The American Sprint Car Series took center stage at the Fred Brownfield Classic at Grays Harbor Raceway during a busy race weekend in Elma.
Hafertepe Jr. untouchable in Fred Brownfield Classic finale
No brakes, broken right-front shock, starting to rain and missing his hat for a moment before victory lane; none of it mattered.
No one could keep pace with Sam Hafertepe Jr. as the Heidbreder Foundation No. 15 car stormed to victory in the Lucas Oil ASCS Fred Brownfield Classic at Grays Harbor Raceway.
With the rain starting to come down, Hafertepe reflected on his fourth National Tour win of the season.
“To get the win tonight is awesome,” he said. “I really felt like we deserved to have the chance last night, and we definitely got the job done tonight.”
Having to wrestle the car on the closing lap with the front axle bouncing through traffic, it allowed Jason Solwold to close the gap from a straightaway, but it didn’t prove enough as Hafertepe found the checkered flag with a 1.080-second advantage.
“We had the same thing happen a couple races ago,” he said. “It’s actually happened a couple times this year with the shock coming off and brake lines coming off, I honestly thought about pulling in there on Lap 18. Just didn’t have any brakes so if someone had crashed in front of me, we could have run right through them. Fortunately, it didn’t happen, and we were fortunate to be able to start out front with clean air and limp it home. We had a really good car, just couldn’t flex our muscle at the end like we wanted to with the problems we had.”
Green for two revolutions, the race’s first caution flew on Lap 2 as Logan Forler and Greg Hamilton came to a stop along the front stretch. Both able to return, Hamilton’s night came to a quick end as he flipped off the second turn.
Pulling away on the restart, Hafertepe found the back of the pack in a matter of laps. Putting several lapped cars in the mix, the caution flew again while working Lap 11 for Kyle Miller.
Under green, Hafertepe again pulled to a comfortable advantage. Losing several car lengths in traffic on Lap 16, Jason Solwold would filter the slower traffic to edge up to Hafertepe as the caution lights came on again on Lap 18.
Diving the low line on the restart, Solwold was unable to get a run.
Green until Lap 23, the restart put Solwold and Joey Saldana in tow with Hafertepe. Keeping pace on the restart, Hafertepe Jr. began to pull away after a few laps as Saldana battled to hold third from Austen Wheatley.
Working into traffic at the white flag flying, Hafertepe was not to be denied. Solwold held on to second with Wheatley, Saldana and Colton Heath rounding out the top five.
— Bryan Hulbert, ASCSRacing.com
Margeson sweeps Fred Brownfield Classic weekend
The Northwest Focus Midgets Series were back in action as the support division for the Lucas Oil ASCS National Sprint Car Series on night two of the 2018 Fred Brownfield Classic.
Tacoma’s Evan Margeson was the driver to beat, after picking up the Northwest Focus Midget Series feature event on Friday night.
Ross Rankine of Noblesville, Indiana took the early lead with Margeson quickly moving into the second spot. Margeson took the lead on lap 2 going into turn one.
The battle for third was between Marsyville’s Nick Evans and Tacoma’s Jonathan Jorgenson as they quickly caught up to Rankine. Graham’s Nik Larson also joined in on the battle.
Margeson continued to pull away from the field, already working his way through lap traffic as the battle to watch was for second between Evans and Jorgenson.
A lap 12 caution for Brendan White of Port Orchard spinning to a stop set up a restart allowing Evans and Jorgenson a shot at Margeson for the lead.
Jorgenson saw problems on the restart going down the backstretch and pulled to the infield, ending his night.
At the end of the 25-lap feature, Margeson picked up the weekend sweep over Evans, Larson, Burlington’s Matt Loving and Smith.
Evan Margeson swept the midget series races on Friday and Saturday at the Fred Brownfield Classic at Grays Harbor Raceway. (Photo by AR Racing Videos)
