Brad Curtis drove the Joan Curtis, Promaxx Performance Beast-Gaerte to a ten car length victory on the fast half-mile Tri Cities Raceway track in capturing his first WMRA feature of the season.  Curtis started outside row two but took the lead from Rob Lindsey entering the fourth turn on the opening lap to lead wire to wire.    Ken Ferris, the 2002 champion, drove his Mac Towing Beast-Gaerte, to a second place finish, five car lengths back, with Steve Spoor, visiting from Idaho, finishing third in his J & J Sales Spoor-Gaerte. 

Dixon Helgeson and Lindsey paced the field to the green for the thirty-lap feature with Lindsey taking the advantage exiting the first turn.  Curtis followed Lindsey through the short chute to take second and made his pass for the lead entering turn four.  Spoor followed Curtis to the line with the running order after the first lap being Curtis, Spoor, Lindsey, Ferris and Rick Kraft.  Ferris was able to take third from Lindsey entering turn four on the second lap.  Fast qualifier, Rick Moss, passed Kraft for fifth on lap three and took fourth from Lindsey one lap later as Curtis pulled out to a five car length advantage.  On lap six, Jeff Bird called it a night with engine problems.  One lap later, Kraft slowed when his engine lost a cylinder.   Curtis was stretching his advantage over Spoor while Ferris and Moss were having a fierce battle for the third spot.  The two ran nose to tail and side by side until lap fifteen when Ferris exited turn four a little high allowing Moss to use the low line to take third.  The running order after fifteen was Curtis, Spoor, Moss, Ferris and Brian Olson.  Lindsey exited one lap later with low oil pressure.  At the same time, Moss got under Spoor and took second exiting turn four.  Curtis had a fifteen car length advantage.   On lap twenty-one, Ferris took third from Spoor while Moss had caught Curtis as the leaders were lapping Cam McLean and Nick Seidelman.  Moss appeared a little faster in turn one, but Curtis held his line.  Moss did get under Curtis for a moment on lap twenty-three, but Curtis used his momentum to keep the lead.  On lap twenty-four, as the leaders entered turn four, Moss spun on his own, ending his chance for victory.  On the restart, the running order was Curtis, Ferris, Spoor, Olson and Helgeson.  As the green waved, the lapped car of Bobby Bird was between Curtis and Ferris.  Ferris wasted no time in getting around Bird, but Curtis was too fast and pulled away to a comfortable lead to take his third career WMRA feature victory.  Ferris was ten car lengths back with Spoor third.  Rookie, Brian Olson made a last turn desperate attempt to take third from Spoor but made light contact with the front straight wall and had to settle for fourth.  As the checkered waved, McLean spun harmlessly in turn three.

A heavy thunderstorm delayed qualifying for more than an hour. After track drying was complete, Moss set quick time at 17.857 in the Harold Beale Beast-Ford.  In the first heat, Scott Morgan spun entering turn four and made contact with the outside wall, ending his night.  On lap four of the same heat, Matt Stone entered turn four a little hot and made contact with the left rear of Bob Eldridge.  Eldridge flipped hard but was uninjured.  The same couldn’t be said for his car.  Jeff Bird captured the first heat over Helgeson, B. Bird and McLean.  Moss showed his horsepower in capturing the second heat ahead of Olson, Curtis and Kraft

The WMRA takes a week off before returning to action on Saturday night, June 7 at South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wa. for the Bob Gregg Memorial

Results:

Qualifying:  Rick Moss 17.857, Ken Ferris 18.060, Brian Olson 18.282, Rick Kraft 18.488, Brad Curtis 18.584, Steve Spoor 18.805, Rob Lindsey 19.008, Dixon Helgeson 19.186, Bob Eldridge 19.515, Matt Stone 19.530, Bobby Bird 19.682, Nick Seidelman 19.998, Cam McLean 20.492, Scott Morgan 21.110, Jeff Bird 23.058.

Heat #1:  J. Bird, Helgeson, B. Bird, McLean, Seidelman, Eldridge, Stone, and Morgan.

Heat #2:  Moss, Olson, Curtis, Kraft, Ferris, Lindsey, and Spoor.

Main:  Curtis, Ferris, Spoor, Olson, Moss, Helgeson, Stone, Seidelman, B. Bird, McLean, Lindsey, Kraft, and J. Bird.