Scott Puncochar #14 sneaks by Steve Suckow with just a handfull of laps left in Sunday night's nights Pacific Coast Fastrack DirtCar Series 50-lap main event at Sunset Speedway Park.
PUNCOCHAR WINS PACIFIC COAST FINALE AT SUNSET SPEEDWAY:
Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series by Bill Poehler/ Sunday September 2, 2007 at Sunset Speedway- Banks, Oregon - With 21 laps to go Sunday night, Scott Puncochar sat in third place and looked like he had no shot at beating Steve Suckow.
But on the final restart of the race, Puncochar chased down and passed second place Jerry Schram, chased down Suckow twice and passed him with five laps to go in the 50 lapper and pulled away to win his second Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series main event of the season at Sunset Speedway Park in the season finale.
Suckow finished second with modified driver Jeff Brookshire in third, Schram in fourth and Branden Lindberg in fifth.
Despite being thousands of miles away in Ohio, Greg Walters of Banks clinched his second consecutive PCFDCS championship. Walters was busy racing in Ohio in preparation for next week's World 100 at Eldora Speedway, but had crewmember Willie Sutton drive his No. 97 late model in the Saturday-Sunday race. Sutton failed to finish either main event, but Walters had built such a lead in the point's race ahead of second-place Puncochar that Walters was assured of the championship if Sutton started the main events.
In qualifying, Brookshire, a local modified racer driving the 16x car owned by Schram, set fast time with a lap of 14.346 seconds around the ¼-mile clay oval. Kevin "Pork Chop" Rogers of Banks was second fast at 14.420, Saturday winner Terry Ferrando of Salem was third fast at 14.442 seconds and Sutton was fourth fast at 14.484.
In the first heat race, Ferrando and Brookshire went side-by-side through the first turn, but Ferrando cleared Brookshire into turn three and Ferrando won the eight-lap race in front of Brookshire with Puncochar of Hillsboro in third and Suckow of Hillsboro in fourth.
In the second heat, Sutton took the initial lead from the outside pole in front of Rogers, bur Rogers went back by on the high side coming out of turn four on the fifth lap and went on to the win. Sutton finished second with Lindberg of Monroe, Wash., in third and Schram of Vancouver, Wash., in fourth.
Because the championship night of racing was running late, the trophy dash was initially scrapped and the dice of inversion was rolled to an eight, putting Suckow and Schram on the front row for the main event.
Suckow took the lead from the pole position in the caution-filled race with Schram, Puncochar and Brookshire in tow. On the fifth lap, the fourth caution flag waved when Ferrando, running fifth, was pinched down in turn 1 and knocked one of the tires out of the infield. He was black flagged and the officials declared him finished for the night.
On the eighth lap, Sutton, who had already pitted with a flat tire, pulled off with a problem in the drive train and was finished. Following a caution on lap 10, Brookshire got around Puncochar for fourth, but Puncochar got back by following a caution another lap later.
After the lap 11 restart, the race had its first extended green flag run and Suckow pulled out a big lead in front of Schram, Puncochar and Brookshire. That lead was negated when Rogers spun in turn two on the 28th lap. Under caution again a lap later for Jim Clair's spin, the field was preparing to go back to green when on the backstretch Malcolm Lindberg, Branden's father, hit the back of Clair's car and sprouted water from the radiator. Both cars were finished for the night and the red flag waved to clean up the mess.
When the race finally got going again, Puncochar stayed right with Schram and after a few attempts made his way by on the 35th lap to move into second and Brookshire followed suit three laps later. Puncochar went after Suckow for the lead and caught him, but Suckow pulled away. Puncochar went back after Suckow, caught him and passed him on the inside of turn four on the 45th and went on to his second win of the year.
Jason Johnson of Gresham finished sixth with Billy Workman Jr. of Gresham in seventh, Bob Trout in eighth, Rogers in ninth and Ian McHutchinson of Kirkland in 10th, several laps down. Malcolm Lindberg finished 11th with Clair in 12th, Sutton in 13th and Ferrando in 14th.
Since there was time remaining after the main events before the 11 p.m. curfew, the trophy dashes were run. As if to prove a point, Ferrando, starting third, took the lead on the first lap and led all four laps to win with Puncochar in second, Rogers in third and Brookshire in fourth.

RACE SUMMARY:
Fast Time: Jeff Brookshire #16x 14.346.
Heat 1: Ferrando, Brookshire, Puncochar, Suckow, Trout, Freeman, McHutchinson, Rogers.
Heat 2: Rodgers, Sutton, Lindberg, Schram, Johnson, M. Lindberg, Workman Jr.
Dash: Terry Ferrando
Main Event: 50 laps
1st - Scott Puncochar #14, 2nd- Steve Suckow #37, 3rd- Jeff Brookshire #16x, 4th-Jerry Schram #16, 5th-B. Lindberg #88, 6th- Jason Johnson #76, 7th- Billy Workman JR #64jr, 8th-Jim Trout #28, 9th-Kevin "Pork chop" Rodgers #92, 10th- Brett McHutchinson #9, 11th- Malcolm Lindberg #88x DNF , 12th- Jim Clair #44x DNF, 13th- Willie Sutton #97 DNF, 14th- Terry Ferrando #12 DQ'd.
Scott Puncochar picked up his second win of the season clinching the 2007 Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series Rookie of the Year Championship.
Terry Ferrando #12 picked up the Nickle Ads sponsored Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series 4-lap trophy dash Sunday night.
Pacific Coast Fastrak Series
Walters Racing Website