Seth Wins Northwest Non Winged Event at Grays Harbor

Andrew Kanus – nwracechat.com
Over the course of one main event in Grays Harbor Raceway’s first ever non-wing sprint car event, Seth Bergman became a fan of traditional sprint car racing. Running without the wings for the just the second time in his career, Bergman went down in the history books as the winner of the inaugural Grays HarborNon-Wing Challenge for the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour.

In the closing laps of the 30-lap feature, Bergman dueled with Shawn Rice as they raced around slower cars. It was Bergman, out of Snohomish, Wash. who came out ahead Tacoma’s Rice in a race that pleased the crowd of Grays Harbor Raceway fans, many of whom had never seen sprint cars race without the wings before.

Bergman, along with the rest of the drivers in the field, were unsure earlier in the day if they’d even get to race. The historic first wingless sprint car show for Grays Harbor Raceway was also the biggest and perhaps most important race of the year for the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour, which is in its inaugural season. There was much excitement for the event with about 40 cars expected, but weather wrecked havoc with rainfall occuring on Friday night and Saturday morning. A poor weather forecast for Saturday afternoon and evening kept many teams at home, fearing a rainout. Despite the less than stellar weather over the prior 36 hours, track officials and the NWWT persisted and managed to get in the highly anticipated event.

One of the 24 drivers who did show up despite the threat of race cancelling weather, Bergman became the one most glad he did bring his car out, earning $1,100 aboard the Steve Bergman No. 23 Shark-powered Eagle.

“It was awesome,” said Bergman, who made clear during his victory lane interview on the front stretch that he had a lot of fun. “It was a blast. That was the most fun I’ve had in a race car in a long while. It’s a lot different from the winged car, (but) it’s the same concept; try to win the race. I just

didn’t know what to expect.”

Bergman became the fifth different driver, and the first from Washington, to win a NWWT sprint car main event this season.

Lap 25 saw Rice get held up by a slower car as Bergman closed in. The two drivers made accidental contact with each other and the slower car as they rounded Turn 4 and escaped, but Bergman wound up being in front of Rice after that exchange. Bergman had his turn with another slow car with less than two laps to go, allowing Rice to challenge Bergman. Just after taking the white flag, however, Bergman cleared that slower car and would win by just under nine tenths of a second.