By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (September 19, 2011) – Two ASCS Regional champions have already been determined for 2011 including Matt Covington in the Lone Star Region and Jack Dover in the Midwest.
This weekend, a third champion will be crowned as the ASCS Northwest finishes off the 2011 campaign with a two-night stand at Yakima, Washington’s State Fair Raceway on Friday and Saturday.
Medford, Oregon’s Roger Crockett holds the upper hand as he seeks his second ASCS Northwest title, although Henry Van Dam of Enumclaw, WA, kept some slim title hopes alive with his second win of the season on Saturday night at Cottage Grove.
Crockett, with five series wins on the year, holds a 91-point advantage entering the weekend. Crockett needs only to finish 12th or better on both nights to assure staying out of Van Dam’s reach.
While Crockett and Van Dam settle the score for the top spot, 15-year-old Trey Starks of Puyallup, WA, holds down the third spot after earning National Sprint Car Poll Rookie of the Year honors last year with Princeton, California’s Mason Moore and Medford, Oregon’s Garen Linder rounding out the current top five.
Snohomish, Washington’s Jason Cocking, the leading ASCS Northwest rookie contender, enters the weekend finale ranked sixth with Central Point, Oregon’s Chadd Noland in seventh. Fresh off his first career ASCS win this past weekend, Eatonville, Washington’s Logan Forler looks to improve upon his current ranking of ninth over the weekend.
Yakima’s State Fair Raceway has hosted the ASCS Northwest season-ending double over each of the past three years. Jason Solwold, the 2010 series champion, has topped the first Yakima night three consecutive times with second night winners including Brock Lemley, Stephen Allard and Roger Crockett.
Both nights of racing action at Yakima’s State Fair Raceway are set to go green at 6:00 p.m.
The slightly-banked, 3/8-mile State Fair Raceway clay oval is located in Yakima, WA, off I-82 to Exit 34, then 0.2 miles west on SR 24, then north on S. 18th Street. For more information, check www.fairfun.com.
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.