ALGER, Wash. — Night one of the third annual Skagit Aggregates Survive the 55 for the IMCA Modifieds saw 45 cars sign in to score points and set the field for Saturday’s main events at Skagit Speedway.
At the end of the night, Devon Reed won the $1,000 to win feature and Kyle Strickler sat atop of the mountain as high point man.
Drivers ran two sets of heat races on the night, with pill draw setting the lineup for the first set of heats and the second set of heats lining up by the inverse of the pill draw.
With an ASCS passing point style scoring matrix in place, Strickler came out on top of the points, earning a starting spot somewhere in the top eight of Saturday night’s 55-lap, $10,000 to win feature after the top eight redraw.
Heat race winners on the night were Ty Clemens, Trevor Labarge, Geoff Morris, Kinzer McCord, B.J. Wild, Collen Winebarger, John Gaynor, Bricen James, Eston Whisler and Nick Trenchard.
In the night’s exhibition feature that had no bearing on points, Devon Reed led all 20 laps, fending off defending Survive the 55 Champion Grey Ferrando to take the win. Lawrence O’Connor came out on top of a tough battle for third.
The NW Focus Midgets brought 21 cars to Skagit Speedway as the support division on the night. Shane Smith led the first eight laps of the main before mechanical malfunction knocked him out of contention, giving the lead to Bryan Murphy.
Murphy led through lap 13 before appearing to de bead his left rear, handing the top spot to Nick Evans. Evans would go on to lead the rest of the way in front of Jared Peterson and Alex Peck for the win. Heat wins went to Ryan Orchard, Brad Pritchard and Ashley Thompson.