Slide Job Filled Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup Opener Goes To Aaron Reutzel

Giving chase to the Corridor Electric No. 23 who started outside the front row, Aaron never let the Washington native get out of reach.

“I knew it was going to be really tough to beat Seth on the start. He had the top to take off on and he led me there. He really left me with nothing to do, so he did a good job, but I saw I was keeping up with him pretty good there just before we got into traffic and I knew if I could eliminate my mistakes, because I kept making a bunch of them, that I could probably get him,” said Aaron who picked up his fourth win of the 2017 National Tour.

Exchanging several slide jobs starting at the race’s half-way point, a few moves nearly ended with both drivers in the wall as the pair weaved through traffic as well.

“He didn’t leave me much room, so I went in and did the same thing. I did kind of use him up a little bit, but Seth’s a racer. He knows how it is and gave me a thumbs up after the race. That’s a true racer.”

Taking over the top spot on Lap 15, Aaron was able to keep Bergman at bay the remainder of the 25 lap preliminary feature event with the margin of victory 0.868 seconds. Putting a second Washington native on the podium, Trey Starks placed third in the family owned No. 55.

Jason Solwold, who topped Dirt Cup in 2015, raced to a fourth place finish from sixth with Roger Crockett fifth. Colton Heath sixth was followed by Matt Covington who advanced to seventh after starting tenth. Johnny Herrera, Garen Linder, and Blake Hahn completed the top-ten.

A field of 46 drivers assembled at the Skagit Speedway for the first night of the 46th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by the Skagit Casino and Resort. Cumulative points throughout the night shows Aaron Reutzel earning 391 markers ahead of Seth Bergman (386), Trey Starks (376), Jason Solwold (371), and Roger Crockett (369).

The 2017 Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by the Skagit Casino and Resort continues on Friday, June 23, 2017 with all drivers again taking part with event points again accrued with the Top 16 in overall points locking into Saturday’s $15,000 to win A-Feature. For ticket prices, directions, and other updates, log onto http://www.skagitspeedway.com.

For continued updates on the American Sprint Car Series, from the National Tour to any of the seven regions that make up the over 150 races across the ASCS Nation in 2017, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com.

Race Results:

Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Skagit Speedway – Alger, Wash.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
46th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup – Night 1

Car Count: 47

Heat Races: (Top 30 in Passing Points advance to Qualifiers)

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman, [2]; 2. 7N-Roger Crockett, [3]; 3. 21P-Robbie Price, [6]; 4. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith, [4]; 5. 57-Bud Ashe, [5]; 6. 33A-Lucas Ashe, [8]; 7. 29W-Steven James, [7]; 8. (DNF) 9A-Luke Didiuk, [1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [2]; 2. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [3]; 3. 18-Jason Solwold, [5]; 4. 91-Chase Goetz, [6]; 5. 5-Brian Boswell, [1]; 6. 4B-Cale Brooke, [4]; (DNS) 15-Jeff Dunlap, ; (DNS) 10L-Brock Lemley,

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn, [4]; 2. 51F-Jared Peterson, [1]; 3. 59-Eric Fisher, [6]; 4. 17W-Harli White, [2]; 5. 97R-Jason Reed, [5]; 6. (DNF) 22X-Trevor Cook, [8]; 7. (DNF) 37-Trever Kirkland, [3]; 8. (DNF) 96-Greg Hamilton, [7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Trey Starks, [3]; 2. 95-Matt Covington, [2]; 3. 22-Garen Linder, [5]; 4. 57C-Chris Schmelzle, [7]; 5. 8RC-Chance Crum, [6]; 6. 57X-James Bundy, [4]; 7. (DNF) 98-Matt Jensen, [1]; (DNS) 12-Jared Ridge,

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Skylar Gee, [1]; 2. 8R-Austen Wheatley, [2]; 3. 39C-Travis Rilat, [6]; 4. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [7]; 5. 29-Brandon Harkness, [5]; 6. 22M-Brett McGhie, [4]; 7. (DNF) 3-J.J. Hickle, [3]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel, [4]; 2. 2L-Logan Forler, [1]; 3. 33-Colton Heath, [5]; 4. 9R-Reece Goetz, [3]; 5. 33S-Lance Sargent, [7]; 6. 5R-Steve Reeves, [6]; (DQ) 1-Craig Dollansky, [2]

Hoosier Tire Qualifiers (Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the A-Feature)

Qualifier 1 (8 Laps): 1. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [1]; 2. 7N-Roger Crockett, [3]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman, [5]; 4. 22-Garen Linder, [2]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn, [6]; 6. 59-Eric Fisher, [4]; 7. 51F-Jared Peterson, [7]; 8. 8RC-Chance Crum, [9]; 9. 33S-Lance Sargent, [8]; 10. 22X-Trevor Cook, [10]

Qualifier 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Colton Heath, [2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington, [1]; 3. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [3]; 4. 87-Aaron Reutzel, [6]; 5. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [5]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler, [7]; 7. 39C-Travis Rilat, [4]; 8. 17W-Harli White, [9]; 9. 57-Bud Ashe, [10]; 10. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith, [8]

Qualifier 3 (8 Laps): 1. 8R-Austen Wheatley, [1]; 2. 18-Jason Solwold, [3]; 3. 57C-Chris Schmelzle, [2]; 4. 55-Trey Starks, [6]; 5. 99-Skylar Gee, [4]; 6. 9R-Reece Goetz, [8]; 7. 21P-Robbie Price, [5]; 8. 91-Chase Goetz, [7]; 9. 33A-Lucas Ashe, [9]; 10. 97R-Jason Reed, [10]

BMRS B-Features (Top 3 from each advance to the A-Feature)

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 2L-Logan Forler, [1]; 2. 39C-Travis Rilat, [2]; 3. 8RC-Chance Crum, [4]; 4. 51F-Jared Peterson, [3]; 5. 33A-Lucas Ashe, [6]; 6. 33S-Lance Sargent, [5]; 7. 5R-Steve Reeves, [9]; 8. 9A-Luke Didiuk, [12]; 9. 57X-James Bundy, [10]; 10. 29W-Steven James, [11]; 11. (DNF) 22X-Trevor Cook, [7]; 12. (DNF) 29-Brandon Harkness, [8]; (DNS) 3-J.J. Hickle, ; (DNS) 96-Greg Hamilton, ; (DNS) 10L-Brock Lemley,

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 9R-Reece Goetz, [2]; 2. 21P-Robbie Price, [1]; 3. 17W-Harli White, [4]; 4. 1-Craig Dollansky, [12]; 5. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith, [6]; 6. 91-Chase Goetz, [3]; 7. 37-Trever Kirkland, [11]; 8. 97R-Jason Reed, [7]; 9. 57-Bud Ashe, [5]; 10. 22M-Brett McGhie, [10]; 11. 4B-Cale Brooke, [9]; 12. 98-Matt Jensen, [14]; 13. (DNF) 5-Brian Boswell, [8]; (DNS) 12-Jared Ridge, ; (DNS) 15-Jeff Dunlap,

Protect the Harvest A-Feature:

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel, [1]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman, [2]; 3. 55-Trey Starks, [4]; 4. 18-Jason Solwold, [6]; 5. 7N-Roger Crockett, [5]; 6. 33-Colton Heath, [3]; 7. 95-Matt Covington, [10]; 8. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [7]; 9. 22-Garen Linder, [14]; 10. 52-Blake Hahn, [9]; 11. 9R-Reece Goetz, [18]; 12. 21P-Robbie Price, [20]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee, [15]; 14. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [11]; 15. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [13]; 16. 17W-Harli White, [22]; 17. 39C-Travis Rilat, [19]; 18. 57C-Chris Schmelzle, [12]; 19. 59-Eric Fisher, [16]; 20. 2L-Logan Forler, [17]; 21. 8RC-Chance Crum, [21]; 22. 8R-Austen Wheatley, [8]

Lap Leader(s): Seth Bergman 1-14; Aaron Reutzel 15-25
CP-Carrillo Hard Charger: Robbie Price +8
FSR High Point Driver: Aaron Reutzel
Provisional(s): N/A

2017 Lucas Oil ASCS A-Main Winner(s): Sam Hafertepe, Jr. – 7 (3/17 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway; 3/18 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway; 4/7 – Texas Motor Speedway; 4/8 – Texas Motor Speedway; 4/15 – Missouri State Fair Speedway; 6/13 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway; 6/14 – Lawton Speedway); Aaron Reutzel – 4 (5/11 – Lakeside Speedway; 6/15 – Creek County Speedway; 6/17 – Lucas Oil Speedway; 6/22 – Skagit Speedway); Jake Bubak – 1 (6/9 – West Texas Raceway); Kyle Bellm – 1(6/10 – Route 66 Motor Speedway); Brian Brown – 1 (6/16 – Randolph County Raceway);

2017 Lucas Oil ASCS Driver Standings (Top 10): 1. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 1,862; 2. Aaron Reutzel 1,747; 3. Johnny Herrera 1,706; 4. Matt Covington 1,655; 5. Seth Bergman 1,648; 6. Wayne Johnson 1,646; ; 7. Blake Hahn 1,507; 8. Justin Henderson 1,434; 9. Dustin Morgan 1,414; 10. Skylar Gee 1,398;