Southern Oregon Speedway Racing Discussion
Can Be Heard HERE
Champions Honored At 24th Annual
Southern Oregon Speedway Awards Banquet
Southern Oregon Speedway Awards Banquet
Medford,
Oregon...This past weekend, Southern Oregon Speedway celebrated the
accomplishments of their 24th championship season by honoring the top
drivers. Promoter Mike McCann gave a brief state of the race track
address to highlight the accomplishments of the season and give a
glimpse of some of the plans for the coming season.
McCann,
who has promoted the speedway for the past four years, announced the
addition of Bob Valencia to the speedway staff. Valencia has served as
Director of Competition and flagman at various times throughout his
extensive career, most recently for the popular IMCA Modified Wild West
Speedweek Series. He will be taking on Director of Competition and
flagman duties at Southern Oregon Speedway this year.
McCann
gave those present a glimpse of the coming schedule by saying that most
of the big events featured at the speedway last season will continue
this year. This will include the Roger Haudenshild Tribute, R Charles
Snyder Salute, Cascade Wingless Sprint Car Challenge, Ironhead Nationals
and Cottonwood Classic. He added that the IMCA Sport Modified division
will have another special big race. It will be the $2,000 to win Timber
Cup, slated for June. McCann mentioned that the new schedule will be
released within the next two weeks.
Speedway
announcer Cory Penfold served as Master of Ceremonies. The Top 10
drivers in the six divisions being honored at the banquet received
trophies. Champions included Trent Elliott (Late Models), Mike Wheeler
(Kendall Oil Winged Sprint Cars), Zach Fettinger (IMCA Modifieds),
Jorddon Braaten (IMCA Sport Modifieds), David Steele (Bobbio's Pizza
Mini Stocks) and Greg Arnold (Valley Store All Late Model Lites).
Rookie
of the Year winners included Johnny Burke (Kendall Oil Winged Sprint
Cars), Mark Wauge (Late Models), Jimmy Lipke (IMCA Modifieds), Austin
Petray (IMCA Sport Modifieds), Dylan Irving (Bobbio's Pizza Mini Stocks)
and Jim Cunningham (Valley Store All Late Model Lites).
There
were a few interesting news items mentioned during the night. Late
Model champion Elliott indicated that he will continue to compete this
season, though he has plans to leave the state for a big race during the
season. Wauge has acquired a former Joey Tanner Willamette Speedway
championship car as he hopes to make a more serious run at the Late
Model championship. Word.is that there will be several new Late Model
drivers this season.
The IMCA
Sport Modifieds, which were the biggest regular car count at the
speedway last season, will be seeing a few new drivers in the field as
well. Braaten is one of the five champions honored this past weekend who
intends to continue competing in their respective divisions next
season. Late Model Lites champion Arnold is the one exception as he will
be running full time in the Late Models this year.
Steele
will be back to defend his Mini Stock championship. In this past two
seasons, he has finished no worse than second in Main Event competition,
but he'll be facing stiff competition this coming season. Most of his
top challengers from last season will be back, and championship
runner-up Ashtin Hedges will be joined by father Tim Hedges, who has
acquired the former Gary Anderson championship car. Tim has two other
cars as his team will be adding to the Mini Stock car count.
Penfold
did a great job as MC of the event, and it wrapped up with new Director
of Competition Valencia receiving a warm welcome from the packed room.
He gave a brief statement regarding his plans for how the weekly program
will be run this coming season.
The
coming race schedule, rules updates and other news can be found at the
Southern Oregon Speedway Facebook page or by checking out www.southernoregonspeedway.com.