Back in the days of old, the mini stock class had a trophy dash for the 4 fast qualifiers or the top finisher in each of the heat races. Points were actually awarded for these dashes and this made for some very spirited 4 lap shootouts. If you had a perfect night, you scored 62 points. 8 for a heat race win, 4 for the dash win and 50 for the main win.
Well, those days have come and gone and the most you can now score in a night is 58. However, occasionally something cool goes down to award the class a dash and allows us all to go for that mythical perfect night, the Hat Trick if you will, and Saturday was just such a night.
One of our Sponsors, Harrissteam.com, put up 200 dollars for a Mini Stock "dash for the cash." Now, as many of you know, when cold hard dollars are on the line, we show up with guns blazing!
The car was ok in practice, we made a few minor stagger and camber adjustments each session and by the time heat races rolled around, we were pretty confident we had a decent set up. LaCrash started on the inside of row 3 of the 7 car heat race and by the end of the backstretch on the green flag lap, he was making his move to take the lead, completing the pass in turn 4. he then ran out to a 6-8 car length lead and finished with the win, Kris Harriss 2nd and Mike Fritz in 3rd in what turned out to be the battle to watch in that heat race with Kris crossing the line about a bumper width ahead of Mike.
Heat race Video courtesy of Mike Fritz - http://evergreenministock.multiply.com/video/item/18
In the Dash, it was lined up with the 2nd place cars from each heat on the front row and the winners of each heat on the back row. This put Kris Harriss on the pole, Kim Lang outside, Us inside of the back row and Nat Barber on the outside. Every one of those cars more than capable of walking off with the prize. Upon taking the green, LaCrash knew he had to make a move and make it fast, so he dove under Kris in turn one and was able to complete the pass for the lead coming out of turn 2, the battle was fast and furious for those 4 laps with LaCrash the winner, Kris 2nd, Nat 3rd and Kim 4th. It felt awesome not only winning the cash, but more inportantly, the Trophy, becuase as you know... its all about the hardware!
Sorry, no video of the dash was available at press time!
The Main rolled around and we started 7th, the inside of row 4, we were surrounded by the top 5 in points, with Nat and Kris behind us due to the invert (at our speedway, the top three finishers are required to start at the back of the main. they do put rookies, drivers with no point average and anyone that just wants to start towards the back behind them however) and Mike and Fozzie were directly in front of us. Quite a gauntlet of really fast cars to be around. At the drop of the green, it was on baby... The inside row moved up and by turn 3, LaCrash found himself in 4th place behind the cars of Jeff Miller(30), Kim(33) & Fozzie(64) with Nat(97) and Kris(12) hot on his heels. This went on until the exit of turn 4 on lap 3 when LaCrash decided it was time to go... he stuck Tonya in the dirt coming out and made it 3 wide down the front stretch and into turn 1, the leader washed up just a little and Scott was on rails as he passed all three cars in turn 1! It was a thing of beauty to be sure.
Nat eventually made it around Fozzy a lap or two later and I thought for sure there was going to be a battle for the lead, but we were on a mission and would not be denied... As Scott stretched it out to over a full straightaway the battle for 2nd thru 4th go interesting with Mike(2) passing Fozzy for 3rd on the last lap and giving Nat a serious run for 2nd!
Main event Video courtesy of Mike Fritz - http://evergreenministock.multiply.com/video/item/19
When it was all said and done, we walked away with 2 trophies, 335 bucks in winnings and another feature winner sticker for Mindy to put on the car. It was a "62" and those kind of nights dont happen every time you hit the track, so we are still pretty jacked about it here at Team LaCross central. But as excited as we are about last week's results, there is another goal looming... we are now in 2nd place in the points, 10 points out of 1st with 5 races to go. Kris is in the top spot and Nat is just behind us in 3rd... 11 points seperating the top 3, with Fozzy and Mike only 25 points behind that. I have a feeling its going to come down to the final race on Championship night.
Can we win championship #4??? You'll have to stay tuned to find out. Come on out to our next Evergreen race on August 15th and cheer us on, or hey, if you feel like a little drive, why not come down to South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wa. this weekend, where Team LaCross will be invading the ranks of the Outlaw compact series to run in the 100 lap, 1500.00 to win, Outlaw invitational.
You can find directions and pricing info at www.southsoundspeedway.com you'll know you're there when you see the #99 orange and white Harrissteam.com, Flowmaster Gutter, All City Haul-N, Speedway Carstar Honda Prelude on the front page!
See you at the races!!!
