Lewis victorious in Idaho 200

Gary Lewis stayed true to his pre-race strategy and it paid off in victory in the end at the 8th Annual Idaho 200 Sunday at Stateline Speedway.

Speaking prior to the race, the Bothell, Wash., driver professed some common strategy. “We have to stay out of trouble and be there at the end.” He did, and he was.

On a hot afternoon in front of a speedway crowd of about 3,000, Lewis and the rest of the field treated the fans to a real display of driving by some of the best the northwest has to offer. Lewis finished just over a second ahead of last year’s champ, Kevin Richards, while Yelm’s Wes Rhodes was third.

East Wenatchee’s Garrett Evans scored his best-ever finish here with a fourth, and last driver on the lead lap. Spokane’s Andy Brown was fifth finishing 199 laps.

“You know we had a great car all weekend,” Lewis said. “The car was loose all day yesterday. It was good during the day and got loose at night.”

Putting a whim ahead of more traditional changes may have been the difference. “I did something crazy with the car that normally would have loosened it up even more,” Lewis said. “Go with my gut instinct that it would tighten it up and the changes worked for us, even during the heat of the day. It was an awesome run.”

For Lewis, the victory is an encore to his huge win two weeks ago at the Montana 200 in Kalispell. He becomes the first person since Tom Sweatman in 2000 to win both the Montana and Idaho biggies.

It’s just another notch in Lewis’s belt that is full of considerable accomplishments this year. The defending 2006 NASCAR Northwest Tour champ has won three of six ARCA-Late Model Challenge races plus another in the series that has sought to replace the original Tour.

Lewis sums it up simply by saying it’s, “crazy, can’t explain it! We had some tremendous success in 1998 and (19)99, and we had good success last year on the Tour. But nothing like this with the wins and the big caliber races.”

Richards and Lewis had fast times in a special Sunday afternoon qualifying session that was used when there were not enough cars to run a “last chance race.”

Their respective laps of 13.274 and 13.287 seconds may have gotten applause from the crowd, but when the number was drawn from the hat to invert the field, they both landed on the fourth row in the middle of traffic for the start.

Inverts can be anywhere from six to 12 cars depending on what number is pulled from the hat, explained INSSA official Lorne Bartle.

Lewis and Richards raced their way into the first and second positions by the end of the first 100 laps. Lewis passed early race leader Darrell Midgley with about 10 laps to go in the first segment. Sixteen of the 23 cars were running at the break.

For Richards to even be in the race is amazing considering he spun to avoid Mike Zamora, which automatically sent him to the back of the pack. But add to that having to race into the pits and change not only a flat tire, but a broken shock as well. By all rights Richards should have been down enough laps to make it impossible to come back in a race like this.

But after a yellow flag pit stop that seemed to take an eternity, Richards charged from the back of the pack, making it into the lead group that included Dan Garber and Evans. He moved into second place with about 10 laps remaining in the first segment.

Holding the lead on the start of the second 100 laps was crucial, Lewis said. “By staying out in front it gives us a chance to cool the motor,” Lewis said.

Richards tried but failed to play catch-up. “I could get to him but I couldn’t get around him,” Richards said. “Our car was probably as good as his but not any better.”

“I got him loose a couple of times but I didn’t want to wreck him because that’s not how I race,” Richards said. “I’m happy with a second, but boy, old Lewis is having a heck of a year. I wanted to beat him because nobody else can, but obviously I can’t either.”

Third place finisher Rhodes was happy. “Third’s good. We came with a way better set-up than last year and it showed.

“Racing in a fast moving train of cars,” Rhodes said, “I was just sitting back in my seat having a good time watching. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a big pile-up.”

The last segment of the race ran virtually trouble-free with just one caution. That came from Spokane’s Shelby Thompson, the sixth place finisher. Thompson was involved in an earlier incident in the first half. He made a couple of charges, but ultimately finished with a taped together hood and the left-front fender missing.

Austin wins at SRP

Bucky Austin of Kent, Wash., ran a 6.164 elapsed time to easily defeat the 15.07 second pass of Terry Capp’s Bubble-Up entry out of St. Albert, Alberta, in the feature race at Spokane Raceway Park’s Nitro Extravaganza Saturday night.

Bill Edwards, Jr. made it two Spokane wins in a row in Alcohol Dragster, clocking a 5.866, 248.80 to beat Spokane’s Chris Denison’s 6.62,204.29 run. Denison qualified for the program on the last pass in qualifying.

Nathan Sitko of Edmonton defeated Dave Germain of Toledo, Wash., in Alcohol Funny Car.

Randy Reynolds of St. Maries was the winner in Top Comp over Dan Polster of Spokane.

Dale Hornby won an all-Spokane finale in Super Street, beating Dave Oien 10.72 to 11.39. James Hornby knocked off Loren Hopkins in ET Stock.