MATT HEIN WINS THE REBEL JACKSON MEMORIAL

EPHRATA, Washington — Matt Hein finds the checkers again for his second win of the 2009 American Speed Association/Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association championship season continuing to hold his points lead after a disastrous finish at Spokane Raceway Park just two weeks ago while leading that race and experiencing a cut down left rear resulting in a crash into the front stretch wall. Jeff Montgomery continues to keep himself close in the points race with a strong finish at both Spokane and Ephrata.

Hein ripped around the quarter-mile high banked Ephrata Raceway Park qualifying second quick with a 12.711 lap. Quick qualifier belonged to Drew Church, not having been in a sprint car in nearly two years, and bringing out a new car, its first race here. Church clicked off a 12.572 over a tenth quicker than Hein demonstrating he hasn’t lost his touch for driving or for prepping his car. Montgomery found qualifying not to his liking circulating the track with only a 13.089 settling for 12th quick.

For the fifty lap feature with an eight car invert Hein found himself in seventh on the starting grid while Montgomery sat on the outside of the front row, Tony Berry sitting on the pole. At the drop of the green Montgomery powered around Berry on the outside of the first turn taking the lead through turn two. Hein started his relentless move towards the front picking off, Mack, Veenstra, Alberding, and Berry to move into third within several laps. Lockwood had moved up from his sixth starting spot to take over second. Montgomery stretched his lead at times out to a half lap over Hein and Lockwood. Only when Montgomery came up to lap traffic would Hein and Lockwood be able to close the gap on him. Lockwood and Hein started a continuous tussle for second over numerous laps with Lockwood holding second. By lap twenty-five both Lockwood and Hein had caught Montgomery making for a three way battle for first. Lockwood managed to get around Montgomery to take the lead only to go high in turns three and four a few laps later to be passed by Hein. Lap thirty-one brought out the first of two yellow flags for an incident involving Britt Lorentzen spinning on the front stretch collecting Lockwood with Alberding jumping Lockwood’s left rear tire. Both Lockwood and Alberding left the track to check for damage Lockwood having a bent left rear radius arm and Alberding having to replace a front torsion arm. Both returned to the track under the caution. Lorentzen pushed off to return to the rear of the field. As the green flag unfurled signaling the end of the caution Montgomery held the lead over Hein. Montgomery held the lead for the next several laps but Hein was now challenging for first. Hein took the lead away from Montgomery in traffic; starting to pull away. Montgomery could not keep up with Hein on an open track only closing the gap when Hein encountered traffic. What was thought to be a right rear tire gone away on Montgomery’s car was in fact a fastener on the rear panhard bar that backed off leaving the handling far less than satisfactory. With the panhard bar not secured on the left side only the disc brake rotor kept the bar in place cutting a deep groove in the panhard bar. Lockwood and Alberding starting from the rear of the field started working their way forward but would not be a factor in the finish. Drew Church had quietly worked his way forward over the course of the race to find himself in the top three.

Lap forty-one brought out the second caution for Jeff Bird and Kenny Hamilton making contact in turn two both spinning down to the infield on the backstretch. The restart would position Hein and Montgomery with open track but with Montgomery’s panhard bar failure he could not keep up with Hein. Church was mired in traffic in third and would not be able to catch Montgomery to challenge for second.

At the checkers Hein took the win with Montgomery second, Church third, Cody Veenstra fourth, Mike Fought finished in fifth.

After the race Jeff Montgomery commented he was lucky to finish the race let alone hold on to second with the panhard bar issue on his car. Montgomery stated, “We were just plain lucky this time.”