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Bill Poehler
LEBANON, Ore. (April 18) - The old shark struck again.
Russ Sell of Brownsville took the lead back on the restart with two laps to go and held off a determined charge from young gun Justin Dittman to win the 40-lap Outlaw Late Model A-Main event on the 1/3-mile clay oval of Lebanon's Willamette Speedway.
For the first time in years the main event was without a steady presence in Trevor Glaser, who had won the prior four class championships. Glaser broke his left arm in a scary wreck in the main event a week prior and was relegated to watching the main event from the grandstands.
Sell, a three-time class champion and last year's Super Sport track champion, had a heartbreaker when his Super Sport racer broke before the main event and he couldn't compete.
When it came time for the Outlaw main event, though, Sell was a rocket, making his way from the eighth starting position into the top three by the 11th lap. On a restart on the 15th lap, Sell rocketed past second place Tory Swayngim and leading Todd Shandy into the front on one lap.
But the 13th starting Dittman rocketed his way through the pack and after getting into Sell on the 25th lap, Dittman worked his way past Sell on the high side two laps later into the lead. Sell never lost track of Dittman, but couldn't complete the pass to take back the lead.
But on the 38th lap, Cody Sell, Russ' son, broke and ended up in the turn three wall. That necessitated a green-white-checkered finish and on the restart the previously rim riding Dittman went to the low side and Sell rocketed past on top and into the lead. In the closing lap Dittman made a couple determined charges, but spun going into turn three on the final lap and placed 14th. Meanwhile Sell didn't make a mistake and pulled away for his first win of the season.
Salem driver Rick Wyatt patiently worked his way through the field from his 11th starting spot to place second. Jeremy Shank of Salem, Russ Sell's son-in-law, pulled off an impressive feat, passing 24 cars on the night to place third. Shank started 11th the B-Main and earned his way into the A-Main by placing second in that race then started 18th in the A and worked his way up third at the finish of that race. Swayngim held on to place fourth and B-Main winning Mike Miller of Springfield came forward to place fifth.
Wyatt picked up his first A-Main event win in the Super Sport class of the season in impressive fashion. Wyatt, who won the B-Main a week prior, set fast time and won the trophy dash then came from the final starting position to pass leading Brett James in eight laps and pulled away to win by over a quarter lap. James finished second with Justin Evans in third, Darryl Blanchard in fourth and Thomas Hunziker rounding out the top five.
Bend driver Rob Mayea, who placed eighth in the Outlaw main event, continued his domination of the modified class. Mayea, the only class champion since the reinstatement of the class a few years ago, picked up his first main event of the year. Sean Gentry of Dayton placed second after running in that position most of the race and outside polesitting Dale Holland of Portland finished third.
Fast timer David Cronk of Portland put the family's No. 29 car in the Sportsman A-Main winner's circle, taking the lead on the second lap and pulling away for his second in as many tries this season. Jeff Marson placed second, a quarter lap behind Cronk with Dittman in third, Bill Gibbs in fourth and Todd Miller in fifth. Tubby Thomas of Springfield came from the back of the pack to win the Sportsman B-Main event by a third lap in front of second-place Adam Walker.
Fast timer Dave Kingsberry of Lebanon won the Classic Sportsman A-Main event with Bob Kingsberry in second and Rick Speer in third. Mike Maffin of McMinnville won the Classic Sportsman B-Main event.
The Willamette Speedway season continues in a week with Sierra Mist Night at the Races featuring the regular five classes of racers.
Race Results April 18, 2009
Outlaw Late Models
Fast Time: 15.908 Darren Coffell
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Rick Wyatt
Heat 1: Mike Miller, Bob Boyd, Trent Elliott
Heat 2: Fred Lang, Mike Bennett, Bruce Hipple
Heat 3: Todd Shandy, Russ Sell, Tory Swayngim
Heat 4: John Campos, Rob Mayea, Rick Wyatt
B-Main Event: 1-Mike Miller, 2- Jeremy Shank, 3-Bruce Hipple, 4-Ryan Gerig, 5- Randy Boyd, 6- Fred Lang, 7-Brady Sell, 8-Mike Brooks, 9- Trent Elliott, 10- Kevin Keeney, 11- Mike Day, 12- Boyd/Smith, 13- Ron Shinkle
A-Main Event: 1- Russ Sell, 2- Rick Wyatt, 3- Jeremy Shank, 4- Tory Swayngim, 5- Mike Miller, 6- Todd Shandy, 7- Brett James, 8- Rob Mayea, 9- Brian Cronk, 10- Rob Campos, 11- Darren Coffell, 12- Todd Sieg, 13- Brett McCutcheon, 14- Steven Sturtevant, 15- Justin Dittman, 16- Cody Sell, 17-John Campos, 18-Robert Hoefs
Super Sports
Fast time- 15.540 Rick Wyatt
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Brett James
Heat 1: Terry Hall, Jeff Wright, Curt Fry
Heat 2: Rick Wyatt, Justin Evans, Darryl Blanchard
A-Main Event: 1- Rick Wyatt, 2- Brett James, 3- Justin Evans, 4- Thomas Hunziker, 5- Curt Fry, 6- Chris Mott, 7- Darryl Blanchard, 8- Don Duddles, 9- Jeff Wright, 10- Terry Hall, 11- Bob Day, 12- Spencer Warlick, 13- Russ Sell
Modified
Fast time: 17.643 Chris Murphy
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Jonathan Lewis
Heat 1: Sandy Sanders, Dale Holland, Levi Strunk
Heat 2: Rob Mayea, Kevin Keeney, Chris Murphy
A-Main Event: 1- Rob Mayea, 2- Sean Gentry, 3- Dale Holland, 4- Kevin Keeney, 5- Bill Young, 6- Brad Gentry, 7- Levi Strunk, 8- Sandy Sanders, 9- Glen Hackney, 10- Kristy Martin, 11- Jonathan Lewis, 12- Chris Murphy
Sportsman
Fast time: 16.330 David Cronk
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Tom Conway
Heat 1: Cheyenne Chasteen, David Perez, Troy Norton
Heat 2: Casey Rhodes, Tubby Thomas, Don Duddles
Heat 3: Jason Sommer, Bill Gibbs, Brad Hopkins
Heat 4: Jeff Marson, Justin Dittman, David Cronk
B-Main Event: 1- Tubby Thomas, 2- Casey Rhodes, 3- David Perez, 4- Harley Lewis, 5- Tim Archer, 6- Mike Campbell, 7- Adam Walker, 8- Cheyenne Chasteen, Don Duddles, Troy Norton.
A-Main Event: 1- David Cronk, 2-Jeff Marson, 3- Justin Dittman, 4- Bill Gibbs, 5- Todd Miller, 6- Jason Sommer, 7- Mike Shank, 8- Shawn Benton, 9- Bill Allison, 10- Brian Brown, 11- Brad Hopkins, 12- Tom Conway, 13- Jordan Sim, 14- Scott Parks
Classic
Fast time: 18.518 Dave Kingsberry
Fast Four Trophy Dash: Jeff Birkholz
Heat 1: Steve Meaney, Gary Allison, Mike Maffin
Heat 2: Bob Kingsberry, Kevin Roberts, Curt Fry
Heat 3: Rich Speer, Dave Kingsberry, Erik Jarnport
B-Main Event: 1- Mike Maffin, 2- Steve Meaney, 3- Brice Bagby, 4- Gary Allison, 5- Danny Altom, 6- Carrie Campbell.
A-Main Event: 1- Dave Kingsberry, 2- Bob Kingsberry, 3- Rich Speer, 4- Kevin Roberts, 5- Mark Gaylord, 6- Erik Jarnport, 7- Jeff Birkholz, 8- Curt Fry, 9- Shannon Horn
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