Doug Pace: Division races down to wire at Northport International Raceway

Dirt track racing in the region continues as Northport International Raceway wraps up its championship schedule before moving to specialty events in October.

Racing on Saturday will be the Modified, Super Stock, Fever 4 and Hornet divisions.

All eyes will be on the Super Stock division as Chris Southern and Nathan Coulter are tied for the points lead heading into the afternoon’s event. Points are up for grabs in qualifying, heat racing and main events, making every move count for both drivers.

While Coulter and Southern will be busy keeping each other in check, Richard Davies is also in the mix for the championship as the third-place driver trails the co-leaders by two points.

Also facing a tight points race is Fever 4 hot shoe Adrian Konkler, who has a three-point margin over Zak MacKinnon.

Darren Dudley’s dominant performance throughout the season has propelled him to a 61-point lead in the Modified ranks. The race for second place in the final championship standings is tight as Jim Ripplinger leads third-place Mark Wiggen by 10 markers with one race left in the season.

Heading into Saturday, Trevor Warren has locked up the Hornet championship.

SKRA winds down

A full slate of championship racing is set for Sunday at the Spokane Kart Racing Association’s .675-mile road course. Located on the grounds of the Spokane County ORV Park, the track offers free grandstand admission for the day’s events.

Several youth drivers are set to battle down to the wire in their quest for divisional crowns, including Collin Mims (Kid Kart), Riley Miller (Jr. I) and Gabe Tesch (Jr. II).

Carson Blakesley (Jr. TaG) has wrapped up a championship heading into the weekend’s racing action.

SKRA allows drivers to drop their lowest points day of the season, with only the nine best racing weekends counted toward the championship standings. This rule has created several tight battles in the youth ranks, with Mims holding the slimmest margin of the talented youngsters who compete at SKRA.

Mims leads Ben Corkey by five points heading into Sunday’s race.

Another tight battle that will be decided this weekend comes in the Jr. II class. Despite missing the first weekend of the season, Tesch, a freshman at Freeman High School, has tallied several strong points days to move ahead of Edward Reynolds by seven points with one race left.

The Adult World Formula division offers the tightest championship race in the older ranks, with David Robinson leading Diane Perry by 43 points.

Andrew Zimmer (Sr. Clone) and Burt Gasaway (Sr. TaG) have locked up championships in their respective divisions.

This season has seen increased turnout at SKRA with more than 200 kart drivers taking part in local and regional racing action on the challenging course. The facility closes out the year’s activities with the annual Fun Race set for Oct. 15.

Late Models cap season

The Northwest Super Late Model Series wraps up its campaign with Saturday’s running of the Neal Newberry 125 at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval. Regardless of the outcome, history will be made as the current points leader, Brittney Zamora, will become the West Coast’s first female super late model touring division champion.

Zamora has one main event victory to her credit this season with multiple top-five and top-10 runs that helped boost her points lead during the summer.

Mitch Kleyn looks to continue his string of top-three championship finishes as the Quincy, Washington, driver comes into the weekend holding down the second-place points position. Jan Evans, whose father Garrett is the defending series champion, sits third in the title hunt and leads the series Rookie of the Year standings.

Brooke Schimmel and Ed Thomsen round out the top five drivers in the championship standings. Zamora, Schimmel, Kleyn, Owen Riddle, Shane Mitchell and Garrett Evans have all won races this season.

The Inland Northwest will be well represented this weekend as Medical Lake’s Braeden Havens and Spokane’s David Garber are expected to be part of the Neal Newberry 125 starting grid.