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Gap Narrows Between Moriarity and Zaretzke in NASCAR Points Battle
Other NASCAR action included a thirty lap Mini Stock feature in which Ken Jorgensen of Surrey B.C. took the checkered flag. The win for the Randy’s Ring & Pinion Bombers went to Mark Moulaison of Redmond. FEAR victory hardware was picked up by Clearview’s Shane Sawin in the Super F8 class and Steve Peters of Monroe in the Xtreme Contact feature.
The big race of the evening was the fifty-lap Super Stocks event. With just five points separating the two, Moriarity and Zaretzke were side by side in the six-car invert. Moriarity pushed up through the slower traffic to take the lead at Lap 13. Zaretzke was consistently frustrated in his search for the inside groove. His break came in Lap 23 when Lex Johnson and Matt Murphy tangled on Turn One. The incident allowed Zaretzke to slip up into third behind Kelly Mann. Shane Harding stayed close to challenge. Mann refused to open the door for Zaretzke. Moriarity took the checkered flag and brought his season points total to an unofficial 656. Mann stayed in second. Zaretzke’s third place put him at 657 in the standings. Shane Harding took fourth and Doug Davidson rounded out the field in fifth.
“I just gotta go like hell and keep turning left,” Zaretzke commented. “We’re trying to concentrate on the long runs.”
The NASCAR thirty lap Mini Stock feature saw Ken Jorgensen move up in the first laps to take a huge lead ahead of the pack. Kevin McLeod was an early leader but lost his position. He hit the front wall in Lap 26 bringing out emergency vehicles. McLeod walked to the ambulance but his car was towed. Matt Stone, Scott LaCross and Jaime Richardson traded the second through fourth positions during the last few laps. The checkered flag finally went to Jorgensen. LaCross took second. Stone, Richardson and Dave Ramey rounded out the finish.
The Randy’s Ring & Pinion Bombers started with a B Main race. Kyle Cooley came first with Mike Ebeling inches behind. Both drivers opted to move up to the A Main race leaving the trophy to third place Darin Stordahl of Marysville. The A Main started with Darrel Lutovsky in the lead. John Burtsche stayed in his rear view. Mark Moulaison began to challenge Burtsche who pushed up for the lead in Lap 15. Moulaison never let up the pressure and in Lap 25 took the lead which he held onto until the win. Duane Schosboek was second, Jason Fraser finished third and Burtsche fourth. Naima Lang finished fifth, making an impressive come back after a spin out on Turn Three had left him at the very back of the field earlier in the event.
Evergreen crowds enjoyed a heavy dose of FEAR on Les Schwab Night Aug. 9. The thirty-lap Super F8 feature was an ugly race. Slow traffic caused several collisions in the first laps. Rod Griffith did an excellent job of staying out of the crush and maintaining a lead until Lap 13. Doug Wilkinson took the lead then but eyes were on Shane Sawin and Steve Peters who were moving forward relentlessly. Sawin moved up for the lead in Lap 20, leaving Peters to the mercies of Wilkinson and Harry Clements. Peters’ frustration was apparent and brought out a black flag in Lap 28. Sawin took the trophy.
“It was a tough one out there,” Sawin later commented, “But I’m running for points.”
The Xtreme Contact F8 saw Dot Betris with a strong lead until being taken out on Lap 12. The main battle seemed to be between Troy Simianer and Steve Peters. Peters, who had already announced his intention to win in honor of his daughter’s birthday, held on for a checkered flag. Perry Huffman took second. Both drivers also won FEAR trophy dashes.
There was a dash for each class on Aug. 9. A checkered flag flew for Matt Murphy in the Super Stocks dash. Mark Moulaison won the Bomber dash. The Mini Stocks dash went to Ken Jorgensen. Steve “Battlewagon” Peters took the checkered flag for the Super F8 dash. The Xtreme Contact dash was won by Perry Huffman.
Entertainment for the evening also included wacky boat races as seen on Evening Magazine. These boats are towed but no trailers are allowed! The last boat left intact on the track is the winner. Steve Peters won this event. J.P. Patches also made an appearance. The Northwest’s favorite clown greeted fans, signed autographs and helped Miss Evergreen Speedway Criss Stewart hand out the trophies
Also accepting honors on the victory stage for the NASCAR Randy’s Ring & Pinion Bomber 30 lap A Main was Mark Molaison. Malcolm ‘Maniac’ Lindberg took the FEAR Super F-8 A Main. The FEAR Extreme Contact F-8 25-lap feature first went to Noah Chandler. The NASCAR Mini Stock A Main feature was won by Nat Barber. Craig Szweda took the NASCAR Randy’s Ring & Pinion Bomber 20 lap B Main. FEAR Super F-8 B Main winner was Michael Hayes
A real crowd pleaser at Evergreen is the 3-car train feature. Gordy Severson won this race that takes place on the figure eight track. The teams compete using three cars chained together. A driver steers the brakeless front vehicle. A team member with nerves of steel brakes in the rear car. Turn them loose on the figure eight and it’s guaranteed thrills. Amazingly, Severson went through the ordeal with little contact and no collisions.
The winner of the super F-8 trophy dash was Ricky Dietz for the second week in a row. Steve Peters’ Battlewagon pushed out Doug “Grizz” Delfel to take second in the 4-lap dash. The Extreme F-8 started at a creep. Steve Woehl established an easy early lead that he maintained throughout the race for the win.
Mark Moulaison stayed in first position throughout the Bomber Trophy Dash despite having Naima Lang in his rear view mirror for much of the race. Moulaison shut the door on Lang who was last week’s dash winner.
The Super Stock Trophy Dash on May 24 was deja vu to May 17. The trophy went to John Zaretzke’s number 5. Zaretzke pulled around Doug Davidson and stayed hugging side by side with Joey Decker. When Decker went outside, Zaretzke took the lead for the win.
The Extreme F-8 main event had barely completed a lap when a minor skirmish sent cars spinning and knocked the barrier tires out of the teardrops. Noah Chandler never really had a serious challenger after the first few laps. Merlin Cook and Steve Peters fought fiercely in the early laps for the number two slot. Cook fell behind after bumping Freddy Kapp’s 38 leaving the number two spot open for Peters. Troy Simianer and Freddy Kapp took third and fourth respectively.
Ryan Gunderson must have felt picked on during the Super F-8 B Main. First bumped out of the lead by Jerry Funden who received a black flag penalty, he later was spun into by Jessica Wilkinson and never regained the lead. Michael Hayes came in for his first career win with Rick Shaver, Wendy Boyd and Arnold Freshour finished second through fourth.
Tom Moriarity of Monroe,WA never saw anything but air in front of his car during the Super Stock feature. He denied John Zaretzke his fifth win of the season. This was Moriarity’s first win of the year. He explained away the slow season start with, “I had a flat tire and a couple of wrecks.” but the defending champion must have been breathing a sigh of relief to once again be on the Victory Stage.
The Super Stock feature started with Moriarity in the pole position. He went straight away for the lead with Scott Sarto, Joey Decker, Doug Davidson behind. Early on Zaretzke was fighting beside Shane Harding for the fifth. Zaretzke pulled away and hugged the white line and soon was behind Sarto. He moved into second by lap nine and remained there until the finish, unable to displace Moriarity. From the 17th lap the top three never changed from Tom Moriarity, Zaretzke, Sarto Matt Murphy and Shane Harding rounding out the top five.
The 30 lap Super F-8 A Main got under way with three cars immediately establishing dominance. Malcolm ‘Maniac’ Lindberg held on to the lead from beginning to end.
“My car developed a problem in Lap 18,” Lindberg said after the race, “My rear end got a little loose."
As well it might. The driver, who has a reputation for turning exhibition school buses with ease, chalked up four near misses at the cross. He avoided collision and enjoyed cutting donuts in front of the Victory Stage at the finish.
Controversy arose in lap 27of the Mini Stocks A Main. Nat Barber and Scott LaCross spent a lot of the race trading bumps and exchanging the lead. In the 27th lap, Barber gave LaCross a big enough push to earn a warning. He went on to win and got a few boos from the crowd. LaCross finished second with David Ramey and Michael Johnston in third and fourth, Rick Lapinsky finished fifth.
The Bomber A Mains were punctuated with yellow flags. Tom Ochiltree lost his early lead to Steve Ptacek. Mark Molaison took first from Ptacek who placed second with Frank Cowgill finishing third, Dirk Kruiswyk fourth and Naima Lang fifth. Clark Casey won the won the Bomber B Main over Darin Stordahl and Nikki Bristol on this Memorial Day weekend.
That racing action continues Sunday May 25th , with Memorial Day Demo Derby and Fireworks Show. Next weekend Saturday May 31st at Evergreen Speedway it is the SNAP ON TOOLS Ed Ritchie Memorial 60 Minutes of FEAR .