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NST puts on quite a show for racing fans By DON HUNT WHITE CITY - More than 3,000 stock car racing fans squeezed into the Southern Oregon Speedway Saturday night to watch the blazing speeds and bumper-to-bumper action of the Northern Sprint Tour. They didn't go home disappointed. In one of the most action-packed races in the six-year history of the track, Roger Crockett of Rio Linda, Calif., passed Cottage Grove's Dale Smith with less than 100 yards to go to win the 30-lap main event. But not without controversy. As the two leaders sped down the backstretch on the final lap and headed into turn No. 3, Crockett attempted to pass Smith on the inside. A collision ensued coming out of turn No. 4, and Smith's car spun to a halt. Crockett's car was also damaged, but he wobbled to the checkered flag in first place. Jason Solwold of Burlington, Wash., finished third, Rick Fauver of Everett, Wash., claimed fourth and NST points leader Shawna Wilskey of Lake Stevens, Wash., was fifth. Crockett bagged $1,750 for his first NST victory. "I got underneath him (Smith) but he didn't want to give me a lot of space," Crockett said. "We were banging wheels. He knew I was there." A visibly upset Smith got out of his car, walked along the front straightaway and saluted the crowd, much of which cheered him and booed Crockett. But for the 20-year-old Crockett, the win felt extra special. Not only was it his first victory on the NST circuit - he's been second twice this season - it also ended a string of recent bad luck. On Memorial Day weekend at a race in Chico, Calif., he broke two ribs when his car broke an axle. That same weekend, his favorite aunt died. And then last Thursday a man named Ross Pellanen, who provided him with a motor for his first sprint car, died of a heart attack at age 44. "He was part of our pit crew the first four or five years I raced," Crockett said. "He had a heart condition but he was feeling better lately and had started to come back to the races. It was a shock." Crockett also wasn't getting a lot of breaks on the track lately, but fate was on his side Saturday night. Although Smith passed him on the first lap, Crockett stayed close behind as the two drivers pulled away from the rest of the field before a couple of yellow flags brought the pack together again. Smith, who won the NST race at Lebanon on Friday, drove brilliantly in lapped traffic to keep Crockett at bay and seemed destined for his second win in as many nights. But then came the final lap. Crockett has been splitting time racing his own car in California and a car owned by Kenny Nelson of Eugene in the NST series. Nelson noticed how strong Crockett ran during the NST's Speedweek last summer and kept seeing his name appear in Racing Wheels magazine. "I called him on the phone over the winter and we put a deal together," Nelson said. "He's a hell of a driver and a good kid. "He's got bigger fish to fry down the road, I believe, but right now we're going to ride his talents." Crockett began racing go-karts when he was 4 years old and was in a sprint car by the time he was 13. His father, Brian Crockett, won 10 track championships in Placerville, Calif. "Dad gave me the opportunity to race but he never pushed me into it," said Roger Crockett, who won his 28th sprint car main event Saturday. "I got the bug early and I've had it ever since." Smith, meanwhile, isn't racing on a full-time basis on the NST due to work obligations and the fact he's building a new house in Cottage Grove. Prior to Saturday's last-lap calamity, he had two wins and a second in three trips to the NST starting line. In Saturday's other division of racing, Patrick Lanigan won his sixth main event of the summer. Lanigan had sat out the previous two weeks due to a suspension. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.