From Kaleb Hart
ALGER, Wa. (May 18, 2019) – The pits were packed with race cars as Skagit Speedway hosted the fifth round of the dual track bonus for the Budweiser 360 Sprints. When the dust settled on the night, Colton Heath stood triumphant in victory lane after an entertaining A Main. Joining Heath were Jayme Barnes in the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints and Craig Moore in the Skagit Aggregates Modifieds.
19 cars signed in for competition with the Budweiser 360 Sprints with Jason Solwold and Heath sitting on the front row with Solwold getting the jump on the preferred inside line through turns one and two. Heath would linger several cars lengths back before finding the top side of turns three and four coming in. A lap four caution bunched the field up and on the following restart, Heath went on the attack, aggressively moving on Solwold in turns three and four. As slower traffic approached, Solwold kept low through both sets of turn, opening the highside for Heath to blast by Jason at the conclusion of lap nine, a lead he wouldn’t relinquish on his way to his first win of the 2019 season. Solwold settled for second with Devon Borden hauling 17 hours from Tulare, CA the night before to take a hard earned third place. Eric Fisher was the Cooks General Contracting fast qualifier. Heat winners were Greg Hamilton, Reece Goetz and Travis Jacobson.
Right place, right time for Jayme Barnes who took the Frank Sherman owned #06 to victory lane for the first time on the year in the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints. Barnes had just moved into second past Malachi Gemmer when race leader Michael Bollinger had a front suspension piece fail, resulting in him tipping over on the back straightaway and handing the lead to Jayme. Knowing he needed to protect the low side of the speedway, Barnes hit all his marks, leading laps 17-25 without challenge in taking the win. Gemmer grabbed his career best second place finish with Sean Johnson running third. Kelsey Carpenter was the Cooks General Contracting fast qualifier. Barnes and Gemmer won the heats.
The Skagit Aggregates Modifieds looked to be the Kevin Smith show once again, as the two time division champion picked up the lead from Jeff Jansma on lap nine and looked to be establishing an insurmountable lead. A number of cautions kept the field close, and with four laps remaining, Craig Moore, who had himself been part of a lap 10 caution, had worked his way back to third with a Delaware style restart coming. On that restart, Moore found the high groove in turns three and four to his liking, using it to take second and give pursuit to Smith. With the white flag flying, Smith and Moore were in a nearly dead heat at the line as the pair rumbled into the final lap. With both drivers standing on the the throttle, Moore won the thrilling finish by a margin of .048 in taking the win for car owned Louis Nutter Sr. Smith finished a disappointed second and Lane Zerbin was third. Heat wins went to Smith and Mel Decker.
Budweiser 360 Sprints
Cooks General Contracting Fast Time – Eric Fisher 11.654
Heat 1 – Greg Hamilton, Jason Solwold, Eric Fisher, James Setters, Nate Vaughn, Chris Bullock
Heat 2 – Reece Goetz, Cam Smith, Devon Borden, Brock Lemley, Lance Sargent, Jeff Dunlap
Heat 3 – Travis Jacobson, Colton Heath, JJ Hickle, Jason Reed, Derek Roberts, Bailey Sucich
Main – Colton Heath, Solwold, Borden, Fisher, Hickle, Lemley, Smith, Goetz, Setters, Hamilton, Vaughn, Reed, Sucich, Roberts, Bullock, Sargent, Jacobson, Dunlap
Lap Leaders – Solwold 1-8 Heath 9-25
Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints
Cooks General Contracting Fast Time – Kelsey Carpenter 12.421
Heat 1 – Malachi Gemmer, Kelsey Carpenter, Eric Turner, Brett McGhie, Cory Swatzina, Ashleigh Johnson, Joe Lyon, Jake Helsel
Heat 2 – Jayme Barnes, Michael Bollinger, Chase Goetz, Sean Johnson, John Tharp, Steve Parker, Bill Rude
Main – Jayme Barnes, Gemmer, S Johnson, A Johnson, McGhie, Parker, Swatzina, Turner, Goetz, Carpenter, Lyon, Tharp, Rude, Bollinger, Helsel
Lap Leaders – Bollinger 1-16 Barnes 17-25
Skagit Aggregates Modifieds
Heat 1 – Mel Decker, Craig Moore, Ben Gunderson, Jeff Blanton, Dan Butenschoen, Brandon Nutter, Jason Butenschoen
Heat 2 – Kevin Smith, Adam Holtrop, Jeff Jansma, Lane Zerbin, Rick Smith, Mike Steltz
Main – Craig Moore, K Smith, Zerbin, R Smith, Jansma, Decker, Blanton, Steltz, J Butenschoen, Gunderson, Holtrop, Nutter, D Butenschoen
Lap Leaders – Jansma 1-8 K Smith 9-24 Moore 25