From Kaleb Hart
DEMING, Wa. (June 16, 2017) — A huge crowd took in a great night of racing at Deming Speedway, with racing action presented by Robinson & Kole, Pacific Coast Auto Center, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Meenderinck LLC. Race winners on the night were Tanner Holm, Chance Crum, Nick Evans, Blaine Granberg and Peyton Drake.
Riley Watkins looked to be on his way to his first win in the Speedmart Hoosier 600 Open class, before a series of late race restarts gave Tanner Holm the chance he’d been looking for. The race went caution three times over laps 19 and 20, and on each ensuing restart, Watkins would accelerate at roughly the same time and take the same line into turn one. Holm started behind Watkins each time and on the final shot, had learned enough that he could bonzai Riley on the inside of turn one, forcing Watkins into the slick in the middle of turn two and take the lead from him. That’s exactly how Holm executed it, taking the lead from Watkins and rolling away to the race win, his second of the year and first with the wing on. Watkins would settle for second with Kevin Wilkinson taking third and Jared Peterson taking hard charger.
In the Shots 2 Go Espresso 1200’s, Chance Crum timed up a slidejob to perfection in taking his fifth overall win of the year at Deming Speedway and fourth in the class. Crum tailed Jared Gundersen for about ten circuits, running an extremely similar line to the leader while waiting for his moment. That moment came on lap 22, when Crum had a huge run into turn three that gave him just enough clearance to complete his slidejob for the lead at the exit of the corner. Gundersen tried to rally back underneath Chance but it was all for not as Crum took the win, followed by Gundersen and JJ Hickle who charged from 11th to 3rd in earning his hard charger award.
The Northwest Focus Midget Series made their third appearance of the season at Deming Speedway and when the dust settled, Nick Evans earned his second victory of the year at the track, Nick took the lead on lap two and had things relatively easy until a late race restart gave eventual second place finisher Chance Crum a shot at him on a green white checkered restart. Evans kept his poise and hit his marks over the final couple of laps to pick up the win, with Crum in the two spot and Greg Thornhill taking third. Ryan Cully charged from 11th to 4th to pick up the hard charger award.
Blaine Granberg went wire to wire for his first win in the Mytrafficman.NET 600 Restricted division. The pressure on Granberg was intense as Peyton Hagen was all over Granberg from about lap five on. Following a lap 19 restart, Hagen and Granberg collided out of turn four, with Blaine stuck outside pointed towards the infield and Peyton inside hard on the throttle. Hagen lifted at about the midpoint of the straight away, allowing Granberg to straighten out and reassume his run, ending up with his first victory in the class. Hagen was second with Tyler McLeod taking third. Parker Hadlock was the hard charger, moving forward nine spots in the main event.
The Kasey Kahne Junior Sprint division saw a first time winner on Friday night, as Peyton Drake led every lap to grab his first Deming Speedway win. Drake faced intense pressure late race nearly all race long, first from Baker Fagerlie then later from Mitchell Helsel. Helsel gave Drake a big run in the final turn, pulling even with Peyton in the final turns, but the night belonged to Drake as he kept his foot in the throttle and drove past to take the win. Jesson Jacobson used Helsel’s aggressiveness to his advantage, scooting past Helsel coming out of turn four to take the runner up spot, relegating Helsel to third. Kane Van Sickle was the hard charger.
Northwest Focus Midget Series
Deming Speedway
Deming, WA
Friday June 16, 2017
Feature:
1. 24 – Nick Evans
2. 83 – Chance Crum
3. 82 – Greg Thornhill
4. 21j – Ryan Cully
5. 17 – Chris Bullock
6. 3 – Wade Sprecklemeyer
7. 44 – Shane Smith
8. N8 – Nate Vaughn
9. 57 – Hailey Bower
10. 77 – Jeremiah Franklin
11. 3H – Hannah Lindquist
12. 3b – Brian Hayes
13. 2A – Renee Angel
14. 11T – Ray Stebbins
15. 31 – Shane Biles
16. 41 – Mike Thompson