ASA NORTHWEST SPRINT CAR SERIES MAKES ITS FINAL STOP FOR 2008 AT DOUGLAS COUNTY SPEEDWAY FOR THE RUNNING OF THE ART POLLARD MEMORIAL

Under sunny skies and mid 80 degree weather twelve teams from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington unloaded their sprint cars from their haulers to make ready for the day’s competition. Three practice sessions were scheduled for the ASA/NSRA sprint cars with two teams having issues in the very first practice session. The #25j of Sierra Jackson had the front driveshaft coupling shear shortening her session by several minutes. Back in the pits the #25j crew swarmed over the car to get the broken piece removed and a new one installed to have her ready for the next practice session. Her next two practice sessions went without incident making her ready for qualifying and racing. Not so fortunate in the first practice session was Rick Brown wheeling the #77 car owned by Mike Sullivan. During the first practice session Rick was black flagged for a wobbling right rear tire. Rick brought the car in the pits to get the right rear changed and made it back out for the end of the practice session. He was the only car on the track as the others had pulled in from their practice. At the completion of his first lap the right rear axle snapped sending the #77 into the outside wall under the flagman’s stand, the car scraping along the wall leaving the right rear wheel along with part of the axle attached sitting in the middle of the racetrack. The track safety and emergency crews immediately responded to the crash with Brown removing himself from the car. Brown was escorted to the ambulance for a required checkout and found to be okay. Meanwhile his car required two tow trucks to remove the extensively damaged sprinter from the racing surface. A carefully managed ballet of a tow truck at each end of the car, one backing up while the other moving forward with the sprint car between the two saw the car make it back to the pits and deposited to the #77’s pit area. A call went out to Jim Diemert for his sprint car to be brought to the track to swap engines from car to car to have a race ready sprint car for Rick Brown to run. The replacement car&nb sp; arrived pitside within an hour to receive the engine from the severely wounded #77. Brown stated he thought they would be ready for the main event but was unsure about heat races. With a small army of people, some from the teams of the #99r and #76, the #77 was stripped of its wings, body panels, and all else in the way of engine removal. By the time the replacement chassis arrived the #77 was ready for engine removal. The new chassis, #99d, was positioned to receive the engine, a tow truck was brought over to the teams pit area to be used as an engine hoist, and the engine was transferred from one to the other. All the attending mechanical and safety systems were fitted to the replacement chassis with a close inspection of the entire car to ensure it was r eady for a firing of the engine on the track to check for leaks then back out on the track for a number of checkout laps for both the car and driver. All this was done in time to allow Rick Brown to qualify the car! The assistance from other teams demonstrates yet again the ASA/NSRA teams are one big family ready to help each other whenever the need arises.

The next two practice sessions went without incident with the teams making adjustments to their cars knowing the track would be greasy under the sun’s intensity but the A Main would be run under night time conditions with a tightening track surface.

Qualifying was set for 6 PM for the ASA/NSRA teams. Eventual quick qualifier Andy Alberding in the #76 was third in line to take to the track clicking off a 12.658 second lap. Jake Mann in the #51 was second quick with a 12.779 lap, Matt Hein in the #98h third quick at 12.863 and Justin Mack, driver of the #17 fourth quick timing in with a 12.900 lap. Rick Brown having a different car under him, the #99d, grabbed fifth quick time with a 12.918. One half of the teen machine, teenager Cory Lockwood wheeling the #99r was the last of drivers to circulate the three-eighths oval under thirteen seconds with a 12.972 second lap. The other half of the teen machine, Sierra Jackson in the #25j could only manage a 13.432 secon d lap. The top four in season points became the top four in qualifying this day. Six cars broke the twelve second barrier with the balance of the field in the thirteen second range.

The two Trophy Dashes were served up next to the crowd with the B Trophy Dash first on the docket. Lining up on the pole was the #37 of Jim Brock, outside the #82 of Adam Roduner, second row inside Sierra Jackson in the #25j, outside Greg Middendorf in the #4. At the drop of the green Roduner drove around the outside of Brock in turn one taking the lead out of turn two. Following Roduner was Middendorf passing Brock through turn two to take away second from Brock. Coming off turn four Jackson got around Brock to grab third place. With only three laps left Middendorf attempted to challenge Roduner but didn’t have the laps to make a pass. Roduner went a little high in turns one and two of the third lap but retained his lead down the backstretch and on to the checkered flag. The finish of the B Trophy Dash had Adam Roduner in the #82 car first, followed closely by Greg Middendorf in the #4, with the #25j of Sierra Jackson in third, and Jim Brock in the #37 fourth.

The A Trophy Dash saw the four quickest qualifiers and on this day the top four in season points go head to head for four laps. On the pole was Justin Mack in the #17, outside Matt Hein in the #98h, inside second row the #51 of Jake Mann, outside Andy Alberding in the #76. With the green flag waving Hein demonstrated his cars’ handling, driving around the outside of Mack in turns one and two taking the lead down the backstretch on lap one. Alberding had taken over third place from Mann on lap one as well. Mack couldn’t challenge Hein for first but Alberding was trying hard to take away second from Mack. Alberding was smoking his right rear off turns two and four in an effort to catch Mack but ran out of laps. At the checkered Matt Hein in the #98h easily took first with Justin Mack in the #17 finishing second, Andy Alberding in the #76 settling for third and Jake Mann finishing fourth.

Trophy presentations for both Trophy Dashes were made by Mike Pollard, son of legendary Indy 500 driver Art Pollard. As is customary by ASA/NSRA drivers before the start of each Trophy Dash the cars lined up four wide in a tribute to the fans and to the memory of Art Pollard.

With the Trophy Dashes completed the Heats were next up. Two eight lap Heat races were scheduled with Heat One having the #37 of Jim Brock on the pole, outside Sierra Jackson in the #25j, second row inside Todd Coleman in the #44, outside the #99r of Cory Lockwood, inside third row the #17 of Justin Mack, and outside Jake Mann in the #51. At the drop of the green both Jackson and Lockwood wasted little time driving around the outside of Brock in turns one and two taking over first and second. Down the backstretch Mann drove around Brock as well to take away third. By turn three of the first lap Mack had gotten around Brock as well moving Brock back to fifth and Mack to fourth. At the start finish line of the first lap Coleman passed Brock for fifth. During lap two Mann drove around Lockwood to take over second place. Mann then proceeded to work on closing the distance to first place Jackson. Mack, in fourth place, was working on Lockwood for third. On lap six Lockwood ended up too low in turn four hooking his left front on the edge of the pavement causing him a very short tour of the infield. Mack seized the opportunity to pass Lockwood to take over third. Lockwood recovered to hold fourth for the last lap, while Mann attempted vainly to catch Jackson for first smoking his right rear nearly every lap off of turns two and four. The finishing order for Heat One had the #25j of Sierra Jackson in first, Jake Mann piloting the #51 in second, the #17 of Justin Mack in third, Cory Lockwood in the #99r recovering to hold onto fourth, the #44 of Todd Coleman in fifth and Jim Brock in the #37 sixth.

Heat two brought out the #82 of Adam Roduner on the pole, the #4 of Greg Middendorf outside, R. J. Fronsman in the #25z inside second row, outside Rick Brown in the #99d, third row inside Matt Hein in the #98h and outside the #76 of Andy Alberding. The green flag unfurled over the field with Roduner retaining the lead through turns one and two but being seriously challenged by Middendorf. Down the backstretch of lap one Middendorf and Roduner briefly touched wheels with Middendorf backing off ever so slightly. The first lap had Roduner, Middendorf and Fronsman nose to tail with second and third both wanting the top spot. At the start of lap two Hein began seriously challenging Fronsman for third. Coming out of turn two Hein attempted to slide under Fronsman unsuccessfully. By lap four Roduner had started to stretch out his lead over second place Middendorf and third place Fronsman. Hein continued to challenge Fronsman for third while Fronsman was challenging Middendorf for second. Brown was holding down fifth with Alberding in sixth. The last four laps saw no change in the positions on the track producing the second win of the night for the #82 of Adam Roduner, he having won his Trophy Dash as well. Second to Roduner was Greg Middendorf in the #4, third went to R. J. Fronsman in the #25z, fourth to the #98h of Mann Hein, fifth to Rick Brown in the #99d and sixth to the #76 of Andy Alberding.

For the Art Pollard Memorial A Main the race teams had decisions to make. The sun bathed track had given way to night time cooling of the surface. The teams knew the hot greasy track would tighten up with the cooler asphalt. Adjustments were being made in the many teams pit areas to compensate. Adam Roduner in the #82 was wondering if he’d be able to pull off a hat trick by winning all three races he was in, having already won his Trophy Dash and his Heat race. With the top eight positions inverted the starting grid revealed the #44 of Todd Coleman on the pole, outside pole to R. J. Fronsman in the #25z, inside second row Cory Lockwood in the #99r outside the #99d of Rick Brown, third row inside Justin Mack in the #17, outside the #98h of Matt Hein, fourth row inside Jake Mann in the #51, outside Andy Alberding in the #76, fifth row inside Greg Middendorf in the #4, outside the #25j of Sierra Jackson, sixth row inside Adam Roduner in the #82 and outside the #37 of Jim Brock. With twelve sets of top wings tightly grouped two by two Coleman brought the field to the green. Coleman held his lead through the first lap with Fronsman and Lockwood tight to Coleman in second and third. Hein had quickly moved from sixth to fourth in the first lap passing both Mack and Brown. In turns one and two of the second lap Hein moved around the outside of Lockwood to take over third place down the backstretch. Lap three saw Hein dive down to the inside of Fronsman in tur n one to take over second. Lap four Hein slipped underneath Coleman in turns three and four to take the lead! In just four laps on the three-eighths oval Hein had moved from sixth to first. By lap four Alberding had moved up from his eighth starting position to take over fifth having passed Mann, Mack and Brown. During lap four the caution flew for the #99d of Rick Brown, Rick having slowed substantially on the track. Brown left the track during the caution. ASA/NSRA resets the field to the last full lap completed during a caution which moved Hein back one position to second behind Coleman. At the green Hein quickly disposed of Coleman to resume the lead. During laps five and six Alberding worked over Lockwood to wrestle fourth away. At the end of lap six Alberding made the pass stick and assumed the fourth position. Justin Mack in the #17 had not been able to advance his position actually losing one slot to find himself in sixth place. On lap seven the caution unfurled again for the #37 spinning on the backstretch just out of turn two. Brock spun the car on his own having no interference from others on the track. During this caution the #99d of Rick Brown returned to the track. The #99d would not cooperate with its push off, the car refusing to fire. Brown rolled back off the track to the pits h is race done for the night. At the green Hein again jumped out to a comfortable lead while Alberding advanced his position to third passing Fronsman by lap nine. Coleman was holding second but not for long as Alberding was coming fast. By lap eleven Alberding had moved around Coleman to take over second. Both Fronsman and Lockwood had also gotten around Coleman to take over third and fourth, Coleman sliding back to fifth. Mann had gotten the jump on Mack on the latest restart but by lap eleven Mack had moved around Mann to retake the sixth position. Mann started sliding backwards in the field over the next several laps. Over the next two laps both the #37 of Jim Brock and the # 8 2 of Adam Roduner were in danger of being lapped by the leader Matt Hein. On lap thirteen Roduner left the race track, again a victim of the same problem he had at Wenatchee three weeks earlier. The engine was not getting fuel resulting in the engine not accelerating the car off the turns. The #82 was done for the night his hopes of a hat trick gone. On lap fourteen Hein put the #37 of Brock a lap down. The leader had been running away from not only Alberding but the rest of the field as well. The very next lap Mann was in jeopardy of losing a lap to Hein. On lap twenty-four the #17 of Justin Mack left the tra ck. Mack was the victim of a severely damaged right rear tire showing not just blistering but cords on the entire inside edge of the tire as well as across the tread of the tire. With Mack out this advanced Middendorf to sixth, Jackson to seventh, Mann to eighth and Brock to ninth. Middendorf had been working over Coleman hard to try to take away fifth but could not get around Coleman over several laps. Lockwood had been trying to move into position to challenge Fronsman for third but could not get to him. A battle had developed with the sixth, seventh, and eighth place cars of Middendorf, Jackson and Mann. Positions didn’t change but the cars were nose to tail for several laps. By lap thirty the l eader Hein was ready to put a lap on eighth place Mann. Hein lightly touched Mann coming off of turn four due to his being so much quicker than the rest of the field. Easing off momentarily Hein went around Mann on lap thirty-one to put Mann a lap down. Shortly thereafter Hein went around Jackson putting her a lap down as well. The next car on Hein’s hit list to lap was the #4 of Middendorf. On lap thirty-four Brock nearly spun coming off turn two on the back stretch but managed to gather it up and continue. Lap thirty-six saw Middendorf make one more try to get past Coleman coming off turn two without success. Hein was right behind Middendorf and Coleman while the two were battling for fifth and sixth. Hein chose to ease up a little and follow the #4 and #44 the last four laps of the race. Hein had a half lap on second place Alberding feeling comfortable to stay behind Middendorf and Coleman rather than risking an incident in trying to lap the two cars directly ahead of him. Matt Hein driving the #98h car took the checkered in dominating fashion followed by Andy Alberding in the #76. R. J. Fronsman finished third in the #25z, Cory Lockwood fourth in the #99r, fifth to the #44 of Todd Coleman, sixth to Greg Middendorf in the #4, seventh to Sierra Jackson in the #25j a lap down, eighth to the #51 of Jake Mann a lap down, ninth to Jim Brock in the #37 four laps down. Ninth t hru twelve places were all DNFs with Justin Mack in the #17 finishing tenth having to leave the track on lap twenty-four due to a severely damaged right rear tire, Adam Roduner in eleventh leaving the track on lap twelve due to continuing fuel delivery issues in his #82 car, and Rick Brown twelfth leaving the track on lap three with mechanical failure.

With Matt Hein’s dominating win, Justin Mack’s tenth place finish, Andy Alberding’s second place finish, and Jake Mann’s eighth place finish the season championship positions for the top four have changed again. Leaving Wenatchee, WA Justin Mack had taken the lead by four points over Jake Mann. Matt Hein had the third position in season points trailing Mann by just one point. Andy Alberding was fourth in points. Hein’s finish at Roseburg moves him to first in points with 401, followed by Alberding moving back up to second from fourth with 385. Mann slipped one position to third but only one point behind Alberding with 384. With Mack’s dismal finish he has slipped from first to fourth in season points with 379. Even though the top four have traded positions the gap in points from first to fourth is only twenty-two points with a razor thin gap between second and third of only one point! Fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth have tightened up their points battle, as well as closing in on fourth place. Sierra Jackson retains her fifth place with 345 but by just a single point over Cory Lockwood having 344 points. Seventh in season points is held by R. J. Fronsman with 333. In eighth place is Greg Middendorf having earned 315 po ints. Fifth through eighth are separated by only thirty points. In ninth is Adam Roduner with 270 points and rounding out the top ten is Rick Brown with 241.

The next race for American Speed Association Northwest Sprint Car Series featuring the ASA/NSRA drivers is August 9th at Ephrata Raceway Park located in Ephrata, WA with the running of the Rebel Jackson Memorial at the high banked quarter-mile track. With a local sprint car series being run at Ephrata Raceway Park a large field is expected and ASA/NSRA drivers will need to be at there best to maintain or improve their season points standing. < /P>