By Vincent Delforge, Staff Writer
The eighth race of the 2025 ARCA Menards West Series season took place at Portland International Raceway, located in Portland, Oregon. The Portland 112 was the second and final road track race of the season. The race, held on Friday, August 29, was won by Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich, despite strong opposition from rookie Thomas Annunziata in the Nitro Motorsports Toyota.
In the championship, the battle continues between leader Trevor Huddleston (High Point Racing) and Kyle Keller (Jan’s Racing Team), who finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Huddleston now has an eight-point lead over Keller with four races remaining.
It’s time to take a closer look at how the Portland race unfolded.
ARCA West Practice/Qualifying
The battle between Sawalich and Annunziata began in practice. They are the strongest drivers on road tracks this season. Sawalich won the West Series race at Sonoma and Annunziata won the Lime Rock race in the ARCA National Series. It’s no real surprise, then, that they are in the top positions, with the advantage going to Sawalich. The latter is very familiar with the Portland circuit, having already competed there in two races, finishing fourth (2023) and first (2024), respectively. Behind them are Israeli driver Alon Day (Venturini Motorsports) and Portland specialist Caleb Shrader (Jerry Pitts Racing).
During the qualifying session, Sawalich took pole position, his first in Portland, sixth in career, with a lead of 0.48 thousandths of a second over Annunziata. Alon Day finished third, ahead of Spanish rookie Fernando Navarrete, who drove the No. 3 car for Central Coast Racing. It should be noted that four drivers did not complete a single lap, including Huddleston, whose transmission failed during practice. Christian Eckes (oil leak for Bill McAnally Racing), Bobby Hillis, Jr. (Fuel line for Fierce Creature Racing), and Dale Quarterley (rear end for Quarterley “1/4” Racing) will also have to start the race from the rear.
GREEN !!
From the moment the green flag waved, Sawalich held onto his lead. He was ahead of Annunziata and Day. Navarrete went wide and hit the grass at Turn 4. David Smith (Shockwave Racing) made a foray off-track in this same corner. As a reminder, during the start and restarts, the drivers didn’t go through the first chicane but went straight to Turn 4. This was the first time all day they arrived at this point so quickly, which should explain this.
At the end of the first lap, Sawalich was ahead of Annunziata, Day, Shrader, Keller, Tanner Reif (Central Coast Racing), Greg Biffle (Sigma Performance Services), Navarrete, Eric Johnson, Jr. (Jerry Pitts Racing), Robbie Kennealy (Jan’s Racing Team), and Eckes for the top 10. Eckes gained six positions on the first lap! Huddleston was right behind him in eleventh place.
Stuck at 5,000 rpm, Bobby Hillis, Jr. retired on lap four due to a carburetor issue. In reality, it was a complex fuel filter problem that caused a series of cascading problems. Bad luck for the veteran, who was competing in his first race of the season.
On lap five, the trio of Sawalich, Annunziata, and Day broke away from the pack. Shrader, nearly five seconds behind, led the second group consisting of Keller, Biffle, Eckes, Reif, Navarrette, and Huddleston, which rounded out the top 110.
On lap six, rookie Blake Lothian was slowing, his car smoking. He left the track at turn 8 to reach a safe area behind a barrier, where he retired with a broken transmission.
On lap 10, Quarterley spun alone in the grass at turn 4a while attempting to take 10th place from Reif.
Eckes continued his comeback and took sixth place from Biffle in the chicane at the start of lap 12. It’s worth noting that Navarrete was down to 16th and the last driver still on the track due to mechanical issues. He will spend a lot of time in his pit box repairing things.
First caution
The first yellow flag was raised on lap 17 following David Smith’s spin while braking at the first chicane. He needed the assistance of a tow truck to restart. Davey Magras (Davey Magras Racing), who was in 14th position, received the free pass.
At the restart on lap 20, Sawalich maintained the lead ahead of Annunziata and Day. Behind, Eckes made a superb start and moved from sixth to fourth position, passing Keller and Shrader.
The race settled in, and the positions remained unchanged for about ten laps, with the exception of Huddleston’s pass on Keller in turn 7. This maneuver earned him the Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race award. On lap 28, newcomer Austin Varco (Strike Mamba Racing), in 13th position, went on a spin in the grass at turn 7. He experienced brake problems that would only get worse until the end of the race.
But on lap 30, disaster struck for Christian Eckes, who was comfortably settled in fourth place, when he suffered an oil leak. It was the exact same problem as during practice, which forced him to start from the rear at the start of the race. He lost a lot of oil, and the yellow flag took a long time to clear the track. Eckes restarted two laps down and finished the race in 14th place. David Smith received the free pass.
At the restart on lap 39, Annunziata put a lot of pressure on leader Sawalich and pushed him slightly in turn 5, enough for the latter to end up in the grass and lose four positions. Sawalich didn’t give up and quickly closed on Alon Day to regain second place before catching Annunziata a few laps later. It’s worth noting that Navarrete returned to the track but ultimately retired and finished 16th.
With 10 laps remaining, Shrader spun into the chicane with the help of Greg Biffle, who moved into fifth place. Shrader restarted in ninth place behind Johnson, Jr.
At the start of lap 48, Annunziata hesitated slightly in the frontstretch while passing Magras. This was enough for Sawalich to cross the line in the lead. But Annunziata still took the lead through the first chicane. The two drivers found themselves side by side as they entered Turn 4, and Sawalich dove down the inside… but went straight and hit the grass, allowing the Nitro Motorsports driver to gain a few lengths of advantage.
Bump and run, part II
Sawalich was faster and quickly found himself stuck to Annunziata’s rear bumper. He attempted a first pass on the outside at Turn 7, but Annunziata widened his racing line and forced him onto the grass with six laps remaining. It was only a matter of time before Sawalich got back at it, and at the end of lap 53, he got his comeback by taking advantage of Annunziata slowing down in Turn 11 behind David Smith to stick close to him and give him a “love slap” as he entered Turn 12. Annunziata found himself on the grass, and Sawalich took off alone at the front of the race.
William Sawalich won the race with a lead of nearly 9 seconds over Thomas Annunziata and more than 11 seconds over Alon Day. Greg Biffle came out of the final corner better and managed to take fourth place from Trevor Huddleston. The rest of the top 10 is made up of Kyle Keller, Dale Quarterley, Caleb Shrader, Eric Johnson, Jr. and Tanner Reif.
“Just good, hard racing there. That lapped car slowed us up, that momentum didn’t work out, and he got the worst of it,” Sawalich said in Victory Lane about his battle with Annunziata. This is Sawalich’s fifth career victory in 10 races. He joins Jake Drew, the 2022 champion, as the second driver to win two races and back-to-back wins at Portland.
“We were fast, we just weren’t quite with the Joe Gibbs car yet. It was hard racing at the end, I have nothing to say. I would probably do the same thing in that situation,” Annunziata said after the finish.
In the championship, Trevor Huddleston increased his lead over Kyle Keller by one point and now has an advantage of eight points in the championship. Tanner Reif is third, 20 points behind.
The next race will be held on September 13 at the All-American Speedway in Roseville, California. The NAPA Auto Parts 150 will mark the start of the bullring tour, with races in Madera, CA and Las Vegas, NV following, before closing the season on November 1 on the one-mile track in Phoenix, AZ.
