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NST Willamette Speedway results 2003-09-12

Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, OR hosted its last U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. Northern Sprint Tour race for the season 0n Friday, September 12th, with Jimmy Carter of Cloverdale, BC taking his first Northern Sprint Tour win in the 30-lap A-Feature ...

Published: Sep 15, 2003, 5:31 PM

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Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, OR hosted its last U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. Northern Sprint Tour race for the season 0n Friday, September 12th, with Jimmy Carter of Cloverdale, BC taking his first Northern Sprint Tour win in the 30-lap A-Feature event.

"Getting that dash win was real important. It got us on the pole and we were set for a good start, which you really need." With several wins and a championship in 410 Sprints, Carter was making just his eighth Northern Sprint Tour race. Asked how this win in the 360 Sprint series compared with the others, Carter commented, "I've always admired the NST racers, the shows and the level of competition. They are great competition and hard runners. It feels great to have a win with NST."

Setting a fast pace from the front, Carter soon had a good lead over defending champion Roger Crockett of Eugene, OR, and Jayme Barnes of Everett, WA. Jason Solwold of Sedro Woolley, WA grabbed a quick two-spots and jumped to 5th on back the straight the first lap, sliding in behind ST. Albert, AB driver Jeff Hodgson.

The amber light flashed on lap 5 for Randy Pierce of Nampa, ID who coasted to a stop on the front straight with motor problems. Exiting turn four on the restart, Mt Vernon, WA's Shawna Wilskey and Dale Smith made contact. Smith then tagged the outside wall twice on the front straight with major damage putting the Cottage Grove, OR driver out for the night. Wilskey pulled to the work area but damage to her car also finished her evening on the track.

Once again underway, the top three quickly opened a 10-car gap over Hodgson and, dicing for fourth just ahead of Lynnwood, WA's Barry Martinez and Colby Wiesz of Colfax, CA. Wiesz and Martinez would continue the fight for 6th the length of the race.

By the 10th lap of the feature, Carter was contending with traffic on the narrow Willamette track with Crockett closing the gap for first.

At the mid-way mark the top five were all in heavy traffic with Barnes closing on the top two and on the 20th lap the top three were less than a car length apart.

Going into turn three on the next lap Crockett went to the high side to make the pass on slower cars as Barnes followed Carter to the low groove. With the slower cars moving up the track, Crockett was wide exiting turn four as Barnes' move to the bottom earned him second place.

With five laps to go the red flag flew for Jay Cole, who flipped in turn one. After checking his car, the Shelton, WA driver climbed back in his car and rejoined the field at the rear.

Now having a clear track, Carter, Barnes, Crockett and Hodgson set out for the checkered flag with the rest of the field in tow. Wiese made the pass for fifth over Solwold on lap 26 but couldn't hold it and was back in sixth at the finish.

Cottage Grove's, Marvin Smith and Randy Van Aagten of Shelton, WA both moved up well, picking up eight spots each to finish 8th and 10th respectively.

"When Roger went high in 3 and 4 he left an opening and I took it," stated Barnes when asked about his pass for second. "This is my first time in the new Boychuk car and it feels great. I've got my own crew working on it too and it just runs super, power, handling and everything. We're going to be working on moving up a spot tomorrow night."

After setting second fast time of the night, Solwold found himself in the B-Main after failing to qualify for the 'A' from his heat. Blasting to a large lead from his pole position at the green, Solwold was in traffic on his third trip around the oval while a race long battle for the next 5 spots was forming up behind him.

Van Aagten, Pierce, Mark Torres, Mike Harris and Brad Holmes made it a race long battle for the four feature event transfer positions behind Solwold with seldom more that a car length or two between any of the cars.

Mechanical problems brought Kevin Etchison to a halt in turn four on the 7th lap for the only yellow of the race.

After the restart, Solwold was again in traffic within three laps and at the checkered he was about to put a lap on the two cars dicing for fifth place. Taking an extra lap just to be sure, Solwold was followed by Van Aagten, Pierce, Torres, and Brad Holmes, with Harris in the feature event backup spot.

Heat race action started with M. Smith leading wire to wire in heat one as T.J. Winningham, Hodgson, Wiesz and Barnes followed about 10-car lengths behind.

The second heat went to Glenn Borden, Jr. over Wilskey. Cole beat Hiller in a close race for third with Shawn Smith in fifth.

Dawn-L Morrison took the win in the third heat, holding off a couple of good challenges by Martinez. D. Smith, Carter and Crockett followed to fill the top five.

Torres and David Gilmore both wrecked during hot laps and missed their heats, but were able to start the B-Main.

Fast Time of the 25-car field was Jayme Barnes with a 12.385 second lap of the three-tenths mile oval.

SUMMARY

Fast Time -- Jayme Barnes - 12.385.

Heat 1 --Marvin Smith, T.J. Winningham, Jeff Hodgson, Colby Wiesz, Jayme Barnes, Randy Pierce, Kevin Etchison, Mike Harris.

Heat 2 --Glenn Borden, Jr., Shawna Wilskey, Jay Cole, Chad Hillier, Shawn Smith, Jason Solwold, Randy Van Aagten, Steve Veltman.

Heat 3 -- Dawn-L Morrison, Barry Martinez, Dale Smith, Jimmy Carter, Roger Crockett, Scott Finley, Brad Holmes.

Dash -- Carter, Crockett, Barnes, Hodgson, Wiesz, Hillier.

B-Main -- Solwold, Van Aagten, Pierce, Torres, Holmes, Harris, Finley, Veltman, Gilmore, Etchison.

A-Main -- Carter, Barnes, Crockett, Hodgson, Solwold, Wiesz, Martinez, M. Smith, Hillier, Van Aagten, S. Smith, Borden, Jr., Cole, Winningham, Holmes, Morrison, Torres, Wilskey, D. Smith, Pierce.

-nst-

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