YAKIMA, Washington -- The prestigious Apple Cup is set to once again start the stockcar-racing season at the historic ½ mile paved oval in Yakima, Washington. The 40th running of the event is slated for April 8th and 9th. Teams will be on the track Friday prior to the event to set up new cars for a run that will pay $5,000.00 to win with 200 exciting laps and live pit stops. Friday’s practice session will be free for the public to watch. The best and fastest stock cars in the Northwest will run the 200 lap main event on Sunday to determine whose name will be added to the historic winners list. B.J. Tidrick will attempt to tie his father Brad Tidrick’s 1987 and 1988 back-to-back Apple Cup wins. It will be a historic first if B.J. can pull it off. Also expected to run is Jason Jefferson, the 2003 winner and three time Apple Cup winner Garrett Evans along with Tom Sweatman, Rob Angus, Mark Owens, Mike Obrist, Dan Obrist, Christopher Kalsch, Kennewick’s own Brian McCoy, Darrell Midgley, Mark Sunburg, Kelly Mann, Jason Frasier, Steven Howard and many more are expected. Magic Metals and Les Schwab Tire Centers are sponsoring this prominent event.
On tap also will be the initial start of an ambitious season for the ever popular and growing Yakima Speedway Street Stocks and Hobby Stocks. The Northwest Legends have been invited to run this well-known event also.
Saturday will have practice, qualifying, heat races, and trophy dashes for all classes. The Super Late Models will again have qualifying 25 lap heat races. The qualifying races will set the field for the 200 lap main event to be run on Sunday. The field will be split in half according to qualifying times and odd number qualifiers will run the first heat race and their finish will make up the inside row for the main event and the even qualifiers will make up the outside row.
Speedway officials have announced an ambitious schedule for the upcoming season. The NASCAR AutoZone Northwest Series will be in town three times this season before its demise. NASCAR has announced that it will drop the series in the 2007 season. Talks are in development with several tracks in Washington, along with Yakima Speedway, to work together in keeping a touring series. As talks progress updates will be announced. The highly anticipated Northwest Late Model Challenge Series are back at Yakima Speedway this year for two dates. With over 100 teams running in the Northwest Late Model Challenge Series the last two years and a full field of cars at every event it should be two exciting races to see. The September race of the Northwest Late model Challenge Series will be with the final running of the Northwest Tour at Yakima. The ARCA Trucks will also make a double appearance at Yakima Speedway this year with side-by-side racing. The local classes of Street Stock and Hobby Stock are expected to have large fields of cars and again will join the WMRA Midgets this year to put on a great show. The weekly Yakima Speedway Late Models will be a regular Saturday night feature. The very popular and fan favorite of Hornets and Bump to Pass classes will be running a full schedule on the 1/5th mile oval located on the front stretch.
Ted Pollock is in his 41st season as owner of Yakima Speedway and looks forward to a very successful year with the managing skills of Ron Bennett. Yakima Speedway is a privately owned, tax paying business, which is proud to be the largest spectator sport in the Yakima Valley.
