B
S PORTS
Section B
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA
Left: Evan (back) and Mike (front) Britton check on Evan's car before the races begin at the Cottage Grove Speedway on Friday. Top right: Mike Britton celebrates after his son won on Friday night. Bottom right: A crew works to put out
the fl ames of Evan's car after his race.
The Cottage Grove Speedway is a home away from home for the Britton family
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
The Cottage Grove Speedway is full of dirt.
Dust gets everywhere. From the cars, to the bleachers, to the
back of your throat, the dust leaves its mark. And while everyone,
especially those working on the cars and the racers themselves,
leave a little dirtier than they arrived, the racing that is done at the
Cottage Grove Speedway is a thing of beauty. A perfect encapsu-
lation of this speed, precision and grace is seen in the black and
red 85 street stock car driven by 18-year-old Cottage Grove native
Evan Britton.
The Britton name is not new to Cottage Grove racing. The speed-
way, which opened in 1956, was owned by Evan’s great-grand un-
cle Wayne Britton in the 80s. Evan’s uncle, Kreg, races currently
races modifi des there. The Brittons have been at this track for a
long time and Evan is the next family member to race.
“Every Saturday I’m here,” said Evan. “I’ve always, since I’ve
been growing up here, always wanted to have my own car.”
This dream became a reality in 2015 when he sold his four-wheel-
er, got help from his dad Mike and bought a car from a family
friend. This had come a year after he had used another car and at
14 years old and in his second, won.
“I don’t really know how,” said Evan. “I somehow got lucky.”
But since then, Evan has been working on getting better with the
hope of moving up through the ranks and maybe one day making
it big. Regardless of where he one day fi nishes, Mike is glad to see
his son doing what he likes.
“You know how this day and age works, if they don’t fi nd some-
thing they are into they get into drugs and alcohol so it was kind of
my way of keeping him out of that,” said Mike.
Last Friday, as the heat hovered above 100, Mike and Evan
pulled up to the speedway for a night of racing. As they, and many
of their friends, learned that it was my fi rst time being at the speed-
way, they all greeted me with the same retort: “You’re in for a
treat.”
As the Brittons looked around pit row at who was there to race
on the day, they excitedly turned and name dropped racers names
Athletes of
the Week
that only the biggest of Cottage Grove Speedway fans would know.
But when it came to stock cars, Evan’s event, they just had to look
across the way to see the 74 car driven by Andrew Langan to see
their main competition.
“We base ourselves off of that car,” Mike explained to me during
the earlier rounds of racing.
After all the necessary adjustments were made to the car, Evan
went to change from his Jordans and cut off shirt to his racing suit.
The only issue was that the one he had brought had ripped on the
leg. With the help of duct tape, Evan patched it up and looked to his
dad and said, “Hopefully I don’t catch on fi re."
With that, the races were ready to begin.
The evening started with the time trial where Evan ended up fi n-
ishing with the fastest time of the eight stock cars racing that night.
After a few adjustments were made to the car, he was back out for
the trophy dash. The race saw Britton work and weave between the
other cars on the track in an effort to get to the top spot. With four
laps to go Britton had positioned himself to take the lead but spun
out prompting a restart. With two laps to go he was in fourth after a
second restart. He worked his way to the front of the pack but came
up short and fi nished third.
“If there was only one more lap,” said Mike before trailing off as
he thought about Evan’s winning potential. “I just get excited. Just
watching him drive it is a huge adrenaline rush. I get excited and
scream and yell.”
Back at their trailer, Mike and Evan discussed the race and Evan
stated in a disgruntled tone that he felt that it went “alright.” The
brief sulking changed to excitement for the fi nal race of the day.
The 20-lap feature race had eight cars all determined to win.
After two false starts, the front cars were moved to the back and
Evan now was in the pole position. The race jumped out to a quick
start and after initial jockeying, Evan fell into second place where
he soon found his rhythm.
“I didn’t think we would give it a shot,” said Evan after the race.
“But once the top came in it was mad fast.”
While most of the other drivers in the competition prefer to stay
low, Evan likes to race at the top edge.
“Once he found the top, which is where he runs, that’s what he
does every time. He gets up on the top and he can make that car
work on the top. I don’t know how he does it,” said Mike.
The race wound on and with each passing lap there was still a
chance for Evan. He was locked in an unrelenting battle with Lan-
gan of the 74 car. At each spot where it seemed he would pull away,
Langan simply sped up and regained the lead.
As the engines roared around and Evan’s family and friends
screamed for him, the racers entered into the fi nal lap. After botch-
ing turn one, it looked like the 85 car may have blown its chance.
But along the back stretch Evan picked up speed and positioned his
car just right and crossed the line in fi rst.
“I was just waiting, waiting, waiting for the white fl ag and as
soon as I saw it, I thought, damn, this could actually be it,” said
Evan. “This was the most exciting race I’ve ever been in.”
The excitement did not stop with the victorious wave of the
checkered fl ag but took a fi nal turn. As Mike and friends screamed
on the side of the track, they began to walk towards the scales
where each of the top three cars has to weigh in after each race to
make sure they reached the minimum weight requirement. Evan’s
car was not there and Mike began to wonder why. He suddenly
turned and looked up to see the black and red car that he has put so
much time and effort into on fi re.
Mike sprinted to the car screaming for Evan to get out. Evan had
already climbed out into safety and in all the chaos, the hood was
taken off of the car, which is where the fi re was located, and the
engine promptly doused and put out.
“I went to put it in neutral and then the oil pressure went down
and I went to give it gas and then the fl ames just started,” said Evan
who was shook by the events but was able to quickly and safely
get out of the car.
“He was already out of the car once I got there,” said Mike. "It’s
scary. The scariest thing so far,” said Mike.
Back at the trailer for a fi nal time, the Brittons tried to take in ev-
erything that had happened. The thrill of victory had been promptly
replaced by the fl ames in the car. Now that all was safe, they began
to wind down and to take in the victory that they had just experi-
enced and move on to thinking of the next race.
“He’s okay, the car is okay and we’ll get it back up in a couple
of weeks,” said Mike.
This week's athletes of the week
are the 17 girls who came out
to volleyball camp. The girls
worked on their skills and got to
play their favorite game "dead
fi sh" which is a serving game.
To read more about summer
sports camps turn to 2B.
FREE FAST FRIDAY AND LOGGERS CUP
AUGUST 11TH &12TH
FREE FAST FRIDAY General Admission is FREE
Event Classes
Late Models and Mohawk Metal IMCA Modifi eds
Saturday Event Classes
Late Models, Todd’s Auto Body Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds,
PHRA Dwarf Cars
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Speedway: Where family and racing become one