By Ben Deatherage
(6/20/24 -) Alger, Washington … After surviving several late race restarts, Zeb Wise hit pay dirt on the opening night of the Jim Raper Memorial Super Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway, scoring a 30-lap preliminary victory with the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series. Wise made the winning move after a lap 24 restart, driving the Rudeen Racing-Rayce Rudeen Foundation #26 Maxim. It was his first ever NARC sanctioned victory.
The race began with the PGH Excavating #19 XXX, driven by Colby Thornhill, seizing the lead on the first lap and setting the pace in the Hoosier Racing Tires feature. Thornhill would be overtaken shortly after a restart by Willie Croft’s Rudeen Racing #29 Eagle on the 11th circuit. Croft tried to peddle away from the rest of the field, but would be hunted down on the 20th circuit by Justin Sanders.
Sanders, piloting the Mittry Motorsports-fielded Farmers Brewing Company #2X KPC, made a sweeping pass on the inside of turn four coming to the line on the 20th go round. He would stick in the top spot until reigning NARC champion Corey Day began to apply pressure.
Day, piloting the Jason Meyers Racing-owned Sanders Engineering #14 KPC, outgunned Sanders for the top spot two laps later, before he slammed into the wall in turn two, handing the lead back. Capitalizing on a restart, Wise would drag race Sanders to the line on the 25th circuit and take the lead by the slimmest of margins. Three yellow flags would wave in the waning laps, but the Indiana native held on the remaining distance for the victory.
“Before tonight, I watched videos of this place the last few weeks, and one thing that stood out to me was how good the middle was,” spoke a very jubilant winner in victory lane. “I knew that was a major possibility the way the track was, and the bottom was pretty good. After that open red, I really didn’t feel that good; I just got stuck in a spot and hung around. But a caution came out, and we were really good after that.”
“Justin (Sanders) kicked my ass last year, so it’s nice to get a little bit of redemption, not for as much money, but we’ll try and do that on Saturday. It’s always good to race with Justin; we race cleanly together, and I like racing with him, and he always races with me respectfully, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Sanders finished a very respectable second, with on the final step of the podium going to the Builder Outlet Super Store #18T XXX of Tanner Holmes. He started 10th.
The Bates-Hamilton Racing-owned entry, piloted by Justyn Cox, posted a fourth-place result in the Diamond Plastics #42X Maxim. The top five included the Scottie’s Plumbing & Repair #18 XXX driven by Jason Solwold.
Corey Day recovered from a blown right rear tire to finish sixth. Justin Youngquist, Williams Roofing Hardcharger Greg Hamilton, Croft and Cam Smith rounded out the top ten.
Heat winners earlier in the night were Day, D.J. Netto, Tyler Thompson, and Greg Hamilton.
Mike Brown, Gauge Garcia, Dominic Scelzi, Cam Smith, Bailey Jean, Dylan Bloomfield, Shane Golobic, ARP Quick Qualifier Trey Starks, and Thompson were involved in flips during the night. Luckily nobody was seriously injured. Scelzi was diagnosed at a local hospital with bruised ribs.
HOOSIER RACING TIRES A-FEATURE (30 LAPS): 1. 26R-Zeb Wise [12]; 2. 2X-Justin Sanders [11]; 3. 18T-Tanner Holmes [10]; 4. 42X-Justyn Cox [4]; 5. 18-Jason Solwold [15]; 6. 14-Corey Day [5]; 7. 95-Justin Youngquist [3]; 8. 96-Greg Hamilton [24]; 9. 29W-Willie Croft [1]; 10. 17-Cam Smith [22]; 11. 10X-Dominic Gorden [21]; 12. 88N-DJ Netto [23]; 13. 21P-Robbie Price [9]; 14. 5V-Colby Copeland [17]; 15. 21T-Cole Macedo [8]; 16. 15-Nick Parker [20]; 17. 4L-Lane Taylor [19]; 18. 121-Caeden Steele [18]; 19. 17A-Hunter Schuerenberg [14]; 20. 26-Eric Fisher [13]; 21. 19-Colby Thornhill [2]; 22. 8-Devon Borden [6]; 23. 21-Jesse Schlotfeldt [7]; 24. 55-Trey Starks [16]
METTEC TITANIUM LAP LEADERS: Colby Thornhill 1-10; Willie Croft 11-19; Justin Sanders 20-21, 23-24; Corey Day 22; Zeb Wise 25-31
WILLIAMS ROOFING HARDCHARGER: Greg Hamilton +16 (24th to 8th)
BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (8 LAPS): 1. 88N-DJ Netto [1]; 2. 21-Jesse Schlotfeldt [5]; 3. 55-Trey Starks [8]; 4. 21P-Robbie Price [6]; 5. 17A-Hunter Schuerenberg [7]; 6. 10X-Dominic Gorden [3]; 7. 24-Tyler Anderson [11]; 8. 66-Brett McGhie [12]; 9. 17-Cam Smith [4]; 10. 14B-Bailey Jean [2]; 11. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [10]; 12. 41-Dominic Scelzi [9]
KIMO’S TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (8 LAPS): 1. 14-Corey Day [4]; 2. 5K-Kinzer Cox [1]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic [2]; 4. 21T-Cole Macedo [6]; 5. 2X-Justin Sanders [7]; 6. 18-Jason Solwold [8]; 7. 121-Caeden Steele [5]; 8. 8R-Skylar Gee [3]; 9. 24X-Chase Johnson [10]; 10. 2XM-Max Mittry [9]; 11. 7O-Axel Oudman [11]; 12. 9-Greg Otis [12]
WINTERS PERFORMANCE HEAT THREE (8 LAPS): 1. 7-Tyler Thompson [2]; 2. 95-Justin Youngquist [4]; 3. 10-Brock Lemley [1]; 4. 26-Eric Fisher [7]; 5. 29-Bud Kaeding [3]; 6. 29W-Willie Croft [5]; 7. 26R-Zeb Wise [8]; 8. 73-Ryan Bernal [10]; 9. 5V-Colby Copeland [6]; 10. 9A-Luke Didiuk [9]; 11. 29K-Levi Kuntz [11]; 12. 1M-Mike Brown [12]
SYSTEM ONE PRO IGNITION HEAT THREE (8 LAPS): 1. 96-Greg Hamilton [1]; 2. 19-Colby Thornhill [4]; 3. 15-Nick Parker [3]; 4. 83T-Tanner Carrick [2]; 5. 8-Devon Borden [6]; 6. 4L-Lane Taylor [5]; 7. 18T-Tanner Holmes [8]; 8. 42X-Justyn Cox [7]; 9. 53-Jessie Attard [10]; 10. 99-Evan Margeson [9]; 11. 51-Dustin Gehring [11]; 12. (DNS) 2K-Gauge Garcia
STARR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT B-FEATURE (15 LAPS): 1. 10X-Dominic Gorden [2]; 2. 17-Cam Smith [3]; 3. 88N-DJ Netto [6]; 4. 96-Greg Hamilton [8]; 5. 5K-Kinzer Cox [7]; 6. 29-Bud Kaeding [4]; 7. 24X-Chase Johnson [17]; 8. 2XM-Max Mittry [12]; 9. 83T-Tanner Carrick [10]; 10. 73-Ryan Bernal [16]; 11. 9A-Luke Didiuk [13]; 12. 99-Evan Margeson [15]; 13. 17W-Shane Golobic [5]; 14. 7-Tyler Thompson [1]; 15. 8R-Skylar Gee [9]; 16. 10-Brock Lemley [11]; 17. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [18]; 18. (DNS) 41-Dominic Scelzi
KAEDING PERFORMANCE C-FEATURE (10 LAPS): 1. 24X-Chase Johnson [1]; 2. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [3]; 3. 53-Jessie Attard [4]; 4. 29K-Levi Kuntz [7]; 5. 24-Tyler Anderson [2]; 6. 66-Brett McGhie [5]; 7. 9-Greg Otis [9]; 8. 7O-Axel Oudman [6]; 9. 51-Dustin Gehring [8]; 10. 1M-Mike Brown [10]
ARP QUALIFYING QUICK TIME: Trey Starks, 11.825 (48 Cars)