HAMLIN CAPTURES SECOND WIN OF SEASON

W. RICHLAND, Wash. (June 9, 2001) – If Ron Eaton won last weekend, odds were high that Kevin Hamlin could win the Oasis Waterworks 125 at Tri-City Raceway this week. Hamlin did just that and moved into the points lead on the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, NASCAR Touring. The win was Hamlin’s second of the season.

Eaton won at South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wash. on May 12. Hamlin followed that up with a win at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval on May 26. Eaton won at Yakima Speedway on June 2, giving Hamlin hope of repeating the earlier feat of following in the cagey veterans footsteps.

above:  Kevin Hamlin and the American Dream Motorsports race team celebrate Kevin's first career Bud Pole Award

Hamlin and the American Dream Motorsports team started the evening off by capturing his first career Bud Pole Award with a lap of 17.765 seconds at a speed of 101.323 mph.

A four-car invert put Hamlin in the fourth starting position. Zach Niessner found himself on the pole as a result of the invert. Niessner turned in the fourth quickest time of the day, one of his best efforts this season.

Gary Lewis started on the outside of the front row. He beat Niessner to turn No. 1 and led the first lap of the race. With Lewis out front, Niessner settled into second with Hamlin third followed by Joe Benedetti. On lap six, Hamlin moved into second place in the running order.

Coming into the Oasis Waterworks 125, Eaton had a 43-point lead on Hamlin. The Lakewood, Wash. based team lost a clutch in practice and Eaton was barely able to make repairs in time for qualifying. On lap 29 of the main event, the repaired clutch failed and Eaton was done for the evening. That event gave Hamlin hope of moving up in the season points standings.

By lap 69, Hamlin had caught Lewis and staged a four-lap duel with the Bothell, Wash. native before falling back to cool the tires and regroup for another run at the lead. On lap 79 Lewis got loose in oil on the track, Hamlin pounced to the lead.

Lewis fell back and slowly crept back up to Hamlin’s bumper over the next 30 laps. Garrett Evans spun exiting turn No. 1 on lap 111 bringing out the yellow and opening the door for Lewis to make one last run on Hamlin. Under the yellow, Howard Ford got together with Lewis exiting turn No. 1 ending both teams’ evenings.

Lewis led 78 laps during the event to claim the Gatorade Front-Runner Award.

Totem Travel Rookie of the Year points leader, John Bender, moved into second place prior to the restart on lap 120. Benedetti found himself in third place while Shane Biles of Woodinville, Wash. would grab several positions with a strong move to the outside on the restart. Biles went from outside the top eight cars on lap 114, to fourth place on lap 121.

Despite heavy pressure from Bender, Hamlin held his ground and earned his third career victory on the series, and the points lead heading towards the next event on the schedule at Portland International Raceway.

“The track was real slick for a couple of laps and Gary got into some grease and slid up and I just went underneath him,” Hamlin said.

“I thought we had something for them if we just bided our time. These Goodyear Eagles were just awesome, Nutter Racing Engines was awesome, this American Dream Motorsports team was awesome,” he added.

Bender was happy with his career best second place run on the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series.

“We put our heads together and the crew gave me a great set-up tonight. I have to credit my moving up to great restarts,” Bender said.

“I knew about 15 laps in that I made a bad call. We were pretty loose and I knew that this thing could get ugly so I just had to hang on and save what I had for the rest of the race,” Benedetti said.

NOTES OF INTEREST:

Hamlin has a 49-point lead on Eaton going into the next event for the series. Bender sits one point behind Eaton in third place in the points standings. Benedetti and Pete Harding round out the top five.

Returning to his home track for the first time as a rookie on the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, Matt Hall of Spokane, Wash. was hoping to turn around a lackluster season. Hall dropped a cylinder while qualifying and managed a 25^th place starting position on the field. His crew did some work to the motor but was only able to give him seven pistons to work with for the main event. Hall used what he could and finished 15^th, the last car on the lead lap.

The series takes a weekend off to prepare for the George Morlan Plumbing 100 at Portland International Raceway. Teams are scheduled to arrive at the road course on Friday, June 22. Qualifying takes place that day with the 40 lap run on the famed 1.95 mile road course beginning at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 23.