Crew guys Ridge, Sundby return home with WoO

by Andrew Kunas

ALGER, Wash. - Much has been made of World of Outlaws Sprint Series stars Jason Solwold and Chad Hillier returning home to Washington this weekend. Both drivers, former champions of Skagit Speedway, are making names for themselves out east.

There are other faces some people behind the scenes will recognize as well, however. One is a crew member for Solwold’s No. R19 Carnahan Motorsports team, ninth in the point standings, and the other is a Washington sprint car driver spending the season on the road with Joey Saldana’s No. 9 Kasey Kahne Racing team, second in the points. Both are home in Washington for the weekend’s NC Machinery / Caterpillar Clash at Skagit and Monday’s show at Grays Harbor Raceway.

The better known of the two is recent high school graduate Jared Ridge, who had raced 360 sprint cars in the Pacific Northwest during the previous two seasons. Ridge has only raced a few times this season. After he graduated, Ridge left on the road with Saldana’s team.

Ridge’s mission: learn all that is learnable.

“I’m just doing it for one year and get all the experience I can,” said the 18-year-old Ridge, who plans to return to the wheel of his father Randy’s sprint car next year armed with the knowledge gained from his time with one the top teams in all of sprint car racing. The other sprint car drivers of the Northwest best take notice.

Kyle Sundby is a 2002 graduate of Lake Stevens High School, located about 45 miles south of Skagit, and has been involved in sprint car racing since his high school days. Sundby crewed at Skagit for Travis Jacobson and later Jacobson’s younger brother Andy, whom Sundby went to school with.

Sundby got the call he was waiting for last year, as he went on the road in the late part of the season with Chad Hillier, himself a Washingtonian. This year, Sundby is on the road as a crew member for Solwold.

Sundby’s long-term goal: one day become a crew chief.

“I’d like to some day be a crew chief and have a little more say in things. I don’t want to be the tire guy forever,” Sundby said with a smile.

The World of Outlaws Sprint Series hits the Pacific Northwest only once all year, so both young men are happy to be home, even though they are staying busy and have little time to spend with friends and loved ones.

“It’s alright. Busy. No rest (because of) doing the family thing,” Sundby said.

Sundby’s homecoming trip got off to a good start on Friday when Solwold started and finished third in the 30-lap A-Feature event. For Ridge that night, Saldana start 14th and finished seventh.

Saturday saw Saldana start the 40-lap A-Feature outside the front row and Solwold outside the fourth row. Both crew guys are hoping to see their driver win this weekend. Solwold won his first career World of Outlaws “A”-Feature event earlier this month at Charter Raceway Park in Beaver Dam, Wis. According to Sundby it did wonders for the race team.

“It was pretty exciting,” Sundby said. “It brought the team together again. Jason and Leonard (Lee, crew chief) weren’t getting along before and I was between them on some things. That race was the longest 30 laps I’ve ever seen.”

A win at Skagit or Elma for Ridge would also be special as Washington also happens to be the home state for Saldana’s car owner. Kasey Kahne, who won Friday night’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway, is a former two-time Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup champion at Skagit (2002 and 2003) and had won several sprint car main events in the late 1990’s. Even that weren’t so, Ridge would be happy.

“It’d be pretty cool for our team and to do it with all my friends and family here,” Ridge said.

Saldana ended up finishing second. He had led the first seven laps before Kinser got him in traffic on the eighth circuit. Kinser’s rear end broke on lap 32, but on that same lap Saldana was passed by Craig Dollansky, who would go on to win at Skagit for the first time.

Solwold meantime finished seventh. Sundby and Ridge each have one last chance for their drivers to reach victory lane in Washington on Monday at Elma.

Spending as much time as they have on the road, Sundby and Ridge have seen several new race tracks for the first time and they have some favorites. Sundby admits to liking the shorter tracks more, saying he likes Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota. To Sundby, it’s the track closest resembling Skagit. Sundby also strongly liked Dodge City Raceway in Kansas. Ridge admitted to being strongly impressed by the speeds achieved at Eldora Speedway in Ohio and was amazed by the atmosphere at the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa.

Sundby first got on board with the Carnahan Motorsports team during the off-season.

“They called me to see if I had a job,” Sundby recalled. “I went to Volusia (Florida) and I’ve been with them since. It’s a dream come true, to see all these tracks and see the best races and the best drivers go at it every week, and get paid to do it.”

“It’s been huge. I’m glad I did it,” Ridge said about his time on the road. “To be with a team who knows what they’re doing. If I have a question, they always answer and Joey is great to work with also.”