SHANK DOMINATES FIELD FOR OUTLAW VICTORY
By Bill Poehler
A dominating win like this comes once in a lifetime.
Jeremy Shank of Salem took the lead with a spectacular move from sixth to first on the second lap, had the Outlaw Late Model field covered by over 1/2 lap around the 1/3-mile clay oval of Willamette Speedway and led 39 laps on his way to his first class victory in over two years.
Since his last victory in the Outlaws at Willamette, Shank has had a number of maladies strike his efforts down, including a broken distributor cap in the main event a week prior.
It was Shank’s first victory in his own car since early in 2006 and all of his victories since then have come in other driver’s cars, mostly in Jimmy Schram’s machines in the Super Sport Division.
“It’s been a while,” Shank said. “We’ve been leading these things and having good cars and every time we’d have a good car, something happens this year.
“Last year we struggled, but this year it seems like we’ve had a good car all the time, it’s just a matter of getting a break.”
A pair of drivers also clinched track championships on Saturday with one or two races to go in the season.
Trevor Glaser, who finished second in the Outlaws, clinched his record-breaking fourth consecutive class championship.
Russ Sell, Shank’s father-in-law, clinched the Super Sport championship with a third-place finish in that main event after numerous Outlaw championships.
In the Outlaw A-Main, Rob Campos took the initial lead from the pole position while Shank, starting sixth, remained in that spot after the first lap. But as Shank drove through turns one and two on the high side, he rocketed to second and remained on the top side to pass Campos by the time the pair reached the start-finish line.
By the fifth lap, Shank led by a straightaway in front of Campos. By the eighth lap, Shank was ahead by a half lap. By the 10th lap, Shank had come upon lapped traffic, including Sell.
Shank briefly made contact with the back of Sell’s car the 13th lap trying to lap the veteran, but still managed to get by fast timer Mike Miller and outside polesitter Todd Shandy to put the pair a lap down, a move that would be key in Shank’s win.
On the 17th lap, Todd Seig spun by himself in heavy traffic coming into turn three and washed up to the outside retaining wall. Randy Boyd and Rob Mayea had nowhere to go and ran into the car of Seig to bring out a red flag and end the night of both drivers, while Seig continued on.
Four laps after the restart, Hipple made his way past Campos for second, but Shank had checked out to a straightaway plus two lapped cars between them. Glaser got by Hipple for second on the 25th with Bob Boyd following through, and they would get by the lapped cars two laps later, but Shank’s lead was insurmountable.
Shank won the main event by half a straightaway with Glaser in second, Bob Boyd in third, Tory Swayngim in fourth and Campos coming home fifth.
John Campos of Keizer, Rob Campos’ brother, passed leading Gary Archer on the restart with three laps to go to win the B-Main event.
Archer finished second with Steven Sturdevan in third, Brady Sell in fourth and Ryan Gerig in fifth. Jon Kauffman won the C-Main event with Tom Pitts in second.
Kye Frick of Sweet Home shot from the sixth starting spot to the lead on the first lap of the Super Sport A-Main event and led every lap to win his first main event of the season.
Thomas Hunziker of Bend finished second with Russ Sell in third, Mark Thompson in fourth and John Campos in fifth.
Chris Mott of Salem won the Super Sport B-Main event with Curt Fry in second.
Brad Hopkins of Albany won his fifth Sportsman A-Main event of the season and leapfrogged into second place in class points, as Jason Sommer didn’t compete in the main event.
Brian Cronk of Portland placed second with class points leader Mike Bennett of Estacada in third.
Brian Goetz of Lyons won the Sportsman B-Main event for the second week in a row after passing Erik Jarnport of Monmouth with two laps to go. Don Duddles of Salem won the Sportsman C-Main.
Danny O’Neal led the final eight of 15 laps to win the Classic Sportsman A-Main event with points leader Bob Kingsberry in second and Gary Heyhurst in third.
Rob Mayea all but clinched his third consecutive modified championship with a win in that class, his ninth of the season in the category.
Mayea was caught up in a wreck with Kevin Keeney on the first lap, but passed leading Glen Hackney with six laps to go and took the win. Hackney finished second with Sean Gentry in third, Keeney in fourth and Sandy Sanders in fifth.
Despite the drivers clinching or all but clinching championships on Saturday, there’s plenty of racing left to be done at Willamette Speedway and with the Willamette cars this season.
Next Saturday the Outlaw and Super Sport cars take to the road up to Washington to race in the Hoosier I-5 Challenge race at Grays Harbor Raceway on the big, 3/8-mile clay oval.
Meanwhile, the track’s Modified, Sportsman and Classic Sportsman classes will be joined Saturday by 360 non-wing sprint cars, midgets and the always exciting PHRA dwarf cars in the Wingless Warrior Night at the Races.
Willamette’s season for its regular classes ends Sept. 20 with the Thanks to Hoosier Championship night featuring a 50 lapper for late models and the Hoosier I-5 Challenge Bud Bash.
The I-5 cars again take to the road Sept. 26 and 27 when the cars head south to race at Southern Oregon Speedway in White City just outside of Medford on the banked 1/4-mile dirt oval.
On Sept. 27, Willamette Speedway hosts the always popular Tuff Trucks and Trash Cars.
On Oct. 4, Willamette’s season comes to a close when the non-winged 360 sprint cars and midgets return for the Wingless Warrior Fall Classic.
Race Results September 6, 2008
Outlaw Late Models
Fast Time: 14.955 Mike Miller
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Tory Swayngim
Heat 1: Jon Kauffman, Tony Seeley, Tom Pitts
Heat 2: Steven Sturtevant, Mark Baete, Fred Lang
Heat 3: Kevin Keeney, Ron Shinkle, John Campos
Heat 4: Russ Sell, Rick Hodges, Jeremy Shank
Heat 5: Rob Mayea, Trevor Glaser, Todd Sieg
C-Main Event: 1- Jon Kauffman, 2-Tom Pitts, 3-Tony Seeley, 4-David Brooks, 5-Justin King, 6-Chris Robertson, 7- Ronald Hall
B-Main Event: 1-John Campos 2- Gary Archer, 3-Steven Sturtevant, 4-Brady Sell, 5- Ryan Gerig, 6- Jack Marontate, 7-Mark Baete, 8-Fred Lang, 9- Ron Shinkle, 10- Kevin Keeney.
A-Main Event: 1- Jeremy Shank, 2- Trevor Glaser, 3- Bob Boyd, 4- Tory Swayngim, 5- Rob Campos, 6- Glen Hackney, 7- Darren Coffell, 8- Russ Sell, 9- Brett McCutcheon, 10- Bruce Hipple, 11- Rick Hodges, 12- Todd Sieg, 13- Todd Shandy, 14- Mike Miller, 15-Randy Boyd, 16- Rob Mayea
Super Sports
Fast time- 16.204 Brett James
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Keith Marson
Heat 1: Roy Winchell, Don Duddles, Kevin Kirk
Heat 2: Mark Thompson, Shawn Benton, Darryl Blanchard
Heat 3: Russ Sell, Justin Evans, Brian Smith
B-Main Event: 1- Chris Mott, 2- Roy Winchell, 3- Shawn Benton, 4- Don Duddles, 5- Kevin Kirk, 6- Todd Rogers, 7- Jason McKerrall, 8- Bob Day
A-Main Event: 1- Kye Frick, 2- Thomas Hunziker, 3- Russ Sell, 4- Mark Thompson, 5- Brett James, 6- Keith Marson, 7- Justin Evans, 8- Darryl Blanchard, 9- Brian Smith, 10- Ron Burchard, 11- Larry Sharp, 12- Shawn Benton, 13- Terry Hall, 14- Chris Mott, 15- Bubba Hokland
Modified
Fast time: 17.276 Rob Mayea
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Kevin Keeney
Heat 1: Glen Hackney, Bill Young, Dale Holland
Heat 2: Kevin Keeney, Sean Gentry, Jonathan Lewis
A-Main Event: 1- Rob Mayea, 2- Glen Hackney, 3- Sean Gentry, 4- Kevin Keeney, 5- Sandy Sanders, 6- Bill Young, 7- Jonathan Lewis, 8- Randy Robinson, 9- Dick Wright, 10- David Schmidt, 11- Dale Holland, 12- Sam Potter, 13- Chris Murphy, 14- Rob McCombs
Sportsman
Fast time: 16.673 Brian Cronk
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Justin Dittman
Heat 1: Don Duddles, Bill Allison, Kelly Cummins
Heat 2: Chad Slover, Brian Brown, Bill Ayers
Heat 3: Roy Kirk, Jr, Erik Jarnport, Tim Archer
Heat 4: Jeff Marson, Brian Goetz, Larry Phillips
Heat 5: Jody Tanner, Clyde Rood, Scott Parks
Heat 6: Brad Hopkins, Brad Landers, Mike Bennett
C-Main Event: 1- Don Duddles, 2-Bill Allison, 3- Brian Brown, 4- Kelly Cummins, 5- Chad Slover, 6- Daniel Castleberry, 7- Bill Gibbs, 8- Jody Henry, 9- Bill Ayers
B-Main Event: 1- Brian Goetz, 2- Erik Jarnport, 3- Casey Rhodes, 4- Roy Kirk, Jr, 5- Larry Phillips, 6- Mike Campbell, 7- Brandi Boyd, 8- Tubby Thomas, 9- Steve Piefer, 10- Tim Archer, 11- Robert Mercer, 12- Jeff Marson.
A-Main Event: 1- Brad Hopkins, 2-Brian Cronk, 3- Mike Bennett, 4- Justin Dittman, 5- Bob Trusty, 6- Brian Brown, 7- Brad Landers, 8- Spencer Warlick, 9- Jody Tanner, 10- Scott Parks, 11- Todd Miller, 12- Clyde Rood, 13- Jason Sommer.
Classic
Fast time: 18.134 Kevin Roberts
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Kevin Roberts
Heat 1: Gary Ayrhurst, Mike Maffin, Dave Cook
Heat 2: Donny Allison, Steve Meaney, Danny Altom
Heat 3: Kevin Roberts, Dave Kingsberry, Rich Speer
A-Main Event: 1- Danny O’Neal, 2- Bob Kingsberry, 3- Gary Ayrhurst, 4- Mike Maffin, 5- Donny Allison, 6- Rich Speer, 7-Dave Kingsberry , 8- Steve Meaney, 9- Danny Altom, 10- Curt Fry, 11- Bill Dahn, 12- Mark Gaylord, 13- Kevin Roberts, 14- Dave Cook.