At 4 a.m. Saturday morning, Scott Aumen was trying not to think about making history in the 42nd running of the Daffodil Cup at Western Speedway.
He doesn’t have to think about it any more.
“This is what we came here for, and we got it,” Aumen said on Saturday night, holding the huge trophy. “I couldn’t be prouder.”
Aumen rewrote the record books, becoming the first driver to win five Daffodil Cup races, one more than late great Hall-of-Famers Billy Foster and Roy Smith. Being presented with the Cup topped off an illustrious night that also saw the Duncan driver breaking the track record, in a time of 13.497 seconds, in front of approximately 2,500 cheering fans.
“Look at those names [on the Daffodil Cup]. Those are guys I always looked up to,” Aumen said.
In the two-night total-point Cup victory, Aumen’s overall points got him through, as Jeff Montgomery won the 40-lap Denny Rand Memorial race, flying around the track with breathtaking speed. Boise, Idaho’s Johnny Giesler was second, Wade Bland third, and Aumen fourth.
Last year, Aumen lost to Sierra Jackson of Middleton, Idaho, by one point in the race, which featured the Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association and the Canadian-American Western Winged Sprintcars. Jackson was knocked out of the 2013 race with engine problems.
This year, Aumen set the tone early with his record-setting lap. The previous mark was 13.62 seconds, set in 2009 by Randy Price.
“The car is running beautifully — as long as we can keep it that way,” he said before the race.
The previous night, Aumen started the 30-lap race in 10th position, and swept past Prince George’s Ritchie Larson on the 29th lap.
“He led for 29 laps, but we led on the one that mattered,” Aumen said, adding a couple of yellow caution flags helped him catch up to Larson. “We had to get moving pretty quick. If it goes green to green, we never catch him.”
In the Old Time Racers Association main event, the Ron Mayell family was on hand to present Duane Zeinstra with the Ron Mayell Memorial Trophy. It was Zeinstra’s fifth straight victory. Kevin Knight went back-to-back, winning the Island Series Stock Cars main event again, and Mike Haslam held off Lance Wade in a wild one in the WILROC Non Wing Sprint Cars feature race.
