ALGER, Wash. – A sun-drenched Skagit Speedway saw four classes in action on Saturday night, and it was Cam Smith thrilling the crowd with a late-race slide job to take the win in the Budweiser 360 sprint car division.
Joining Smith as winners on the night were Nick Evans (NW Focus Midgets), Adam Holtrop (Modifieds) and Mike Macpherson (Outlaw Tuners).
Greg Hamilton set the pace in the 360 division, but Smith and the company behind him in third and fourth were never too far off the pace, with both Colton Heath and Jason Solwold occasionally nipping at Smith’s heels.
As Hamilton hit traffic toward the mid stages of the 25-lap A-main, he altered his line a bit, going low in turns one and two and allowing Smith to close right up to him from the top side of the speedway.
On lap 20, Smith pulled the trigger on a slide job in turns one and two, barreling underneath Hamilton to take the top spot and breaking Hamilton’s momentum in the process. It was academic from there, as Smith drove away to Sage Fruit Victory Lane, with Solwold jumping up to second in the final laps and Hamilton finishing third.
Solwold was the fast qualifier, with heat wins going to Jeff Dunlap, Eric Fisher and Colby Johnson.
In the NW Focus Midgets, Evans picked the perfect spot to show a tire to Travis Jacobson. Jacobson had led from lap two through 23, with Evans tight on him the whole way before Evans showed a tire to Jacobson getting into turn one, then drove underneath him on the exit of turn two.
Pulling ahead at the entrance to turn three, Evans led the final two laps for his first Skagit Speedway win of the season and fourth overall with the series. Jacobson and Alex Peck rounded out the podium. Evans, Peck and Jesse Munn earned heat race wins.
Holtrop put on a master class in passing slower traffic in the Skagit Aggregates Modifieds main event.
Time and again, second place runner Craig Moore would close on Adam, but Holtrop consistently carved through slower traffic, threading the needle multiple times in between cars he was lapping to add padding to his lead and eventually, taking the checkered flag first ahead of Moore and Rick Smith.
Smith and Dan Buteschoen won the heat races.
Macpherson picked the perfect night to win his first Outlaw Tuner main. With $200 put up by DEW Investing to the winner, Macpherson led all 18 laps of the main, including surviving a green-white-checkered restart to seal the deal ahead of Don Briggs Sr. and Howard Vos.
Heat wins went to Macpherson and Vos.
The finish:
Cam Smith, Jason Solwold, Greg Hamilton, Colton Heath, Brock Lemley, Chase Goetz, Jesse Schlotfeldt, Lance Sargent, Bailey Sucich, Eric Fisher, Lane Taylor, Ashleigh Johnson, Eric Rockl, Jeff Dunlap, Corbyn Fauver, Colby Johnson, Chance Crum, Chris Bullock, Steve James.