NST: Elma results 2006-07-28

Travis Jacobson Is The Northern Sprint Tour's Newest Winner

Travis Jacobson from Lake Stevens, Wash. continued a week of firsts with his 25 lap Northern Sprint Tour main event win at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. on Friday night. It was Jacobson's first such feat with the series in a week that has also seen Cottage Grove, Ore.'s Danny Horner and Jason Sides out of Bartlett, Tenn. pick up their first career NST wins. The victory came over a very stout field of 48 sprinters.

Also making the accomplishment that much sweeter was the fact that Jacobson had to fend off Enumclaw, Wash. native and current NASCAR Nextel Cup star Kasey Kahne for the duration. The two shared the front row with Kahne on the pole, but the outside was the line to have as Jacobson used the cushion to launch around Kahne through the first two corners. Behind them Jay Cole from near by Shelton, Wash. and Steve Kent out of Fresno, Calif. swapped third place on consecutive laps with well executed slide jobs.

It was 8 laps in when the leader caught traffic and the excitement level picked up. Kahne struggled to stay within striking distance as Jacobson's fast pace and work with the lappers gave him a healthily maintained advantage. Meanwhile, Sides was making the biggest moves of the event. He took the green flag in the 15th position, but steadily worked his way through the field. By the 21st lap he had cracked the top-5.

Lap 21 was also the same lap that the events only pause happened. The yellow flag came out for Langley, B.C.'s Travis Rutz who coasted to a stop high against the fence in the fourth turn. Following the restart, fourth place Cole made a massive dive to the inside of the first turn in an attempt to pick off more than one car but it didn't work. The night's second quick qualifier jumped the cushion once he got to it and in the long run actually dropped a position to fifth.

Back up front though it was all Jacobson the rest of the way. He passed beneath the checkered flag first ahead of Kahne, Sides, Kent, and Cole. Sixth through tenth were Medford, Ore. resident Roger Crockett, Mitch Olson out of Tacoma, Wash., Horner, Randy Van Aagten from Shelton, Wash., and Henry Van Dam of Enumclaw, Wash.

In the 15 lap "B" main, Steve Vague from Kirkland, Wash. jumped to the lead from the pole in the non-stop race. Rutz was the only competitor who had a shot to take the top spot away, but entering turn one on the thirteenth lap he got too low and hopped the inside berm with the left front tire and went up the track. Great driving by Rutz as well as Vague helped to avoid a melee and both continued on. Vague went uncontested the rest of the way to transfer to the feature event along with Rutz, Van Aagten, and Placerville, Calif.'s Jimmy Trulli. J.J. Hickle from Quilcene, Wash. missed a transfer by just two positions after starting as the alternate; Rob Held out of Sutherlin, Ore. would be the alternate for the "A".

The 6 lap dash which determined the first three rows of the main event was won by Kahne. The remaining five spots were filled by Jacobson, Kent, Cole, Crockett, and Van Dam.

An eventful "C" main event saw two potential transfers lose those positions in two separate incidents. The first occurred in turn four of the fourth lap when Ferndale, Wash. native Chris Pattenaude spun while leading the 10 lap event. The second was when T.J. Winningham of Gold Hill, Ore. also spun, this time while running third. After that it was Adam Main from Grass Valley, Calif. keeping enough distance between himself and 8th place starter Bill Nutter of Central Point, Ore. for the win. Also moving up to the "B" main were Creswell, Ore.'s Dallas Zuniga and Joe Ramaker from Boise, Idaho. Ramaker was unable to start the next event, thus allowing Hickle's continuance as alternate.

The night's first 10 lap heat race saw Kent take the victory taking with him the rest of the top-4 transfers straight to the "A" main who consisted of Kahne, Sedro Woolley, Wash.'s Steve Kilcup, and Jacobson. Sides was victorious in the second heat followed by Olson, Horner, and Cole. Winning heat three was Jared Ridge out of Snohomish, Wash. ahead of Marc Huson from Clear Lake, Wash., Everett, Wash.'s Rick Fauver, and Van Dam. Victorious in the fourth and final heat was Crockett in front of Brent Kaeding out of Campbell, Calif., Evan Funk from La Connor, Wash., and Shawn Smith of Nampa, Idaho.

The quickest time during the qualifying session went to Kent with a time of 13.040.

Summary

Quick Time -- 7N Steve Kent 13.040

Heat 1 (10 Laps) -- 1. 7N Steve Kent, 2. 9 Kasey Kahne, 3. 18 Steve Kilcup, 4. 7J Travis Jacobson, 5. 7C Cale Carder, 6. 4 Nick Engberg, 7. 35A Adam Main, 8. 7H J.J. Hickle, 9. 7AK Steve Martin, 10. 68 Rob Held, 11. 24 Braden Etchison, 12. 98 Joe Ramaker

Heat 2 (10 Laps) -- 1. 33 Jason Sides, 2. 98M Mitch Olson, 3. 75H Danny Horner, 4. OJ Jay Cole, 5. 8R Travis Rutz, 6. 3N Bill Nutter, 7. 91 Derek Ingalls, 8. 58W Steve Witte, 9. 14 Robert McNulty, 10. 4Z Dallas Zuniga, 11. 25M Tayler Malsam

Heat 3 (10 Laps) -- 1. 12 Jared Ridge, 2. 73 Marc Huson, 3. 26 Rick Fauver, 4. 33V Henry Van Dam, 5. 08 Steve Vague, 6. 23 Seth Bergman, 7. 5 Herman Klein, 8. 9T T.J. Winningham, 9. 4C Chris Adams, 10. 4Z Dallas Zuniga, 11. 25M Tayler Malsam

Heat 4 (10 Laps) -- 1. 11 Roger Crockett, 2. 69 Brent Kaeding, 3. 8E Evan Funk, 4. 32S Shawn Smith, 5. 33T Jimmy Trulli, 6. 23X Andy Jacobson, 7. 7 Randy Van Aagten, 8. 8 David Gilmore, 9. 26F Shane Forte, 10. 97R Ken Brogan, 11. 72 Glenn Borden, Jr.

C Main ( Laps) -- 1. Main, 2. Nutter, 3. Zuniga, 4. Ramaker, 5. Hickle, 6. Bergman, 7. Forte, 8. Holmes, 9. Martin, 10. Etchison, 11. Pattenaude, 12. Gilmore, 13. Winningham, 14. Adams

Dash (6 Laps) -- 1. Kahne, 2. Jacobson, 3. Kent, 4. Cole, 5. Crockett, 6. Van Dam

B Main (15 Laps) -- 1. Vague, 2. Rutz, 3. Van Aagten, 4. Trulli, 5. Held, 6. Hickle, 7. Nutter, 8. Klein, 9. Zuniga, 10. Main, 11. Engberg, 12. Ingalls, 13. Etchison, 14. Brogan, 15. Witte, 16. Carder

A Main (25 Laps) -- 1. T.Jacobson, 2. Kahne, 3. Sides, 4. Kent, 5. Cole, 6. Crockett, 7. Olson, 8. Horner, 9. Van Aagten, 10. Van Dam, 11. Huson, 12. 69 Kaeding, 13. Funk, 14. Kilcup, 15. Smith, 16. Ridge, 17. Vague, 18. Rutz, 19. Fauver, 20. Trulli

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