Simpson wins annual “Hobby Stock Shoot Out” at Grays Harbor

By Jack Fordyce, Grays Harbor Raceway (8/8/09)

ELMA, Wash. — For the second year in a row, Hoquiam’s Zack Simpson walked away with the top prize money of $1,000.00 when he took the checkered flag in the 40-lap Cut Rate Auto Parts “Hobby Stock Shoot Out” Saturday night.

Olympia’s Brian Izzi had no trouble in the HiLine Homes “Hornets” 10-lap feature, leading from start to finish.

Longview’s Brian Vaughn took over the lead with six-laps left in the “Sportsman’s” class 20-lap feature and went on to the victory.

The driving team of Mike DeBoard, Satsop/Zeb Conrad, Montesano regained the lead late in the “Cruisers” 10-lap feature for their second win of the season.

With the possibility of rain looming on the horizon, race officials moved the “Hobby Stock Shoot Out” up on the race program to make sure that they would at least get the race in. As it turned out, other than some minor sprinkles, the rain didn’t materielize, and all of the feature races were able to be completed, although they were shortened.

Hobby Stock Shoot Out

It took a little bit longer for Simpson to take his accustomed spot at the front of the pack this night, seventeen-laps, as Simpson started tenth in the 19-car field.

Simpson was able to escape the many mishaps in the race as only seven of the 19-car field were still on the track at the finish and just five of those were on the lead lap.

The race was stopped on lap-9 when four cars, Derek Junell of Key Center, Ian McCutcheon of Kirkland, Chris Graf of Astoria and Eddie Blood of Olympia all tangled in turn-2. It got started when Blood got sideways and nobody had any place to go. All four cars were removed from the track via the wrecker. Blood was transported to a local hospital for observation.

Gresham, OR driver Casey Jones had the early lead until Puyallup’s Paul Short wrested it from on lap-6.

Simpson had worked his way through the field into second place by lap-7.

McCleary’s Brandon Daniel had the top spot until he had a flat tire onlap-14, giving the lead back to Short.

It took Simpson just three more laps before he got by Short, with Hoquiam’s Brandon Biggs in third, Elma’s Chaz Wilder fourth and Bob Smith of Cornelius, OR. fifth.

From there to the finish it was just another Saturday night drive for Simpson.

Short was a distant second, Wilder got by Biggs for third and Smith finished fifth.

“I really had to work for it tonight.” Simpson said. “The longer the race went on, the better the car got.”

Hornets

Izzi is no stranger to victory lane and Saturday night was no exception. Izzi had the pole at the start and it quickly developed into a three car race between Izzi, fellow Olympia drivers, Rory Clevenger and Tyson Blood, Elma’s Kevin Krenz and Aberdeen’s Clifford Gill.

Krenz brought out the only caution flag of the race when he lost a wheel on lap-5 and was done for the night.

Blood mad a last lap pass on Clevenger for second, Brent Hawk of Chehalis finished fourth and Richard Turner of Olympia fifth.

Sportsman’s

With only six of the Sportsman’s class making the trip up from Oregon, and one of those broke a driveline in the heat race early in the night, Vaughn didn’t have to work too hard for the win, even though he started last in the field.

Vaughn was in second place by lap-4, behind Tumwater’s Paul Liner and took the lead on lap-15. Liner finished second, Celeste Hardesty of St Helens, OR. third, Toledo’s Larry Lemmons was fourth and Vancouver’s Rich Rehamek fifth.

Cruisers

The Cruiser class lost a car even before the heat race, when Elma’s Brian Brearty/Jim Mills blew up a motor during hot laps which left only four cars for the night. Brearty had won the last two “Cruiser” feature events and was hoping to make it three in a row.

DeBoard/Conrad had the pole at the start, with point’s leaders Dana Austin, Olympia/James Hinkley next to them.

DeBoard/Conrad gave up the lead to Austin/Hinkley for three laps on lap-5, but regained it on lap-8. Shelton’s Todd Ramsfield/Doug Richert finished third and Jim Atkinson, Grayland/Mike Clingen, Westport finished fourth.

Next Saturday night will see the return of the “360 Sprints”, along with the “Modifieds, “Hobby Stocks” and “Cruisers”. Gates open at 4:30 with racing around 7:00.

Top Finishers

Cut Rate Auto Parts “Hobby Stock Shoot Out”

A Main. 1. Zack Simpson, Hoquiam. 2. Paul Short, Puyallup. 3. Chaz Wilder, Elma. 4. Brandon Biggs, Hoquiam. 5. Bob Smith, Cornelius, OR. 6. Dennis Khroling, Vancouver. 7. Doug Scott, Sandy, OR. 8. Brandon Daniel, McCleary. 9. Ross Watkins, South Prarie. 10. Jeff Lovell, Canby, OR.

Heat 1. 1. Simpson. 2. Daniel. 3. Ian McCutcheon, Kirkland. 4. Zach Fuller, Tacoma. 5. Chris Graf, Astoria.

Heat 2. 1. Eddie Blood, Olympia. 2. Wilder. 3. Josh Jones, Tigard, OR. 4. Smith. 5. Biggs.

Heat 3. 1. Short. 2. Watkins. 3. Scott. 4. Khroling. 5. Alan Muenchow, Shelton.

Trophy Dash. Daniel. Fast Time: Daniel. 18.363 73.517 MPH.

HiLine Homes “Hornets”

A Main. 1. Brian Izzi, Olympia. 2. Tyson Blood, Olympia. 3. Rory Clevenger, Olympia. 4. Brent Hawk, Chehalis. 5. Richard Turner, Olympia. 6. Cliff gill, Aberdeen. 7. Lillian Renfro, Aberdeen. 8. Jeff Elliot, Chehalis. 9. Kevin Krenz, Elma.

Heat 1. Clevenger. 2. Blood. 3. Hawk. 4. Kyle Nerum, Lacey. 5. Renfro.

Heat 2. 1. Izzi. 2. Krenz. 3. Lance Elliot, Chehalis. 4. Gill. 5. Turner.

Top Points (Unofficial). Krenz-575. Clevenger-571. Gill-545. Izzi-407. Travis Blood-359.

“Sportsman”

A Main. 1. Brian Vaughn, Longview. 2. Paul Liner, Tumwater. 3. Celeste Hardesty, St Helens, OR. 4. Larry Lemmons, Toledo. 5. Rick Rehanek, Vancouver.

Heat Race. 1. Lemmons. 2. Vaughn. 3. Liner. 4. Rehanek. 5. Hardesty.

Trophy Dash. Lemmons.

Fast Time: Vaughn. 18.204 74. 160 MPH.

“Cruiser”

A Main. 1. Mike DeBoard, Satsop/Zeb Conrad, Montesano. 2. Dana Austin, Olympia/James Hinkley, Centralia. 3. Todd Ramsfield/Doug Richert, Shelton. 4. Jim Atkinson, Grayland/Mike Clingen, Westport.

Heat Race. 1. DeBoard/Conrad. 2. Austin/Hinkley. 3. Atkinson/Clingen. 4. Ramsfield/Richert.

Top Points (Unofficial). Austin/Hinkley-894. Atkinson/Clingen-852. Brearty/Brearty-595. Smith/Heimer-463. Zoren/Richards-387.