Vintage Modifieds kick off new season at South Sound.

South Sound Speedway hosted the 2009 season opener for the Vintage Modifieds April 18th. A good field of cars was on hand on a sunny Saturday evening.

Kevin Rinkel, returning after taking a year off, was fast, fast, fast, turning a time of 14:91, bettering the next fastest car of Jim Jones by 4 tenths of a second.

Bob Fulmer started on the pole for the trophy dash, Bobby Wheeler Jr. was to his right. Wheeler will be running a full season this year after taking some time off to run with the late model tour. Defending champion Jones and former champion Rinkel made up the second row. Jones prevailed from the back row, holding off Rinkel, and was awarded the first trophy of the 2009 season.

B heat action saw last year’s rookie of the year, Josh Petersen, on the pole in his freshly painted car. Ike Hoskinson sat on the outside. On the first try for a start Petersen was slow to the throttle and was nearly spun out by Jeff Peterson. The field stacked up behind them and the green flag was replaced with a yellow. The next start was a success and Ike Hoskinson quickly took the lead followed by Eric McClain, another former champion returning this year. Charlie West Jr. followed those two to the front with Mike Clother close behind. Hoskinson slid up in the turn allowing McClain and a long line of followers to pass on the low side. McClain took the win with West on his tail. Peterson and Clother followed them. Hoskinson ended up 6^th.

The A heat was lead off by Robert Rux flanked by another former champion Dave Trapp. Tom Smitham and John Mustered followed them. Trapp took the lead for good on the second lap. Meanwhile the action was happening further back in the pack. During the 6^th lap Jones got squirrelly off turn 4 and was run over by Fulmer sending the rear of Fulmer’s car 4 feet into the air and damaging the right side. Caution flew but all cars were able to restart. On the 7^th lap as Rinkel and Jones were dueling to get past Fulmer and Mustered contact sent the cars careening, bending the front of Jones’ car and the left side of Fulmer’s. Jones went to the pits with bent suspension parts. After another restart Rinkel pitted saying there was power steering fluid coming from one of the other cars. Trapp seemed not to care and led them all to the checkered flag. He was quoted afterward as saying, “It is good to be in the lead”.

The 35-lap main put veteran driver Chuck Peterson on the pole with McClain to his right. Clother and West were behind them followed by Rux and Trapp. The Vintage Modifieds use a full field invert so the fast cars of Jones and Rinkel started in the rear of the 16-car pack. Clother gave a bump to Peterson in the first turn and passed him and McClain on the back straightaway then led the first 12 laps. Rinkel and Jones caught Clother and passed him like he had an anchor leaving him and Tom Smitham to argue over third place. On lap-16 Clother pinched Smitham down in turn one causing Tom to spin to avoid contact. As Smitham slid up the track he was tagged in the side. That sent him to the pits for the rest of the night. At the same time Jones was making contact with Rinkel sending him spinning off turn two. The ensuing caution gave Clother the lead again. After the restart Mustered began challenging Clother for the low groove. Eventually Mustered gave up that ploy and passed Clother easily on the high side to take over the lead. Clother gave chase and had his car covered with Castrol oil as Mustered’s engine expired. Rinkel got into that oil and made heavy contact with the wall bringing out a red flag. Once again Clother inherited the lead, his windshield soaked with oil. With Rinkel crashed out, Jones in the pits, Rux having pitted twice, and Mustered blown up the competition was getting thin. Visibility was poor for Clother but he managed to lead the remaining laps just ahead of Wheeler and West with Fulmer and Trapp rounding of the top 5. After this event ended the old saying “I’d rather be lucky than good” came to mind.

The next race for the Vintage Modifieds is again at South Sound Speedway on May 9^th. In honor of Mother’s day all moms will be receive discounted grandstand access on that night. Check for details on the speedway link at nwvintagemodifed.com . See you at the races.