Seth Back To His Best at Opener of Skagit 360 Nationals

After a week off from the ASCS Speedweek Seth and the team headed to Skagit Speedway for night one of the Skagit Speedway 360 Nationals. The 360 Nationals are held every year and it is one of the biggest weekends of racing for 360′s with $10,000 up for grabs on night two.

The night started with all cars given one lap to time in to determine starting positions for the respective heat races. With over 50 cars competing the qualifying session was critical to determining the fate of your night. Seth did a great job as he drove around the middle of the track to time in eleventh fastest which put him on the outside of the front row for heat number two.

Seth’s heat saw him sitting on the outside of local driver Nick Engberg with local drivers Colton Heath and Steve Kilcup on the second row. After qualifying there was still allot of moisture on the bottom of the track so getting to the middle or to the top was going to be critical in the early going.As the cars circled for the start it was obvious that Engberg was pushing Seth off the track in an attempt to get better traction in the middle, and the officials warned him to move back down. The green flag dropped and Engberg ignored instructions and pushed Seth high the yellow quickly came out and his last warning was given. As the green dropped a second time Engberg again pushed Seth off the track but this time NO YELLOW, and Seth went flying up into the cushion into turn one, thankfully Seth made a tremendous recovery and stopped the car with some momentum and was able to resume the race at the back of the field. I was left standing with my hands out after yet another pathetic officiating effort.

Seth drove with aggression as he slid underneath Mitch Olson going into turn four and was able to get back into fourth position. With laps winding down Seth did everything he could to dive underneath Steve Kilcup to grab third but Kilcup protected his position to hold Seth at bay and he took home fourth. Unfortunately only the top three advanced to the A Main so we were left with the job of transferring from the B Main Event. As Seth drove in after the race he was visually mad and he stormed down the pits to give Engberg a piece of his mind.

With the heat races concluded as well as the D and C Mains, the team was left starting in fifth for the B Main event. It was a hot B Main as the top two drives from qualifying Michael Hodgson and Jayme Barnes missed automatically qualifying for the A also and were on the front of the B main. Derek Holmwood and Mitch Olson where on row two and Seth and Henry Van Dam made up row three. As the green dropped Seth held his line on the bottom of track as he held onto fifth position going around the first two turns. As the cars entered turn three Van Dam tried to go on the high side and went too high causing the car to over steer which caused him to roll his car. As racing resumed Seth was able to quickly get around Olson and gave himself a buffer in fourth position. For the remainder of the heat race Seth stayed close Holmwood but did not do anything crazy as the top four made it easily through with Olson taking the final transfer spot in fifth.

After a disappointing heat Seth had got back to feature but work was a head of him as he started in nineteenth position. What was critical about the upcoming A Main was that passing points were going to be given and this would go along way to to determine the final points standings at the end of the night. The top fifteen were fully inverted from qualifying. As the green flag dropped Seth got away to a great start as Holmwood missed the start and Seth was able to hit the throttle and pass him up the middle going into turn one. Seth had quickly moved up into eighteenth and it wasn’t long before the yellow flag came out for a wreck early in the race. Two more cars moved to the back of the field and with only couple of laps in the books Seth had already move up to fifteenth.

The green dropped with a single file restart and Seth quickly pounced on the bottom of the track to get by Hodgson to move into fourteenth and on lap nine there was a big wreck in the main straight away which ended Brian Kirkpatricks nights and sent Colton Heath to the pits. With current race leader Josh Dewits muffler coming off during the yellow he was forced to to the pits also and as racing resumed Seth had moved up to twelfth. As the green dropped Seth chased down Alan Munn and went to the high side of turn three to take him down coming into the main straight away, and the twenty three was back in business as he was one car outside the top ten.

With his confidence high Seth began the pursuit of his good friend Jayme Barnes. For most of the race it had looked like Barnes had a flat on his left rear tire and shore enough the tire blew going into the back straight away which bought out the yellow on lap seventeen which moved Seth up into the top ten. As racing resumed Seth chased down Mike Slather and on lap twenty one passed him on the low side of turn two to move up into ninth. It wasn’t long before Seth was knocking on Steve Kilcup’s door and on lap twenty six Seth went to the bottom of turn three and passed Kicup in the main straight to move into eighth. On the proceeding lap the yellow came out for Danielle Huson who was third at the time and as the green dropped for lap twenty seven Seth had moved up to seventh. With only three laps left Seth was hot on the heels of Cory Chamberlain but the man on the move was Jayme Barnes who had stormed from the back of the pack to eighth in ten laps and on lap twenty eight he was able to pass Seth on the top of three and four. Seth made a last ditch effort on the last lap to take the spot back but Barnes held onto seventh and Seth crossed in eighth.

There was no justice on the night as Nick Engberg ended up winning the race with Danny Kirkpatrick taking second with Travis Rutz in third.

For Seth there was nothing but big smiles at the end of the night from him and the team as he had put on a great display in the feature event. It was the first time had run at the track since Dirt Cup and a huge weight was lifted off the teams shoulders. Good news kept coming at the end of the race with as Seth had finished the night fifth in points thanks to his passing points in the feature event.

There will be nine six lap scrambles on night two with Seth starting fifth in the A Scramble to determine the front three rows for the main event. The team can start no worse than sixth for the main event.