By Trevor Cassell
Photo from www.skagitspeedway.com
Located in Alger, Wash. Skagit Speedway is inviting fans back to the stands to come watch their local sprint car racing event.
Some info about the track from the official website states that the Skagit Speedway is an affordable and safe entertainment facility that your whole family can enjoy. They do Fun at Full Throttle! Join your friends every weekend from April through September for fire breathing, ground pounding, edge of your seat family fun! They have several classes racing all season including 360 Sprint Cars, Sportsman Sprint Cars, Outlaw Tuners, Modifieds, and Focus Midgets.
Special events include three Fireworks Shows, proud home of the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup, a Monster Truck show and World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. “See our ‘Schedule’ page for a list of what is racing on which nights.” Although Skagit Speedway still held a 2020 season, there were no fans allowed to attend. For the drivers, it was probably not as thrilling as usual. Things are definitely be different this year. The 2021 season has some restrictions regarding limitations to fans. Under state COVID-19 safety guidelines they are only allowing 2,500 fans through the gate to watch the races. If you end up deciding not to attend or cannot make it to the track, races are now shown online LIVE on www.SkagitSpeedway.tv for $24.95. This is completely new for Skagit Speedway and opens new opportunities for viewing all over the country and even internationally.
Skagit speedway planned on having the opener for the season on April 24 with 360 sprints, Sportsman sprints, Modifieds, Outlaw Tuners – Easter Egg Scramble but the weather had other ideas. Next up on the schedule, they have races on May 8, for round 3. Gates open at 5:30PM and the racing begins at 7:30. Sunday, May 2 featured the Budweiser 360 Sprint Cars, Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints, NW Focus Midgets & Outlaw Tuners to take the first green flag of 2021. Fans were finally allowed back at the track. The names at the top of the leaderboard were some of the top performers in 2020. Eric Fisher, Justin Youngquist, Garrett Thomas and Howard Vos won in their classifications. Fans were excited to be back. The track had it’s full capacity allowed with 2,500 fans after a rainout of the original opener.
Eric Fisher took the win in the 360 class on the fifth lap, holding Jesse Shchlofeldt off for the remainder of the race. Justin Youngquist, had a new car he was racing with in the sportsman sprints class and led the whole way taking the win for the A main classification. Garrett Thomas raced hard all the way through in the midget class while Jared Peterson was holding the lead for quite awhile but Thomas ended up on top late.
In the outlaw Tuner Class, Howard Vos gave the fans something to shout for while he took the lead on the 6th lap over Colin Sims, Jeremy Swann and Jon Gunderson. Vos and Gunderson ended the night winning in the heats. For the remainder of the season, ticket prices will remain the same as they have been for the beginning of 2021. Tickets are $15 for adults, JR-SR-MIL $10, kids 10 and under are free, and the family pass is $45. All tickets are available online, at the front gate and at the Cook Rd Shell gas station which is right off of I-5 if you’re headed up towards the track. The season will run all the way through late August and into September.
A driver that races frequently at the track, Bill Rude, who drives the No. 33 this season and also owns Kelsey’s Carpenter’s familiar 79K, stated that he missed waving to a friend in the stands during the slower track packing laps and meeting fans after races. “It’s not the same not having fans in the stands, having kids come down afterwards and sit in the cars,” he said.
In the Skagit Valley Herald article, participating drivers of 2020 said that last season was some of the best racing they’d ever been a part of and that it was a shame that nobody was there to see it. According to the Newspaper, “If there were people there, they’d be jumping up and down, screaming and laughing, hitting their buddies on the shoulder like, ‘Did you see that?’ The racing was so good but nobody was there to see it. But if it’s a preview of what we’ll see this year it’s a good thing.” There will be plenty of exciting racing to watch all season long in Alger at Skagit Speedway. Head over to http://www.skagitspeedway.com/about/ to buy tickets, look at the standings, or learn more about our local race track right here in the Pacific Northwest.
