YAKIMA, Wash. – The opening weekend for the Summer Thunder Sprintcar Series is in the books with Jason Solwold making his presence known with two wins to open the year at Central Washington State Fair Raceway.
It was a repeat victory lane on Saturday night, with Jason Beaulieu winning the Washington Modified Tour Main Event.
Similar to his Friday night win, Solwold had to overcome a little adversity to grab the Summer Thunder Sprint Car Series victory. Logan Forler had passed Solwold in turn three on the 12th lap amongst slower traffic, but a caution flag for Trevor Cook would give Solwold the top spot back.
Despite two more runs from Forler, Solwold would hold strong to sweep the weekend, with Forler settling for second and Colton Heath taking third. Solwold was the fast qualifier. Heat winners were Heath, Devon Borden and Garen Linder.
Beaulieu made it two for two with the Washington Modified Tour over the weekend. Beaulieu had the lead on lap one when Grey Ferrando spun out and bunched the field up for a restart.
On the restart, Collen Winebarger took the top spot from Beaulieu and tried to stretch a lead. Beaulieu never let him get out too far, eventually closing to within a car length. The lead appeared to change on lap 18 when Beaulieu was passing for the lead before a caution came out.
Winebarger would try to stretch his advantage on the restart, but Beaulieu had found the fastest line around the half-mile track and passed Winebarger for good on the 20th lap en route to the win.
Winebarger and Brad Martin rounded out the podium. Ferrando, Winebarger, Beaulieu and Don Jenner won the heats. Chris Beaulieu won the B Main.