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Jayme Barnes with $25,000 check
Photo by H2Hphoto
6/21/08

Dirt Cup Champ Barnes Letting History Sink In

Andrew Kunas

ALGER, Wash. - Jayme Barnes stood outside his race trailer in the very early hours Sunday morning. He was told and asked: “Local drivers to win Dirt Cup; Fontes, Burrow, Kahne and Barnes. How does that sound?”

Barnes was taken aback for a moment, then finally responded in an unusually soft voice.

“That sounds good,” the new Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup champion, usually a little cocky, said humbly about what he had just accomplished.

He was letting it all sink in. He drove the race of his life and made Skagit Speedway history Saturday, becoming just the fourth Washington driver in 37 years to win Skagit’s crown jewel event. He put himself in exclusive company, the few Evergreen State drivers who won an event long dominated by out-of-state drivers, especially from California, which has won 24 Dirt Cups.

What was even more special for the Everett driver and the local fans of more than 6,000 who were on hand at Skagit Speedway on Saturday was Jayme’s victory coming in local equipment, his own in this case. While fans were thrilled with future NASCAR superstar Kasey Kahne’s victories in 2002 and 2003, his first win came in a car from the eastern part of the country and the next came in a car based in California. The last time a local driver won in local equipment was Bobby Burrow’s still popular victory in 1992. The only other Washington driver to win the Dirt Cup was Ross Fontes, who won the inaugural event in 1972 when it was a three-track, three-night points deal.

“I wanted to be the first one since Burrow so bad,” said Barnes, still showing off the big check for $25,000 handed to him by track owner Steve Beitler. “We’ve got some of the best drivers and cars in the country here. It makes it so tough, so it feels so good.”

Barnes started the 40-lap Dirt Cup Race of Champions on the outside front row, with former NASCAR prospect Tyler Walker, out of Los Angeles, inside of him. Walker had landed the high-profile SC Motorsports ride with a lot of big sponsorship behind it during the last off-season.

Small-time and quite possibly inferior equipment up against Big Money.

Walker took the lead immediately on the start but Barnes kept pace, sometimes flying around the high side in the high-banked turns of the bullring that is Skagit Speedway. On a track that is as small as Skagit, one might feel Barnes is crazy once they hear him admit that he almost never lifted the gas pedal during that race.

On lap 12, as they approached traffic, Barnes passed Walker in turns one and two, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Walker didn’t go quietly, passing him right back in the same fashion on the other end of the track. Coming out of turn two on lap 13, Barnes got Walker again as most of the fans were on the edge of their seats. Walker stormed back as they ran down the back stretch and into turns three and four.

Barnes, coming out of turn four, made the move of the race, and his career.

Coming up very fast on two slower cars as he rounded turns three and four on that fateful lap, Barnes saw the space between those two slow cars that were racing for position. At the same time he realized he was catching those two cars so fast he was going to crash into them if he didn’t do something crazy, and real quick.

Diving down from the top of the banking exiting turn four, Barnes kept the pedal to the metal and split the two lapped cars, with so little room to spare you couldn’t slip a piece of paper in on either side.

The Skagit Speedway crowd just simply loses it. So do announcers, officials, and members of the media.

Barnes motored away as the space between the lapped cars closes, momentarily trapping Walker behind them. The checkered flag was still 27 laps away, but everyone knew, deep down, that no one was going to catch Jayme Barnes now.

“I had no choice but to go for it,” Barnes said about his move between the lapped cars. “If I had let up off the gas pedal a little, I would’ve crashed into them because they were closing up. I just drove through.”

Barnes was so fast in the Dirt Cup Race of Champions, no one was even close to him in lap times. He turned the fastest lap of the race, 11.698 seconds on the 28th circuit around the 3/10-mile, high-banked clay oval. The fastest lap anyone else turned was a 12.098 seconds.

The red flag flew with 24 laps down and when track announcer Kelly Hart asked the crowd what they thought, they roared their approval, and this with Barnes still needing to run around the track 16 more times to complete his historic run. Barnes, despite an overheating motor under the hood of his own No. 9 Don Ott-powered Eagle, endured a yellow flag and three more reds in a race that saw many cars torn up, only to motor away from the field again on every restart.

There was great racing going on throughout the field, but not for the lead as Barnes was never seriously threatened. No one could challenge his right foot.

As everyone knew they would, the happy fans roared when Barnes crosses the finish line under Kirby Hoyle’s checkered flag.

Many caution laps have been run, however. There’s concern he may be too light. Pushed to the scales, the crowd of 6,000 holds its collective breath.

He’s legal. It’s official. The fans cheer again.

Pushed to the front stretch, Barnes climbed out of his car to be greeted by quite possibly the happiest Dirt Cup crowd since 1992. He’s $25,000 richer and sprint car racing is suddenly a little more affordable for him, but that didn’t matter as much as standing in front of his home state crowd as the Dirt Cup champion and being on the podium with the big trophy.

Mission accomplished. Racing history made.


Jayme Barnes with $25,000 check
Photo by H2Hphoto
6/19/08

BARNES WINS NIGHT ONE OF DIRT CUP AT SKAGIT SPEEDWAY

(Alger, WA) 6/29/08 by Kelly Hart

Jayme Barnes is rapidly gaining a reputation as a big race racer. On the opening night of the 2008 Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by Camping World RV at Skagit Speedway Barnes won the 30-lap Feature event passing 6 cars from his inside 4th row starting position for the win. Mitch Olson started outside front row surrounded by the Kaeding clan, Bud Kaeding on the pole and Tim and Brent Kaeding behind in row two. Olson led the first 6 laps when Tim Kaeding took over the lead. Kaeding led the 7th through 10th laps before Barnes slid up in front of him coming out of turn 4 and into the lead on lap 11. From there on it was all Barnes, fending off some serious challenges from Kaeding who would not back off. On the final corner of the last lap Barnes got caught up in slower traffic and bounced off the turn 4 wall, as Kaeding closed Barnes jumped on the gas and took the checkered flag.


Jayme Barnes with trophy
Photo by Fletch
5/3/08

Parshall Jr. and Barnes Make It Two In A Row.

By Jack Fordyce Elma, WA.

Jack Parshall Jr. of Hoquiam and Jayme Barnes of Everett made it two wins in a row at Grays Harbor Raceway while the driving team of J. D. Boling of Elma and Ted Warner of Olympia won by default and Gannin Thomas of St Helens, OR. Picked up his first feature win at the Elma track. Parshall Jr. dominated for the second week in a row as he led the Cut Rate Auto Parts “Hobby Stocks” 25-lap feature event from the green flag to the checkered flag. It took Barnes 20-laps to come from the fifth-row on the starting grid before he passed then race leader Kyle Miller of Eugene, OR. And went on for the victory in the Whitney’s Auto Group “360 Sprints” 30-lap feature event.

360 Sprints

Eighteen-year old Miller, last year’s limited sprints champion at the track in Cottage Grove,OR. Was making his first appearance at the track in Elma and let it be known that he will be a force to be reckoned with. Miller had the pole with veteran driver Henry VanDam of Enumclaw on the outside at the start of the race. VanDam held the lead for four-laps when he got by Miller on lap-11 but Miller took it back after a caution flag restart on lap-15. While everybody was racing in front of Barns, he methodically was picking of cars in front of him on his way to the front. Picking off Jay Cole of Shelton on lap-9 to put Cole into the fifth spot, Rice and VanDam both after the restart on lap-15. Barnes took over the lead when he went low in turn-4 on lap-20 putting Miller into the second spot. Barnes took the checkered flag, followed by Cole, Steve Vague had moved up to the third spot, Glenn Borden Jr. of Raymond nabbed fourth and TJ Hartman of Puyallup rounded out the top five.


Jayme Barnes on the gas at Grays Harbor Raceway
Jayme Barnes with trophy
Photo by Fletch
4/26/08 Saturday night Jayme Barnes picked up his first win of the year at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma.

12/1/07 Barnes Motorsports is currently working on plans for the 2008 season. We are seeking to develop more marketing partners to achieve our goals of a successful race season.

10/1/07 The 2007 season is over and Jayme Barnes wrapped up year with 3 wins in the 410 division at Skagit Speedway.

8/18/07 Jayme Barnes led all 25 laps to win the Skagit Speedway 410 division main event.

5/5/07

BARNES AND BLOODGOOD TWO-IN-A-ROW AT SKAGIT SPEEDWAY (Alger, WA) 5/5/07 by Kelly Hart

Skagit Speedway was in superb racing condition for Round Three of the Skagit Racing Series. Repeating main event winners Jayme Barnes in the 410 Sprint division and Jason Bloodgood in the Budweiser 360 Sprints were joined on the winners podium by Kevin Smith in the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints and Mike Ploeg in the Wilson Auto Brokers Outlaw Hornets.

For Jayme Barnes winning seems quite easy these days at Skagit Speedway. From the midseason point of last year to the third race of the current season, Barnes has at times appeared untouchable in the 410 class. For the second week in a row, Barnes took off and was never seriously challenged for the lead. Brock Lemley led the first three laps before a lap 4 spin by Adriana Klein brought out the yellow flag. Just four laps in the race had just seen it’s third caution. On the restart Barnes passed Lemley and sailed off for the 25-lap main event win his second in two weeks. The remainder of the top five finishers were Lemley, Josh Edson, Danny Bullock and Eddie Evans. Point leader Barry Martinez pulled off the track with apparent motor problems and only a few laps remaining to finish seventh. The heat races were won by Barnes and Lemley. Barnes again topped the qualifying list with an 11.788 time trial lap.


4/28/07

BARNES, BLOODGOOD, FISHER AND ERICKSON WIN AT SKAGIT SPEEDWAY 4/28/07 by Kelly Hart

(Alger, WA) After a week of steady rains in the Pacific Northwest, the weather finally cooperated and Skagit Speedway was able to run race number two in the Skagit Racing Series. First time winner Jason Bloodgood in his Budweiser 360 Series Sprint, joined former winners Jayme Barnes in the 410 Sprints, Eric Fisher in the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints and Chris Erickson in the Wilson Auto Brokers Outlaw Hornets in winners circle.

Jayme Barnes kicked things off in the 410 Sprint Cars with a blistering 11.285 qualifying lap. The all-time track record is 11.118 held by Kasey Kahne and there have been less than ten laps in the low 11.2 second range all-time. Barnes electrified the crowd with the run, then backed it up with a superlative performance in the main event. John Tharp beat Barnes to turn one on the green flag lap of the 25-lap main. On the third lap Adriana Klein flipped in turn 3. The next lap saw Josh Edson helicoptering in turn 4, while Roy Blumenhagen right behind him was flipping in turn 3. After the lap 4 restart Barnes passed Tharp and took off, negotiating an increasingly tough race track with ease. While others were struggling with the track Barnes was consistently running laps mid eleven second laps almost 4 tenths of a second faster than anyone in the field. The final caution flew when Tharp hit the front stretch wall coming out of turn 4. Barnes won, with Barry Martinez settling for his second straight second place finish 3.6 seconds behind at the finish line, and the season opener winner Brock Lemley finishing third. Danny Bullock and Steve Kilcup won the heat races.