Alger, WA — (June 24, 2016) — A brand new car, the season’s first race, and it culminates in a win. Sounds like a story fit for Disney, but the fairytale is true as Canada’s Marc Duperron was the class of the field at Washington’s Skagit Speedway in the kick off to the 45th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by Jack in the Box.
Only Marc’s third Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour A-Feature start, the driver of the Apri’s North/KPC Chassis No. 11eh is the 133rd different winner in Lucas Oil ASCS competition and is the 10th different winner in 2016. Marc Duperron is also the first Canadian to score a win against the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network.
The win is also a first for Duperron at the Skagit Speedway.
“I was just thinking, if you would have asked me about Wednesday night on the way up here with this being out first race of the season, I would tell you that you were full of crap if you’d would have said this car was going to be up front, but hats off to the guys that work on this thing,” said Duperron, who led flag-to-flag on Friday night.
“It’s been nine months. I could have had a baby since I was in the car last but we had a lot of luck go our way and lot of good guys on this car.”
Surviving several rounds of reds and cautions on the start of the A-Feature, that collected Seth Bergman, Jake Helsel, Travis Rilat, and Chase Goetz; each restart was a challenge as Jason Solwold charged every line in an attempt for the lead. Able to take the lead at one point, the red flag brought the field back to the last fully completed lap.
Protecting the bottom as the race finally got rolling, the leaders found light traffic at the race’s half-way point. Working around a few slower cars, the caution again flew as Justin Youngquist and Wayne Johnson spun to a stop top in the second turn.
Attached again by the defending Dirt Cup Champion, Duperron kept it smooth and clean, winning by 1.339 seconds.
Crossing second, Jason Solwold’s 21st career Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour feature start put the Mike Anderson owned No. 18 in the A-Feature on Saturday night.
“We had him on that one restart, and I don’t know how many we had with all those cars crashing, it seemed like we were never going to make a lap,” commented Jason on his attempts at the lead. “We never really got into lapped traffic, so I’m kind of curious to know what would have happened there but we just got beat; but we’ll take second today.”
Quite a turnaround from his 2015 Dirt Cup debut, Blake Hahn put the Lucas Oil/CSR Garage No. 52 on the final podium step.
“We’re really happy to lock into this big show. It’s such a big deal and after last year, we’ll take anything. We hurt two cars while we were up there, so we’re just really happy we had a good night. Locking it in just makes in ever better,” said Hahn of his third podium finish of the season.
Sam Hafertepe, Jr. from ninth, grabbed the final transfer into Saturday’s A-Feature. The Sunnyvale, Texas native was chased to the line by Cam Smith to complete the top-five.
From 16th, Logan Forler finished sixth with Johnny Herrera, from a B-Main, moving through the field to seventh from 17th. Colton Heath from 15th crossed eighth with Jared Petersen and Trey Starks completing the top-ten. Starks from 21st was the night’s FSR Radiator Hard Charger.
With the weather keeping some away, 43 drivers made the call for Friday night’s preliminary showdown. Five Heat Races went to Eric Fisher, Skylar Gee, Jason Solwold, Marc Duperron, and Seth Bergman.
Qualifiers were topped by Wayne Johnson, Sam Hafertepe, Jr., and Blake Hahn.
The night’s B-Main wins went to Johnny Herrera and Canada’s Steve Reeves.
The finale of the 45th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by Jack in the Box
With a $15,000 winner’s check on the line on Saturday night, racing is scheduled to begin at 7:00 P.M. (PDT) with Modifieds joining the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour. For more information, log onto http://www.skagitspeedway.com.
For continued updates on the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com.
Race Results:
ASCS National
Skagit Speedway – Alger, Wash.
45th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup
Friday, June 24, 2016
Car Count: 43
ButlerBuilt Heat Races (8 Laps, Top 30 in Passing Point advance to Qualifiers)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 59-Eric Fisher[1]; 2. 39C-Travis Rilat[7]; 3. 44-Jake Helsel[3]; 4. 51-Bricen James[9]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[8]; 6. 37-Trever Kirkland[2]; 7. 97-Matthew Dusseault[4]; 8. 70-Travis Jacobson[5]; 9. 97R-Jason Reed[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Skylar Gee[1]; 2. 33-Colton Heath[3]; 3. 56-Justin Youngquist[2]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 5. 2C-Wayne Johnson[8]; 6. N8-Nate Vaughn[5]; 7. 44NZ-Daniel Anderson[7]; 8. 3C-Daniel Cernich[4]; 9. 15-Jeff Dunlap[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Jason Solwold[1]; 2. 51F-Jared Peterson[2]; 3. 2L-Logan Forler[3]; 4. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith[5]; 5. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[8]; 6. 91-Chase Goetz[4]; 7. 96X-Mack Brown[7]; 8. 12-Jared Ridge[6]; 9. 20-Michael Bollinger[9]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 11EH-Marc Duperron[3]; 2. 96-Greg Hamilton[1]; 3. 5R-Steve Reeves[6]; 4. 9A-Luke Didiuk[4]; 5. (DNF) 9R-Reece Goetz[2]; 6. (DNF) 23P-Steve Parker[5]; 7. (DNF) 55-Trey Starks[7]; 8. (DNF) 22X-Brock Lemley[8]; 9. (DNF) 20-Michael Bollinger[9]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 3. 45X-Johnny Herrera[6]; 4. 22C-Trevor Cook[1]; 5. 33S-Lance Sargent[7]; 6. 57-Bud Ashe[8]; 7. 4B-Cale Brooke[4]; (DNS) 3-J.J. Hickle
Hoosier Tire Qualifiers (8 Laps, Top 16 in combined Passing Points advance to the A-Feature)
Qualifier 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[1]; 2. 39C-Travis Rilat[6]; 3. 59-Eric Fisher[4]; 4. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 5. 33-Colton Heath[3]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[7]; 7. 45X-Johnny Herrera[2]; 8. 33S-Lance Sargent[8]; 9. 9R-Reece Goetz[9]; (DNS) 23P-Steve Parker
Qualifier 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[2]; 3. 11EH-Marc Duperron[6]; 4. 51F-Jared Peterson[3]; 5. 51-Bricen James[5]; 6. 56-Justin Youngquist[7]; 7. 91-Chase Goetz[10]; 8. 9A-Luke Didiuk[8]; 9. 99-Skylar Gee[4]; 10. 57-Bud Ashe[9]
Qualifier 3 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 2. 18-Jason Solwold[4]; 3. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith[7]; 4. 96-Greg Hamilton[3]; 5. 23-Seth Bergman[6]; 6. 44-Jake Helsel[1]; 7. N8-Nate Vaughn[9]; 8. 37-Trever Kirkland[10]; 9. 5R-Steve Reeves[5]; 10. (DNF) 22C-Trevor Cook[8]
BMRS B-Feature(s) (12 laps, top 3 advance to the A-Feature)
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 45X-Johnny Herrera[2]; 2. 56-Justin Youngquist[1]; 3. 55-Trey Starks[9]; 4. 33S-Lance Sargent[4]; 5. 99-Skylar Gee[3]; 6. 9R-Reece Goetz[6]; 7. 12-Jared Ridge[11]; 8. 9A-Luke Didiuk[5]; 9. 20-Michael Bollinger[13]; 10. (DNF) 3C-Daniel Cernich[12]; 11. (DNF) 44NZ-Daniel Anderson[8]; 12. (DNF) 23P-Steve Parker[7]; 13. (DNF) 22X-Brock Lemley[10]; (DNS) 3-J.J. Hickle
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 5R-Steve Reeves[2]; 2. 91-Chase Goetz[3]; 3. 44-Jake Helsel[1]; 4. 57-Bud Ashe[7]; 5. 37-Trever Kirkland[5]; 6. 22C-Trevor Cook[6]; 7. N8-Nate Vaughn[4]; 8. 97-Matthew Dusseault[9]; 9. 15-Jeff Dunlap[12]; 10. 4B-Cale Brooke[10]; (DNS) 96X-Mack Brown; (DNS) 70-Travis Jacobson; (DNS) 97R-Jason Reed
Protect the Harvest A-Feature (25 Laps)
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 11EH-Marc Duperron[2]; 2. 18-Jason Solwold[3]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[9]; 5. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith[7]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[16]; 7. 45X-Johnny Herrera[17]; 8. 33-Colton Heath[15]; 9. 51F-Jared Peterson[13]; 10. 55-Trey Starks[21]; 11. 2C-Wayne Johnson[8]; 12. 51-Bricen James[12]; 13. 95-Matt Covington[11]; 14. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 15. 96-Greg Hamilton[14]; 16. 5R-Steve Reeves[18]; 17. 56-Justin Youngquist[19]; 18. (DNF) 59-Eric Fisher[6]; 19. (DNF) 23-Seth Bergman[10]; 20. (DNF) 39C-Travis Rilat[1]; 21. (DNF) 91-Chase Goetz[20]; 22. (DNF) 44-Jake Helsel[22]
Lap Leader(s): Marc Duperron 1-25
FSR High Point Driver: Travis Rilat
Hard Charger: Trey Starks +11
Provisional(s): N/A
Northwest Ford Focus Midget Car Series
Feature: 1. 24 – Nick Evans, 2. 29 – Doug James, 3. 83 – Chance Crum, 4. 16 – Nik Larson, 5. 2J – Jonathan Jorgeson, 6. 23B – Jacob Brown, 7. 21J – Ryan Cully, 8. 99 – Devin Barnes, 10. 23 – Michael Millard, 11. 25 – Michael Hodel, 12. 11 – Jared Gundersen, 13. 98K – Kenzi Thomas, 14. 14 – Garrett Thomas, 15. 73G – Al Goldie, 16. 5 – Tanner Holm, 17. 4 – Mike Vollbrecht, 18. 25X – Randy Hodel, 19. 77 – Jeremiah Franklin, 20. 9T – Tristen Thomas.