Miller Wins Third Straight Non-Wing Sprint Nationals at Cottage Grove

story by Ben Deatherage | video by SCLM Race Fan Photos
Cottage Grove, OR | Sept. 23-24, 2011 - In the fifty lap feature on Night 2, it was Colin Baker taking care of business and leading early but as the laps went down Kyle Miller would show his presence right behind him. In the first eighteen laps three cautions occurred keeping the field relatively close and it seemed a yellow was thrown right when lapped traffic was coming into play. A fuel stop at the twenty-fifth lap had Baker in front leading every lap from the green but things would change in lapped traffic during the second segment...

FULL TWO NIGHT STORY:
In the Non-Wing action night number one like the year previous feature split features meaning one half of the field would race in the first twenty-five lap race and the second half in the other. Points were also earned throughout the entire first day of racing with the top six drivers in overall points being locked into the feature on Saturday.

The first semi-feature saw a brilliant performance out of fourteen year old Justen McConville from Dundee as he led the field after taking the lead from Ventura, CA’s Steve Hix on lap three. McConville would lead till the sixteenth lap when he made contact with the front stretch wall but kept it going. Dale Smith of Cottage Grove became the third different leader until he went off the top in turn three briefly on lap twenty-two and allowed McConville to reclaim the lead briefly for the lap.

In the final stages though Evan Margeson made the key move to get around McConville and win the first feature. Justen McConville would finish in second while third would be earned by Dale Smith. Fourth place finisher was Medford’s Baba Ghanoush and fifth was Corey Estaban from Gaston.

The second semi-feature saw Mike Romig of Vancouver, WA lead out in front early only to be overtaken by Jeff Bell of Marysville, WA for the lead on the fifth circuit. By lap twelve though Bell’s lead had been reduced by a caution taking place a handful of laps earlier and brought about an opportunity for Kyle Miller of Eugene to run him down.

Miller would seize the lead on lap thirteen and would lead the rest of the event to win the race. Jeff Bell would finish in second followed by Mike Romig. The rest of the top five consisted of Cottage Grove drivers Mike Carrothers in fourth and Colin Baker in fifth.

Preliminary action saw the implementation of a different format for qualifying in three separate rounds similar to something a fan would see in Formula One with knockout/group qualifying. The first round had all cars evenly divided amongst five groups with the top two making the cut into the second round.

The second round consisted of ten cars and once they requalified the top six from round two would advance to the final round. The third round determined fast time of the night and it went to Colin Baker at a blistering 12.203 seconds. In the trophy dash Kyle Miller would be the winner while heat races were won by Dale Smith, Evan Margeson, and Mike Romig. After the first night Evan Margeson, Colin Baker, Dale Smith, Justen McConville, Jeff Bell, and Kyle Miller were the top six drivers in points earned for the night and would be locked into Saturday’s trophy dash and main event.

In the final night of action all drivers that were not locked had to qualify (one by one on Saturday) and hope to earn the two spots up for grabs to join the already locked cars in the dash. Jesse Thistle of Creswell was fastest in qualifying on Saturday at 13.345 seconds while heat race winners were Thistle, Kyle Mehner of Clackamas, and Mark Nichols of Eagle Creek.

Both Thistle and Mehner would go on to participate in the eight car eight lap dash. The dash was won Colin Baker to earn the pole for the event for the second year in a row. The B Main for the Non-Wing Sprint was twelve laps with the top five transferring and it was Cory Estaban with the win bringing with him to the feature Tim Alberding of Salem, Guy Weedman of Moro, Steve Hix, and Mark Herz of Sandy.

In the fifty lap feature it was Colin Baker taking care of business and leading early but as the laps went down Kyle Miller would show his presence right behind him. In the first eighteen laps three cautions occurred keeping the field relatively close and it seemed a yellow was thrown right when lapped traffic was coming into play. A fuel stop at the twenty-fifth lap had Baker in front leading every lap from the get go.

FROM PAGE 1...
In the second half of the race it was go time for anyone wanting to win the most prestigious Non-wing race in the Northwest. Colin Baker continued to lead but some lapped traffic gave him some trouble and brought about an opportunity for Kyle Miller to take the lead on lap thirty-eight. Miller had his fair share of lapped cars and a handful of time before the end of it all he was losing his lead but a key pass with two laps to go allowed him to go on to win his third straight Non-Wing Nationals title.

Colin Baker finished a respectable second place and Dale Smith made the podium finishing in third. Evan Margeson, the only driver doing double duty for the weekend, finished in fourth and Zack Spaulding of Springfield recovered splendidly after a rough outing in night one.

FULL RESULTS

Non-Wing Sprint Nationals NIGHT 1