ALGER, Wash. — A packed house showed up for Skagit Speedway’s 72nd season opener, and what a night it ended up being.
All three divisions in action delivered entertaining main events, with Trey Starks and Tyson Blood winning in the Exclusive Quality Customs 360 Sprints and Skagit Casino Resort Modifieds. To finish the night off, Seth Hespe, the grandson of the late Fred Brownfield, raced to his first sprint car win in the Sportsman Sprints.
Starks opened defense of his Exclusive Quality Customs 360 championship by going wire to wire for his first win of 2026 in the main event.
It was not an easy run by any means for Starks, as traffic was heavy through the mid portion of the race and Jason Solwold breathed down his neck lap after lap. A lap 14 caution busted Trey out of that track and from there he had an easier drive to the win.
Solwold fell to third right after the caution flag but battled back to reclaim second place at the end while Colton Heath ran third.
Blood showed why he’s a Washington State IMCA Modified State Champion by racing from 10th to take the Skagit Casino Resort IMCA Modifieds main event win on opening night.
Blood was in a zip code reserved for him only around the high side of the track as he rolled around the chaos of the lower groove to take the lead at the halfway mark of the 25-lap main and went unchallenged the rest of the way for the win. Second was Rory Smith with third going to Cole Logan.
The legacy of the Brownfield family began at Skagit Speedway with Fred Brownfield becoming a race winning and championship driver in sprint cars long before taking the reigns as promoter. On Saturday night, that family legacy of winning sprint car drivers continued at Skagit Speedway as his grandson Seth Hespe won his first Sportsman Sprint race on the first night of his rookie campaign.
The track had gone very slick for the Sportsman Sprint main, and it took a bold move to the inside of Brett McGhie on lap three for Hespe to grab the lead.
From there, Seth executed his plan of rolling the bottom to perfection, never stepping out of line or missing his line in taking the race win, despite heavy pressure behind him.
McGhie was close enough on the final lap to shoot out to the high groove to try and slingshot past Seth, but it was Hespe hanging on and Jesson Jacobson finding just enough drive to nab McGhie at the line for second.
The finish:
Trey Starks, Jason Solwold, Colton Heath, Levi Hillier, Robbie Price, Jesse Schlotfeldt, Eric Fisher, Chase Goetz, Steven Hendrickson, Kai Dixon, Levi Klatt, Levi Kuntz, Bubba Decaires, Cam Smith, Jordi Meese, Brian Holmkvist, Mike Brown, Bill Rude, Dan Reynold, Colin Mackey, Dustin Gehring
