Lemley scores second NSCS victory

Bellingham’s Brock Lemley celebrates his second NSCS win with the Kentch racing team in NSCS victory
lane Friday at Willamette Speedway. (John Fletcher Photo)

by Andrew Kunas, NSCS Publicist

LEBANON, Ore. - Brock Lemley had done well whenever he came to Oregon. In three races in Oregon in with the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series in July, he finished in the top five all three times. He just didn’t win.

He’s won one now.

The Bellingham, Wash. driver scored his second NSCS victory of the season and his first career victory in the state of Oregon when he led the final 26 laps out of 30 in Friday’s event at Willamette Speedway.

Driving the Kentch Bros. Racing No. 40 Triple X entry, the newly crowned Skagit Speedway 410 sprint car champion started the feature event inside the second row as a result of his third place finish in the six-lap dash event that determined the first six starting positions. Lemley shot into second on the initial start and trailed pole-sitter Mitch Olson of Puyallup, Wash. for four laps before overtaking him in turns three and four for the lead on lap five.

“It feels like I finally got the monkey off my back,” said Lemley, who’s first NSCS win came at Skagit on May 12. “Everytime we came here (to Oregon) we did good, but we didn’t get it done. Tonight, we finally got it done.”

Racing was slowed by cautions six times, some of which cleared the track for Lemley just as he was entering slower traffic. Lemley, however, wanted to put some slower cars between himself and his pursuers.

“The first one, I was upset,” Lemley said about the yellow flags. “I think it was Mitch Olson who was behind me at the time. I didn’t know how close he was then, but I could’ve used (slower cars). They can be really handy.”

Olson, who won twice in NSCS competition this year, both times at Skagit, challenged Lemley for the lead on the next two starts. Lemley, however, stuck to the bottom of the track in the turns of the 3/10-mile clay oval to stay ahead of Olson.

Olson himself was extremely lucky to finish in the top five, spinning his car around in turn four, only to keep it going on lap 27. The yellow flag was still thrown as officials thought he was going to stop where he was. Instead of sending Olson to the rear of the field for causing the yellow or giving him second place back, officials made the decision to put Olson back to the fourth position behind Seth Bergman and Travis Rutz, where he potentially could’ve been had the yellow flag not come out.

Olson, who trailed Roger Crockett by 60 points the NSCS championship chase going into the evening, made a wild pass around Rutz for third on the restart. Olson finished third in the Mike Olson No. 98m Shark-powered Rocket while Crockett finished seventh in the Henderson Motorsports No. 7N Bailey Bros.-powered Eagle. Factoring in the double-points being awarded this weekend, Crockett saw his lead shrink to 28 points unofficially. Crockett had won both of the prior NSCS events held at Willamette.

“It just got to a certain point where you had to try to do the 360,” Olson said. “It’s the first time I’ve tried it like that and was successful. I got lucky. Everytime we can go out on the track and finish ahead of Roger is a good outing. I’ve never won a championship and I want it bad.”

The run of the night belonged to Bergman, out of Snohomish, Wash. Bergman, last year’s Northern Sprint Tour Rookie of the Year, started the feature 11th and was one of only two drivers who made significant forward progress. Driving his father Steve’s No. 23a Wesmar-powered Eagle, Bergman patiently picked off one car after another en route to his season best second place finish.

“I was just able to find the bottom,” said Bergman, who on Saturday will return to Cottage Grove Speedway, where he scored his first career victory last year with the old NST. “I stayed patient and hit the bottom. A lot guys missed their marks and got up.”

Bergman’s run was his second top-five run in as many races with a brand new car, also finishing fifth in last month’s Kasey Kahne Foundation event at Skagit. Struggling all season with another car, the Bergman’s decided to build another one.

“It’s been an up and down season. We’d been fighting the first (car) all year. We thought it was junk, so we put this one together and it’s been fast,” Bergman said. “We’re hoping to win tomorrow. We won last year there and we’d like to bring the momentum from here over there.”

Rutz’s fourth place effort was the best NSCS finish this season for the British Columbia resident in the Rutz Racing No. 8 Richmond-powered Triple X. The other driver moving up along with Bergman was Sutherlin, Ore.’s Rob Held, who drove his own No. 68 J&J entry from 13th to fifth, passing Evan Funk, Robbie Vaugh, former NST champion Bill Nutter and Crockett along the way.

Nutter, out of Central Point, Ore. ran as high as fourth before settling for sixth in his own No. 3N Zeitler entry. Vaughn, the leading NSCS Rookie of the Year candidate, finished eighth in the Jeff Jansman No. 4r Becker. Funk, who is second in the rookie standings, finished ninth in the Gary Funk No. 8e Shark-powered Rocket. Harrisburg, Ore.’s Jeff Thompson rounded out the top ten in the Thompson Racing No. 7t Wesmar-powered Triple X.

Sixteen-year-old Chadd Nolan, racing with the NSCS for only the second time Friday, announced his intentions to run for NSCS Rookie of the Year honors in 2008 and backed it up with a fourth-quickest qualifying effort and then won the 15-lap B-Main in the Martin Nolan No. 13 Rodgers-powered Eagle. With only three heat races being run, the B-Main sent five cars to the A-Main, as J.J. Dishneau, Jay Cole, Randy Pierce and Danny Kirkpatrick followed. Finishing 1-2, Nolan and Dishneau got their qualifying times back and started in the fourth row of the A-Main behind the dash cars, while the other transfer drivers tagged the back of the field.

Thompson, Held and Crockett each won ten-lap heat races that sent five cars to the A-Main. Olson’s victory in the dash race, which featured the six fastest qualifiers who transferred out of their heat races, came over Rutz, Lemley, Vaughn, Nutter and Funk. Rutz paced the 22-car field in qualifying with a lap of 12.766 seconds around Willamette Speedway. Nutter was second quick and Olson third. Lemley was eighth quickest with a time of 13.037 seconds.

Friday’s event was the final NSCS event at Willamette Speedway for 2007. The final race in Oregon for the NSCS this season is Saturday at Cottage Grove Speedway and it will also be a double-points event. More information on the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and its drivers can be found online at http://www.racenscs.com.

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Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
Willamette Speedway
Lebanon, OR
September 7, 2007

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

22 cars

Fast qualifier: 8 Travis Rutz, 12.766 seconds

Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. 7t Jeff Thompson, 2. 8e Evan Funk, 3. 91 Derek Ingalls,
4. 8 Travis Rutz, 5. 26f Shane Forte’, 6. 0J Jay Cole, 7. 7G Chad Groves, 8.
13 Chadd Nolan. Top five finishers transfer to A-Main.

Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. 68 Rob Held, 2. 4r Robbie Vaughn, 3. 23a Seth Bergman,
4. 3N Bill Nutter, 5. 77 Mike Sather, 6. 9j J.J. Dishneau, 7. 12p Randy
Pierce. Top five finishers transfer to A-Main.

Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. 7N Roger Crockett, 2. 98m Mitch Olson, 3. 7D Josh
DeWitt, 4. 40 Brock Lemley, 5. 08 Steve Vague, 6. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick, 7.
5k Brian Kirkpatrick. Top five finishers transfer to A-Main.

Dash (6 laps): 1. 98m Mitch Olson, 2. 8 Travis Rutz, 3. 40 Brock Lemley, 4.
4r Robbie Vaughn, 5. 3N Bill Nutter, 6. 8e Evan Funk. Finish determines
first six starting positions of A-Main.

B-Main (15 laps): 1. 13 Chadd Nolan, 2. 9j J.J. Dishneau, 3. 0J Jay Cole, 4.
12p Randy Pierce, 5. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick, 6. 7G Chad Groves, 7. 5k Brian
Kirkpatrick. Top five finishers transfer to A-Main.

A-Main (30 laps): 1. 40 Brock Lemley, 2. 23a Seth Bergman, 3. 98m Mitch
Olson, 4. 8 Travis Rutz, 5. 68 Rob Held, 6. 3N Bill Nutter, 7. 7N Roger
Crockett, 8. 4r Robbie Vaughn, 9. 8e Evan Funk, 10. 7t Jeff Thompson, 11.
26f Shane Forte’, 12. 7D Josh DeWitt, 13. 91 Derek Ingalls, 14. 13 Chadd
Nolan, 15. 08 Steve Vague, 16. 9j J.J. Dishneau, 17. 77 Mike Sather, 18. 12p
Randy Pierce, 19. 0J Jay Cole, 20. 7k Danny Kirkpatrick.

Lap leaders: Mitch Olson 1-4, Brock Lemley 5-30

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NSCS: The Northwest Sprint Challenge Series
http://www.racenscs.com