Area motorsports: Spokane County Raceway amped up
Big races like the Spokane 200 and shows that will see the track operator playing with fire highlight the new and improved Spokane County Raceway.
The half-mile oval comes to life Saturday evening with its first points race of the 2016 season for the Pony Stocks, Baby Grands and Road Runners. In addition, the region’s longest running touring division, the Northwest Modified Series, will have it’s season debut.
One year ago Rick Nelson, Joe Doellefeld and Nelson’s son, Joe, put together an agreement with SCR’s operator, Craig Smith, to lease the oval and bring circle track racing back in full force after several seasons of shortened schedules and sudden stoppages.
Improvements to the facility were made, including added power sources, water outlets, new pit pads, upgraded concessions stand facilities and a return of affordable racing to the drivers.
The duo’s success came with increased fan and car counts, strong events including the first-ever stop for the Rocky Mountain Challenge Series and the I-90 Challenge.
This year the track has put its focus on two dates for the Northwest Super Late Model Series (May 14 and August 20) and a reformatted Spokane 200, now set for 190 laps and titled the Pacific Northwest I90 Super Late Model Showdown (July 22-24). In addition, the Mr. Dizzy Thrill Show comes to SCR twice this season along with several stops for the Northwest Modified Series and a full slate of local classes that will continue to give the track chances to gain more fans in the region.
“We’ve put a lot of work into the facility in the last year,” said oval co-promoter Rick Nelson. “The goal this year is to get more fans out to the races and keep things running smoothly.”
Nelson is most excited for the May 28 Mr. Dizzy Show in which he’ll be a participant in one of the night’s events.
“The Mr. Dizzy Nutty Nelson event that night should be a lot of fun as I’ll strap myself to a hood and go through a wall of fire in one of the portions of the program.”
Around the region
The Leonard Evans 150 at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval last weekend had quite the Spokane flair.
Mead’s Shelby Thompson grabbed his third career victory in the series. Spokane’s Nicole Behar and Braeden Havens ran third and fourth.
That’s good news for fans at Spokane County Raceway, which hosts the series on May 14. As many as 10 local teams could compete in the race, the first of two series stops at SCR. Thompson is running a partial schedule for Killer “B” Racing and is set to return to the track in June at Stateline Speedway’s first of two NWSLMS events.
Behar had been scheduled to run the first two series events then concentrate on her commitments to North Carolina-based David Gilliand Racing. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West’s Most Popular Driver is the highest finishing female driver in that series and earned the same accomplishment on the NWSLMS last Saturday night with her top-3 finish.
With a third-place finish and a seventh in Yakima to start the year, the East Valley High School graduate is working towards making the SCR race. Being competitive in races on both coasts is driving her desire to race in Spokane next weekend, she noted.
Havens, who is chasing the NWSLS championship, is eager to get back to the Inland Empire.
“Momentum is big in this series and we’ve got to keep that up heading to SCR,” said Havens. “With only eight races in the schedule every race and every point is important to earning that championship.”