Ron Bennett
For The New Era
Lebanon, Oregon May 28th,
Saturday night?s 40 lap Outlaw Dirt Late Model feature at Willamette Speedway was everything that a race fan could want. From the drop of the green, to the checkered flag, the action-packed race had hard racing from the front of the pack, to the back. At the end, an exhausted Trevor Glaser sat in the winner?s circle along with journeyman racer, Mike Bennett and part time racer, Linc Houfek. The threesome had taken vastly different routes to their podium finishes.
Glaser, by virtue of winning the previous week?s feature, started 16th in the 16 car field, worked his way to 9th by lap 10, 7th by lap 20, 2nd by lap 24 and passed leader Jerry York on lap 30 to lead the final 10 laps.
York, the 1996 Willamette champion, made his first appearance of the 2004 season behind the wheel of point leader Rob Mayea?s potent Rayburn and started the Del Gerig wrenched machine alongside 2003 track champ Tory Swayngim on the front row of the feature. York grabbed the lead on lap 3 and appeared to be unbeatable. Lap 22 saw the red flag fly for a multi-car pileup triggered by Linc Houfek bumping the 2nd running car of Swayngim for a track blocking, chain-reaction pile-up in turn 3. Swayngim was put back in second and Houfek was sent to the rear of the lead lap cars. Racing resumed with York leading Swayngim until a lap 29 yellow flew for the damaged car of Randy Boyd who had jumped the turn 1-2 cushion and ended up hard against the wall. As the field passed the back-stretch restart cone, Trevor Glaser made a daring flat-out move on York and 2nd running Swayngim to take the lead through the 3rd and 4th turns and lead the final 10 laps. Swayngim, who had also passed York, ran in 2nd until a lap 34 nudge from York sent him around to partially block the track and bring out the red. Swayngim was sent back to 2nd by the officials and York went to the rear of the 5 lead-lap cars for the restart.
The best-ever second place finish of Mike Bennett proved that steady heads-up driving pays off, as the veteran racer skillfully avoided many of the pile-ups to make the finish with a minimum of damage to his well worn, but fast #3 car. Despite his lap 22 penalty, Linc Houfek came back from 10th to a third place finish in an event that featured a lot of high-speed racing and some crumpled sheet metal. York finished 4th and the badly battered #97 of Bob Boyd scored a top-five finish in spite of being trapped in several unavoidable tangles.
John Campos, a youngster with a lot of driving talent, won the 25 lap Outlaw B-Main over Eugene driver Skeet Phillips. Virgil Bradbury, Tom Lawson and Andy Breshears filled out the top-five. Lawson, who races a heavier, less powerful, Sportsman class car at Cottage Grove Speedway, led the first five laps and placed a respectable fourth in the 12 car event.
Bob Boyd drove the Mike Byrd owned #83 Super Sport to a win in the 25 lap Super Sport feature. Todd Shandy, Randy Barley, Ron Burchard and Rob Hoefs scored top-5 finishes. Boyd?s win and Ron Burchard?s 4th place finish widened the gap between the pair in the battle for the 2004 Super Sport championship awards.
The Sportsman events were extremely well run and competitive even though a third of the 50 car field was made up of rookies or first-time visitors. Few spin-outs or wrecks marred the events in spite of being run under a full-moon, if you believe in that sort of thing.
First time visitor Pamela Graham of Vancouver, Washington easily won the 12 lap D-Main and semi-regular Donald Schott of Portland took the 15 lap C-Main. The 20 lap B-Main went to Scio veteran Bob Trusty over the Dodge Dakota pickup of Brad Hopkins and veteran Erik Jarnport in the black and silver ?Raider? car.
The 25 lap Sportsman feature went to point-leader David Cronk over fast-timer and Dash-winner Mike Bennett who races in both the Sportsman and Outlaw divisions. Veterans Jim Sapp, Jason Sommer and Gregg Shandy filled the top-5 positions.
Next weekend will see Labor Day weekend events on Saturday and Sunday nights and a special ?Trash Car? show on Monday afternoon with a $5-per-ticket admission price.
Saturday night?s 3-Division Dirt Late Model show will feature a 50 lap Outlaw feature and Sunday night will see all three divisions return for a full program that features a 100 lap Outlaw Main event. Mondays Labor Day show gets started with 1 pm time trials and paint-to-pass racing action at 2.30 pm.
Sportsman summary:
Sportsman Fast time ? 16.922 ? Mike Bennett-Estacada.
Fast Four Trophy Dash ? Mike Bennett.
1st Heat race: 1- Pamela Graham-Vancouver, 2-Paul Moses Jr.-Stayton, 3-Jared Steward-Sweet Home.
2nd Heat race: 1-Brad Tonkin-Lebanon, 2-Anne Campbell-Dallas, 3-Bill Daun-Keizer.
3rd Heat race: 1-Laurie Stevenson-Mill City, 2-James Whitehouse-Lafayette, 3-Chris Mott-Salem.
4th Heat race: 1-Dale Holland-Portland, 2-John Williams-Albany, 3-Kye Frick-Sweet Home.
5th Heat race: 1-Keith Marson-Molalla, 2-Bob Trusty-Scio, 3-David Perez-Lebanon.
6th Heat race: 1-Jim Sapp-Albany, 2-Mike Wolfe-Scotts Mills, 3-Darryl Blanchard-Depoe Bay.
D- Main event: 1-Pamela Graham, 2-Paul Moses Jr., 3-Allan Taylor-Albany, 4-David Bennett-Lebanon, 5-Larry Wallace-Corvallis, 6-Jared Steward.
C-Main event: 1-Donald Schott, 2-Billy Slover-Salem, 3-Laurie Stevenson, 4-Chris Mott, 5-Sue Futral-Sweet Home, 6-Christian Keeney-Sweet Home, 7-James Whitehouse, 8-Bill Duan, 9-Brad Tonkin, 10-Bill Ayers-Independence, 11-Don Piefer-Lebanon, 12-Anne Campbell-Dallas.
B- Main event: 1-Bob Trusty, 2-Brad Hopkins-Lebanon, 3-Eric Jarnport-Monmouth, 4-Jeff Marson-Molalla, 5-Bill Gibbs-Canby, 6-David Perez, 7-Rob Burchard-Albany, 8-Taylor Dittman-Turner, 9-Mike Souther-Woodburn, 10-Adam Passmore-Lebanon, 11-Keith Marson, 12-Kye Frick, 13-Ryan Greenfield-Aloha.
A-Main event: 1-David Cronk-Portland, 2-Mike Bennett, 3-Jim Sapp, 4-Jason Sommer-Lebanon, 5-Gregg Shandy-Albany, 6-Darryl Blanchard, 7-Gary Archer-Brownsville, 8-Anthony Hopper-Lebanon, 9-Brad Landers-Lebanon, 10-Stacy Kreger-Albany, 11-Mike Wolfe, 12-Tom Conway-Albany, 13-Bill Tewalt-Lebanon, 14-Glenn Blanton-Dallas.
Super Sport summary:
Super Sport Fast time ? 16.456 ? Dean Archer-Brownsville.
Fast Four Trophy Dash ? Dean Archer.
1st Heat race: 1-Bob Kingsberry-Lebanon, 2-Michael Day-Salem, 3-Tom Pitts-Lebanon.
2nd Heat race: 1-Todd Shandy-Albany, 2-Randy Barley-Albany, 3-Tony Seeley-Salem.
3rd Heat race: 1-Bob Boyd-Albany, 2-Dennis Archer-Halsey, 3-Dean Archer.
B-Main event: 1-Tom Pitts, 2-Bob Kingsberry, 3-Michael Day, 4-Craig Phillips-Salem, 5-Doug Mott-Salem, 6-Peg Pitts-Lebanon, 7-Leisa Payne-Albany.
A-Main event: 1-Bob Boyd, 2-Todd Shandy, 3-Randy Barley, 4-Ron Burchard-Philomath, 5-Rob Hoefs-Newport, 6-Ron Berry-Salem, 7-Mike Scofield-Eugene, 8-Dean Archer, 9-Dennis Archer, 10-Tony Seeley, 11-Glen Hackney-Lebanon.
Outlaw summary:
Outlaw Fast time ? 15.433 ? Bob Boyd-Albany.
Fast Four Trophy Dash ? Trevor Glaser-Tangent.
1st Heat race: 1-Skeet Phillips-Eugene, 2-Kevin Keeney-Sweet Home, 3-Gary Smith-Lebanon.
2nd Heat race: 1-John Campos-Redmond, 2-Justin Evans-Salem, 3-Andy Breshears-Lebanon.
3rd Heat race: 1-Jerry York-Albany, 2-Rick Hodges-Albany, 3-Linc Houfek-Albany.
4th Heat race: 1-Trevor Glaser, 2-Bill Workman-Aurora, 3-Dan Kingsberry-Lebanon.
B- Main event: 1-John Campos, 2-Skeet Phillips, 3-Virgil Bradbury-Aumsville, 4-Tom Lawson-Veneta, 5-Andy Breshears, 6-Darvin Tramel-Aurora, 7-Clint Mitchell-Redmond, 8-Toby Mohr-Redmond, 9-Tony Breakall-Corvallis, 10-Jim Holdredge-Sheridan, 11-Justin Evans, 12-Gary Smith.
A-Main event: 1-Trevor Glaser, 2-Mike Bennett-Estacada, 3-Linc Houfek, 4-Jerry York, 5-Bob Boyd, 6-Mike DeSilva-Springfield, 7-Rick Hodges, 8-Todd Maher-Salem, 9-Tory Swayngim-Lebanon, 10-Mark Carrell-Bend, 11-Billy Workman Jr.-Aurora, 12-Wayne Sturdevant-Springfield, 13-Randy Boyd-Lebanon, 14-Lynn McDonald-Sweet Home, 15-Dan Kingsberry-Lebanon, 16-Bill Workman.