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Kyler Barraza wins inaugural NWWT race by Andrew Kunas |
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APRIL 25, 2009 --- COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. - There was no stopping Kyler Barraza on Saturday night, as he bolted to the lead on the start of the race and never looked back as he won the inaugural NorthWest Wingless Tour sprint car feature at Cottage Grove Speedway. The Roseburg, Ore. driver had a busy but successful night, racing in both the NWWT event and the winged sprint car portion of the track's annual Grove Classic for 360 sprint cars. He competed in both classes in the very same car too. Barraza had just finished eighth in the 30-lap winged sprint car feature. He had little time in the pit area to do anything to the car other than remove wings and change tires before pushing off in that same Barraza Motorsports No. 87 Rodgers-powered Eagle for the inaugural NorthWest Wingless Tour main event. Barraza started the 30-lap NWWT feature outside the second row behind front row starters Kyle Miller and Keary Morris. Barraza, long familiar with Cottage Grove Speedway, took the lead on the first lap as he swung high around the top of turns three and four and passed both Morris and Miller. Barraza would lead every lap, and was pleased despite the limited time he had to work on the car between races. "(Car) was OK," Barraza said. "We didn't have much time to change from the winged setup. We could take off the wings and change tires. To win the first race, it was cool." Barraza's experience at Cottage Grove was also helped by the fact he has raced non-wing before at the same track, winning a feature in 2007. Albany, Ore. driver Gary Davis, last year's USCA champion, was not able to chase down Barraza but still put on a good performance as he finished second in the Bob Farwell No. 30 Chevy-powered XXX. Davis ran in third place for a time behind former champion Keary Morris before making the pass for second place on lap 10. Davis, however, had to put up with the slower cars that Barraza had already passed. "I think I could've got Barraza if not for the lapped cars between us, but I'm pleased with how we finished," Davis said. Barraza thought the track changed as the race went on, especially because of the heavy use of both the very top and very bottom of the track in the turns by several cars. "As the race progressed the top got narrow and the bottom went away," said Barraza, who usually raced around the top of the track in the turns. Kyle Miller, the two-time and reigning Cottage Grove Speedway champion, took off the wings to race with the NWWT, and was clearly the most exciting driver to watch in the field Saturday night. This was despite the fact he was racing with a limited motor after blowing his 360ci motor two weeks ago. Miller's familiarity with Cottage Grove, where he won a limited sprint title in 2007 and was last year's 360 sprint car champion, still aided him. Miller set fast time in qualifying and in racing action he was making use of the high side like no one else, coming from tenth to finish fourth in his heat race. Qualifying and heat race points combined were good enough to put Miller on the pole for the main event. Miller admitted that after Barraza snuck by him on the outside on the first lap to take the lead he overdrove his car in an effort to get back at Barraza, only to spin his car out. Miller put on the show of the night from there, as he came from the back of the field twice (he had spun out a second time after contact with another car, but kept going) back into the top five, eventually finishing third in the Scott Miller No. 10 Springer-powered XXX. The first time around, Miller was up to fifth place by lap seven and then stalled behind Keary Morris and Jeff "Ozzie" Osburn. Racing with Osburn on lap 16, Miller spun out again and kept his car going, but had to go to the back again. "I kept my cool. I was patient more than anything," Miller said about the second spin. Miller did the same thing as before, using what was left of the top groove to get around cars on the high side, passing as many as four cars on the last restart. By lap 24 he was back up to fifth, and then put a huge slide job on Osburn for fourth place. On a lap 27 restart, he got around Morris for third place and at the finish he was challenging Davis for second place. "Kyler was fast at the beginning. Kudos to him. I had a ton of fun. The car's in one piece. The track was awesome. Everyone ran clean. It felt like a win to us," Miller said. Morris, out of Portland, ran in the top five the entire race and eventually finished fourth in his own No. 11x Chevy-powered Eagle. Joe Bosso Jr. of Troutdale, Ore. stayed out of trouble and moved into fifth place late in the race and finished there in the Bosso Racing No. 69 S&J-powered Gambler. Making his sprint car debut was Gladstone, Ore. driver Mike Morris, Keary's son. The Salem Indoor champion in midgets this off-season made his debut in the Ron Brown No. 14 Chevy-powered J&J and came away with a sixth place main event finish his first time out. Eagle Creek, Ore. driver Mark Nichols came home seventh in his own No. 64 T-Mac-powered Rocket. In his sprint car debut, 18-year-old Dylan Olsen of Kelso, Wash. drove a clean race and never got in any trouble in a solid driving effort, eventually finishing in eighth place in the Scott Olsen No. 7 Chevy-powered TCR after starting 15th. Sammy Wright, a 14-year-old rookie, finished ninth in the Sam Wright No. 1w Chevy-powered Zeitler after starting 16th. Osburn, a popular local driver in the limited sprint cars at Cottage Grove Speedway, had took his wings off too to try his hand at non-wing racing and admitted he had fun despite going upside down. He rounded out the top ten in the main event in his own No. 01 Drummond-powered Maxim. Bosso will go down in the record books as the first heat race winner in NWWT history when he took the checkers in the slow heat. In the second heat, consisting of the faster half of qualifying field, Barraza won it over Osburn, Keary Morris and Miller. In the four-lap trophy dash, which featured the four fastest drivers in qualifying, Miller won over Davis, Keary Morris and 14-year-old Nick Tomlinson. Miller paced the 19-car field in qualifying with a time of 12.855 seconds around the 1/4-mile, high-banked clay oval. After heat races were completed, points from those races and qualifying were combined and an invert pill was drawn to determine main event lineups under NorthWest Wingless Tour rules. The 0 pill was drawn, putting Miller, the high points man, on the pole for the main event. The Grove Classic has been a staple event for winged 360 sprint cars at Cottage Grove Speedway since 2002. Saturday night was the first time non-wing cars were part of the event, and Kyler Barraza is the man who go down as the first non-wing Grove Classic winner. The NorthWest Wingless Tour next races on Saturday, May 23rd back at Cottage Grove Speedway, and this time will be joined by the midgets. More information on the NorthWest Wingless Tour can be found online at http://www.nwwingless.com. - - - NorthWest Wingless Tour Grove Classic Cottage Grove Speedway Cottage Grove, OR April 25, 2009 UNOFFICIAL RESULTS 19 cars Fast qualifier: 10 Kyle Miller, 12.855 seconds Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. 69 Joe Bosso Jr., 2. 22 Mike Romig, 3. 2 Mitch Holte, 4. 75 Gary Barnes, 5. 28 Mark Herz, 6. 64 Mark Nichols, 7. 24 Theo McCarty, 8. 5 Roy Crouch, DNS - 7k Kyle Mehner. Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. 87 Kyle Barraza, 2. 01 Jeff "Ozzie" Osburn, 3. 11x Keary Morris, 4. 10 Kyle Miller, 5. 2k Sterling Kane, 6. 14 Mike Morris, 7. 30 Gary Davis, 8. 7 Dylan Olsen, 9. 1w Sammy Wright, 10. 16n Nick Tomlinson. Dash (4 laps): 1. 10 Kyle Miller, 2. 30 Gary Davis, 3. 11x Keary Morris, 4. 16n Nick Tomlinson. Feature (30 laps): 1. 87 Kyler Barraza, 2. 30 Gary Davis, 3. 10 Kyle Miller, 4. 11x Keary Morris, 5. 69 Joe Bosso Jr., 6. 14 Mike Morris, 7. 64 Mark Nichols, 8. 7 Dylan Olsen, 9. 1w Sammy Wright, 10. 01 Jeff "Ozzie" Osburn, 11. 24 Theo McCarty, 12. 2k Sterling Kane, 13. 2 Mitch Holte, 14. 16n Nick Tomlinson, 15. 22 Mike Romig, 16. 5 Roy Crouch, 17. 75 Gary Barnes, 18. 28 Mark Herz, DNS - 7k Kyle Mehner. |
