Rick Moss and Harold Beal became the 2003 driver and owner champions with their victory in the curfew shorten feature at Wenatchee Super Oval.  The victory was the fourth straight and sixth of the year in the potent Zakula-Beal Auctions Beast-Pink Ford for the now eight time WMRA champion.  Second went to Brian Olson in the J&L Fabricating/Ford with Nick Seidelman taking the third position in his Kenworthy Motorsports Beast-Gaerte.

The front row of Tony Seidelman and Jeff Bird paced the field for the 30-lap feature with Bird taking the advantage exiting turn two.  Moss used the low line entering three to take second from T. Seidelman from his outside row two starting position with Brad Curtis and Ken Ferris rounding out the top five.  As the field entered turn one on the second lap, a little contact was made with Joe Ransom, John Wood and Matt Stone coming to a stop.  Scott Morgan was also involved and headed for the pits.  Wood’s night was over with front-end damage.  On the restart, Curtis lost positions to Ferris, Olson and N. Seidelman.  Moss was flying and easily disposed of Bird for the lead before the second lap was completed.  Olson, the leading rookie candidate, was matching the pace of Moss and was making a steady climb to the front using the high groove.  He took fourth from Ferris on lap three, third from T. Seidelman on lap five and second from Bird on lap six.  Moss had extended his lead to about fifteen car lengths but both were circling the track with nearly identical times.  The top five after six laps was Moss, Olson, Bird, N. Seidelman and Ferris.  Curtis, Rob Lindsey, T. Seidelman, Kevin Wood and Ransom rounded out the top ten.  The mid pack racing was close but with little changing of positions.  Olson was slowly decreasing Moss’ advantage but he needed a caution, which came out on lap thirteen when Bird broke a rod and stopped on the back straight.  Joe Lindsey exited with fuel problems at the same time.  On the restart, Moss jumped to a five-car length advantage over Olson due to a lapped car between the two on the restart.  N. Seidelman, Ferris and Curtis were having their own side by side battle for third but were slowly losing ground to the leaders.  As the field entered turn one to start lap twenty-two, Duane Westby broke his motor spewing oil everywhere entering turn one.  Unfortunately for the leaders, they were just yards behind when the motor let go.  Moss was the first to hit the oil and then the outside wall, followed immediately by Olson.  N. Seidelman and Ferris were next to join in, followed by Rob Lindsey, Ransom, and T. Seidelman.  Curtis, Stone, K. Wood, Ken Muth and Wes Helgeson were the only cars to make it through the wreck.  The red flag was displayed as the track was littered with oil, wrecked race cars and track safety personnel.  It was then that the track decided to cancel the remainder of the main, in order to run another race prior to curfew.  When a race ends with a red, the finishing order is determined by the last completed green, thereby awarding Moss the victory.

In qualifications, Brian Olson set another quick time with a clocking of 12.360 on the banked quarter mile oval.  Rob Lindsey took the first heat from his fourth row starting position, ahead of Muth, Morgan and Stone.  IMRA regular Ransom used his front row starting position to capture the eight lap heat ahead of Curtis, Ferris, Moss and Olson.  On lap six of the heat, Bird spun in turn two and was collected by Steve Spoor.  The damage to Spoor’s car was too severe to be repaired in time for the feature.  Dashes were cancelled by the track due to time constraints.

Results:

Qualifying:  Brian Olson (71) 12.360, Nick Seidelman (85) 12.380, Ken Ferris (16) 12.485, Rick Moss (50) 12.511, Brad Curtis (12) 12.543, Jeff Bird (45) 12.607, Steve Spoor (23x) 12.617, Tony Seidelman (4) 12.818, Joe Ransom (86) 12.878, Matt Stone (58) 12.931, Rob Lindsey (23) 13.018, John Wood (97) 13.150, Scott Morgan (21) 13.453, Joe Lindsey (23y) 12.454, Kevin Wood (95) 13.457, Ken Muth (14) 13.660, Duane Westby (29) 13.685, Wes Helgeson (5) 14.085.

Heat #1:  R. Lindsey, Muth, Morgan, Stone, Westby, K. Wood, J. Lindsey, J. Wood, Helgeson.

Heat #2:  Ransom, Curtis, Ferris, Moss, Olson, N. Seidelman, T. Seidelman, Bird, Spoor.

Main:  Moss, Olson, N. Seidelman, Ferris, Curtis, R. Lindsey, Stone, Ransom, T. Seidelman, K. Wood, Westby, Muth, Helgeson, Bird, J. Lindsey, J. Wood, Morgan, Spoor (DNS).

Points Standings (Unofficial):  Rick Moss 1271, Ken Ferris 1162, Brian Olson 1143, Brad Curtis 1015, Rob Lindsey 885, Matt Stone 850, Nick Seidelman 760, Rick Kraft 677, Scott Morgan 563, Bobby Bird 542.