5/23/2014
ASCS
Andy Forsberg Scores Big Win In 2014 ASCS-Northwest Region Season Opener
By Ben Deatherage - MEDFORD, Ore. (May 22, 2014) - It was a warm Thursday night on May 22nd at Southern Oregon Speedway in White City as the American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region opened up the 2014 campaign.
It was also the first round of the four races in four night Triple Track Challenge and it was a fantastic display of action on the 1/3-mile clay oval with teams from Oregon, California, Washington, and Alberta Canada converging on the famed venue.
It took three attempts to get the first laps of the feature in the books due to incidents taking place but the slogan of “third time is the charm” was never truer than the main event. Pole sitter Andy Forsberg of Auburn, California would put his Cody Gaeny owned PTShocks.com/Autism Awareness/Norm Paul Water Hauling #01 KPC to front to lead the opening laps.
Forsberg would set a wicked pace riding the high side of the race track as the rest of the field battled each other for positions. However when lapped traffic came into play Forsberg would be put under pressure as the tail end of the lead cars were running at the same pace as the leaders. But Forsberg would work his way through the lapped traffic and would build and build his lead lap after lap.
Eventually Forsberg would have a massive lead as big as half a lap over second place. He would cruise on to the victory to win his first career American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region victory and the eighth different winner in nine visits to SOS by the series. And behind him four of the top five finishers were Californian drivers.
“I’m pretty good on a fast tacky track like that and it certainly helps to start up front,” commented Andy Forsberg in victory lane, “the crew did an awesome job setting the car up, it ran perfect.”
“It allowed me to do a couple of things that as a driver I don’t quite want to do but everyone was so fast and a couple times I had to make a move on the top and fortunately everything worked out because it always doesn’t happen that way. I guess we’ll go to Lebanon tomorrow.”
The battle for the runner-up position was a great one with Paradise, California driver John Michael Bunch placing his Voltage Specialists/Re-Max Real Estate of Paradise/Pearson Road Collision #11VS A.R.T. in second followed by Visalia, California’s Steven Tiner in the Wright Process Systems/Larry Davis Farms/Elma Lanes #94 Maxim entry in third. Balancing out the top five finishing order was the Finley Farms/CLT Logging/Rider Racing Engines #77 Maxim of Chico, California pilot Kyle Hirst in fourth for car owners Scott and Jason Finley while behind him in fifth was Rob Held from Sutherlin in his Held Automotive & Accessories/Budget Lumber Company/Double R Powdercoating #68 J&J.
Heat race winners were Kyle Hirst, Andy Forsberg, and Rob Held. Earning the win in the consolation feature was the Automotive Sheetmetal/K&S Motorsports/Grant Springer Racing Engines #10 XXX of Kyle Miller from Salem.
The American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region heads north to Willamette Speedway in Lebanon for the second round of the Triple Track Challenge. Prices on show are Adults $15.00, Seniors/Military/Juniors (13-17) $13.00, Youths (Ages 12-6) $8.00, and Children under the age of 5 are FREE. Pit Gates open at 2:00 PM, Front Gates 4:30 PM, and Racing is scheduled to get underway around 7:00 PM.
Be sure and don’t miss a lap of the action as the ASCS-Northwest Region as the area’s best 360 Sprint Car drivers will contest on seven different race tracks in three different states that include Oregon, Washington, and California. For the latest news and information regarding the ASCS-Northwest Region be sure and log on to www.ascsnorthwest.com.
Race Summary:
Thursday May 22nd, 2014
Triple Track Challenge Round #1/American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region Race #1
Southern Oregon Speedway
White City, Oregon
A Feature: 1. 01-Andy Forsberg[1]; 2. 11VS-John Michael Bunch[2]; 3. 94-Steven Tiner[3]; 4. 77-Kyle Hirst[4]; 5. 68-Rob Held[7]; 6. 7N-Jared Peterson[6]; 7. 2L-Logan Forler[8]; 8. 22-Garen Linder[10]; 9. 23-Seth Bergman[11]; 10. 10-Kyle Miller[17]; 11. 21W-Vern Wheeler Jr[14]; 12. 71-Colin Baker[18]; 13. 23L-Rob Lindsey[13]; 14. 6A-Kady Adelman[19]; 15. 9T-T.J. Winningham[15]; 16. 12-Jared Ridge[20]; 17. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith[9]; 18. 56-Ross Mathewson[5]; 19. 11L-Jeremy Lowe[12]; 20. 3-J.J. Hickle[16]
Lap Leaders: Andy Forsberg (1-30)
B Feature : 1. 10-Kyle Miller[1]; 2. 71-Colin Baker[4]; 3. 6A-Kady Adelman[2]; 4. 12-Jared Ridge[8]; 5. 5R-Steve Reeves[7]; 6. 84K-Wayne Kniffen[5]; 7. 911-Ron Narramore[9]; 8. 16-Nick Tomlinson[3]; 9. 9R-Reece Goetz[6]
Heat 1: 1. 77-Kyle Hirst[4]; 2. 94-Steven Tiner[3]; 3. 2L-Logan Forler[5]; 4. 11L-Jeremy Lowe[2]; 5. 6A-Kady Adelman[1]; 6. 21W-Vern Wheeler Jr[8]; 7. 71-Colin Baker[7]; 8. 9R-Reece Goetz[6]; 9. 911-Ron Narramore[9]
Heat 2: 1. 01-Andy Forsberg[1]; 2. 7N-Jared Peterson[3]; 3. 11VS-John Michael Bunch[5]; 4. 23L-Rob Lindsey[2]; 5. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith[8]; 6. 16-Nick Tomlinson[4]; 7. 84K-Wayne Kniffen[7]; 8. 5R-Steve Reeves[6]
Heat 3: 1. 68-Rob Held[1]; 2. 56-Ross Mathewson[2]; 3. 22-Garen Linder[3]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[5]; 5. 9T-T.J. Winningham[4]; 6. 3-J.J. Hickle[7]; 7. 10-Kyle Miller[8]; 8. 12-Jared Ridge[6]
(Photo Courtesy of Northwest Racing Productions)
Submitted By: Bryan Hulbert
