9/17/2020
Skagit Speedway
Sucich Caps Skagit Season with 360 Win, Goetz - Holtrop - Young Crowned Champions
Alger, WA - The finale of the 2020 on Skagit Speedway TV saw Bailey Sucich win her first career Budweiser 360 Sprint Car main event, besting Jason Solwold in the late stages of the race for the $2,600 top prize. Season champions were crowned on the night as well, with Chase Goetz, Adam Holtrop and Rick Young all winning track titles.
Corbyn Fauver set out to the early advantage in the 25 lap Budweiser 360 Sprint A Main, with Sucich never too far off. As Fauver approached the tail end of the field, Sucich was right there to pressure him, forcing Corbyn to move around search for a clean line through traffic. With a fast racing surface, the tail end of the field was difficult to navigate, with lap times only falling off a little through the full field of cars. Fauver would try to sneak around the high side of turns one and two, and that’s where Bailey pounced, moving inside Fauver to take the top spot on the completion of lap 13 and bringing third place running Trey Starks with her. Entering turn one, the now second place running Starks and Fauver made contact, sending both spinning and bringing out the only yellow flag of the main. Bailey now had Jason Solwold and Chance Crum stacked up behind her for the restart, where she began building up her lead in clean air. Slower traffic loomed in the form of Michael Millard around lap 20, and while Bailey moved around to try and find a way past Michael, Solwold found rhythm down low, sneaking past Bailey for the lead on lap 22. Sucich rebounded by making a strong move on the high side of turns one and two on lap twenty three, repassing Solwold and lapping Millard in the process. Two short laps later and the biggest Skagit Speedway payday of 2020 went to Bailey, with Solwold second and Crum third. Cam Smith entered the main trailing Chase Goetz by thirty points in the driver standings, and his hard charging effort of 13th to 8th earned him bonus money, but not enough points to take the title from Goetz, who would win his first Sprint Car championship at Skagit Speedway to go with a Focus Midget title. Smith’s effort was good enough to propel Dave Smith Motorsports to the owner’s title ahead of Roger Oudman, Goetz’s car owner. Earlier in the evening, the 28 car field of 360s blistered the previous track record held by Seth Bergman, with ten drivers coming in under the previous mark of 11.253 seconds. Trey Starks ended up with the new mark at a lap of 11.085. Heat winners were Colton Heath, Greg Hamilton and Eric Fisher.
Similar to their heat race earlier in the night, Mike Steltz and Paul Rea did battle in the 25 lap Skagit Aggregates Modifieds main event. Rea led lap one before Steltz got him for the lead on lap two and led a huge chunk of the race with Paul no further than half a car length back. On lap 22, Steltz took a wide entry into turn one which let Rea make a strong bid to the inside of him. As the pair raced down the back stretch, Rea took the top spot for good and in his first Skagit appearance, secured the win. Scott Miller snuck by Steltz late for second place. Adam Holtrop completed a childhood dream in the main event, as his fifth place effort was strong enough to secure him the track championship over Craig Moore and Ben Gunderson. Heat race winners were Tyson Blood, Guunderson and Steltz.
The Outlaw Tuner championship was decided coming into the night, with Rick Young merely needing to show up to secure the title. With the title in hand, Rick did his best to try and cap the year off with a win, but would settle for second place behind Clint Meins, who was too strong on the night in getting his only victory of 2020. Last year’s champion Howard Vos ran third on the night.
Budweiser 360 Sprints
Fast Time - Trey Starks 11.085 NTR
Heat 1 - Colton Heath
Heat 2 - Greg Hamilton
Heat 3 - Eric Fisher
B Main - Steve Vague, Ashleigh Johnson, Reece Goetz, Steve James, Matt Loving, Bill Rude, Darren Smith, Cory Summers, Brett McGhie
A Main - Bailey Sucich, Jason Solwold, Chance Crum, Travis Jacobson, Cam Smith, Colton Heath, Eric Fisher, Trey Starks, Greg Hamilton, Chase Goetz, Reece Goetz, Steve Vague, Corbyn Fauver, Chris Bullock, Jeff Dunlap, Ashleigh Johnson, Lance Sargent, Michael Millard
Lap Leaders - Fauver 1-12 Sucich 13-21 Solwold 22 Sucich 23-25
Hard Charger - Smith +8
Season Champion - Chase Goetz
Skagit Aggregates Modifieds
Heat 1 - Tyson Blood
Heat 2 - Ben Gunderson
Heat 3 - Mike Steltz
Main - Paul Rea, Scott Miller, Mike Steltz, Rick Smith, Adam Holtrop, Ben Gunderson, Craig Moore, Jeff Blanton, Dan Butenschoen, Mason, Dineen, Dave Harmon, Tyler Ketchum, Austin Lovik, Tyson Blood, Allen Grimbly
Lap Leaders - Rea 1 Steltz 2-21 Rea 22-25
Season Champion - Adam Holtrop
Outlaw Tuners
Heat 1 - Rick Young
Heat 2 - Zach Dalrymple
Main - Clint Meins, Rick Young, Howard Vos, Zach Dalrymple, Colin Sims, Jon Edwards, Mike Thomas, Ayuka Carlson, Josh Walker, Tricia Michelson, Mike Macpherson
Lap Leaders - Sims 1-2 Meins 3-17
Season Champion - Rick Young
Article Credit: Kaleb Hart