Doug Pace: Washington Modified Tour rolls into Republic
The Washington Modified Tour rolls into Republic’s Eagle Track Raceway this weekend for its only Inland Northwest stop of the season.
Running two separate main events that count towards the season’s championship battle, racing will be ultra-competitive as the series roars towards its final month of competition.
Kyler Moore and Kevin Smith are locked in a tight battle for the championship, separated by just 50 points heading into the weekend. Craig Moore, Austin Kerrigan and Scott Miller round out the top five.
Race fans will have a local driver to root for in the twin-race format, as Colville’s Tiana Berkeley, who holds down the ninth place position in the championship standings, is out to defend the home turf.
Berkeley ran Eagle’s tricky three-eighth mile clay oval in a local event last month bringing home a clean sweep on the day. With the WMT in town for a showdown of the best in the business, the Colville High School graduate is ready to thrill the hometown crowd once again.
“We had a great run in July so we’re ready to take another swing at it this weekend,” Berkeley said. “I love racing on my home track so this weekend is definitely a bonus. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there and giving our fans, friends and family the opportunity to come watch us race since it’s close by and we’re typically traveling so far which has made it hard for them to see us run.”
Debuting a new car has been one key to the year’s success.
“The season has been awesome so far and I’ve really enjoyed our new car,” Berkeley boasted. “After a few races into the year I started to get comfortable and we’ve made a lot of progress.”
After spending the last two seasons getting acclimated with the tight racing on the elite Washington Modified Tour, this year Berkeley has faced the challenge of running a full season on the series head-on. Ranked inside the top 10 – despite missing a race to compete in an open competition-style shootout – Berkeley and her team have plenty of focus heading into the weekend.
“It’s amazing to maintain that top 10 in points this late in the season after missing a race to run the big event in Oregon. Being that it’s so close to the end of the season it (the weekend’s races) definitely brings a little more pressure (to run strong at home).”
Behar snags a
top-five finish
When a team is on a run of tough outings nothing can turn a season around more than a solid finish in a race close to home.
Such was the case for Otis Orchard’s Nicole Behar, whose NASCAR K&N Pro Series season had started off with a tremendous amount of promise, but of late has been hampered by finishes outside the top-15 running order. Those results dropped Behar from the third place position in the points standings in late April to 11th heading into last weekend’s NAPA 150 at Monroe’s Evergreen Speedway.
In the day’s practice sessions, Behar had one of the fastest cars on the track, but a tire issue resulted in contact with the turn No. 3 wall and seemed to continue the tough string of races on the series. Having to go to a back-up car, Behar’s day appeared to be an uphill climb to get back in the form needed to turn the season around.
Climb she did.
Posting the fifth fastest lap in qualifying gave the 19-year old a solid starting position on the day that Behar used to perfection. When the dust settled a third-place finish propelled Behar back to ninth place in the championship standings, a mere 11 points behind sixth-place Todd Souza, with four races remaining in the season.
The Evergreen run was Behar’s second finish inside the top-5 running order in 2017, with six of her ten races this season resulting in top 10 finishes.
The series heads to Roseburg, Oregon on Aug. 26 with its final Northwest race set for Sept. 30 in Meridian, Idaho, before closing out the year with stops in Sacramento and Bakersfield, California on Oct. 14 and Nov. 4 respectively.