Sawin, Lang win features at Evergreen Speedway

MONROE — A mix of new and familiar faces collected trophies on Saturday night at Evergreen Speedway.

Shane Sawin won the Super Figure 8 feature, defending champion Naima Lang swept both ends of a Super Late Model doubleheader, former champion Scott LaCross won the Mini-Stock feature, Cody Koroshes won the Stinger 8 event and David Stewart Jr. recorded his first win in the Street Stock feature.

Coming just a week after he finished runner-up in the 60 Minutes of FEAR, Sawin climbed to the top of victory stage on Saturday after inheriting the lead from Greg Scott on lap 6 of the Super Figure 8 feature.

“It’s been an awesome week; we’re still coming off last weekend’s high,” Sawin said after the race. “Thanks to Vern Deitz for giving me the ride.”

Two-time defending champion John “Cowboy” Carlson finished second, Glen Davis was third, Nick Gunderson was fourth and Sean Peters rounded out the top five.

Scott, the winner of last weekend’s 60 Minutes of FEAR, bumped past Gunderson for the lead entering the right-hand turn but when Gunderson spun officials black-flagged Scott, putting Sawin into the lead.

Sawin held off Carlson on a restart about halfway through the 25-lap race, then built up a comfortable lead en route to the win.

Gunderson lead the early laps, and was involved in the first caution when Doug Delfel’s tire came off near the intersection, bouncing first off Gunderson’s car and then another.

Ricky “The Kid” Deitz and two-time defending Stinger 8 champion Mike Middleton — making his division debut — won the heat races.

Lang, the defending division and NASCAR state champion, fought a different battle in each of the two 50-lap Super Late Model features. In the early race he dueled with James Mugge and in the nightcap Steve Ptacek was his primary competition.

Both Mugge and Ptacek led big portions of the respective races on the three-eighths mile oval, making the defending champion work for the wins.

Ptacek passed Lang at the start-finish line for the lead on lap 20 of the second race. Ptacek then held Lang off through one restart before giving up the lead for good after another restart on lap 39.

After the third and final yellow flag flew on lap 46, Lang was able to hold onto the lead. Ptacek finished second, Jeff Knight battled back from several spins to finish third, Mugge was fourth and Natalie Sather rounded out the top five.

In the opening race, Lang passed Mugge on the outside on a lap-31 restart en route to his second win of the season. Mugge was second, Ptacek finished third, Sather was fourth and Moore was fifth.

Mugge took the lead from Ptacek at the start-finish line on lap 11. Lang followed Mugge into second-place later on the same lap, and the two of them broke away from the field until a caution on lap 30 when Sather spun on the backstretch.

What followed was a long stretch of frustration, as the first attempt at a restart was waved off, and one lap after the race was successfully restarted, Knight hit the wall and damaged his left front suspension, bringing the caution flag back out and ending his race.

Almost like déjà vu, again the first try at a restart was called off and the caution flag was back out one lap after the race was back under green as Mugge spun out enter turn 2, collecting Sather and Tom Hughs in the process.

Hughs’ car hit the barrier tires head-on, finishing him for the first race. Hughs did start the second race, albeit without any sheetmetal on the front end of his car.

Knight was able to start the second race as well, after making a quick trip to his shop to salvage parts off the car that was badly damaged in a wreck during practice on the five-eighths mile oval on May 16.

Stewart started on the pole and led flag-to-flag in the 25-lap Street Stock feature, building up a comfortable lead before the halfway point en route to his first career win.

“My dad is right behind me all the way, and so is my mom,” Stewart, a second-generate racer, said from victory stage. “Thanks mom and dad, I couldn’t do it without you.”

Two-time defending champion Lane Sundholm was second, Jim Foti finished third, Joe Kneeland was fourth and Casey Branch came in fifth.

While Stewart checked out on the field, the battle was for second place between Sundholm, Branch, Foti Joe Kneeland. By lap 17 the four cars were two-by-two coming out of turn 4 and they stayed that way down the frontstretch and into turn 1.

“My dad pulled out my rearview mirror,” Stewart said when asked if he saw any of the action behind him. “He said I didn’t need it, so I didn’t see anything.”

On lap 20 Sundholm and Foti split around Branch entering turn 2, with Sundholm coming out of the three-wide situation with second place and Foti with third.

The race took two tries to get started but was slowed by just one caution. Travis Blackwood’s car shut down before the first lap was completed, and one lap after the race was finally started, AJ Baxter spun in turn 1, collecting Darrel Lutovsky — who was unable to continue — Clark Casey and Tim Widener.

Widener and Blackwood won the heat races.

LaCross also led wire-to-wire, moving up from starting on the inside of row 2 after the green flag fell. The 25-lap feature was caution-free.

“It’s been a long time,” LaCross, the division champion in 2001 and 02, said from victory stage. “I don’t think I’ve been here for four or five years. It’s pretty cool.”

After spending last season racing in the late-model division, LaCross returned to the more economical Mini-Stocks, driving the car Mindy Harriss drove last season.

Kris Harriss was second, Michael Fritz finished third, Kenny Schukar was fourth and Jon Roberts was fifth.

Kris Harriss started outside of LaCross and followed him to the front, but he was unable to get around the former champion. LaCross and Harriss broke away from the pack, with most of the action in the race coming in the battle for third between Schukar, Fritz and Nat Barber, who was driving in Harriss’ backup car after blowing a head gasket earlier.

Fritz finally got around Schukar for third on lap 14, but the gap between he and the leaders was too great to close over the final laps.

Roberts won the heat race.

Koroshes survived a green-white-checkered finish to win the time-shortened Stinger 8 feature. Scheduled to go 25 laps, cleanup after a late caution took too long.

JJ Edwards finished second, Seth Funden was third, Josh Young came in fourth and Ben Chandler rounded out the top five.

Jim Putenney led the early laps, but Rob Dykstra got around him to take the lead going into the left-hander on lap 5. Koroshes was able to get past Dykstra a few laps after that.

John Lewis and Mike Middleton won the heat races.

Saturday, June 6, at Monroe, Wash.

Unofficial, provided by track officials

(Car number in parenthesis)

Pawn X-Change Super Figure 8 main (25 laps)

1. (67) Shane Sawin

2. (50) John Carlson

3. (32) Glen Davis

4. (04) Nick Gunderson

5. (8) Sean Peters (-1 lap)

6. (95) Bruce Wilson (-1 lap)

7. (75) Mike Middleton (-2 laps)

8. (45) Jake Repin (-2 laps)

9. (76) Ricky Deitz (-4 laps)

10. (08) Greg Scott (-15 laps)

11. (53) Doug Wilkinson (-15 laps)

12. (01) Doug Delfel (-22 laps)

Heat 1: 1. Middleton, 2. Mike Buse, 3. Repin, 4. Gunderson, 5. Wilson, 6. Delfel, 7. Wilkinson, 8. Ryan Barber.

Heat 2: 1. Deitz, 2. Carlson, 3. Scott, 4. Davis, 5. Sawin, 6. Peters.

Speedway Chevrolet Super Late Models (two 50-lap races on 3/8s mile oval)

Race 1

1. (00) Naima Lang

2. (34) James Mugge

3. (06) Steve Ptacek

4. (94) Natalie Sather

5. (16) Daniel Moore

6. (48) Tom Hughs (-18 laps)

7. (70) Jeff Knight (-19 laps)

Race 2

1. (00) Naima Lang

2. (06) Steve Ptacek

3. (70) Jeff Knight

4. (34) James Mugge

5. (94) Natalie Sather

6. (16) Daniel Moore (-1 lap)

7. (48) Tom Hughs (-33 laps)

Les Schwab Tires Street Stocks (25 laps)

1. (15) David Stewart Jr.

2. (00) Lane Sundholm

3. (85) Jim Foti

4. (99) Joe Kneeland

5. (71) Casey Branch

6. (76) Frank Cowgill

7. (66) Ryan Hansen

8. (34) Andy Sole

9. (54) Tim Widener

10. (65) Clark Casey

11. (8) AJ Baxter

12. (29) Mike Ebeling

13. (05) Dwayne Humenney (-1 lap)

14. (17) Nikki Bristol (-13 laps)

15. (53) Darrel Lutovsky (-24 laps)

16. (5) Travis Blackwood (-25 laps)

Heat 1: 1. Blackwood, 2. Lutovsky, 3. Sundholm, 4. Foti, 5. Ebeling, 6. Humenney, 7. Baxter, 8. Hansen.

Heat 2: 1. Widener, 2. Kneeland, 3. Casey, 4. Stewart, 5. Cowgill, 6. Sole, 7. Branch, 8. Bristol.

Foster Press Mini-Stocks (25 laps)

1. (99) Scott LaCross

2. (12) Kris Harriss

3. (2) Michael Fritz

4. (24) Kenny Schukar

5. (64) Jon Roberts

6. (97) Nat Barber

7. (8) Cody Koroshes

8. (16) Travis Woodward

9. (07) Andrew Schukar (-1 lap)

10. (22) Robert Cooke (-12 laps)

11. (88) Bob Edwards (-24 laps)

Heat: 1. Roberts, 2. Harriss, 3. Fritz, 4. K. Schukar, 5. LaCross, 6. Koroshes, 7. A. Schukar, 8. Cooke, 9. Steve Peters, 10. Woodward, 11. Edwards.

Stinger 8 (22 laps)

1. (5) Cody Koroshes

2. (84) JJ Edwards

3. (40) Seth Funden

4. (22) Josh Young

5. (99) Ben Chandler

6. (42) John Lewis

7. (73) Todd Stillwell

8. (44) Dave Collis

9. (51) Rob Dykstra

10. (30) Steve Peters

11. (117) Andrew Reavis (-1 lap)

12. (75) Mike Middleton (-2 laps)

13. (69) Nick Vandenbosch (-2 laps)

14. (74) Lance O’Grain (-4 laps)

15. (86) Willey Buse (-4 laps)

16. (06) Joselyn Lafleur (-4 laps)

17. (04) Jessica Gray (-5 laps)

18. (41) Jim Putenney (-9 laps)