From Bryan Hulbert
ELMA, Wash. (June 29, 2018) Capturing his fourth career victory with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com, Washington’s Jason Solwold parked the Northwest Team Excavating/Anderson Motorsports No. 18 to open the Fred Brownfield Classic at Grays Harbor Raceway.
“We had a rough weekend last weekend, so we’re trying to rebound a little bit here,” stated Solwold.
Battling early in slower traffic with Henry Van Dam, the pair traded slide jobs throughout the seventh lap with Solwold gaining the edge as Seth Bergman rolled into the mix as the caution flew for Wayne Johnson who spun rolling into the fourth turn.
“I got a little nervous because we were so good early. I got stuck behind a lapped car trying to pick my poison and ended up not being very good on the bottom, but we made it through. Tonight, was about track position. We had good draws all night, and I didn’t draw that two I can tell you that,” chucked Solwold of his second career Brownfield Classic prelim win.
“I’ve won on Friday night here, but I haven’t won both nights yet so hopefully we can pull that off tomorrow night.”
Caution on the restart for Jason Reed, the return of the green light saw Solwold steadily pull away from the No. 33v of Van Dam. Contending with Seth Bergman, the runner-up spot remained in the hands of the Enumclaw native until Lap 15 as the leaders worked into slower traffic. Diving the bottom of the third turn, Bergman slid into second and began running down Solwold.
Consistently keeping a pair of lapped cars between himself and the Corridor Electric No. 23, Seth finally got a clear shot with just under four laps to run. Able to pick up some time on Jason, it was not enough as Solwold crossed under the checkered flag with a 1.118-second advantage.
Seth Bergman’s 38th career podium finish with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com, the driver of the No. 23 has three straight podium appearances in just as many nights. Retaining the National Tour point’s lead over Sam Hafertepe, Jr., the driver of the Hills Racing No. 15h rolled through the field from 11th to claim third for his 69th career trip to the podium.
Slipping in traffic back to fourth, Henry Van Dam held on for the final transfer into Saturday’s A-Feature event. Finishing one spot shy, Chase Goetz completed the top-five. Garen Linder crossed sixth with Skylar Gee advancing to seventh after starting 15th. Matt Covington followed from 16th with Kyle Miller and Travis Rilat from 17th to complete Friday’s top-ten.
The Fred Brownfield Classic resumes on Saturday, June 30 with gates opening at 5:30 P.M. and Opening Ceremonies at 7:00 P.M. (PDT). Tickets are $27 for adults with discounts for Youth, Senior, and Military. Kids six and under are free. Grays Harbor Raceway is located at 43 Elma McCleary Rd. on the Grays Harbor County Fairgrounds. For information on the track, log onto http://www.graysharborraceway.com.
For other news, notes, and information on the American Sprint Car Series, from the National Tour to any of the Regional Tours that make up the nearly 150 races across the ASCS Nation in 2018, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com, follow on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Twitter (@LucasOilASCS).
Race Results:
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Grays Harbor Raceway – Elma, Wash.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Fred Brownfield Classic – Night 1
Event Count: 38
Heat Races (Top 16 advance to the A-Feature, Top 8 in Passing Points redraw)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 91-Chase Goetz, [1]; 2. 2L-Logan Forler, [2]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [5]; 4. 95-Matt Covington, [6]; 5. 15-Jeff Dunlap, [3]; 6. 3-J.J. Hickle, [4]; 7. 59-Eric Fisher, [7]; 8. 45-Austen Wheatley, [8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Jason Solwold, [2]; 2. 33V-Henry VanDam, [5]; 3. 22-Garen Linder, [7]; 4. 25-Michael Hodel, [6]; 5. 57C-Chris Schmelzle, [8]; 6. (DNF) 9-Shawn Rice, [1]; 7. (DNF) 75-Brian Boswell, [3]; 8. (DNF) 0J-Jay Cole, [4]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman, [1]; 2. 26-Joey Saldana, [3]; 3. 6A-Kyle Miller, [7]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn, [6]; 5. 96-Greg Hamilton, [5]; 6. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [8]; 7. (DNF) F1-Rick Fauver, [4]; 8. (DNF) 28-Scott Bogucki, [2]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 8P-Jared Peterson, [1]; 2. 5J-Jamie Ball, [2]; 3. 27DD-David Hoiness, [4]; 4. 1-Travis Rilat, [6]; 5. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [7]; 6. 24-Tyler Anderson, [5]; 7. 33S-Lance Sargent, [3]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Colton Heath, [1]; 2. 97R-Jason Reed, [3]; 3. 99-Skylar Gee, [4]; 4. 17W-Harli White, [6]; 5. 77X-Alex Hill, [2]; 6. 44-Chris Martin, [7]; 7. 17-Cam Smith, [5]
BMRS B-Feature (Top 3 in each advance to the A-Feature)
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 1-Travis Rilat, [2]; 2. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [4]; 3. 3-J.J. Hickle, [7]; 4. 57C-Chris Schmelzle, [3]; 5. F1-Rick Fauver, [9]; 6. 44-Chris Martin, [5]; 7. 25-Michael Hodel, [1]; 8. 77X-Alex Hill, [6]; 9. 33S-Lance Sargent, [10]; 10. 9-Shawn Rice, [8]; 11. (DNF) 0J-Jay Cole, [11]
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn, [1]; 2. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [3]; 3. 96-Greg Hamilton, [4]; 4. 17-Cam Smith, [8]; 5. 45-Austen Wheatley, [10]; 6. 17W-Harli White, [2]; 7. 28-Scott Bogucki, [11]; 8. 24-Tyler Anderson, [6]; 9. 75-Brian Boswell, [9]; 10. 15-Jeff Dunlap, [5]; 11. (DNF) 59-Eric Fisher, [7]
Protect the Harvest A-Feature (Top 4 lock into Saturday night’s A-Feature):
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 18-Jason Solwold, [2]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman, [4]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [11]; 4. 33V-Henry VanDam, [3]; 5. 91-Chase Goetz, [1]; 6. 22-Garen Linder, [7]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee, [15]; 8. 95-Matt Covington, [16]; 9. 6A-Kyle Miller, [6]; 10. 1-Travis Rilat, [17]; 11. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [19]; 12. 52-Blake Hahn, [18]; 13. 2L-Logan Forler, [12]; 14. 26-Joey Saldana, [9]; 15. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [20]; 16. 5J-Jamie Ball, [13]; 17. 8P-Jared Peterson, [8]; 18. 3-J.J. Hickle, [21]; 19. 0J-Jay Cole, [26]; 20. 17-Cam Smith, [25]; 21. 27DD-David Hoiness, [14]; 22. (DNF) 33-Colton Heath, [5]; 23. (DNF) 17W-Harli White, [24]; 24. (DNF) 97R-Jason Reed, [10]; 25. (DNF) 28-Scott Bogucki, [23]; 26. (DNF) 96-Greg Hamilton, [22]
Lap Leader(s): Jason Solwold 1-25
CP-Carrillo Hard Charger: Johnny Herrera +9
FSR High Point Driver: Henry Van Dam
Provisional(s): Scott Bogucki (ASCS); Harli White (ASCS); Jay Cole (Promoter); Cam Smith (Promoter)
Northwest Focus Midget Series
Feature:
1. 11 – Evan Margeson
2. 24 – Nick Evans
3. 16 – Nik Larson
4. 14 – Garret Thomas
5. 3H – Hannah Lindquist
6. 25 – Ross Rankine
7. 5 – AJ Fugitt
8. 57A – Brian Aune
9. 21 – Todd Hartman
10. 39 – David Mills
11. 57 – Hailey Bower
12. 44 – Seth Hespe
13. 17 – Chris Bullock
14. 98 – Glenn Bitrolf
15. 04 – Matt Loving
16. 11T – Ray Stebbins
17. 2J – Johnathan Jorgenson
18. 92 – Katie Jackson
19. 90 – Brendan White
20. 12 – Jesse Conway