By Ben Deatherage
Last weekend was able to be completed despite some troubling forecasts especially on Saturday for the sixth race of 2011. With no rain coming down to put any action out of commission both the Kage Karts on Friday (winners listed below) and Saturday’s race presented Oregon Motor Coach Center. Classes in action for Saturday evening were Wingless Sprints, Modifieds, All-American Street Stocks, and WMRA Midgets.
The Washington Midget Racing Association Dirt Midgets made their 2011 debut to the Cottage Grove Speedway for their first of seven events. In the main event Beaverton’s Mitch Hoffsess lead the entirety of the twenty-five lap feature to win his second career victory at “the Grove”. The race was the first dirt race of the series which is split between pavement and dirt this year.
Reno Marr of Gresham was second and Tony Seidelman of Spanaway, Washington finished in third. The rest of the top five was made up of Lance Hallmark of McMinnville and Mike Gehringer from Pismo Beach, California. Marr was also the fast timer of the evening at 13.810 second and also won the trophy dash and Tony Seidelman won the heat race.
The All-American Street Stock race saw another bout between the two Langan brothers for their twenty lap race. Andrew the younger of the two lead the way as his older brother T.J. just couldn’t quite catch and Andrew for the victory. For Andrew Langan it was his second win of the season as he is looking for his second career championship.
T.J. Langan would finish in second while Daniel Ray of Springfield in his first race of the season finished in third. Fourth place was Russ Blum of Cottage Grove and April Howard of Eugene was fifth. Howard was fast time of the night at 17.900 seconds while Blum won the trophy dash and Andrew Langan won the heat race.
The Wingless Sprints saw a large field converge on the Cottage Grove Speedway for their second race of the season and also had on hand the Oregon Double Shot Series. Brendan Boyce of Eugene grabbed the lead early in the race from Theo McCarty of Hillsboro on lap two. Despite three cautions and late race restart Boyce was able to hold on with Eugene’s Kyle Miller right on his tail tank for the win at the line.
Kyle Miller would grab second while Theo McCarty rallied to third when the thirty lap race was over. Zack Spaulding of Springfield finished in fourth and Gary Davis of Albany rounded up the top five. Fast time of the night went to Colin Baker of Cottage Grove at 13.265 seconds while Brendan Boyce won the trophy dash. Heat race winners were Boyce, Miller, and McCarty with Corey Esteban of Gaston won the B Main.
The final class of the night was Modifieds and it was another close race coming down to the last lap. Greg McDonald of Cottage Grove led the first two laps until another hometown driver, Braedon Hand, made a pass for the lead. Hand would lead for many laps like the week before and the race would go nonstop with Hand picking up the victory. Hand almost lost the lead on the last corner as Coburg’s Jesse Williamson was looking for his third straight victory.
Braedon Hand would block the attempt for the pass and Jesse Williamson would finish in second. Gus Cooper of Creswell finished in third while the rest of the top five was made up with Jason Kocks of Eugene and Curtis Towns of Cottage Grove. Braedon Hand was fastest 14.995 seconds while Williamson won the trophy dash. Heat race winners for the evening were Williamson and Jasper’s Eric Ashley.
Well race fans that does it for this week’s results we hope you can make it out for next weekend’s events. The action starts on Friday with the third race for the Kage Karts and concludes on Saturday with Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce Night. The classes in action will be Modifieds ($1,000 to win), Limited Sprints, All-American Street Stocks, and PHRA Dwarf Cars. For more information log on to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com.
Kage Karts
Race #2 Winners
5HP- Connor Robustelli, Jefferson
125cc/250F- Brendan Waterman, Bend
Micro- Ron Starr, Sherwood
Pee Wee- A.J. Harbaugh, Eugene
250cc- Waterman
Open- Patrick Dills, Cottage Grove
