Terry Ferrando #12, Eric Sayre #53 and Greg Walters #97 race 3-wide for the win at Saturday nights Jon Miller Memorial Race at Sunset Speedway Park.
FERRANDO PULLS IT OFF AT SUNSET SPEEDWAY:
Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series by Bill Poehler/ Saturday July 21, 2007 at Sunset Speedway- Banks, Oregon - Terry Ferrando made the best of his mistake.
The driver from Salem, Oregon, in his third full year of racing a dirt late model, recovered from a spin on the sixth lap to win the 50-lap Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series A-Main event and the $1,300 winners check at Sunset Speedway in the Jon Miller Memorial night.
The special guest at the race was NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Greg Biffle, a native of Brush Prarie, Washington and the younger brother of PCFDCS regular Jeff Biffle.
Biffle signed autographs for the fans for hours before the racing then climbed into the No. 16 dirt late model that Jerry Schram built for him for the event.
Biffle got a grand total of two eight-lap hot lap sessions in the late model before boarding the mount for the Jon Miller Memorial race, a 10-lap match race between eight former Portland Speedway competitors.
Miller's widow, Theresa, drew the pills to determine the lineup for the match race. The draw put Eric Sayre of Vancouver, Washington in first with Biffle in second, Scott Puncochar of Hillsboro, Oregon in third, Vancouver's Schram in fourth, Banks' Greg Walters in sixth, Schram's brother Jimmy in sixth, Lebanon, Oregon's Jason Wines in seventh and Jeff Biffle starting last.
Sayre took the lead from the green flag and Biffle hung with him for two laps in second before washing up the track in turn two, and three drivers - Puncochar, Jerry Schram, Walters - freightrained Biffle and dropped him into fifth.
Sayre would win the race with Puncochar in second, Jerry Schram in third, Walters in fourth, Greg Biffle in fifth, Jimmy Schram in sixth, Jeff Biffle in seventh and Wines in eighth a lap down.
After the race, Biffle pulled his racer onto the front straight and told the crowd about how Miller, the late former owner of Irontech, helped support numerous racers at the old Portland Speedway. Biffle said Miller gave Biffle the money that allowed him to race in the 1997 Winter Heat Series in Arizona that led to Biffle's discovery in the racing world.
Car owner Jerry Schram tried in vain to talk Biffle into running the PCFDCS main event in the pits after the match race. But Biffle replied, "Half a million to win next week," referring to the Brickyard 500.
Ferrando set fast time for the PCFDCS with a lap of 13.721 seconds around the ¼-mile oval with Puncochar second fast at 13.961 and Sayre third with a 13.983 lap. Walters timed in fourth fast despite breaking a skid plate.
The heat races were skipped because of on and off sprinkles.
In the 10-car B-Main event, Jason Wines won the 15 lapper from the pole position with Billy Workman, Jr., of Canby, Oregon moving from fourth to finish second with Kevin "Porkchop" Rodgers of Banks in third, Jeff Biffle in fourth and J.P. Pagel of Brightwood gaining the final transfer spot to the A-Main.
The A-Main was extended from 35 to 50 laps because of the lack of heat races and qualifying set the field. The dice of invert determined the invert at eight cars, meaning Banks driver Robby Ireland would sit on pole position with Jeremy Schram, Jerry's son, on the outside, substitute driver Steve Moore of Scio, Oregon in third and Monroe, Washington's Branden Lindberg starting fourth.
At the green, Ireland took the initial lead from the pole position and took to the high side and hauled the mail early. Moore, subbing for series regular Darvin Tramel, moved around Jeremy Schram for second on the third lap and Walters followed through to advance to third.
On the sixth lap, Ferrando hit a puddle of water on the bottom of the track coming out of turn two and spun out of sixth place and caught a break as the rest of the field avoided him as the caution flag waved.
When the race got back under way, Moore and Walters waged a fierce battle for second place with the position changing hands a number of times before on lap 17 when Walters hit the back of Moore's car and spun him in turn three to bring out the caution. Moore was given his spot back, but two laps after the race was restarted, Walters got around Moore for good. By the lap 17 caution, Ferrando had advanced from 16th to 10th.
On the 23rd lap, Lindberg spun in turn two to bring out the caution flag again with the order Ireland, Walters, Sayre, Moore and Ferrando had made his way up to fifth by running the bottom groove.
On the restart, Walters went to the low side to try to get around Ireland, who was running the high side. The pair battled back and forth with Walters taking the lead briefly on lap 26 only to have Ireland take the lead back a lap later. On lap 31, two laps after Ireland finally cleared Walters for the lead, Sayre took to the low side coming out of turn two and went by Walters and got past Ireland for the lead to big cheers from the crowd.
On the 34th lap, Ireland's high-side leadings finally bit him as he washed up coming out of turn two and made contact with the outside wall. Jimmy Schram made a late charge and moved up to second on lap 35, but a lap later pulled off the track coming out of turn two after experiencing battery problems and third-place Walters washed up the track, allowing Ferrando to sneak by low to take second.
Sayre had checked out with the lead, but on lap 39, Moore spun coming out of turn two, bringing out the caution and allowing Ferrando to close up to second.
Two laps after the lap 39 restart, Ferrando got inside of Sayre coming out of turn two, but didn't have the momentum to make the pass. The next lap, however, Ferrando drove low under Sayre coming out of turn two again - on the same piece of track where he had spun earlier - and pulled alongside Sayre coming into turn three. Ferrando cleared Sayre by the flagstand to lead the 42nd lap and checked out over the final eight laps for the win.
"They said 11 laps to go," Ferrando said about the series officials. "I kept seeing him sliding up over here in one and two. He could hold it down right here in three and four so I knew I wasn't going to get him in three and four.
"I figured, I got 11 laps, I'm just going to take my time and I know I can get him and got him in about 11 laps. Felt like I was running away with it."
Ferrando, whose best prior finish in the series was a second place at Madras Speedway a year before, had many feature wins in Pro-4 Modifieds, but this was his first win in a dirt late model.
Syare finished second to take home $900 with Walters finishing third, Ireland recovering from his wall-banging experience to finish fourth and Jerry Schram rounding out the top five.
B-Main winning Wines was sixth with Workman advancing to seventh, Puncochar eighth, Jeremy Schram in ninth and Hillsboro's Steve Suckow in 10th.
Pagel finished 11th with Biffle in 12th, the final car on the lead lap, with Lindberg in 13th, Rodgers in 14th, Johnson in 15th, Moore in 16th after breaking a battery cable and Jimmy Schram in 17th.
The anti-climatic trophy dash was run after main events with Ireland winning from the pole with Sayre in second, Walters in third and Ferrando in fourth.
The series next moves to its inaugural Speedweek. The six-race, nine-day series starts Friday, Aug. 3 at Rattlesnake Raceway in Fallon, Nevada, Saturday, Aug. 4 at Reno-Fernley Raceway in Fernley, Nevada, Monday, Aug. 6 at Chowchilla Speedway in Chowchilla, California, Tuesday, Aug. 7 at Antioch Speedway in Antioch, California, Friday, Aug. 10 at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Oregon and Saturday, Aug. 11 back at Sunset.

RACE SUMMARY: 1-Terry Ferrando 2-Eric Sayre 3-Greg Walters 4-Robby Ireland 5-Jerry Schram 6-Jason Wines 7-Billy Workman JR. 8-Scott Puncochar 9-Jeremy Schram 10-Steve Suckow 11-JP Pagel 12-Jeff Biffle 13-Branden Lindberg 14- Kevin "Porkchop" Rodgers 15-Jason Johnson 16-Steve Moore 22-Jimmy Schram.
Terry Ferrando and his crew celebrate the Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series main event win at Sunset Speedway Park.
Top 3 finishers from Saturday nights Pacific Coast Fastrak DirtCar Series Jon Miller Memorial - (left) 2nd place Eric Sayre, first place Terry Ferrando (center) and 3rd Greg Walters.
Nextel Cup Star Greg Biffle with Sunset Speedway Park owner Doug Watlers
Pacific Coast Fastrak Series
Walters Racing Website