By Gary Jacob
Alger, WA -- 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 runnerup 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.
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-Tanner, Duty, Carrell, Jeffery, Ferrando, Schram, Tesch, Campos, Walters, Johnson, Dietrich, Potter, Simpson, Lindenberg, Valdez.