Northern Sprint Tour Southern Oregon Speedway report

Roger Crockett of Rio Linda, CA stopped in the hy-per-lube Northern Sprint Tour winners circle for the first time Saturday, June 30th, after chasing Dale Smith of Cottage Grove, Oregon for over 29 laps of the 30 lap feature event at Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford, OR.

The finish had enough action and controversy to keep fans and racers talking for some time as the two came together in the fourth turn of the final lap, resulting in Smith spinning and Crockett managing to beat the hard charging second and third place cars to the checkered flag.

After chasing Smith both in the clear and through heavy traffic, Crockett spent the last five laps less than a car length behind and was poking the front of his car under Smith in the corners. After pulling even on the back straight, going into the final turn to the checkered flag, contact was made with Smith spinning and collecting Dan Menne while Crockett recovered just in time to salvage his first Northern Sprint Tour victory.

The fans were divided on the outcome with many believing Crockett should have been penalized, but the officials all felt it was a result of hard racing.

Following Crockett to the line were Jason Solwold and Rick Fauver, who had been waging their own battle for position off and on during the event and were usually less than five car lengths apart. Jayme Barnes and Shawna Wilskey took the next two spots with Gary Taylor filling out the top six.

There was lots of moving to the front in the next three finishers as Jay Cole picked up 6 spots, Barry Martinez grabbed 4 positions and Jeremy Cooper passed 7 cars to his 9th place position in front of Smith.

Local driver, Matt Rodgers of Medford had a good run also going from 20th to 13th place and Rick Smith went from 17th to 12th.

Young Gary Taylor of Snohomish, WA made the B-main a cake walk for the win as he cruised to an easy victory with a 10 car length lead over Rodgers in second place. Rodgers had a good run getting past Brandon Harkness and Scott Adams to take second place. Adams finished third as Harkness kept his fourth place spot and Chad Bauer held off Ron Smith for the last transfer spot to the feature event.

Cole took the first heat win over Cooper and Fauver as Ron Smith and Bauer diced through out the race for mid pack positions.

The second heat went to Scott Aumen as Rick Smith worked overtime to keep Crockett at bay in the battle for second place.

The final heat went to Jeff Thompson who took the lead from Solwold on a first lap re-start and went the distance. Solwold put the pressure on the final two laps but came up second. Cale Carder was third and Martinez held off D. Smith for fourth.

Crockett won the dash over D. Smith, Solwold, Fauver, Barnes and Wilskey.

The next hy-per-lube Northern Sprint Tour event will be a return to Southern Oregon Speedway on Monday, July 16th for the opening night of Northwest Speedweek, a six race, six day, five track marathon that will test the drivers and crews to their utmost. Over 50 cars are expected to take to the track.

SUMMARY Fast Time - Shawna Wilskey - 12.652

Heat 1 - Jay Cole, Jeremy Cooper, Rick Fauver, Shawna Wilskey, Jay R. Harkness, Gary Taylor, Ron Smith, Chad Bauer, Melissa Yates, Anthony Nunes.

Heat 2 - Scott Aumen, Rick Smith, Roger Crockett, Dan Menne, Jayme Barnes, Scott Adams, Matt Rodgers, Eric Trask, Bruce Giege.

Heat 3 - Jeff Thompson, Jason Solwold, Cale Carder, Barry Martinez, Dale Smith, Brandon Harkness, Todd Zeitler, Tim Sherman, Jim Cress.

Dash - Crockett, D. Smith, Solwold, Fauver, Barnes, Wilskey.

B-Main - Taylor, Rodgers, Adams, B. Harkness, Bauer, Ron Smith, Yates, Trask, Giege, Nunes, Sherman, Cress, Zeitler.

A-Main - Crockett, Solwold, Fauver, Barnes, Wilskey, Taylor, Cole, Martinez, Cooper, D. Smith, Thompson, Rick Smith, Rodgers, B. Harkness, Bauer, Carder, Menne, Aumen, Adams, J. Harkness.

-George Hespe