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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Keeping Pace

Thompson captures Lucas Oil 50 at Spokane County Raceway

Courtesy of NW Pro 4 Alliance
Courtesy of NW Pro 4 Alliance

Rick Thompson unloaded one of the fastest cars in the afternoon practice sessions only to lose an engine just six circuits into his run. Using most of the remaining time in pre-race activities to swap motors, Thompson got little more then shakedown laps to prepare for qualifying.

 

Doug Pace

The Spokesman-Review

 

Rick Thompson made the most of his limited time in practice as the Prosser native advanced from his sixth starting position in the Lucas Oil 50 at Spokane County Raceway to the lead on lap 24 and never looked back as he topped the Northwest Pro 4 Alliance field for his first victory of the 2013 season.

 

Bud Rumsey, the defending series champion ran second with NASCAR veteran Eddie Secord rounding out the top-3.

 

Thompson unloaded one of the fastest cars in the afternoon practice sessions only to lose an engine just six circuits into his run. Using most of the remaining time in pre-race activities to swap motors, Thompson got little more then shakedown laps to prepare for qualifying.

 

"The first time we'd ever fired this motor was after it got into the car," Thompson said from victory lane. "Luckily for us we qualified well and got to run the trophy dash which gave us some more laps to dial the car in for the main event. To pull this off with only 10-15 laps of time on the track before the main event is pretty cool."

 

Secord paced the field early as he moved from his third starting position to the lead at the completion of lap one. Two yellow flag restarts in the event's first six laps allowed Thompson the chances he needed to make early passes to advance his third row outside position at the drop of the green flag. Chasing Thompson through the front of the field was Rumsey who had been out to win his third race in as many starts.

 

Toby Becker, who started fifth and moved to third early brought out the night's first caution as he spun exiting turn No. 2. The California native appeared to have the speed in his car to match the leaders as he stormed from 20th on the lap 6 restart to ninth at lap 23 only to lose the rear end gear in his car and bring out the night's final yellow.

 

On the restart Thompson seized the chance for the jump on Secord with Rumsey tucked behind as the pair overtook the 2011 series champion for the top two positions and pulled away to complete the final 26 laps incident free.

 

Local drivers in the field had good results as Travis Allen, the 2011 INSSA Rookie of the Year, finished 12th with Athol's Blake Hinton 14th. Oregon's Gracin Raz was the top fnishing rookie with a fifth place finish.

 

Northwest Pro 4 Alliance Lucas Oil 50 results

1) Rick Thompson

2) Bud Rumsey

3) Eddie Secord

4) Johnny Rumsey

5) Gracin Raz

6) Alex Peck

7) John Jackman

8) Ken Chandler

9) Eric Kaas

10) Cody Walker

11) Jeff Raver

12) Travis Allen

13) Terry Rennick

14) Blake Hinton

15) CJ Hawley

16) Ross Jones

17) Toby Becker

18) Scott Raver

19) Steve Thompson

20) Chad Davis



Keeping Pace

Motorsports correspondent Doug Pace keeps up with motorsports news and notes from around the region.