A Tough Night of Racing for Seth and the Team at Skagit

After weeks and weeks of rain it looks like the good weather is finally on the way for the sprint car drivers in the Pacific Northwest. After another solid performance last week in the 410 class, Seth and the team headed to Skagit Speedway for the Dirt Car Tune Up event.

Another hot field headed to Skagit for last nights event, as Jason Solwold, Jamie Barnes, Mitch Olson and Aaron Fell all returned to compete. The night also attracted a couple of California’s top drivers in Jonathan Allard and Roger Crocket as they to began preparations for next weeks event.

As the sprint cars began timing in it was evident that there was some major issues with the track. The bottom as always was nice and smooth but the middle section and the top were extremely chunky and finding fast lines was proving difficult. Seth was doing all he could to push his 410, but with a difficult track could only register the fourteenth fastest time.

With inverted grids for the heat races Seth managed to start on the pole for heat two with local driver Josh Dewitt next to him and with Mitch Olson and last years NSCS champion Roger Crocket behind him.

As has been the case for the past seven heat races Seth has been extremely fast as he raced out to a commanding lead. The track had formed two distinct lines you either had to stay on the bottom or you had to go on the top. Seth did a great job of staying around the bottom and held off a late challenge from Dewitt to record his sixth heat race victory from his past seven starts.

The main event saw grid positions reverting back to the original times that drivers timed in at. As such Seth started the race from fourteenth position and was going to have his work cut out due to the nature of the track. At the conclusion of the dirt modified main event track officials decided to do their best to repair the track in an attempt to make the main event a better race for the fans.

The Main event saw last weeks winner Travis Rutz starting on the pole with Roger Crockett next to him. Last years Dirt Cup winner Jonathan Allard started back in tenth position.

As the green flag dropped Seth got off to a great start and moved up up eleventh with a great pass on Barry Martinez but the track was extremely rough as drivers jostled for position all over the track. Seth looked for some speed on the top of the circuit but it just didn’t seem to be there as Martinez was able to get by Seth out of turn four on lap three. Seth pushed as hard as he could to get by cars in front of him but with drivers all over the track it was proving to be very difficult to get by anyone.

On lap ten Rutz and Crockett both got by Seth and from that point on Seth took the path of least resistant to avoid wrecking the car for next week. Meanwhile at the front a dog fight between Rutz and Crockett was taking place as they both cleared out from the field.

Lap twenty two proved to be the pivotal moment of the race as Crockett was able to slip underneath Rutz as he tried to get around traffic and Crocket was able to slip away over the last three laps to take his first win at Skagit Speedway for 2008, with Rutz taking home second and Jason Solwold taking home third. Seth finished the race back in fourteenth.

Its Dirt Cup week next week with preliminary races being held on Thursday and Friday night with the $25,000 main event being held on Saturday night.

Final Results:

A Main – Roger Crockett, Rutz, Solwold, Whitney, Olson, Dewitt, Fell, Bloodgood, Allard, Martinez, Fauver, Fisher, Kilcup, Bergman, Huson, C.Smith, Barnes, Ridge