10. Anika Johanson. Trophy Dash-Daniel. Top Points (Unofficial). J. Jorgenson-855, Daniel-839, Hespe-804, Journey-796, Miller-738, St Paul-724. Biggs-719, Hartman-701, Johanson-610, Bell-564.

Ship Wreck Beads “Modifieds A Main. 1. Josh Muller. 2. Craig Moore. 3. David Wolfard. 4. Joe German. 5. Shane Rau. 6. Kris Asche. 7. Randy Ward. 8. Jim Oien Jr. 9. Dan Wolfard. 10. Del Schnitzer. Trophy Dash-Muller. Top Points (Unofficial). Muller-877, Miller-864, Wolfard-829., German-800, Oien Jr-784, Rau-735, Dineen-732, Burns-694, Foster-688, Signal-628.

Cut Rate Auto Parts “Hobby Stocks” A Main. 1. Zack Simpson. 2. Roy Borgeson. 3. Keith Knowlton. 4. Jeremy Blood. 5. Weston Smith. 6. Alan Muenchow. 7. Brian Izzi. 8. Eddie Blood. 9. Derek Junell. 10. Brad Burnett. Trophy Dash-Simpson. Top Points (Unofficial). Simpson-1120, Knowlton-1027, Muenchow-974, Junell-972, E. Blood-921, Izzi-845, Wilder-508, Smith-432, Jeremy Blood-396, Borgeson-361.

HiLine Homes “Hornets” A Main. 1 Brian Izzi. 2. Rory Clevenger. 3. Kevin Krenz. 4. Clifford Gill. 5. Alex Coumbs. Trophy Dash-Izzi. Top Points (Unofficial). Krenz-488, Clevenger-471, Gill-456, T. Blood-349, Izzi-297.

Cruisers A Main. 1. Travis Brearty/Henry Dawson, 2. Dan Green/Brad McCutcheon. 3. Dana Austin/James Hinkley. 4. Jim Atkinson/Mike Clingen. 5. Ray Tucker/Jeff Stuben. Trophy Dash-Austin/Hinkley. Top Points (Unofficial). Austin/Hinkley-693. Atkinson/Clingen-664. Brearty/Brearty-485, Smith/Heimer-333, Zoren/Richards-285.