NSCS Weekend News and Notes

by Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist

LEBANON, Ore. - With the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series returning to action tonight, a number of storylines and interesting statistics will be kept track of this weekend at Willamette Speedway in Oregon and Grays Harbor Raceway in Washington.

• Roger Crockett of Medford, currently leading the NSCS points, is looking for his fourth victory in seven races this season. He has already won at both tracks the NSCS is visiting this weekend, including the inaugural NSCS event April 28 at Grays Harbor Raceway.

 

• Making main events either out of heat races or B-Mains in the tough, competitive Northwest Sprint Challenge Series has been, frankly, challenging for everyone. Crockett, Mitch Olson, Travis Rutz and Bill Nutter are in the top four in the point standings for a good reason; they are four of only five drivers who have made the A-Main in all six NSCS events completed so far this season. The other driver to accomplish the feat is seventh-place man Derek Ingalls.

The tight Willamette Speedway has earned some notoriety among the drivers for being difficult to pass on and requiring patience. It has not been unusual to see one of the top touring drivers not make it into the A-Main on any given night. Evan Funk entered Memorial Weekend third in points, but his only missed A-Main of the season came when the series visited Willamette then. Missing that A-Main would hurt Funk, who slid back to eighth place in points by the end of the weekend.

Seth Bergman, who sits sixth in the points, has only missed one NSCS A-Main this season, May 27 at Cottage Grove Speedway.

• Of those five drivers who have made the A-Main all six nights so far, only two  transferred directly from their heat races all six times and ironically it’s neither of the top three. The fourth-place Nutter and seventh-place Ingalls have that distinction of being the only drivers to transfer to out their heat races each time.

Nutter had finished third (at Grays Harbor), third, third, second (at Willamette), second, and fourth in heat race action to transfer each time, while Ingalls has finished third (at Grays Harbor), first, second, fourth (at Willamette), third and second. Nutter and Ingalls both will look to keep that streak alive this weekend and move up in the NSCS standings. Nutter himself is only one point behind Rutz for third.

The top four drivers have had to go through the B-Main at least once; Crockett on May 11 at Skagit Speedway, Olson on April 28 at Grays Harbor and May 26 at Southern Oregon Speedway, and Rutz on May 12 at Skagit and May 26 at Southern Oregon.

• Robbie Vaughn will be looking for a little bit of payback tonight at Willamette. When the series visited Willamette last month, Vaughn’s car was destroyed during a melee involving several cars on the front stretch on the initial start of the B-Main event. Despite the setback Vaughn posted two top ten finishes, including a third, in the last two races of the weekend to move up to fifth in points. Vaughn, however, hopes not to see a repeat of last month’s event at Willamette.

Vaughn made the A-Main in the inaugural NSCS event at Grays Harbor on April 28, but finished 19th after cutting down a tire. Vaughn, whose best finishes this season are a pair of thirds, is obviously hoping for a better night in Elma as well.

• Vaughn is one of three rookies who currently sit in the top ten in the NSCS point standings. Though the front-running Roger Crockett is way ahead, Vaughn still leads all rookies with 481 points. Evan Funk is currently the No. 2 rookie at eighth overall after running as high as third and Tyler Spath is currently tied for tenth overall. Spath scored an impressive third place finish at Willamette on May 25 after qualifying third and making the dash race.

John Farrell, another NSCS rookie, currently sits 13th in the standings. After skipping the opening event at Grays Harbor, Danielle Huson has been with the NSCS since then and made four out of five NSCS main events to put her in 16th currently, only two points out of 15th. Huson, who just turned 17-years-old, had a strong top ten run going, running as high as fifth at one point, before spinning out at Cottage Grove on May 27.

The top rookie in the standings at the end of the season will receive NSCS Rookie of the Year honors as well as a custom Sprint Advantage seat from Butlerbuilt Motorsports Equipment.

• As tight as Rutz and Nutter are in points, positions five through nine could shuffle significantly as well by the end of the weekend. Only 15 points separate fifth place Vaughn and eighth place Funk. Bergman, at sixth, is only ten back of Vaughn with 471 and Ingalls has 467. Funk has 466 points himself. Dale Smith currently sits ninth with 454 points.

 

•  In six NSCS events completed, Crockett is the only driver with multiple main event victories, having won three times. His longtime dominance of the former Northern Sprint Tour, in which he won four championships, included a number of victories at Willamette Speedway.

With a lot of prior experience at Willamette, Crockett may have an advantage over the most of the top ten in NSCS points, as Nutter and Smith are the only two other drivers in that group to have won at Willamette in the past. Rutz is only in his third year touring, while Vaughn and Funk are touring rookies and Bergman is only in his second year. The other rookie in the top ten, Tyler Spath, is racing on all six tracks on the NSCS schedule for the first time.

Olson’s best run at Willamette was his runner-up finish behind Crockett last month. He has, however, won three times at Grays Harbor in weekly competition last year. Rutz also has a victory at Grays Harbor from 2005.

• Rob Held, who sits 12th points, made the dash in last month’s event at Willamette and started the main event sixth. After being involved in a late race accident, Held finished 12th. He will be looking to reverse his fortunes at Grays Harbor on Saturday. In his prior visit Held struggled and finished a disappointing fourth in the C-Main.

 

• Four different drivers; Roger Crockett, Mitch Olson, Brock Lemley and Dan Menne; can say they won A-Main events during the inaugural season of the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series. Several top drivers, including Rutz and former NST champion Bill Nutter, are looking to add their name to that list this weekend.

More information on the Norhtwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be found online at www.racenscs.com.