ALGER, Wash. — Two championships were decided on the first of two championship nights of racing at Skagit Speedway.
On Thursday night, it was Kelsey Carpenter and Jared Peterson winning the season titles in the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints and NW Focus Midgets, respectively.
Jesse Schlotfeldt won the Sportsman Sprint feature, while Peterson capped his championship season with a victory.
The 25-lap main for the Sportsman Sprints featured carnage and drama, as multiple stoppages gave the leaders multiple chances to bunch up and race for the top spot. Schlotfeldt would lead every lap of the main with Chase Goetz hot on his heels in lapped traffic.
Goetz would hold off Sean Johnson for second, keeping Johnson from the one additional finishing position he needed to tie Kelsey Carpenter in points. Carpenter would finish sixth after a torrid battle with Ashleigh Johnson for fifth, giving him his fifth title in the Sportsman Sprints and seventh total at the track.
Car owner Bill Rude won his third title with Kelsey and fourth overall.
Jared Peterson was the feature winner and season champion for the NW Focus Midgets. Nick Evans led from the drop of the green, with Evan Margeson and Nik Larson putting big pressure on him. Peterson started seventh and weaved his way forward until moving into the runner up spot around lap 13.
Finding the high side of the speedway working well, Jared ran the cushion the whole way around to take the top spot from Nick on lap 17 as he stormed to the win, his fourth at skagit and seventh on the season with the series.
The owner’s championship came to former Sportsman Sprint co-champ from 1993 Mark Steen and his wife Jolene, who field the Inlaws Racing No. 32 for Peterson. Evans would finish second in the main and in the season points as well, with Evan Margeson third in the feature.
While Cory Sweatman led the final 10 laps of the Outlaw Tuner main event, the official win went to Rick Young as Sweatman was judged to not meet tech specs for the class. It was Young’s first victory of 2020.