by Mike Weber
Tricia Brittain of St. Helens and
Dan Fox of Warren both capitalized on their pole position
starts to notch wins in the Wilcox & Flegel stock
car races Saturday at River City Speedway in St. Helens.
Brittain led the Reser's Fine Foods
Sportsman 40 lap main from start-to-finish with her
Fast Racing/Rose Valley Market Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Fox led all the way with his Driveline Service of Portland
open-wheel style racer and took the checkered flag to
capture the modified 40 lap main event.
The top six cars from qualifying were
inverted in reverse order at the start of the 16-car
sportsman main, which placed Brittain at the front.
She somehow managed to hold onto the top spot, with
defending sportsman champion Curt Nusom tailgating her
close behind.
Nusom, from Gresham, attempted to pass
Brittain several times with his Steven's Printing Monte
Carlo, but it was to no avail. Near the end of the race,
there was contact between the two frontrunners on the
back straightaway. Nusom's car spunout and hit the wall,
bringing out a yellow caution flag from speedway starter
Russ Voight. With Nusom in the rear on the restart,
Brittain was able to remain ahead of runnerup John Nusom
(Curt's brother) and held on for the victory.
"I benefited nicely from the six
car inverted start, but sometimes trying to stay up
front can feel rather nerve-racking," said Brittain,
who recorded her first win this season and third of
her seven-year career in the series. "A big win
like this is sure hard to come by and it seems like
it's a rare occasion whenever I get a sportsman A main
event victory."
"You can't really gain any advantages
up front because everyone is always trying to pass,"
said Brittain. "It was a miracle that I was able
to hold off Curt for the lead. He's such a tough driver
and he was there lap after lap in position to perhaps
take the lead. I actually felt lucky that I was able
to stay ahead of him, because he got very close a couple
of times and nearly got by me.
"Brittain said that her husband
Sam and her dad Bud Fast, made some adjustments to the
car prior to the race that improved the handling and
made it easier to manuever around in the tight speedway
corners. The win was her fourth straight top-five main
event finish.
Fox drove his Malar Perfomance Engines/Competitive
Edge Sign & Design racer to a flag-to-flag win in
the modified main. It was the first win this year for
Fox and his second top five finish. Dan's son, Sean,
25, also competes in the series and he posted a top-10
finish. Their Northwest Competition Motorsports team
also includes pit crew chief Gary Knox of Vancouver
and Steve Fenter of St. Helens.
"The track was very slick tonight
and that made it pretty difficult for passing,"
said Fox, who is ranked in the top five of the division
points standings. "I feel comfortable whenever
I'm up front, because then I'm not chasing anybody and
it's easy to maintain the lead."
The STC Racing Parts team of Dan Smith
of Scappoose and defending champion Jeremy Martin of
St. Helens are the top-two current division point leaders.
Both posted top five finishes Saturday while driving
the identical Alliance Automotive race cars owned by
Sam Jeffers of Scappoose.
"If they don't have any bad luck
this year, those two guys are going to be awfully tough
to beat," said Sean Fox. "They're both great
drivers and it's fun racing with them. It's hard to
envision one of them not winning the championship."
Smith, the 2005 champion and Martin
have won two of the last three titles. The team includes
crew members Mike Harrison, Robert Smith, Dennis Blasier
and Bobby Morley.
Justin McMullen won the mini stock
main with his Skinny's Texaco Ford Mustang. Portland's
Jackie Graham won the women's main in her Pontiac. Curt
Nusom won the street stock main.
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