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Wonderful Racing At SSP For Rose Festival Dirt Cup

Wonderful Racing At SSP For Rose Festival Dirt Cup
By Ben Deatherage
Fans of Sunset Speedway Park were treated to another wonderful evening of action at the Banks bullring on Saturday June 1st. The event was the annual Rose Festival Dirt Cup and had a good amount of cars sign in on the registration sheets. Classes in competition were the Northwest Extreme Late Model Series, Northwest Extreme Modifieds, Street Stocks, and the Womens division.

In the Northwest Extreme Late Model Series main event Collen Winebarger was the class of the field. The Corbett native was seeking his second consecutive series victory after capturing the win in Cottage Grove a few weeks previous. The only thing that slowed the young man down was the few cautions that would occur throughout the fifty lap feature.

Leading the main event from start to finish Winebarger would win the feature in his Discount Race Car Parts/All In Property Investments #1 MasterSbilt. It was the first time he had won in a Late Model at SSP and the second with the Northwest Extreme Late Model Series in 2013. Winebarger also ran with a heavy heart after the passing of his Grandfather Ed Winebarger who passed away the previous Saturday.

“Getting a chance to park the car on the front stretch would have made Grandpa proud,” said “Superman” Winebarger, “I knew there would be pressure from the guys behind if I had messed up. I would start to pull away on a long run but a caution would come out. The white flag was a great relief to see. Earlier in the night we were struggling with carburetor problems in the heat race but we got that all taken care of. “

Greg Walters, who had won the two previous races at Banks, was second in his T&G Trucking/American Landscaping #97 Victory Circle while the Discount Race Car Parts/All In Property Investment #6 MasterSbilt of Corbett’s Scott Winebarger was third. Completing the top five finishers were Jacob Myers from Salem in the Myers Racing/Baxter Auto Parts/Powell Motors #9 Rayburn in fourth and Warren chauffer Brad Martin in his Reser’s Fine Foods/Wayne Martin Floor Covering #99 MasterSbilt in fifth.

Two sets of heat races were ran earlier in the evening. In the first set the victors were Scott Winebarger and the Jackhammer Trucking/T&G Trucking #76 Rayburn of Gresham’s Jason Johnson. In the second set Greg Walters and Collen Winebarger would both finish in first. Scott Winebarger was the winner in the trophy dash.

In the Northwest Extreme Modified main event Chris Ray of Battleground, Washington in the Diamond Excavating #6 mount was the leader until he would be caught up in an incident in traffic. That would give the lead to the Transaction Transmissions #04 of Banks driver Joey Tardio. Tardio would lead before being overtaken by the #12X of Pamela Graham.

Graham, of Vancouver, Washington, would lead several laps in her first start of the year. That was until the later stages as she would be overtaken by her brother-in-law Rick Graham. Rick Graham, driving the Perfection Automotive/Sweere Trucking #18X entry, grabbed the lead in the last laps to win his third race of the season.

Pamela Graham finished a respectable second while in third was the Advocare/The Sign Shop #00 Brandon Penney from Portland. Ending the evening in fourth was Joey Tardio followed by Oscar Luckman of Hillsboro in fifth in his #96 machine. Rick Graham was the heat race winner while Pamela Graham was triumphant in the trophy dash.

The Street Stock feature ended up being an entertaining one. Oregon City’s Charlie Culpepper led the opening circuits in his #07 entry before mechanical problems under a caution forced him to give up the lead. John Ireland of Banks in the #88 would be in the top spot now. But Ireland was not out of the woods as he would battle with the likes of Rod Lowe of Cornelius in his #02 Camaro.

As the race become more a matter of survival with several cars dropping out of competition Ireland would continue to lead and would earn the victory on the date that just so happened to be his seventy-first birthday. He would become the fourth different winner in five races in the highly competitive division.

Craig Loomis of Vancouver, Washington, in his Buz’s Equipment Trailers/City Sprint Delivery/Liberty Welding #01 Camaro, was second followed by last week’s victor Brian Roden of West Linn in his Club Sport Oregon #14 Camaro in third. Completing the top five finishers was the AFT Racing/Aftermarket Enterprises #5 Camaro of Sherwood native Marc Farrar in fourth and Rod Lowe was fifth. In heat race action Kristi Somers of Woodland, Washington in her #44 Camaro and Craig Loomis were heat race winners while Loomis would win the trophy dash.

In the Womens division it was another Freya Smith show. The McMinnville driver would dominate the field en route once she took the lead on lap three. The leader of those for the first three laps was Cori Vandercoevering from Banks in her #23 Camaro. For Smith it was the fifth time she would put the Sweere’s Auto Body/Sweere's Trucking/Tire Factory of McMinnville #37 Camaro in victory lane. It was also another clean sweep for her as she won the heat race and trophy dash earlier in the evening’s program.

“It’s great to get another win,” said Smith, “after the main event all the Womens division drivers went into the stands and handed out candy. That was really neat and the fans really liked that.”

Vandercoevering would end the night in second while in third was Cornelius’ Marcie Treat in the #02 Camaro in third. The balance of the top five was made up of Amanda Clarke from Portland in her Transaction Transmissions/Privateer Racing #04 Monte Carlo in fourth and fifth place went to Gabrielle Hollinger of Timber in her All In Property Investments/Drunken Automotive/Avenue Settlement Corporation #60 Camaro.

The Sunset Speedway Park will be back in action next Saturday June 8th. Classes that will compete include the Northwest Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Midgets, and 4-Bees. For the Modifieds it will be the first race of the two-race IMCA Modified Madness mini-series between SSP and Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington. For more information log on to www.sunsetspeedwaypark.com or call the brand new Northwest Tracks Hotline at (360)-699-RACE. Saturday's Mylaps results can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/906711.

Race Summary
Rose Festival Dirt Cup
Saturday June 1st, 2013
Sunset Speedway Park
Banks, Oregon
Northwest Extreme Late Model Series
14 Entries
Heat Race Winners [First Round]: Scott Winebarger (1), Jason Johnson (2)
Heat Race Winners [Second Round]: Greg Walters (1), Collen Winebarger
Trophy Dash Winner: Scott Winebarger
A-Feature: 1. Collen Winebarger, 2. Greg Walters, 3. Scott Winebarger, 4. Jacob Myers, 5. Brad Martin, 6. Jack Marontate, 7. Mike Keely, 8. Jason Johnson, 9. Bob Trout, 10. John Gamell, 11. Phillip Johnson, DNS Robert Duncan, DNS Kristi Somers, DNS Jerry Schram

Northwest Extreme Modifieds
7 Entries
Heat Race Winner: Rick Graham (1)
Trophy Dash Winner: Pamela Graham
A-Feature: 1. Rick Graham, 2. Pamela Graham, 3. Brandon Penney, 4. Joey Tardio, 5. Oscar Luckman, 6. Chris Ray, 7. Pat Lecher

Street Stocks
16 Entries
Heat Race Winners: Kristi Somers (1), Craig Loomis (2)
Trophy Dash Winner: Craig Loomis
A-Feature: 1. John Ireland, 2. Craig Loomis, 3. Brian Roden, 4. Marc Farrar, 5. Rod Lowe, 6. Kristi Somers, 7. Bert Pegg, 8. Ben Sauter, 9. Ed Netherton, 10. Robert Summerhalder, 11. Johnny Adams, 12. Charlie Culpepper, 13. Andrew Johnson, 14. Trevor Brotherton, DNS Bruce Thomas, DNS Tom Lauzon

Womens
7 Entries
Heat Race Winner: Freya Smith (1)
Trophy Dash Winner: Freya Smith
A-Feature: 1. Freya Smith, 2. Cori Vandercoevering, 3. Marcie Treat, 4. Amanda Clarke, 5. Gabrielle Hollinger, 6. Theresa Gartner, 7. Missy Thomas

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