HEIN STAYS HOT, WINS DIAMOND CUP

MERIDIAN, Idaho — Matt Hein must be in his prime. By a slim margin, the Roseburg, Ore., sprintcar won a diamond ring Saturday night as the top point-getter during the two-day Hendrickson’s Fine Jewelers Diamond Cup at ASA-sanctioned Meridian Speedway.

Hein won Friday’s 40-lap main event -- his third victory in the past five ASA Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association races -- and finished fourth behind Saturday night winner Jeff Montgomery of Victoria, British Columbia, in a 50-lap event that started off in rocky fashion.

A Turn 1 accident on the first lap took out at least three competitors, including fast-time qualifier Chris Ratterree of Nampa, Idaho.

“I feel bad for that first-lap deal,” Hein said after the race, “but I’m pretty excited to take home the ring and can’t wait to come back in September and hopefully then we can win a couple more.”

The defending series champion, Hein won the Diamond Cup ring by two points over Montgomery, 121-119. Ironically, the two men swapped finishes 24 hours apart. On Friday, it was Hein winning and Montgomery crossing the line fourth.

In other feature races, Dennis Brodigan nipped Les Schild at the line after ripping through the infield on Turn 4 on the 25th and final lap in Super Stocks. Kuna, Idaho’s Jaramie Fuss (Street Stocks), Meridian, Idaho’s Wyatt King (Non-Wing Sprints) and Travis Pavlacky (Hornets) also picked up victories.

The two-day Diamond Cup marked the start of the ASA NSRA season. The sprintcars visit Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg on June 13. They'll return to Meridian for a Sept. 25-26 championship weekend.

On Saturday, Montgomery passed Emmett, Idaho’s Cody Veenstra about 10 laps into the race and built as big as a four-second cushion stretching over a straightaway on the Meridian quarter-mile.

Based on his comments in what the Canadian called “Victory Square”, it sounded as if the dominating win came as a bit of a surprise.

“We struggled all weekend and saw the heat races and thought we were so done. They were too fast for us,” he said.

Nampa’s Cory Lockwood passed Veenstra for second place on Lap 33, but Veenstra held off Hein to put two Treasure Valley drivers in the top three.

But Veenstra said yellow flags, such as the one that came out when Roseburg’s Andy Alberding slowed in Turn 4 halfway through Saturday‘s main, hampered his effort.

“The long runs actually helped us, I think,” he said. “It was the yellows that killed us last night and tonight. The yellows come out and the tires go away, and it takes us eight to 10 laps to come back.”

The local contingent tried its best to knock off Jeff Bird of Lake Shawnigan, B.C., in the ASA NSRA A Heat. Bird held off Veenstra, who had drawn side-by-side several times throughout the eight-lap race, including heading into Turn 3 on the final lap. Ratterree, who ran a 12.046 qualifying lap, was third. Veenstra and Ratterree shot past Matt Mansell of Victoria, B.C., to move into second and third, respectively, and set up a breakaway with Bird.

The B Heat also had a familiar ring to it. Alberding, Hein, and Montgomery all flew past Nampa's Steve Freeman on Lap 4 to set up the finish. Alberding, who won the 2007 season championship, held off Hein for the win.

Lynnwood, Wash., driver Todd Coleman stretched out to a two-second lead to win the sprintcar C Heat. Middleton, Idaho's Sierra Jackson, who had her regular sprintcar totaled in a frightening wreck in Friday's 40-lap main, drove her non-winged entry (with a wing) to collect points. She went off the track after the first lap of the heat race, but returned for the main.

In the wildest finish of the night, Super Stocks racer Dennis Brodigan went dirt-tracking in Turns 3-4 of the 25th and final lap when he and race leader Gale Carter of Boise skidded sideways. Carter stalled, but Brodigan was able to fishtail through the dusty infield and make it to the start-finish line just ahead of Les Schild.

Schild was making his 2009 season debut.

"First and foremost, I would like to apologize to Gale Carter," Brodigan said afterward. "That's not the best way to win a main event. I stuck it in hard. It wasn't clean, but it was a win."

There was plenty of excitement before Brodigan and Carter skidded to a stop on the final lap. The two front-runners had created a breakaway, leaving everyone else to jockey for position. Schild and Kyle Burril of Boise swapped third and fourth, with Schild moving into third place at about the 20th lap after a few laps of side-by-side racing.

In the Street Stocks feature, Fuss rolled to his first main event win of the season.

“I had a great time,” Fuss said. “There were 19 or 20 cars, and it’s fun to race with a big group.”

A Street Stocks rivalry may be brewing between Fuss and Meridian, Idaho’s Dave Short. In the first main event earlier this season, the two made contact while running as also-rans.

Saturday, Short chased down Fuss and tried to pass on the low side and the high side during a multi-lap duel. Short’s pursuit ended when he tried to complete a pass on the lapped car of Grand View, Idaho’s Bill Lawrence in Turn 1 on Lap 26. Short’s spin brought out a yellow, and he had to go to the rear of the field, a demotion from which he never recovered.

Fuss got a big jump on the field on the restart, leaving second-place Micky Lawson of Caldwell, Idaho, behind and cruising to the victory.

In the 30-lap Non-Winged Sprint main, recent Meridian High School graduate King endured a red flag and a yellow flag in the final eight laps to win his second feature race of the year at his hometown track.

The race stalled on Lap 22 when Kole Bushman slammed into the Turn 1 wall after making contact with Doyle Hartman. Hartman had led the race before he and Johnny Giesler of Meridian touched while battling for the lead on the 15th lap.

After the Giesler-Hartman mishap, King rolled out to a four-second lead before Bushman's wreck brought out a red flag.

King's cushion diminished again on Lap 26 when a yellow was thrown after 14-year-old Alyson Clark of Meridian spun out in Turn 4.

But King was able to hold off Nampa's Rob Grice in a side-by-side restart to win. Giesler, who had to go to the back of the field twice, worked his way into a third-place finish.

In the Hornets race, Pavlacky showed off some daredevil moves on the way to an easy victory in the 30-lap feature. Enjoying a three-second lead over Payette, Idaho's Tyler Saxton, Pavlacky sliced between the lapped race cars of Tony Johns and Jason Becker in a tight zig-zag maneuver in Turn 3 on Lap 16.