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Armed Forces Night a Success!!

Josh Warbis - Moxie Media & Promotions
Banks, Oregon
Photo By Nikki Gamell

This weekend at Sunset Speedway was “Armed Forces Night”. Special guest “Clatsop County Son of Beaches 4 Wheelers” honored the fans for our opening ceremonies. With Mother Nature threatening to open up on the track and take another weekend away from us, she decided to stay away and give what racers and race fans call an incredibly fast and hooked up track.

Saturday night racing provided four incredibly fast classes for the fastest ¼ mile bullring. A total of 73 cars signed in to battle it out. It was also the first of four *River City/Sunset 4-Bee Challenge Races. Track records in all four classes were also broken. Jeremy Weatherbee in the 4-Bee class 16.397. IMCA Sport Mods John Henry time was 15.775. In the Dwarf car division fast time and new track record went to Marty Holmason @ 15.698. Pure stock driver Joey Tardio set a time of 16.448.

Trophy dash action started off with the 4-Bee class, that win would go to your fast timer of the night Jeremy Weatherbee in the 48w. IMCA Sport Mod driver Pam Graham in the 12x would take her win over her husband 18x of Mike Graham by .607 secs. In the Dwarf car trophy dash that win went to Jake VanOrtwick. Joey Tardio would take home his trophy in the Pure Stock class winning by over a second.

Dwarf cars would see 33 cars and would make for 2 – ‘B’ Main events, top 3 in each would transfer to decide the 16 car field for the “A” Main. “B” Main #1 top three were 1st Eric Bergquist 2nd Kyle Thompson 3rd Josh Rogers. “B”Main #2 top three were 1st Jeremiah Hester 2nd Danny Altom 3rd John Chrisman. Hester would take the win by over a half a track, +4.759 secs over 2nd place.
“A” Main would be a 30 lap event. Henry Corbin III and VanOrtwick would lead the field to the green. Marty Holmason who started in the 6th position would take the lead over on lap 10 and never looked back. He would dominate the race in his brand new D&R car winning by over half a track +6.980 over 2nd place Shane Youngren.
Finishing order: 1st Marty Holmason 2nd Shane Youngren 3rd Henry Corbin III 4th Eric Bergquist 5th Guy Tow Sr. 6th Leo ward 7th Rich Holbert 8th Jake VanOrtwick 9th Ryan Martinez 10th Jake Tupper 11th Danny Altom 12th Jeremiah Hester 13th Ronnie Gilmore Jr. 14th Kyle Thompson 15th Josh Rogers 16th John Chrisman.

4-Bee class would see 25 car show up to battle the 1st of 4 races. That too would start a “B” main. Racing was good until lap #7 when both rookies Austin Henderson and Travis Zimmerly got together out of turn 4 when Zimmerly would climb the left front tire of Henderson flipping Zimmerlys one time landing on his wheels at the flag stand. Both drivers were ok; Henderson would be the only one to continue. Racing resumed and Anthony “Chico” would take the lead and take the win by +5.154 over 2nd Darrin Rye, 3rd was Travis Koch 4th Jeremy Hughes.
“A” Main would see some exciting action between Tylor Owen and Gumby Batalgia. Both driver would race side by side until Gumby gets loose in turn 3 & 4 on lap 15 out of 30, which gave Owen a chance to run away from the rest of the cars. Owen would take the checkered flag by over ¾ of a track lead winning by +8.199 secs.
Finishing order: 1st Tylor Owen 2nd Gumby Batalgia 3rd Jeremy Weatherbee 4th Rob Ferree 5th Maverick 6th Bob Berg 7th Captain Turnabout 8th Travis Koch 9th Shelby Wegner 10th Darrin Rye 11th Cody Scouller 12th TJ Wegner 13th Jeremy Hughes 14th Anthony “Chico” 15th William Wolfe 16th John Gartner.

IMCA Sport Mod 25 lap main event saw great racing, #68 John Henry took the lead out of turn one and would battle door to door with the 18x of Mike Graham. With 10 laps to go Brandon Potter would challenge the leaders and get around Henry for the second spot. The win would go to the 18x of mike Graham.
Finishing order: 1st Mike Graham 2nd John Henry 3rd Michael Melton 4th Pam Graham 5th Scott Ruth 6th Brandon Potter 7th Doug Lockwood.

The Pure Stock 25 lap feature was one heck of a battle, the top two cars were nose to tail, most of the night #7 Trevor LaBarge, second #04 Joey Tardio . On lap 11 the caution would come out for Corey Locero smoking and laid down oil on the track. Both LaBarge and Tarido at the restart would run noise to tale and pull away from the rest of the pack. LaBarge pulled enough ahead for the victory.
Finishing Order: 1st Trevor LaBarge 2nd Joey Tardio 3rd Kendall Lee 4th Rod Lowe 5th Travis Pitsch 6th John Rebello 7th Lonnie Jackson 8th Corey Locero.

Sunset Speedway is excited for the upcoming weekend. May 28th and 29th is The Spring Challenge Weekend: We will be featuring two action packed nights of racing. The NW Extreme Late Models/Super Late Models, Budweiser IMCA Modified, Micro 1200- Micro 600 open/ Micro 600 restricted and the Bridgeport logistics Street Stocks
In the Budweiser IMCA Modified flag to flag winner Craig Cassell will return to defend not only his win but his points lead. The Bridgeport street stock points leader Marc Farrar holds on to a “1” point lead over second place Travis Koch. The open wheel excitement of the 3 classes of Micros are back and the always side by side action of the late models will make your hair on your arms stand up will all be here.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend with the family then Sunset Speedway the fastest ¼ bull ring, located In Banks OR should be on the top of your list. Just 21 miles west of down town Portland on Hwy 6 is the place to be. Racing action that is fun for the entire family!
If you have Kids sign them up to be a “Jr Dirt Slinger” with nightly prizes given away your kids will love it.
Gates open @ 4pm, Qualifying @ 5:30, Racing starts @ 6:30

Adults (18 & up)……..$13
Seniors/Military/Junior (13-17)……. $10
Youth (6-12)……$5
Youth (5 and under)…..FREE
Family Pass …..$35 includes (2 adults and up to 4 children)
Pit Passes……$30

Special Thanks to all of our 2016 Season Sponsors, without each and every one of you the success of the Best Bull Ring on the West Coast wouldn’t be possible! It’s never too late to be a sponsor, if you would like to be a sponsor of Sunset Speedway please contact us today! Thank you to Jim’s Thriftway, Baseline Pawn, Finish line Graphics, Budweiser, Maletis Beverage, Sunset Park Association, T & G Trucking, Tommy’s Transmissions, Tracy’s Complete Exhaust, Bridgeport Logistics, LLC, RS Race Products, Speedmart, PGH Excavating, Hoosier Racing Tire, Checkered Flag Asphalt, Dancin Bare Gentlemen’s Club, Rockauto.com, Schram Brothers Excavating, LLC., 98.7 The Bull, Driver Websites, Rock star Energy Drinks.

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