By Andrew Kunas
This Saturday night, the duo of Travis Jacobson and Evan Funk will begin their pursuit of the 410 and 360 sprint car championships at Skagit Speedway for Shay Shay Motorsports.
Jacobson and Funk both joined Mike and Shaylen Anderson in the latter part of the 2009 season. Over the off-season, the team and drivers have prepared for an all out assault on Skagit Speedway. Jacobson, a former track champion at Skagit Speedway, will have duties in the 410 sprint car division while Funk, one of the young rising stars in the Pacific Northwest and also a former main event winner at Skagit, will be in the team’s 360ci-powered sprinter.
While both drivers will be in the predominantly blue Shark-powered machines the team has always fielded, Jacobson’s car being an Eagle chassis and Funk’s a Rocket chassis, a little tribute will be paid to a fellow driver this season as the 1 has been dropped from the familiar No. 18 and a “r” has been added. Both drivers will sport the No. 8r on their cars this year as a special nod to Travis Rutz, who was critically injured in a crash at Terre Haute Action Track in Indiana last September. Rutz is a close friend of Funk’s.
Longtime sponsors such as Burlington Collision, Anderson Power Washing, SignMart, Speedmart, Performance R/C, Shark Racing Engines and the guy known only as Heavy D are back supporting Shay Shay Motorsports for 2010. Other new sponsors welcomed to the team in 2010 are Island RV, Cimarron Trucking, Barlow Escrow, Toussint Machine & Manufacturing, McCormack Auto Body and Whidbey Island Volkswagen Mazda.
Jacobson and Funk will be competing weekly at Skagit Speedway and on weekend’s when the schedule allows, they may try running special events at other tracks. In the meantime, in addition to the regular shows at Skagit are big events including the 39th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup in June for 410 sprint cars and the Bob’s Burgers & Brew Skagit 360 Nationals at the end of July. The world famous World of Outlaws visit for two nights on Labor Day weekend.
Jacobson, who is from Lake Stevens, Wash. nearly won the Dirt Cup in 2005, but just as he was in the process of making a pass for the lead in the main event the yellow flag came out for an accident, clearing the track for the race leader. Still, Jacobson came home with a big runner-up finish. Since teaming up with Shay Shay Motorsports last year, Jacobson has competed well at Skagit and figures to be one of the top contenders for the 410 sprint car championship.
Funk, out of La Conner, joined Shay Shay Motorsports late in the 2009 season as well but did very well also, finishing second place in the season finale at Skagit. Funk blasted onto the Northwest sprint car racing scene in 2006 and was immediately winning races and now he’s being looked at as a threat to win his first career championship this year.
Shay Shay Motorsports thanks their great sponsors for their support and looks forward to kicking things off this Saturday at Skagit Speedway!
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Shay Shay Motorsports sponsors
Island RV
McCormack Auto Body
Burlington Collision
Anderson Power Washing
Heavy D
Performance R/C
Shark Racing Engines
Toussint Machine & Manufacturing
Cimarron Trucking
Whidbey Island Volkswagen Mazda
Barlow Escrow
Speedmart Inc.
SignMart USA