Grays Harbor Raceway had two nights of racing this past Saturday and Sunday with the Hall of Fame Tribute and the 360 Battle Royale. The Wingless Sprint Series was set to go, plus the 360 sprint cars and the PHRA dwarf cars were also ready. For the 360 sprints, this kicked off the Western Sprint Tour's Speedweek North.Saturday's PHRA main event went 25 laps, with Tylor Howard and Henry Corbin, III sharing the front row. Howard paced the field until lap ten, as George Fischer spun in turn two to draw a yellow flag. During the yellow, Howard spun in turns one and two and that gave the lead to Rob Glenney. Glenney's time as the leader didn't last for long, as Corbin, III got by him on the backstretch on the restart. Howard found himself up to third by lap number twelve, as he used the high side to get around Greg Long on the back straightaway. On lap 17, Howard went to the outside of Glenney to take second place away in turn three. Howard's high side strategy worked again with four to go, as he took the lead from Corbin, III at the finish line. Howard and Corbin, III were fighting it out for the win, but they encountered the slower cars of Fischer and Chris Hutson on the last lap. The four cars were in a tight squeeze coming for the checkers, but Howard won over Corbin, III by two car lengths. Third went to Glenney, followed by Long and Crystal Flath.The second main event featured the Wingless Sprint Series, and their main event went 30 laps. Garrett Thomas was on the pole with Chad Lindsey to his outside. Thomas ran the low road, while C. Lindsey took the high road in the early stages. The high side finally won out on lap eight, as C. Lindsey took the top spot out of turn four. The lone yellow flag flew on the eleventh lap, as Scott Fox spun in turn four. C. Lindsey, Thomas, and Rob Lindsey held down the top three spots with Ricky Ashley making his presence known later on in the race. With four laps remaining, Ashley took third from R. Lindsey in turn four. Back up front, Thomas was reeling in C. Lindsey. Thomas attempted a turn four slide job on the final lap and he succeeded! Thomas stole one from C. Lindsey with Ashley, R. Lindsey, and Ronnie Cox completing the top five.The 360's finished the evening with their 30-lap A-Main. It was Alberta's Kelly Miller on the pole, with Oregon's Kinzer Cox alongside. The original start was tossed out, as Trever Kirkland twirled into a flip in turn three after contact with Seth Bergman. Kirkland was okay, but unable to continue. Miller had the advantage for take two as he led Chase Goetz, K. Cox, Evan Margeson, and Colton Heath in the early laps. The race went yellow on lap eight, as Kyle Alberding stopped down low on the backchute with a broken birdcage. Goetz pulled off a successful slider on Miller in turn two on the restart, and he was gone. On the charge just after the halfway point was Kalib Henry, who started 11th. He passed Heath for fourth in turn four on the 16th lap, and he went by Cox for third in turn two on the following lap. Henry wasn't done, as he dove down low on Miller in turn one to take second on lap 19. It was all Goetz out front, as he went on to get the win and a $3,000 payday. Henry, Heath, and Bergman were second through fourth to get locked into Sunday's $5,000-to-win A-Main along with Goetz. K. Cox was fifth, holding off some serious challenges from Dominic Gorden.The 360's kicked off the main events on Sunday. Their A-Main was cut from 40 to 30 laps due to track conditions. Henry had the pole for this one, but outside pole sitter Bergman led all 30 laps and simply checked out in a nonstop race. Trey Starks started eighth, but he was already up to fourth by lap four as he passed Gorden in turn four. On lap number twelve, Starks edged Heath out for third at the stripe. Starks tried to pass Henry for second as the race wound down, but couldn't get by. Bergman went on to pick up the five grand by winning over Henry, Starks, Gorden, and Ashton Torgerson.Thomas led from the pole in the 30-lap feature event for the WSS, and he showed the way for the first nine laps. Jeff Pearson slowed the race down with seven laps in, as he looped his car in turn one. Ashley took the lead from Thomas on the tenth circuit as they went down the backchute and he didn't look back. The yellow flag came out two more times, as Gene Cannon faced backwards in turn four on lap 14 and Pearson spun again in turn two five laps later. Ashley wouldn't be denied as he saw the checkered flag first ahead of Thomas, JoJo Batalgia, R. Lindsey, and C. Lindsey.Corbin, III and Howard led the field for the PHRA main event, which went 25 laps. Corbin, III led the first five laps before Howard took over in turn one on the sixth lap. Three laps later, Anthony Pope passed Corbin, III for second place in turns one and two. The only time the yellow lights came on happened on lap twelve, as Hutson and Doug Pirtle spun together between turns three and four. With Howard still out front, Pope had Mike Chadwick all over his rear view mirror. Chadwick went by for second in turn two with 17 laps in, but Howard was well on his way for another win. Tylor won it over Chadwick, Pope, Corbin, III, and Corey Esteban.As with any of my columns, I compiled some odds and ends before I call everything good. Here they are!Pick-Me-Ups: Two of the three divisions saw higher car counts for Sunday's action. The 360's climbed from 26 to 33 entrants, while the dwarf cars jumped from eleven to 14 people. With those increases for those classes, they had to run more heat races. The wingless sprint car count went down slightly on Sunday, dropping from 15 to 14 racers.Higher or Lower?: The 360's and the WSS had a bigger group of people than last year's Hall of Fame Tribute/Battle Royale. There were 35 people in the 360's over the two nights, which was a sizeable boost from 24 in 2022. There were 15 entries in the wingless sprints, and that's up from twelve last year. The PHRA count took a hit in this year's race, as 16 drivers participated in it. That's down from last year's total of 23 racers.Quadruple Double Aughts: In terms of what's the most popular number, you'll have to start way down low at #00. The PHRA had two people sporting that number: Jim Pavel (#00) and Pirtle (#00X). The SPPRacing Team brought along two cars for R. Cox (#00B) and Pearson (#00G) to race in the wingless sprint program. The 360's had three #2 machines (Miller, Logan Forler, and Justin Sanders). There were also three #23 cars in attendance (Howard, R. Lindsey, and Bergman).Going the Distance: This year's field for the Hall of Fame Tribute and Battle Royale came from all over the place, as drivers from eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces came over. R. Cox had the longest trip by coming from Knoxville, Iowa (he's a native of Bothell). I'm looking forward on who's going to be at the Bob's Burgers and Brew Summer Nationals at Skagit Speedway this Friday and Saturday.Tylor Goes for Four: Howard's winning streak at Grays Harbor Raceway in the PHRA is still alive, as he's won four consecutive races there. He took out the brooms once before earlier this season with victories on June 17 and 18.Triple Scoops: Thomas and Ashley now have three wins with the Wingless Sprint Series in '23. Garrett won at GHR on May 27 and June 17, while Ricky triumphed at Cottage Grove Speedway on May 13 and Sunset Speedway on July 15. Garrett also has a midget win at GHR on May 6, and Ricky has a limited sprint win under his belt at Cottage Grove on June 10.A Grand for Garrett: Thanks to winning three out of the five races at GHR during the Modern Machinery Mini Series, Thomas has an extra $1,000 in his bank account with a total of 439 points. Second place was very close with Hallmark nipping Batalgia by just three points, 354-351. Hallmark pocketed $600 and Batalgia collected $450.Welcome to Grays Harbor, Ashton!: One of the first racers to roll into the pits on Saturday was Medford, Oregon native/Glendale, Arizona resident Torgerson. As you may know, he was involved in a very frightening crash on January 11 during the 37th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ashton was ejected from his flipping car down the backstretch in the A-Main, yet he miraculously survived. He had to come through Saturday's 360 B-Main, which he won, before jumping nine spots to eighth in the A. Ashton bettered his performance on Sunday, as he won the seventh heat race and coming home fifth in the A.Lots of New Faces: In the 360 class, nine drivers have never competed at Grays Harbor Raceway before. Henry, Gorden, Caeden Steele, and John Clark trekked up to GHR for the first time from California. As mentioned earlier, Torgerson went northward from his Arizona home. Kirkland and Phil Dietz came westward from Montana. As for the Canadian contingent, Levi Klatt commuted from B.C. and Sean MacDonell logged in many hours from Alberta. Number for the Weekend: 3. The top ten in the 360 main events had drivers from all over the place, yet only three drivers from Washington made it both nights. Goetz won Saturday's race, while the next drivers from "The Evergreen State" were Heath (third) and Margeson (seventh). Starks was the top Washingtonian on Sunday in third, followed by Heath in eighth and Goetz in tenth.Hard Luck Award: Pavel. Jim's weekend ended in Saturday's first PHRA heat, as he rear ended Fischer on the frontstretch on lap number three. Jim's car had extensive front end damage and that closed the book on everything.Consistency Award: Corbin, III (PHRA), both Lindseys (WSS), and Henry (360's). Corbin, III finished a very close second on Saturday before crossing the stripe fourth on Sunday. The Lindsey family ended up in a dead heat for me in the WSS. Son Chad had a
