Crockett Sweeps Western States Finals To Earn 5th ISCS Win Of 2011; Held Wins Title
By Ben Deatherage
Cottage Grove, Oregon- It was a picturesque autumn day/evening in the southern Willamette Valley at the Cottage Grove Speedway for the final race of the 2011 season for the Interstate Sprint Car Series for the 2nd Annual Western States Finals. The previous night’s race at the Willamette Speedway in Lebanon was cancelled due to rain as was the Sunday event at the Coos Bay Speedway. Both a series championship and track championship were on the line going into the last race of the season for the historic ¼ clay oval. Tragedy would strike in hot laps as mechanical problems would occur for Nate Morelock of Cottage Grove who was leading both point races and would not compete for the night.
Roger Crockett of Medford had a perfect night of racing and was looking to better his third place finish in last year’s event. Crockett, started on the pole, was looking for his seventh win at the facility (three with the ISCS, two with the ASCS-Northwest Region, and one local/unsanctioned win) where he is a frequent visitor in victory lane.
Starting on the pole after winning the trophy dash he moved into the lead on the opening laps. A lap one red flag incident was brought out after Zack Spaulding of Springfield, recently crowned 2011 Limited Sprint champion, got involved in a nasty wreck in turns three and four to bring out the only stoppage of the race.
As the field got back underway Kyle Miller of Eugene, who started third, had signs of running down Roger Crockett drawing even with him in turn two around lap eleven. But a key pass for Crockett putting Todd Zeitler of Medford one lap down on lap twelve allowed him to get in the clear as Miller stayed down low and had his hands full with Chadd Noland bringing about the contest for second. Crockett would go on to lap all the way up to eighth place en route to his fifth ISCS victory in the series’ inaugural season, his fourth series win at CGS, and additionally his third series clean sweep in 2011 as well as winning his third straight track championship at the Cottage Grove Speedway.
“We got a fresh Ostrich in getting it dialed for Trophy Cup in a couple of weeks definitely a great debut for it, “commented Roger Crockett in victory lane, “I seen Kyle get into second there and Noland’s generally on the bottom so I figured the top must be pretty darn good that was the hard thing the track was so even it was hard to decide which line to run early in the race.”
The battle for second intensified for the remainder of the race between Kyle Miller and Chadd Noland as they put on quite the display of close quarter action. It appeared on occasions that Noland had the position secured when all of a sudden Miller would rally and pass him back. Miller would finish in second while third place finisher was Noland.
“We had a really good car early in the night we got out and started running the bottom and I saw Roger running up top so we ran up there we had him reeled in then that red flag came out I thought lost but we got into lapped traffic and got next to him but he got around the 2Z car first and for me it was keeping second,“ said Kyle Miller, “Chadd is a great race he’s awesome to race with I’ve raced with him since I was twelve years old he race me hard and clean.”
“I just wished we would have made all the ISCS races but financially we couldn’t do it but hopefully next year we can make them I all I love this series and qualifying through a whole new feel to the deal, “commented Chadd Noland afterwards.
Fourth place went to eventual series champ Rob Held of Sutherlin who started fifth and went on to get close to both Kyle Miller and Chadd Noland while they dealt with lapped traffic but not close enough to pass either of them. Henry Van Dam of Enumclaw, WA finished up the top five, in his second career ISCS start, finishing in fifth place after starting in fourth. The remainder of the top ten drivers consisted of; Seth Nunes of Medford, Colton Heath of Marysville, WA, Brent Hoover of Eugene, Dale Smith of Cottage Grove, and J.J. Hickle of Quilcene, WA.
In the early stages of the evening fast time of the night went to Roger Crockett at 11.114 seconds amongst the twenty cars that participated in the night’s events. Three eight lap heat races were ran with the top six qualifiers able to get a position in the dash if they finished in the top five of their respected heat. Winners of the three races were Crockett, Henry Van Dam, and Chadd Noland. As mentioned previously Crockett won the dash which the starting order was done by a random exchange of envelopes containing numbers pertaining to the starting position for the five lap race and the finishing order determined where the six drivers would start in the main.
Interstate Sprint Car Series Notebook
Quick Time- Roger Crockett was the night’s quick clocker with a time of 11.114 seconds. Crockett would earn ten bonus championship points while Henry Van Dam (nine), Kyle Miller (eight), Seth Nunes (seven), Rob Held (six), Chadd Noland (five), Todd Zeitler (four), Dale Smith (three), J.J. Hickle (two), and Brent Hoover (one) would also earned their respected bonus championship points.
Lap Leaders- Season lap leader based off of main event performances are the following: 1. 11-Roger Crockett 128; 2. 22-Garen Linder 37; 3. 7N-Jayme Barnes 30; 4. 23-Seth Bergman 27; 5. 77-Kyle Larson 25; 6. 13-Chadd Noland 18
Winners- There has been nine races for the Interstate Sprint Car Series inaugural season. The winners include Roger Crockett-5 (Cottage Grove Speedway on June 4th, June 17th, July 2nd, and October 8th; Coos Bay Speedway June 18th), Seth Bergman-1 (Cottage Grove Speedway on July 3rd), Kyle Larson-1 (Siskiyou Motor Speedway on August 12th), Jayme Barnes-1 (Southern Oregon Speedway on August 13th), Chadd Noland-1 (Cottage Grove Speedway on August 14th)
Website- For the latest information on all things about the Interstate Sprint Car Series log on to http://www.iscssprints.com for more information.
Interstate Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Western States Finals; Cottage Grove Speedway; Cottage Grove, OR; October 8th, 2011
Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett, Medford 11.114; 2. 33V-Henry Van Dam, Enumclaw, WA 11.278; 3. 10-Kyle Miller, Eugene 11.309; 4. 5N-Seth Nunes, Medford 11.396; 5. 68-Rob Held, Sutherlin 11.398; 6. 13-Chadd Noland, Central Point 11.445; 7. 2Z-Todd Zeitler, Medford 11.637; 8. 41-Dale Smith, Cottage Grove 11.711; 9. 72-J.J. Hickle, Quilcene, WA 11.862; 10. 88-Brent Hoover, Eugene 11.986; 11. 24Z-Zack Spaulding, Springfield 12.003; 12. 4-Jesse Thistle, Creswell 12.101; 13. 45-Brent McGrath, Eagle Point 12.357; 14. 1-Raquel Ivie, Eugene 12.885; 15. 22R-Mike Romig, Vancouver, WA 12.925; 16. 11X-Kady Adelman, Salem 13.126; 17. 77-Mike Griffith, Fall Creek 13.133; DNQ 33L-Colton Heath, Marysville, WA; DNQ 33-Nate Morelock, Eugene; DNQ 17-T. Hall, Dallas
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett; 2. 45-Brent McGrath; 3. 88-Brent Hoover; 4. 5N-Seth Nunes; 5. 33L-Colton Heath; 6. 2Z-Todd Zeitler; 7. 11X-Kady Adelman
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 33V-Henry Van Dam; 2. 41-Dale Smith; 3. 1-Raquel Ivie; 4. 68-Rob Held; 5. 77-Mike Griffith; DNS 24Z-Zack Spaulding; DNS 17-T. Hall
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 13-Chadd Noland; 2. 10-Kyle Miller; 3. 4-Jesse Thistle; 4. 72-J.J. Hickle; 5. 22R-Mike Romig; DNS 33-Nate Morelock
Dash (5 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett; 2. 13-Chadd Noland; 3. 10-Kyle Miller; 4. 33V-Henry Van Dam; 5. 68-Rob Held; 6. 5N-Seth Nunes
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett [1]; 2. 10-Kyle Miller [3]; 3. 13-Chadd Noland [2]; 4. 68-Rob Held [5]; 5. 33V-Henry Van Dam [4]; 6. 5N-Seth Nunes [6]; 7. 33L-Colton Heath [14]; 8. 88-Brent Hoover [9]; 9. 41-Dale Smith [7]; 10. 72-J.J. Hickle [8]; 11. 45-Brent McGrath [11]; 12. 2Z-Todd Zeitler [15]; 13. 77-Mike Griffith [13]; 14. Raquel Ivie [12]; 15. 22R-Mike Romig [17]; 16. 4-Jesse Thistle [10]; 17. 11X-Kady Adelman [18]; 18. 17-T. Hall [19]; 19. 24Z-Zack Spaulding [16]; DNS 33-Nate Morelock
Lap Leaders: Roger Crockett (1-30)
Cautions: 0
Red Flags: 1
Hard Charger: Colton Heath +7
Final ISCS Points (Top Ten): 1. Rob Held 467; 2. Nate Morelock 432; 3. Garen Linder 418; 4. Roger Crockett 405; 5. Kyle Miller 347; 6. Seth Nunes 338; 7. Chadd Noland 325; 8. Brent Hoover 312; 9. Colin Baker 299; 10. Jayme Barnes 281
