7/18/2024
Douglas County Dirt Track
July 17, 2024 Sprint Car Challenge Tour article by Joseph Terrell
More of the Same at Douglas County for Colby Copeland
July 18, 2024|Breaking
Wednesday's Night podium at Douglas County Dirt Track. Colby Copeland (Center), Corben Rueschenberg (Left), Dominic Gorden (Right).
Wednesday's Night podium at Douglas County Dirt Track. Colby Copeland (Center), Corben Rueschenberg (Left), Dominic Gorden (Right).
-Joseph Terrell
Olympia, Wash…After night one of Sprint Car Challenge Tour Speedweek it looked like Tyler Thompson was the driver to beat for the week.
Fast forward to Wednesday night at the Douglas County Dirt Track and it has become obvious that it is not Thompson, but Colby Copeland that is the driver to beat. The Roseville, California driver scored his second straight SCCT Speedweek win by leading the final 29 laps of the A Main in his first ever appearance at the track.
In the process Copeland has stretched his SCCT Speedweek lead XX over Thomspon as the series heads back to California for the final three races.
Copeland has not just won the last A Mains, he has dominated. He won his heat race on Tuesday and Wednesday. He has led 64 of the 65 A Main laps. His only blemish the last two nights was not winning Wednesday’s dash.
Now he heads back to California with the SCCT Speedweek point lead. The only question is whether he will race Friday at the Silver Dollar Speedway. Traditionally, Copeland has not raced at Silver Dollar outside of the Gold Cup.
“I am just not sure (about racing on Friday). It will depend on points and some other things,” Copeland said before the races when asked if planned to race Friday.
While Copeland was running off and hiding, for the second straight night 14 year old Corben Rueschenberg was turning heads and landing on the podium for the second straight night in the Tiner-Hirst Enterprises Entry.
Starting sixth the Arizona native came on as A Main progressed and found himself second on lap 21 but was never really able to challenge Copeland and crossed the stripe 2.352 second behind him. Still it was another performance for the 14 year old who has made only nine career 360 starts.
Before the night Rueschenberg said racing every night is beneficial given his lack of time behind the wheel of a 360.
“ I am just getting more comfortable every night. I really like racing these cars and racing every night is good for getting laps.”
Klatt Capitalizes: Levi Klatt is very open when he talks about his team and their budget. It is limited, but he and his family make the most of it and they did it again on Wednesday night. After almost spinning to start his heat Klatt got the break of a lifetime when Tony Gomes was penalized for jumping the start. Klatt, who had fallen back to last on the initial start, was on the pole for the restart and took advantage by scoring his first career SCCT Heat Race win. He would follow that up by winning the dash, leading the first lap of the A Main and ultimately coming home fourth.
Oregon Cars Come Out: It is not a secret that 360 Sprint Car racing has seemingly dried up in Oregon. Weekly shows at Cottage Grove have struggled to draw more than six or seven cars. So it was a little surprising when 10 cars from Oregon checked in Wednesday night. While this number is not big it does show that maybe 360 Sprint Car racing is not dead in Oregon quite yet under the right circumstances.
The Working Man: Rumors swirled last year that Central Point, Oregon’s Garen Linder was possibly stepping away from Sprint Car racing. Luckily those were just rumors as Linder has returned to action in 2024. He had one of his best runs of the year Wednesday night finishing fifth Wednesday night. The small business owner said before the races he still has the drive but it is just so hard to race and work full-time. Also given he has no local track to support every time he races it involves travel and that takes extra time. Still Linder said he is going to keep plugging away and race as much he can given some of the restrictions he faces.
Speedweeks Intersection: Wednesday night at Douglas County was a sort of intersection between SCCT Speedweek and the Northwest Speedweek Tour and it provided the biggest car count of the week with 24 360 Sprint Cars checking in. With SCCT headed south and NST ready to start at GHR on Saturday teams were leaving Douglas County in different directions. California driver's Dominic Gordon, Tony Gomes and Mariah Ede were headed north as were northwest teams like Garen Linder and Levi Klatt, while a majority of the SCCT contingent was headed back south.
SCCT Speedweek Points: Copeland 604, Thompson 583, Forsberg 580, Shane Hopkins 579, Dylan Bloomfield 573.
SCCT Season Points: Braden Chiaramonte 1654, Forsberg 1618, Bloomfield 1526, Mariah Ede 1334, Copeland 1298.
That is all for my coverage of SCCT Speedweek. I will pick up with the Northwest Speedweek Tour on Saturday at Grays Harbor and will be covering four of the six events.
Jul 17, 2024
Copeland Once Again Masters an Oregon Dirt Track
Jul 17, 2024
Thompson Continues to Impress in Main Motorsports Ride
Jul 16, 2024
West Coast 410
Article Credit: Joseph Terrell
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