Ken Ferris held off a late-race charge by Rick Moss to take the 40-lap "Pacific Northwest Championship" Midget feature at the Shasta Speedway in Anderson, California.

Co-sanctioned by the Bay Cities Racing Association and the Washington Midget Racing Association, 36 midgets from four states and British Columbia where on hand to do battle on the fast 1/3-mile paved oval. This marked the first such sanction in more than a decade.

It quickly became evident that the WMRA and Idaho Midget Racing Association stars had the upper hand over their southern hosts. The BCRA contingent ran on the harder Hoosier MG7.8 compound tires, mounted on 10" wide wheels, mandated this season by many organizations for their durability. WMRA and IMRA ran their softer compound McCreary tires on 12" wide wheels.

WMRA's Ferris, driving the Ferris/Ray Hoene Gaerte/Beast, took command from BCRA's Travis Johnson at the midway point in the fast-paced race that started 24 cars.

Johnson had taken the initial lead on the first lap from his fourth starting position with Sterling Pratz in second. Marc DeBeaumont nudged by Pratz for second on round-two as Ferris moved into third. Pratz began fading and Steve Spoor moved to fourth on the fourth circuit. On lap-five fast qualifier and 12th-starting Brad Curtis moved his Gaerte/Beast into fifth, then claimed fourth four laps later with Rick Moss moving his Ed Pink/Beast up to sixth

Ferris hounded DeBeaumont's Ed Pink Ford/Stealth for second, taking the runnerup spot on the 11th round and setting his sights on Johnson.

Curtis, having taken fourth on the ninth lap, passed DeBeaumont for third on the 13th circuit, then passed Ferris for second four laps later. During his effort to take the lead from Johnson, Curtis spun his Gaerte/Beast exiting the second turn and slid into the infield to bring out the yellow.

Johnson now led Ferris, Curtis, Moss, DeBeaumont and Spoor, with Brian Olson up to sixth. Olson's emergence upon the scene stemmed from his 21st starting spot, having earned his way to the feature by winning the semi. Floyd Alvis held seventh over Travis Berryhill, Glenn Carson and Stuart Birkinbine.

At the green Ferris pressured Johnson, moving under the leader exiting turn-four to take command. On the 23rd circuit Moss moved by Johnson for second.

As DeBeaumont worked on Johnson for third, the former BCRA and USAC star spun exiting the second turn. This moved Olson up to fourth with Spoor in fifth. Olson began his duel with Johnson and took over third on the 33rd lap.

Moss pressured Ferris for the lead, but the veteran adhered to his line and gave no opening to his pursuer.

On the 37th circuit Berryhill made an inside move under Johnson for fifth as they neared the first turn. The two cars made contact with both cars spinning. Johnson's Ed Pink Chevy/2Fast spun hard into the wall and Berryhill managed to regain control from his 360-degree spin and continued as the caution flag appeared.

From the drop of the final green, Moss continued to badger Ferris, but could not overtake the leader as they paced the field to the checkered flag. Olson's exceptional drive earned him third over Spoor, Berryhill, Alvis, Carson and Gary Dickenson. Curtis moved back up to place ninth over Lee Yetter to round out the top-ten.

Ferris accepted the accolades of the large crowd at the post-race starting line ceremonies with his Pacific Northwest Championship win, also taking the win in the fourth round of the BCRA Shasta Marina Resort Pavement Championship Series.

Curtis outqualified the 36-car field at 13.635 on the transponder-equipped track timing system.

Moss took the four-lap dash. The first heat win went to John Sarale over Matt Stone and Ferris. Lee Yetter won the second 10-lapper over Berryhill and Moss. Heat-three went to Spoor ahead of Pratz and Doug Kammerzell with the fourth heat going to Carson over Birkinbine and Alvis. The four transfer spots from the semi went to winner Olson over Bobby Bird, John Harkrader and Gary Dickenson with fifth-place Dennis Davis added as alternate when Rob Russell was scratched from the feature.

BCRA takes a two weekend hiatus, then returns to racing on July 5th at the Lakeport Speedway with $1,000 to win.  The WMRA also has a two week reprieve, then runs at Spanaway, WA on July 4.

Several WMRA drivers experienced various problems during the night.  Rob Lindsey had rear end problems, which made it impossible to run his heat.  He was running near a transfer position in the semi when he tangled with another car entering turn three, ending his night.  Scott Morgan developed ignition problems prior to his heat and couldn’t fix the problem prior to the semi.  Rick Kraft continued his streak of bad luck when the battery failed while warming up for the feature.  Doug Kammerzell was running well in the feature but pulled off under the first caution due to overheating.  Matt Stone was running well but got spun out on a restart exiting turn four.

Results:

Qualifying:  1. Brad Curtis, #12W Joan Curtis 13.635; 2. Rick Moss, #50 Beale 13.746; 3. Doug Kammerzell, #81 Peter 13.843; 4. Brian Olson, #71 Schfehik 13.843; 5. Matt Stone, #58 Kenworthy 13.885; 6. Rick Craft, #3 Kraft 13.912; 7. Steve Spoor, #23X Jake Spoor 14.043; 8. Marc DeBeaumont, #11D 14.151; 9. Ken Ferris, #28 Ferris/Hoene 14.176; 10. Bobby Bird, #7 Bird 14.179; 11. Travis Johnson, #80 Johnson 14.238; 12. Floyd Alvis, #18 Alvis 14.244; 13. John Sarale, #32 Sarale/Arata 14.282; 14. John Harkrader, #9 Harkrader 14.328; 15. Sterling Pratz, #33 Ferrari 14.353; 16. Stuart Birkinbine, #02 Dave Birkinbine 14.371; 17. Gary Dickenson, #8 Dickenson 14.374; 18. Travis Berryhill, #11B Berryhill 14.473; 19. Rob Russell, #63F Guerrini 14.501; 20. Glenn Carson, #26 Bock 14.549; 21. Rob Lindsey, #23 Lindsey 14.569; 22. Dennis Davis, #69 Davis 14.616; 23. Dino Tomassi Jr., Tomassi Sr. 14.666; 24. Eric Mostin, #12 Mike Mostin 14.688; 25. Cameron Beard, #84 Beard 14.690; 26. Jim Silva, #18 Chandler 14.713; 27. Dan Gundo, #6 Gundo 14.766; 28. Lee Yetter, #22P Ron Yetter 14.790; 29. Bill Lindsey, #1 Lindsey 14.943; 30. Cliff Servetti, #83 Servetti 14.999; 31. John Lomier, #15 Rusty Lomier 15.037; 32. Scott Morgan, #21 Morgan 15.155; 33. Eddie Jacques, #24X Harkrader 15.178; 34. Steve Roza, #20 Bob Roza 15.540; 35. Ken Molica, #94 Molica 15.639; 36. Mike Donaldson, #87 Stu Donaldson 17.361.

Dash:  Moss, Olson, Kammerzell, Curtis.

Heat-1:  Sarale, Stone, Ferris, Curtis, Gundo, Dickenson, Mostin, Jacques, R. Lindsey.

Heat-2:  Yetter, Berryhill, Moss, Kraft, Roza, Harkrader, Bird, Davis, Lomier.

Heat-3:  Spoor, Pratz, Kammerzell, Russell, Johnson, B. Lindsey, Beard, Molica, Morgan.

Heat-4:  Carson, Birkinbine, Alvis, DeBeaumont, Silva, Servetti, Tomassi, Olson.

Semi:  Olson, Bird, Harkrader, Dickenson, Davis, Tomassi, Mostin, Beard, B. Lindsey, Servetti, Molica, R. Lindsey, Jacques, Lomier.

Main:  1. Ken Ferris, 2. Rick Moss, 3. Brian Olson, 4. Steve Spoor, 5. Travis Berryhill, 6. Floyd Alvis, 7. Glenn Carson, 8. Gary Dickenson, 9. Brad Curtis, 10. Lee Yetter, 11. Matt Stone, 12. Dennis Davis, 13. Dan Gundo, 14. John Harkrader, 15. Marc DeBeaumont, 16. Steve Roza, 17. Travis Johnson, 18. Jim Silva, 19. Bobby Bird, 20. Stuart Birkinbine, 21. Doug Kammerzell, 22. Sterling Pratz, 23. Rick Kraft, 24. John Sarale.

Point Standings:

Ken Ferris                    455

Brian Olson                  431

Brad Curtis                   379

Rick Moss                    367

Bobby Bird                  302

Matt Stone                   290

Rob Lindsey                 276

Rick Kraft                    243

Jeff Bird                       207

Nick Seidelman            167