(Alger, WA)
5/9/12 by Kelly Hart
For the first
time this racing season competitors at Skagit Speedway won’t be looking skyward
to guess if the racing action was going to be interrupted by precipitation.
Weather prognosticators are calling for temperatures near 70 with sunny skies
for Saturdays Foothills Toyota Tundra Racing Series event.
The warmer
weather has also been a blessing for track owner Steve Beitler. Beitler said,
“we finally were able to work the track Sunday and early in the week. I’ve
wanted to do some major work to turn 3 as well as the rest of the surface and
we were able to do that. This new material is really doing great but we needed
to fine tune it with our equipment and are very pleased with the results.”
Early season
point leaders are Travis Jacobson in the 410 Sprints, Trevor Turnbull in the
360 Sprints, Clayton Sibley in the Sportsman Sprints and Rick Young in the
Outlaw Hornets. Turnbull and Young have two main event wins so far out of three
race nights. Jacobson won last weeks 410 main and Sibley is doing it with
consistency with two sixth place finishes and a third while the other main even
winners have had low point weeks.
Some
surprises in the early season point standings include rookie Zach McCabe
sitting 8th in Sportsman points and second year drivers Ben
Gunderson and Tyler Fox both in the top 10. Tunbull and Sibley are both atop
their divisions in points. Doing double duty both Turnbull and Jonathan
Jorgenson are both in the top ten’s in the 410 and 360 divisions. Michael
Harris has used his first win at Skagit Speedway a few weeks ago to sit second
in 360 points. Rookies Bren Futrelle, Becky Boudreau and Patrick Adams are 8th
through 10th in Hornet standings.
This weekend
Skagit Speedway welcomes back Northwest veteran Mitch Olson to the track. Over
the years Mitch has earned some podium finishes in some of the biggest races at
Skagit Speedway and is a threat to win on any given night. Visiting Skagit
Speedway for the first time is Puyallup racer TJ Hartman. According to his
press release TJ said, “I've
watched a lot of racing up there, but we've just never had the opportunity to
race there ourselves. It's the middle of May and I only have one race
under my belt, so I've got to do something. I'm not learning anything
sitting around and watching it rain or washing a race car that never turned
even a hot lap. We're going to give it a try and see how it goes.
Skagit has a long history of great sprintcar drivers that has raced there and
eventually I hope to be on that list."
Also expected
back is Victoria Cantu who took a wild ride in turn four during last weekends
Sportsman feature while running toward the front of the pack.
All four
divisions will see action again Saturday night at ASA Member Track Skagit
Speedway. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for spectators and racing starts at 7:00 p.m.
after opening ceremonies. For more information about advanced ticket sales for
upcoming events at Skagit Speedway go to the website, www.SkagitSpeedway.com .
Photo Credit - Lisa Swanberg
Photo Caption - Big field of 360 Sprints readies for Main Event start.