By Ben Deatherage
LEBANON, Ore. (June 21, 2024) – Night six of the 2024 IMCA Wild West Speedweek had to rate a 10 with Chase Berkeley.
The Colville, Wash., warrior raced to his fourth consecutive and career 10th IMCA Sunoco Stock Car tour win Friday night at Willamette Speedway, a victory good for $2,500 and qualifying eligibility for the B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational.
The two-time defending Speedweek champion took control of the first of 40 laps with brother-in-law B.J. Wild trying to run him down, Kersey Ferrando in third and David Schmidt and Jeff Lovell fighting for fourth.
Lovell secured fourth on lap eight and the top five running order remained the same until a lap 19 caution for second-running Wild. Kevin Roberts moved around Lovell to get third on lap 22.
Another long green flag run followed with Roberts continuing his charge forward to second. The final caution occurred with 12 laps to go.
Berkeley was just too good out in the open in scoring his fourth straight Speedweek win. Roberts was a strong second with Ferrando in third. Cody Humphrey had a fantastic charge from 19th to grab fourth and Lovell completed the top five.
Bricen James won his third Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature of the week while Ethan Killingsworth’s Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods were his third in a row.
James, the 2022 Speedweek champion was at home on the high side of the track and immediately pulled away to a big lead over the rest of the Modified field.
Grey Ferrando moved to second and Collen Winebarger beat back Travis Peery for third in the opening laps.
It only took 10 trips around the track for lapped traffic to come into play, but despite the occasional congestion, the leader had no issues navigating around the slower cars.
Cars stayed in their respective positions for quite some time before a red flag, involving Jacob Mallet Jr. shortly after getting around Peery for fourth, on the front straightaway with two to go would be the only stoppage of the feature.
James kept up his cheetah speed on the restart, leaving only four cars on the lead lap en route to another $1,000 checkers. Ferrando held on to second, with Winebarger behind him in third. Peery was the last car on the lead lap and Kellen Chadwick was fifth.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods began with Matt Sanders in the lead after a brief battle with Landyn Philpott. Sanders checked out via the top of the track leaving a mad dash behind him involving Philpott, Matthew Hagio and Killingsworth.
Sanders, hit traffic on lap nine just about the time Killingworth got around Philpott for third and set his sights on second-running Trevor Points.
Two cautions came out on lap 13, the second of which collected fourth-running Philpott. Killingsworth seized second on the restart and then went after the leader.
Killingsworth made a sweeping pass around the outside of Sanders at the line to lead the 16th lap. The third stoppage came out with nine to go. Sanders briefly took the position back on the 17th circuit but Killingsworth kept his cool and secured the lead on lap 20.
Two late cautions came out with just a few circuits to cover, which injected some late-race drama. Sanders would be collected in an unfortunate get-together on the final restart, ending his night early.
Seventh starting Killingsworth dominated the balance of the distance for his third straight victory of the week and his seventh career IMCA Wild West Speedweek main event, now the most all-time for the division. It is his eighth overall win of the 2024 campaign.
Buddy Kniss held on to second and Aaron Bloom rallied to end the race third after starting 17th. Points ended the night in fourth while Hagio was fifth.
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