By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (May 9, 2011) – After a soggy Washington weekend, the ASCS Northwest Region will try to kick off its 2011 campaign once again with a two-night stand this weekend at Oregon’s Cottage Grove Speedway.
The Northwest forces will tackle the racy, high-banked, ¼-mile Cottage Grove Speedway clay oval for two full nights of action on Friday and Saturday to set the tone for the 2011 title chase.
Roger Crockett, the 2009 series champion, found Cottage Grove Speedway to his liking last year as he raced to a pair of Fourth of July weekend wins against stacked fields. It wasn’t quite enough though to make it two titles in a row, as Burlington, Washington’s Jason Solwold ultimately nipped Crockett just 11 points for the title.
Enumclaw’s Henry Van Dam was third in last year’s ASCS Northwest points behind Solwold and Crockett, with Tacoma’s Mitch Olson and Snohomish shoe Seth Bergman, who has gone National, rounding out the top five.
The balance of last year’s top ten included Jayme Barnes (Marysville, WA), 15-year-old Trey Starks (Puyallup, WA), Logan Forler (Eatonville, WA), T.J. Hartman (Puyallup, WA) and Garen Linder (Central Point, OR). Like Bergman, Forler is also on the Lucas Oil ASCS National circuit in 2011.
The ASCS Northwest was originally scheduled to kick off the 2011 season this past weekend with Washington events at Elma’s Grays Harbor Raceway and Alger’s Skagit Speedway. However, both cards fell victim to rain, pushing season opening status back one weekend to Cottage Grove.
Both nights of action at Cottage Grove Speedway are set to go green at 6:45 p.m.
Cottage Grove Speedway is located off I-5 Exit 174, one block south on Gateway, then one block south on North 19th Street, then right for 0.3 miles on Ostrander Lane, then 0.4 miles north on Douglas (next to the fairgrounds). For more information, contact the track at 541-942-7561.
The 2011 ASCS Northwest slate of events includes 21 nights of action at seven tracks throughout Washington and Oregon.
The 2011 season marks the 20th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing for the American Sprint Car Series, with approximately 200 nights of competition at tracks throughout the nation and into Canada. Anchored by the Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters, ASCS also consists of ten different Regions throughout the nation.
Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.