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Kofoid, Williamson, Towns, And Maricle Pick Up Wins At CGS Opener

Kofoid, Williamson, Towns, And Maricle Pick Up Wins At CGS Opener
By Ben Deatherage
(Photo Courtesy of Dirt Monkey Productions)
The 2015 season officially got underway at the Cottage Grove Speedway on Saturday April 4th. In front of full crowd the historic 1/4-mile clay oval would produce some fantastic action as the night would host 360 Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Late Models, and the Quality RV Repair Hornets. In addition to racing a special Easter Egg activity took place where drivers handed out eggs to kids in the crowd which was sponsored by the wonderful people Highoctane Die Cast.

Penngrove, California's Michael Kofoid would seize the lead on the initial start of the 360 Sprint main event. A couple of early race cautions would keep the field bunched up but each and every time Kofoid maintained the lead on the restarts.

On lap eleven Vern Wheeler of Central Point would get around Kofoid for the lead only for Kofoid to reclaim it back on lap twelve. As the race went longer and longer under green flag conditions Kofoid managed to keep all challengers in check, despite a last lap move by Garen Linder, and put his DES Inc./Red Line Oil/Dr. Ramos Dentistry/Tony Borrello Race Engines #11 Maxim in the Huddle Automotive Repair victory lane in his first ever CGS visit.

Garen Linder from Central Point was a very respectable second place, after coming from the back in his Linder Powdercoating/Visual EFX/Rodgers Racing Engines #22 KPC, while Vern Wheeler finished in third in the Alliance Trucking/In & Out Gardens/Richie Rich & Tin Pimps Customs/Rodgers Racing Engines #21W Maxim. The rest of the top five would be made up of the Napa Auto Parts/Lucas Oil Products/Awesome Raceware/Rodgers Racing Engines #5N KPC of Seth Nunes of Medford in fourth and Springfield's Allison Journey in fifth in her Journey Built Homes/Stone Works International/Rodgers Racing Engines/Power Punch Lubricants #4J KPC.

Garen Linder earned the Jim's Tire Factory Fast Time award while Vern Wheeler was the victor in the Dot's Trophy Shop Trophy Dash. Heat race winners were Garen Linder and the Jesse Thistle owned Steelhouse Metal Roofing Supply/Cobalt Computer Services/RCV Custom Coach Service/All Around Printing #4 XXX driven by Cottage Grove native Colin Baker.

In IMCA Modified action some extra money was up for grabs courtesy of the fine folks at Crocker's Cars. Twenty-four IMCA Modifieds were on tap to try and take home the big money. And the main event would see some breathtaking action.

After two cautions on the initial start Cottage Grove chauffeur Curtis Towns seized the lead on lap one. Towns would set a wicked pace in his X-Factor Race Cars/West End Performance/Superior Fuel Cells #24 X-Factor but would be overtaken on lap eight. The driver that would take over the position would be Coburg's Jesse Williamson.

Williamson wasted no time extending the lead and driving his car as hard as he could the fastest way around the race track. He would have no trouble keeping the lead in lapped traffic as well as the rest of the distance and Jesse Williamson would park his Furniture Options/Double R Powdercoating/JDM Racing Solutions #W5 NexGen in the Huddle Automotive Repair victory lane.

Jesse Williamson earned the Jim's Tire Factory Fast Time award while Mark Wauge was the victor in the Dot's Trophy Shop Trophy Dash. Heat race winners were the Bailey Trucking/C-Bar-C Truck Sales/Hanson & Hanson Trucking #68 Jet of Jesse Bailey from Central Point, Jesse Williamson, and Curtis Towns. Springfield's Jake Mayden managed to pick up the victory in the consolation feature in his Embers Bar & Grill/Springfield Tire Factory/T.L. Morgan Motors #5M Dirt Works.

The Late Model main event would see a fair share of cautions. In the first half of the race Rob Mayea of Bend would be the dominant machine out of the field as he put his J&S Farms/Cornett Racing Engines #2J Rocket out front. But shortly after a restart Mayea but another car would make some contact with Mayea resulting in Mayea spinning in turn four on lap ten.

That would give LaPine's Trent Elliott, driving The Door Coffee Shop/AAA Home Inspection/Clements Racing Engines by Nutter Performance #4E Victory Circle, the top spot but Elliott would get sideways in turn four too. Curtis Towns, driving the Superior Fuel Cells/All Pro Steel #42 X-Factor for car owner Paul Culp, would get the lead and keep his car out in front of the competition to win his first career Late Model feature and celebrate a huge win in the Huddle Automotive Repair victory lane.

Veneta driver Kevin Ropchan managed to finish in second followed by Rob Campos of Scio, in his Drager Performance/Doerfler Farms/ATV Parts Central #9 GRT. In third. Rob Mayea managed to come from the back of the field to finish in fourth while the final car in the top five was Bend's Darren Coffell in the Driving Force Graphics/Tube Shark Portable Tube Benders/Jimsflagsales.com/Clements Racing Engines #46 Rocket.

The Discount Race Car Parts/Elite Chiropractic/Frisbie Motorsports/FinishLine Graphics #SW MasterSbilt of Corbett driver Collen Winebarger earned the Jim's Tire Factory Fast Time award while Rob Mayea was the victor in the Dot's Trophy Shop Trophy Dash. Heat race winners were Trent Elliott and Curtis Towns.

Last but not least twenty-one Quality RV Repair Hornets invaded the Cottage Grove Speedway for their first race of the year. The class would produce some wonderful action all night long, especially come feature time.

Joe Maricle of Veneta took care of business starting on the front row of the main event. The driver of the Royal Refuse #11 entry would master lapped traffic and kept all challengers in check to win the first main event for 2015 in the Quality RV Repair Hornet division.

The see-saw battle for second would result in Dexter's Taunton Swaim, piloting the Randy Kuhl owner More of Everything Racing Collectibles/Bigg Dogg Recycling/DT Machine/Quality RV Repair #17 Toyota Tacoma, finishing second while Chris Pierce of Cottage Grove was third in the Jayson Nelson owned Quality RV Repair/AP Media/Froggy's Towing #28 Acura Integra. The balance of the top five would consist of James Donaldson from Dexter in his Chase Gardens Cafe & Bistro/Northgate Liquor Store/AP Media #0 Pontiac Sunfire in fourth followed by the AP Media/Trackside Auto Repair #14 Volvo of Kasey Johnson.

Chris Pierce earned the Jim's Tire Factory Fast Time award and was the victor in the Dot's Trophy Shop Trophy Dash. Heat race winners were Taunton Swaim, James Donaldson, and the Rapid Delivery/Bigg Dogg Recycling #48 of Dexter's Mike Swaim.

Cottage Grove Speedway has their first Kage Kart race scheduled for Friday April 10th. The next race for the 1/4-mile clay oval will be on Saturday the 11th and is a Retro T-Shirt Night. If you come to the races wearing a modern, or vintage CGS/Riverside Speedway, t-shirt or sweatshirt or a Marvin Smith Memorial/Mark Howard Memorial (from 2014) apparel you will receive a discount at the admission booth.

Classes on the card include the Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks, and Pro-4's. For more information be sure and log on to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com. Also check out the Cottage Grove Speedway Facebook page by clicking “Like”.

Race Summary:
Saturday April 4th, 2015
Season Opener
Cottage Grove Speedway
Cottage Grove, Oregon

360 Sprints
A Feature: 1. 11-Michael (Buddy) Kofoid; 2. 22-Garen Linder; 3. 21W-Vern Wheeler Jr; 4. 5N-Seth Nunes; 5. 4J-Allison Journey; 6. 5D-Patrick Dills; 7. 28-Mark Herz; 8. 23-Rob Lindsey; 9. 70-Raquel Ivie; 10. 6A-Kady Adelman; 11. 4-Colin Baker; DNS 3-David Hibbard

Late Models
A Feature: 1. 42-Curtis Towns; 2. 03-Kevin Ropchan; 3. 9-Rob Campos; 4. 2J-Rob Mayea; 5. 46-Darren Coffell; 6. 44T-Brian Thompson; 7. 4E-Trent Elliott; 8. 16-Rob Williams; 9. 88-Mike Peters; 10. 20-Josh Sim; 11. 22-Mike Linder; 12. 13B-Randy Barley; 13. 22C-Chris Linder; 14. 78-Ed Peters; 15. SW-Collen Winebarger

IMCA Modifieds
A Feature: 1. W5-Jesse Williamson; 2. 5-Braedon Hand; 3. 1M-Mark Wauge; 4. 24-Curtis Towns; 5. SW-Collen Winebarger; 6. 13-Bricen James; 7. 33C-Craig Hanson; 8. 11-Steven Sturdevant; 9. 1K-Kinzer Cox; 10. 21C-Curt Coggins; 11. 89¢-Albert Gill; 12. 26-Brett James; 13. 7-Dustin Cady; 14. 99-Brad Martin; 15. 25-Craig Cassell; 16. 40-Jeff Lovell; 17. 16-Austin McTaggart; 18. 5M-Jake Mayden; 19. 68-Jesse Bailey; DNS 0-Duane Orsburn

B Feature: 1. 5M-Jake Mayden; 2. 89¢-Albert Gill; 3. 7-Dustin Cady; 4. 0-Duane Orsburn; 5. 99-Brad Martin; 6. 0P-Briley Pompe; 7. 44-Greg McDonald; 8. 18R-Ryan Baker; 9. 57-Ethan Landers; DNS 36-John Campos

Quality RV Repair Hornets
A Feature: 1. 11-Joe Maricle; 2. 17-Taunton Swaim; 3. 28-Chris Pierce; 4. 0-James Donaldson; 5. 14-Kasey Johnson; 6. 71-Daniel Ray; 7. 41-Mike Simmons; 8. 22A-Justin Austin; 9. 23-Brandon Letzen; 10. 51N-Jason Nelson; 11. 23F-Marcel Forte; 12. 7C-Josh Corley; 13. 7-Andrew Mathers; 14. 44-Brandon Fox; 15. 77-Jared Simmons; 16. 29-Scott Britton; 17. 5-Kayla Simmons; 18. 48-Mike Swaim; 19. 18-Josh Linville; 20. 30-K.C. Scott; 21. 16-James Simmons; 22. 63B-Bart Pulse

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