NST: Speedweek opener Medford summary

Northern Sprint Tour Speedweek Opener Goes to Kaeding

There were fifty-nine cars in the pits at Southern Oregon Speedway on Monday, July 11th as the Northern Sprint Tour kicked off it's annual Northwest Speedweek on the Medford, OR oval. When the last lap fell to the checkered flag, Campbell, CA veteran Brent Kaeding had notched yet another Speedweek A-Feature event win and was going home $1800 richer.

"It was a little rough and a little bouncy," said Kaeding, "and some of the lapped cars raced us pretty hard." "It slowed me a little, but most cars were good about moving and we worked through pretty good."

"This is a racy place and we had the best in the business up front. It's gonna be a tough, hard week. It's not a real big money week but it's going to be a lot of fun racing."

On a track with several rough spots, Kaeding swapped the lead early with San Jose, CA driver Brad Furr and then held off a late race charge by Jonathan Allard of Chico, CA to lead every one of the feature events 30 laps. Although slowed by five yellows, the high speeds on the one-third mile oval had the leaders in traffic for much of the race.

Stan Yockey of Fresno, CA was opening the fans eyes with a charge from 20th to 12th before his high groove run ended in a spin on lap eleven. Also using the high side as a passing lane was rookie Danny Horner of Cottage grove, OR.

Horner's late race run moved him from 18th to as high as 8th before involvement in a last lap tangle dropped him back to 14th. It was Horner's first finish out of the top ten in the 2005 season.

Allard and Furr diced for second a few laps until Allard settled into the spot with Andy Forsberg of Auburn, CA holding fourth and Eugene, OR's Roger Crockett holding fifth to the checkered.

Also making good runs were Garrett Ishii of Caruthers, CA who moved up 9 spots to 11th and Nampa, ID driver Shawn Smith who moved up 7 places for a 9th place finish.

Following the race, 2nd place finisher Allard commented he had been enjoying running against Kaeding and Furr this season and he was real happy to be on top and driving for the Williams Team #0.

Furr said, "I'm a little out of shape yet but we're going to be getting better as the week goes on. Brent was running real hard and I made a mistake that let Jon [Allard] get by. And, the car was getting tight as the race went on."

Going to the A-Feature checkered, several cars tangled in turn 4 with Marc Huson of Sedro Woolley, WA, Wayne Williams out of Monterey, CA and Dean "Kiwi" Alexander of Hanford, CA all involved in a triple flip.

Crockett won the 15-lap B-Feature event as Sacramento, CA driver Kyle Hirst held off a fast moving Yockey for second. Yockey's third place finish was at the end of his drive from a 14th place starting spot, easily the hard charger of the race. St. Albert, AB driver Jeff Hodgson maintained a steady pace to hold fourth place. The final transfer went to Ishii.

Mid pack action saw Medford, OR driver Garen Linder pick off eight drives and still fall short of a transfer as did Puyallup, WA's Shawn Rice, up six positions from the start.

Rice made easy work of the C-Feature event, with the race running the full 10-laps non-stop. Travis Jacobson of Lake Stevens, WA also transferred to the B-main.

In heat race action the first heat went to Alexander over Ft. Jones, CA's Dan Menne.

Heat two saw Travis Rutz take the lead as the Langley, BC driver put a pass on Ishii at the start of the 3rd lap.

In heat three Auburn, CA's Richard Brace, Jr. flipped after getting over a tire on the Adam Main car out of Grass Valley, CA on lap 2. After action resumed, Billy Nutter of Central Point, OR grabbed the lead but soon lost it to winner Kaeding.

The night's final heat was all Huson's with his going to the front on the green and never looking back.

Following his come from the rear win in the dash, Kaeding commented he didn't know how he did it. "I had a good car," he added, "and I suckered a couple guys into one of the holes on the track for a pass but it was just a good run, I guess."

"I really like this track and running here with NST is a lot of fun. When you get 60 cars here you can tell it's a popular week. We're leading in the Golden States points, but we are by-passing next weekends race to run with NST and have some fun."

Taking home fast time honors for the night was Kyle Hirst with a 12.007 second lap of the SOS oval.

Northwest Speedweek now moves to Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, OR for the Tuesday, July 12th race with racing scheduled to start at 6:00 PM.

SUMMARY

Fast qualifier: Kyle Hirst -- 12.007 sec.

Heat 1 (10 laps): Dean Alexander, Dan Menne, T.J. Winningham, Steve Kent, Matt Rodgers, Shawn Rice, Herman Klein, Kyle Hirst, Jay Cole, Anthony Nunes.

Heat 2 (10 laps): Travis Rutz, Rick Fauver, Jonathan Allard, Brad Furr, Stan Yockey, Jeff Hodgson, Garrett Ishii, Josh Dewitt, Gary Taylor, Alex Hantel.

Heat 3 (10 laps):Brent Kaeding, Bill Nutter, Chuck Gurney, Jr., Shawn Smith, Derek Ingalls, Garen Linder, Paul Zimmerly, Richard Brace, Jr., Adam Main, Travis Jacobson.

Heat 4 (10 laps): Marc Huson, Wayne Williams, Andy Forsberg, Danny Horner, Roger Crockett, Marc Makay, Doug Machado, Duane Scott, Jay Burns, Matt Menne.

1st Non-Qual. (10 laps): Dale Smith, Steve Martin, Bryce Fugate, Rob Held, Robert McNulty, Brett Smith, Richey Peterson, Joe Ramaker.

2nd Non-Qual. (10 laps): David Gilmore, Randy Pierce, Henry Van Dam, Jared Ridge, Troy Degaton, Dallas Zuniga, Chris Pattenaude, Jerrod Goodnough, Vern Wheeler, Jr.

Dash (6 laps): Kaeding, Allard, Forsberg, Furr, Winningham, Kent.

C-Main (10 laps): Rice, Jacobson, Dewitt, Klein, D. Smith, Machado, Hantel, Martin, Fugate, Ingalls, Van Dam, McNulty, Held, Pierce, Gilmore, Degaton, Ridge, Scott.

B-Main (15 laps): Crockett, Hirst, Yockey, Hodgson, Ishii, Mackay, Linder, Taylor, Cole, Nines, Rice, Burns, Brace, Jr., Rodgers, Jacobson, Zimmerly, Dewitt.

A-Main (30 laps): Kaeding, Allard, Furr, Forsberg, Crockett, Hodgson, Fauver, D. Menne, S. Smith, Nutter, Ishii, Hirst, Gurney, Jr., Horner, Huson, Alexander, Williams, Rutz, Yockey, Winningham.

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