ALGER, Wash. – In his first attempt at the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by the Skagit Casino Resort, California’s Dominic Scelzi put the Red Rose Transportation No. 41 in victory lane on Saturday night with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network.
“We won the Dirt Cup. This is crazy,” said Scelzi after his $15,000 victory. “There is just so much history behind this event. In 49 years, there’s been some of the best drivers in the nation, actually the best in the world that have won this race, and even better drivers who have never won it, so to come here on the first try and knock it off … I just can’t believe it.”
Pursued by Oklahoma’s Blake Hahn the opening 22 laps, traffic opened the door for the DriveWFX.com No. 52 to take the point from Scelzi with an inside pass off the second turn on lap 23. Working around slower cars with ease, Hahn was able to pull away with a comfortable lead.
Working lap 32, however, the win fell out of the cards for Hahn as the No. 52 found the flipping No. 21p of Robbie Price in the third turn. Price was done, but Hahn was able to continue after trips to the work area.
On the battle for the lead in traffic, Scelzi said, “I just lost three and four. I couldn’t get off as good as he [Hahn] could. I started just following it around, and that still wasn’t as good as he was, but he did a hell of a job. We got lucky, there is no question about that, but we still had to beat the other 40-something cars that were here.
“We’ve given a couple away to being unlucky, so to gain one back, especially this big, it still feels great.”
Hahn’s crash put the lead back in the hands of Scelzi, with the No. 41 maintaining a cushion of slower cars over the race for second with eight laps to go.
But rushing toward the white flag, a caution for J.J. Hickle would bring the field to a green-white-checkered finish. Restarting with Trey Starks on his back bumper, Scelzi’s No. 41 was able to keep the field at bay by 1.383 seconds in the end.
A battle for the runner-up spot through the final two laps saw Matt Covington take the spot, but he could not hold the position, as Trey Starks edged the No. 95 by .114 seconds. Ryan Robinson made up eighth positions to place fourth, with Seth Bergman moving from ninth to complete the top five.
Chase Majdic was sixth after starting 11th. Dylan Westbrook crossed seventh, followed by Garen Linder from 13th. Battling with Majdic on the closing lap, before contact between the two sent the No. 63 spinning to a stop, Hickle rebounded to ninth.
With slower cars working to his advantage in the closing stages, Hahn rebounded to close the top 10.
After preliminary nights topped by Hahn and Scelzi, the field’s combined event points from Thursday and Friday set the stage for Saturday, with a pair of BMRS B-Feature wins going to Colby Thornhill and Alex Hill. The night’s hard charger was Robinson, while Hahn picked up an extra $100 with eight positions lost as the Cook’s Contracting Dump Truck Award recipient.
The next event for the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network is the Grizzly Nationals on July 9-10 at Gallatin Speedway in Belgrade, Mont.
The finish:
A Feature (40 Laps): 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi [1]; 2. 55-Trey Starks [6]; 3. 95-Matt Covington [8]; 4. 56-Ryan Robinson [12]; 5. 23-Seth Bergman [9]; 6. 2X-Chase Majdic [11]; 7. 47X-Dylan Westbrook [7]; 8. 22L-Garen Linder [13]; 9. 63-J.J. Hickle [16]; 10. 52-Blake Hahn [2]; 11. 96-Greg Hamilton [19]; 12. 77X-Alex Hill [18]; 13. 19-Colby Thornhill [17]; 14. 91-Chase Goetz [21]; 15. 17-Cam Smith [20]; 16. 59-Eric Fisher [14]; 17. (DNF) 33-Colton Heath [5]; 18. (DNF) 16A-Justin Sanders [4]; 19. (DNF) 21P-Robbie Price [10]; 20. (DNF) 22X-Tyler Thompson [22]; 21. (DNF) 5T-Ryan Timms [15]; 22. (DNF) 18-Jason Solwold [3].
Lap Leader(s): Dominic Scelzi 1-22; Blake Hahn 23-32; Dominic Scelzi 33-40.
Hard Charger: Ryan Robinson [+8]