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NST: Speedweek Cottage Grove results 2005-07-12

Kaeding Takes Second Northern Sprint Tour Speedweek Win When night number two of the 2005 Northern Sprint Tour Northwest Speedweek ended at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, OR on July 12th, Campbell, CA veteran driver Brent Kaeding stood ...

Kaeding Takes Second Northern Sprint Tour Speedweek Win

When night number two of the 2005 Northern Sprint Tour Northwest Speedweek ended at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, OR on July 12th, Campbell, CA veteran driver Brent Kaeding stood in the winners circle for the second night in a row, boosting his Speedweek earnings to $3600 and teaching the rest of the 59 car field how to do it.

"The crew told me to just be patient," said Kaeding, "and the car didn't want to run at all when we got here and earlier in the evening." Kaeding made a dive out of the second turn to take the lead from Eugene, OR's Roger Crockett on lap 4, only to lose it back the next lap on a yellow flag restart. Making the pass for the lead a second time on lap 10, Kaeding again lost it to a yellow flag for a spinning Dallas Zuniga. Kaeding finally mad the move to the front for the final time with a back straight pass of Crockett on the 18th circuit of the 30-lap event. From that point on the #69 car was in command both in and out of lapped traffic to the checkered flag.

"Roger's been running good here, and I had to go to the bottom to get by. He's always hard to beat and it's good to be able to do it here on his home track." "It has been a rough two nights and it's going to be a tough week, so we're just going to go on to Lebanon and keep on rocking"

Kaeding made the final pass after several laps of close racing and once in front gradually opened his lead to as much as 25-car lengths in the closing laps.

Crockett saw his chance at an easy try to regain the lead go away when Kaeding managed to get past a number of slower cars coming into the 20th lap. As Crockett worked his way through, Kaeding was building his lead cushion.

"I'm pretty successful here because the dry slick track fits my driving style, but it wasn't good enough to beat Brent tonight," said the four time NST Champ. "We're not running for points anywhere this year and there's less pressure so we'll just go on and try to get a victory somewhere the rest of the week."

Brad Furr, who swept all 5 Northwest Speedweek races in 1999, grabbed the lead on the initial green flag only to see Crockett edge by on the back chute on lap two. Furr held a top three spot until being caught up in the lap 10 yellow and ending up near the end of the field. The San Jose driver was able to work back to 7th place by the end of the race.

Home track knowledge may have had something to do with Dale Smith's third place finish as the Cottage Grove driver picked up eleven positions in his drive for a podium finish. Running hard in the low groove, Smith had moved to 5th by lap 13 and was in 3rd by the halfway mark.

"It was a great comeback from last night," said Smith. "The pit crew did a great job and the car was running really good on the bottom. To be able to run third in this field of cars makes me feel real good. I like Lebanon and I'm looking forward to doing good again tomorrow night."

Dan Menne of Ft. Jones, CA ran a solid third until late in the race when he dropped to sixth as Jonathan Allard of Chico, CA and young Kyle Hirst of Sacramento, CA slipped by in the closing laps.

Other A-Feature drivers making good gains during the race were 10th place finisher Jeff Thompson of Harrisburg, OR who moved up 9 spots and Jeff Hodgson of St. Albert, AB and Gold Hill, OR's T.J. Winningham who both picked up 7 positions.

In the B-Feature current points leader Billy Nutter of Central Point, OR took the lead at the green and held a comfortable lead until Langley, BC rookie Travis Rutz put the pressure on at the start of the last five laps of the 15-lap event.

Rutz beat Nutter to the line at the end of lap thirteen but made contact with the front wall just past the flag stand and flipped to his side.

With Rutz out and a green, white, checkered to the finish, Nutter raced ahead again. This time it was a red flag that stopped the action as Nampa, ID driver Shawn Smith and Dean Alexander of Hanford, CA came together on the front straight and then were hit full bore by Doug Machado of Elk Grove, CA. All three had extensive damage and were through for the night.

With the lap-13 curse hanging over them, Paul Zimmerly of Richfield, WA made it three in a row as he spun and was clipped by Chuck Gurney, Jr. of Livermore, CA.

With half the starting field missing, Nutter finally took the checkered flag with Menne, Wayne Williams of Monterey, CA and Winningham following and transferring to the A-Feature.

Winningham took the 10-lap C-Main win by going to the high side and passing Herman Klein of Sacramento, CA and Puyallup, WA driver Shawn Rice at the end of lap 7. Klein led from the start as Rice, Winningham and Travis Jacobson of Lake Stevens, WA did battle behind him.

The 8-lap D-Main was won by Brendan Boyce of Cottage Grove with Derek Ingalls of Sultan, WA taking the second move-up position.

The 1st non-qualifiers race went to Jacobson over Jay Cole of Shelton, WA with Fairbanks, AK driver Steve Martin winning the 2nd non-qualifiers race as Josh Dewitt of Snohomish followed.

D. Smith won the night's opening heat race with Rick Fauver of Everett, WA taking heat two. Zuniga won the third heat and Cottage Grove's Marvin Smith was the winner of the final heat.

In the dash Furr went to the top at the green and had the lead as the field exited turn two. After a battle with Hirst for second, Kaeding put the pressure on Furr for the lead the last two laps but came up short at the line.

Fast time for the night went to Billy Nutter with an 11.292 second lap. Kaeding ran an identical lap later in qualifying but the first qualifier is credited with fast time.

SUMMARY

Fast qualifier: Billy Nutter -- 12.292

Heat 1 (10 laps): Dale Smith, Brad Furr, Jeff Thompson, Roger Crockett, Stan Yockey, Herman Klein, Jay Burns, Garen Linder, Doug Machado, Billy Nutter(DNS).

Heat 2 (10 laps): Brent Kaeding, Joe Ramaker, Josh Dewitt, Kyle Hirst, Dean Alexander, Shawn Smith, Richard Brace, Jr., T.J. Winningham, Rick Fauver, Wayne Williams.

Heat 3 (10 laps): Dallas Zuniga, Jonathan Allard, Marc Huson, Steve Kent, Dan Menne, Chuck Gurney, Jr., Barry Martinez, Bryce Fugate, Randy Pierce, Jared Ridge.

Heat 4 (10 laps): Marvin Smith, Danny Horner, Andy Forsberg, Jeff Hodgson, Henry Van Dam, Garrett Ishii, Travis Rutz, Shawn Rice, Adam main, Paul Zimmerly.

1st Non-Qual. (8 laps): Travis Jacobson, Jay Cole, Randy Rodgers, Duane Scott, Robert McNulty, Ron Cooper, Brett Smith, Brendan Boyce, Chris Pattenaud.

2nd Non-Qual. (8 laps): Steve Martin, Josh Dewitt, Alex Hantel, Rob Held, Troy Degaton, Hedge Carter, David Gilmore, Derek Ingalls, Marc Makay(DNS).

Dash (6 laps): Furr, Kaeding, Crockett, Hirst, Kent, Forsberg.

D-Main (8 laps): Boyce, Ingalls, Carter, Degaton, Cooper, Makay.

C-Main (10 laps): Winningham, Klein, Jacobson, Rice, Brace, Jr., Held, Cole, Fugate, Hantel, Dewitt, Pierce, Scott, Martin, Ingalls, Burns, Rodgers, Main, Boyce.

B-Main (15 laps): Nutter, Menne, Williams, Winningham, Fauver, Linder, Ridge, Martinez, Klein, Gurney, Jr., S. Smith, Alexander, Ishii, Machado, Zimmerly, Rutz, Yockey, Van Dam..

A-Main (30 laps): Kaeding, Crockett, D. Smith, Allard, Hirst, Menne, Furr, Huson, Kent, Thompson, Hodgson, Nutter, M. Smith, Winningham, Taylor, Horner, Forsberg, Williams, Ramaker, Zuniga.

-nst-

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