Heath and Goetz Win During Mid-Season Championship Night at Skagit

Skagit Speedway 2015 Top Story Logo

From Kaleb Hart

ALGER, Wa. (July 6, 2019) — A huge crowd packed Skagit Speedway for the Les Schwab Midseason Championship night and fireworks extravaganza and saw four familiar faces grace victory lane. Colton Heath and Chase Goetz entered the night as the respective point leaders in their division and came away with wins, while Kevin Smith and Adam Holtrop were repeat winners in their classes. The top eight cars in owner points were locked in to the scramble – cars ninth and deeper all qualified for their starting spots in the sprint car divisions. In the stock car classes, six cars went to the scramble off owner points, while positions seven on back had their A Main spots determined by owner points highest to lowest coming into the night.

The Budweiser 360 Sprints were the main event of the evening and while Heath came out on top, he had to work for it. After winning the scramble, Heath sat second in the early going of the race while Eric Fisher held point. Heath experimented with his line and coming to complete lap seven, threw a slidejob at Eric that stuck in turn four to capture the lead. Colton turned away Fisher’s counter move going into turns one and two and went the rest of the way for the win, followed by Fisher and Greg Hamilton.

Win number four for Chase Goetz in the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints was a wire to wire run on a rapidly slicking off Skagit Speedway. Around lap ten, Kelsey Carpenter closed on Goetz and stuck a nose underneath him coming off turn four – Chase took the opportunity to dive to the low groove to block the charge and led the remaining laps after carving through slower traffic. Carpenter was second with Jayme Barnes third. Goetz won the scramble.

Despite numerous cautions slowing his pace, Kevin Smith was dominant in the Skagit Aggregates Modifieds, leading all 25 lap easily on his march to victory lane. Smith also won the scramble. A hard fought battle among three cars ended up with Rick Smith second and Adam Holtrop third.

Holtrop rebounded by scoring a popular win in the Outlaw Tuners, taking the lead from Kyle Hanson early, then surviving a late race scare, as he collided with a slower car on the last lap, allowing Brian Michelson to pull even briefly on the back stretch. Holtrop held strong and cleared Michelson coming off the final turn for the win. Michelson, who broke his car charging on the final lap, earned second while Howard Vos outdueled Hanson (who won the scramble) for third.

Budweiser 360 Sprints
Fast Time – Robbie Price 11.756
Scramble – Colton Heath, Eric Fisher, Cam Smith, Greg Hamilton, Travis Jacobson, Jason Solwold, Bailey Sucich, Chris Bullock
Main – Colton Heath, Fisher, Hamilton, Solwold, Robbie Price, Smith, Justin Youngquist, Jacobson, Luke Didiuk, Bullock, Sucich, Jake Helsel
Lap Leaders – Fisher 1-6 Heath 7-25

Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints
Fast Time – Bill Rude 12.505
Scramble – Chase Goetz, Kelsey Carpenter, Steve Parker, Michael Bollinger, Eric Turner, Jayme Barnes, Sean Johnson, Malachi Gemmer
Main – Chase Goetz, Carpenter, Barnes, Parker, Bollinger, John Tharp, Gemmer, S Johnson, Turner, Rude, Joe Lyon, Dana Glenn, Cory Swatzina, Ashleigh Johnson, Justin Wedekind, Tom Weiss
Lap Leaders – Goetz 1-25

Skagit Aggregates Modifieds
Scramble – Kevin Smith, Mike Steltz, Jeff Jansma, Jeff Blanton, Rick Smith, Craig Moore
Main – Kevin Smith, R Smith, Adam Holtrop, Steltz, Blanton, Moore, Jason Butenschoen, Ben Gunderson, Dan Butenschoen, Jansma, Mel Decker, Roger Drake
Lap Leaders – K Smith 1-25

Outlaw Tuners
Scramble – Kyle Hanson, Howard Vos, Vance Hibbard, Brian Michelson, Clint Meins, TJ Campbell
Main – Adam Holtrop, Michelson, Vos, Hanson, Nathan Merrill, Mike Thomas, Jon Edwards, Colin Sims, Patricia Michelson, Tyler Ketchum, Rob Dozark, Campbell, Hibbard, Meins
Lap Leaders – Vos 1-2 Hanson 3 Holtrop 4-17