Championship events resume this weekend

Championship events continue this week as the Inland Northwest Super Stock Association wraps up its season with a 100-lap shootout at Stateline Speedway featuring local late model stars plus several of Montana Raceway Park’s late model teams battling for the final time in the Inland Northwest.

Montana’s Agni Howell is the defending race winner and closed out his MRP season with a sixth-place overall finish. Also expected from Big Sky Country will be newly crowned champion Alex Lessor and rising star Wrango West.

David Garber holds a 24-point lead on Jeff Fenton in the chase for the INSSA championship with Greg McKinley, Corey Allard and Rookie of the Year contender Andrew Zimmer, rounding out the top five.

Allard raced in MRP’s season championship event last weekend bringing home a win in the A-Trophy Dash, a runner-up finish in the A-Heat race and a third-place run in their 100-lap main event. While Stateline and Montana Raceway Park are quarter-mile tracks, not much transfers from one to the other in preparation for this weekend’s race, the Sagle, Idaho, native said.

“Montana (Raceway Park) has so much more banking that it’s hard to take what we’ve done (last weekend) and apply it to Stateline,” Allard said. “We know we have a good basic setup to start with (on Saturday) and are coming off a good run to get us going.”

The driver of the T. Lariviere Equipment and Excavation Chevrolet has been battling a knee injury of late, but that should not slow him down this weekend, Allard said.

“The knee feels good and it should not be a problem for me,” he said. “I didn’t really notice it (last weekend) because we had such a good car.”

Also running their championship event this weekend at Stateline will be the local Legends division that has grown in car count and popularity after getting a late start to their season.

Organized by Mark Bissett, the class has had upward of 10-12 cars at each race drawing from Montana Raceway Park’s group of Legends drivers and a few teams based in British Columbia and Oregon.

Jake Bissett, a freshman at Freeman High School, leads the Stateline points standings and is six markers back in the chase for the Legends championship in Montana. Along with Joe Bissett and youngster Giles Thornton of Whitefish, Mont., this weekend’s race should feature some of the Northwest’s best Legend car drivers.

“(The local class) is starting to go pretty good here, but we got such a late start to our season with getting dates planned out in March that a lot of people haven’t heard about the division here in the area,” Mark Bissett said. “We’re starting to get the guys from Montana to come down here because they like the competition and the track.

“I know that once the season is over we’ll sit down with Stateline and Montana Raceway Park and see what we can do about getting the cars to run between them more often. The plan is for me to do this at least one more year to try and see it get going in our area.”

Hobby Stock drivers and Late Model 4s conclude their racing seasons Saturday night at the Post Falls facility with a tight battle for the top honor in the Late Model 4s class.

Kameron McKeehan leads Travis Allen by 10 points in the chase for the Late Model 4s championship, with Dan Bedwell rounding out the top three.

Billy Swift has had the strong car all season in the Hobby Class en route to a 38-point advantage on Kyle Kennedy with one race remaining. Swift could wrap up the championship with another consistent effort in qualifying, heat racing and the main event.