CLAY CUP NATIONALS: Holmwood takes A-Main

| ANDY BRONSON THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

the 600 class on Saturday, July 19 at Deming Speedway. For Holmwood, who grew up

around the race track, the Clay Cup title was a life-long dream come true. The $5,000 to the winner wasn’t bad either.

“I’m not going to believe it until next week,” Holmwood said after the race. “I used to sit up in the stands when I was a kid and play with my little cars and this was all I could dream about.”

Holmwood started in the fourth spot, but took the lead on the third lap and never gave it up. Several caution flags kept him out of lapped traffic until late in the race, but even

then Holmwood steadily moved through the field to hold off Jason Bloodgood and a host of others. Bloodgood finished second and Cody Anderlini was third. Last year’s champion, Aaron Fell, was fifth.

“I was shaking until lap 39,” Holmwood said.

While Holmwood might have been nervous behind the wheel, it was one smooth ride for Forler during the 600 main event. After finishing as the points leader at Clay Cup on both previous nights he ran wire-to-wire to take the title.

“The car was great,” Forler said. “It was just running like it was nailed to the bottom.”

Several caution flag restarts were about the only challenge Forler faced during the race, opening up nearly a half-lap lead at times over Jake Benson and the rest of the field. The most suspense of the race came on the 38th lap when a spin out forced the field to restart with three laps remaining.

Forler roared to the lead out of the restart and easily held off the field to win the 40-lap event and his first Clay Cup title. He pocketed $5,000 for the win. Benson was second and Colton Heath was third. Forler also finished 11th in the 1,200 class.

“I got out of the 600 and thought I was ready to race a little more,” Forler said. “Unfortunately we got into a little trouble there on the second lap and couldn’t really get back into it.”

In the 1,200 B-Main, a red flag slowed the pace briefly but did little to slow down Brad Davidson who took the checkered flag to move on to the main event. Davidson led from start to finish of the 25-lap event and was one of seven to move on to the A-Main.

Garrett Archer moved into the 600 Class A-Main with a win in the B-Main. Archer was one of six from that race to transfer into the main event. Joining him were Colton Heath, Lance Sargent, Spud Allen, Jerrod Saddler and Mike Severson.

In the C-Main of the 600 class, Jeff Westergard led wireto- wire to win the event and advance to the B-Main. Finishing second in the 15-lap race was Tate Pazaski and D.J. Kosa was third. The top three transferred to the B-Main.

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