WHITE CITY, Ore. — Tanner Holmes opened the season with the 25-lap Kendall Oil Winged Sprint Car event win Saturday night at Southern Oregon Speedway.
Going back to the end of last year, this was the third straight win for Holmes. T.J. Winningham had a front row start for the race and charged into the lead with reigning champion David Hibbard in pursuit. Holmes took second from Hibbard on a lap nine restart and closed in rapidly on Winningham.
The two leaders had an intense side by side battle, but Holmes saw a pass for the lead negated by a lap 21 caution flag for Bailey Hibbard. Holmes took the lead on the restart and led the final four laps to win ahead of Winnigham, David Hibbard, Mike Wheeler and Charlie Thompson.
Jeffrey Hudson won the 20-lap IMCA Modified Main Event. The 2018 Sprint Car championship runner-up, Hudson was fifth early on as Jesse Bailey led Justin Foux. Foux gained the lead with a turn-four pass on lap four with Hudson making a similar move into second two laps later. Hudson made an inside pass in turn four on lap eight to take the lead from Foux. The race was red flagged on lap nine when Duane Orsburn hit the frontstretch wall and rolled four times. Mark Wauge worked his way into third by then and took second on lap 11. Wauge steadily reeled in Hudson, but he ran out of time as Hudson was the happy winner. Foux finished third ahead of Preston Jones and Zach Fettinger.
Matt Sanders won the 20-lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. Justin McCreadie had a front row start and led the rapidly run race through a pair of yellow flags. Matt Sanders and Dwayne Melvin ran closely behind McCreadie until Melvin made a move into second on lap 14. A lap lap later, Melvin made an outside move on McCreadie in traffic, only to have contact cause him to spin. McCreadie continued to lead on the restart. On the last lap, Sanders made a move on McCreadie and beat him back to the line by inches for the win. Jorddon Braaten finished third, followed by Rich McCoy and Doug Coffman.
Reigning Bobbio’s Pizza Mini Stock champion David Steele won the 20-lap event. This was his division leading 30th career win. Steele had a brief battle with Kristopher Mix before pulling away. He led all the way in victory. Michael McLeod was a career best second, followed by Ashtin Hedges and Kristopher Mix.
Dylan Sauer won his first career 20-lap JOAT Labs Hornets feature.