6/11/04

by Gary Jacob

Only fast time eluded Jason Wines as the long time Willamette Speedway super sport racer from Lebanon OR paced the final 33 laps to score a $1000 win as the Pacific Coast Xtreme Dirt Car Series made it's first ever visit to River City Speedway Friday night to open it's two race Rose Festival Dirt Cup weekend. Wines is chasing the series rookie of the year title and paces the many rookie contenders in fourth place in points. His Mastersbilt Chassis mount is one of the many cars carrying sponsorship from Schram Excavating and he is also sponsored by Kartco Racing. Wines timed in second quick in a 29 car field, won his heat from the pole and then outdueled Bob Jeffery for the Lucas Oil dash win to earn the pole position for the 35 lapper. Fast timer Mike Miller wheeled his Rocket to a $700 second place finish, putting heavy pressure on Wines as the laps ran down. Close friends Wines and M Miller pit next to each other. Series point leader Jeremy Shank grabbed third from Greg Walters on lap 26 and finished in the $475 spot with his Rayburn. A two race winner on the last weekend that the series raced, Point runnerup Walters settled for a $400 fourth and Jeffery pocketed $300 for fifth.

Time trials proved critical on the tight 1/4 mile clay oval as the A Main was going to be limited to 17 starters. M Miller really had the track dialed in as his 13.417 lap easily set fast time and his slow lap in the 13.5's was also untouchable. The quick time effort gave M Miller the Ringers Gloves award. Wines ran a 13.817, Jeffery got a 13.826 as the last car to run and veteran Russ Sell was the final 13 second car at 13.942. Shank ranked fifth ahead of defending series champion John Duty, Walters, Casey Vitale, Eric Sayre and Dan Miller. Tom Tesch broke in hot laps to end his night early. The cars were divided into three straight up qualifying heat races with the top four finishers in each moving into the 35 lap A Main. Outside front row starter Russ Sell spun at the start of heat one and got hit by son Cody Sell and Chris Robertson. R Sell was able to return for the restart and M Miller led the whole race to beat Walters, D Miller and R Sell. Wines and Shank were 1-2 all the way in heat 2 with Vitale and Willamette Speedway star Bob Boyd making up the top four. Jeffery outraced Duty and Sayre in heat 3 as Jason Johnson claimed fourth. Josh Eyerly dropped out after clipping an infield tire. The Lucas Oil Dash consisted of the three heat winners and the fastest feature qualifier that didn't win. R Sell got that fourth spot and Wines got the win. Despite losing his steering when he clipped an infield tire on lap 2, Jeffery still was able to hang onto second ahead of M Miller and Russ Sell. The remaining cars were divided into a pair of ten lap B Mains with only the top 2 finishers in each moving into the A Main action. Doug Davenport led all the way in the first with Lance Lewallen a race long second. Eyerly made a late charge to third, but missed the transfer along with Jerry Schram and Gene Day. Jimmy Schram was a wire to wire winner in the second B Main with Darren Coffell second ahead of Jeremy Schram and Trent Miller. A top runner at Quincy CA, Jason Cavasos made the long tow north from Rio Oso, CA to make his dirt late model debut but struggled.

Cody Sell got the series provisional spot to set the A Main grid at 17 cars with Wines and Jeffery bringing them down for the green flag. M Miller and R Sell shared row 2 ahead of Walters and Shank. Trying to make an outside groove work on the tight but very smooth track was extremely difficult, but Jeffery managed to pace the first two laps before falling behind Wines. M Miller settled into third over R Sell and Shank. Walters was an early sixth ahead of Duty and D Miller. M Miller got underneath Jeffery for second on lap 7. The first yellow flag fell on lap 7 when L Lewallen spun. Spins by Vitale forced yellow flags on both lap 12 and lap 13. On these restarts, R Sell desperately tried the high line. He raced into third on lap 14, but got out of shape and fell back to 4th behind Jeffrey. Walters had taken fifth from Shank. On lap 22, R Sell showed with a flat left rear tire.When he spun in turn 3, Sayre, Johnson, Coffell, Davenport and Boyd were collected. The race was over for both Johnson and Davenport while R Sell changed his tire and returned. With Jeffery again trying to make a high line work, Walters was able to drive underneath him for third on lap 24. Cody Sell crashed for a final yellow flag on lap 25. Shank had taken fourth from Jeffery and he managed to race underneath Walters Rayburn for third on lap 26. M Miller put constant pressure on leader Wines, but could never pull alongside. Wines won ahead of M Miller, Shank, Walters, Jeffery, D Miller, Duty, Sayre, Coffell, L Lewallen and Jimmy Schram. All 14 cars running at the finish were on the lead lap. Wines got the Goodyear Tire Feature Winner Award and Coffell received the Wrisco Industries Hard Charger award for coming from 16th starting to 9th.

The two track, two day Rose Festival Dirt Cup weekend closes on June 12 at Sunset Speedway in Banks OR. The Pacific Coast Xtreme Dirt Car Series ventures into California for the first time in 2004 on June 19 when they hit the border track Siskiyou Motor Speedway in Yreka.