FIRST PACIFIC
COAST WIN FOR 16 YEAR OLD JOEY TANNER:
Dirt
Late Models by Gary Jacob...Alger, WA...August 20... The young
son of long time Pacific Northwest competitor Jody Tanner, 16 year old Joey
Tanner got the first feature win of his rookie dirt late model season as
he paced the final 8 laps to score a $1000 win in the 25 lap main as the
Pacific Coast Xtreme Dirt Car Series made their first ever visit to Skagit
Speedway on Saturday night. Series point leader Greg Walters won both his
heat and the dash. He was dominating the feature when an incident in lapped
traffic heavily damaged his car on lap 17. Madras Speedway runs a unique
youth late model division and Tanner is a graduate of that class. Tanner
has been Walters' protégé in 2005 and his equipment travels
in the Walters transporter. Tanner started 2005 by turning heads with his
Early Thaw performance in Arizona in January and has been a solid fourth
in points with the traveling series. His first feature win in his Jody's
Bar and Grill sponsored Rayburn found second ranked John Duty gaining a
little ground on Walters with his $750 runner-up finish in his Rocket. Mark
Carrell enjoys the Washington events on the series and he ran a $475 third
ahead of Bob Jeffery. Terry Ferrando won the Goodyear Tire Hard Charger
Award with his fifth place run ahead of Jimmy Schram, who was earning points
for third ranked Gene Day.
Track officials cancelled the dirt late model time trials in an attempt
to get the racing card started on time. The 15 dirt late models were divided
into three ten lap heat races. Duty started fourth in heat 1 and grabbed
the lead on the opening round. He ran away with the caution free race finishing
ahead of Schram and Jason Johnson's crate engine mount. Walters won heat
2 from third. On the start, Carrell and Butch Valdez crashed doing heavy
damage to Valdez' steering. Tanner finished second ahead of Carrell. Tom
Tesch was a wire to wire winner in heat 3 from the pole with series newcomer
Brandon Lindenberg five car lengths back in second. Monroe WA racer Lindenberg
is only 16 years old and his family purchased Jody Tanner's crate engine
GRT. Jeffery ran third. Duty, Walters and Tesch started 1-2-3 in the dash
and Walters collected the win after a brief first lap duel with Duty. Tesch
retired after an incident with Lindenberg. The dash set the lineup for the
front three rows in the 25 lap feature so Walters and Duty shared row 1
ahead of Schram, Tanner, Lindenberg and Tesch.
Valdez fell out after just one lap and Walters sprinted to a strong early
lead over Duty, Tanner and Schram. The first caution came on lap 9 as Lindenberg
spun in turn 2. His car wasn't damaged, but his engine was misfiring with
electrical problems and he retired. When action resumed, Walters continued
to lead Duty, Tanner, Schram and Tesch. Walters was lapping Rob Campos and
Justin Simpson for a second time when his crash occurred. As Walters flew
into turn 3, Campos forced Walters to dart up and Walters ran into the left
side of Simpson. Walters pitted and his crew ripped off the heavily damaged
nose, but car wasn't able to return to speed. After the race, the team discovered
that the harmonic balancer had come loose in the incident. Tanner had taken
second from Duty on lap 11. Walters was getting ready to put Schram and
Tesch a lap down when the incident occurred. Action resumed with Tanner
the new leader ahead of Duty, Carrell and Jeffery. Tanner paced the remainder
of the race with Duty a solid second ahead of Carrell and Jeffery. Ferrando
came from the 7th row to finish fifth and gain the Goodyear Tire award.
Schram and Tesch were the final lead lap cars. Campos ran 8th ahead of the
struggling Walters and Johnson. Bob Dietrich was two laps down in 11th and
Dwayne Potter ran 12th.
Next up for the Pacific Coast Xtreme Dirt Car Series teams in the key event
on their schedule, the T&G Trucking Thriller 67 lapper at Sunset Speedway
in Banks OR on August 27. After that, only a Sept 17th race at Madras Speedway
remains for the point schedule.
Race Summary:
Dash: Greg Walters, John Duty, Jimmy Schram, Joey
Tanner, Brandon Lindenberg, Tom Tesch.
Heat 1: Duty, Schram, Jason Johnson, Bob Dietrich, Dwayne Potter.
Heat 2: Walters, Tanner, Mark
Carrell, Rob Campos, Butch Valdez.
Heat 3: Tom Tesch, Lindenberg, Bob Jeffery, Justin Simpson, Terry
Ferrando.
Main: Joey Tanner, Duty, Carrell,
Jeffery, Ferrando, Schram, Tesch, Campos, Walters, Johnson, Dietrich, Potter,
Simpson, Lindenberg, Valdez. |