Source: Andrew Kunas
Date: 03/31/2007

MONROE, Washington -- The ASA-sanctioned Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association is set to kick off its 2007 season with the annual Doug James Memorial this Saturday at Washington speed plant Evergreen Speedway.

Hopefully, they will race this time.

In an improbable string of bad luck, the Doug James Memorial has been knocked out by the rain three straight years, along with the 125-lap stock car event the ASA/NSRA shared the card with. Sprint car and stock car drivers alike who plan to race this weekend are hoping that streak ends on Saturday.

ASA/NSRA drivers in particular are eager to start, as the series will most likely crown a champion different from the one they did last year. Victoria, British Columbia driver Jeff Montgomery won three straight races at the end of the season to win his first ASA/NSRA title. The reigning champion, however, is scaling back his schedule in 2007 to spend more time with his family.

Pat Bliss of West Linn, Oregon has re-united with former car owner Jim Helm to go after their second series championship after winning it in 2003 and just narrowly losing it to Rick Brown in the final race of the 2004 season. Back together, Bliss and Helm are expected to again be a very potent combination.

Having been one of the top drivers in the series for a number of years now, Roseburg, Ore. driver Andy Alberding is looking to break through for his first championship. Having won five career ASA/NSRA main events, Alberding is looking for his first win at Evergreen.

After going through a rough 2005 season and then losing the title in the last week of the season in 2006, Craig Deaver of Sumner, Wash. is expected to arrive at Evergreen and try to use it as a launch pad for his attempt at his second series championship after first winning it in 2001. Deaver was dominating the series last year, winning several races, until Montgomerys stunning charge at the end of the year ended Deavers bid. Deaver has been fast at Evergreen, becoming one of the first drivers to ever get into the 18-second bracket around the large, fast .646-mile, semi-banked asphalt oval in 2003.

Several other drivers are expected to compete, including Monte Zema Jr., who scored his first ASA/NSRA win last May at South Sound Speedway near Tenino, Wash. Eastern Washington driver Justin Mack is searching for his first win as is Oregons Matt Hein.

The last time the ASA/NSRA was able to run the Doug James Memorial was in 2003, and fans were thrilled by the performance Trevor Montgomery, Jeffs brother, gave them. With Seattle area driver Drew Church seemingly unreachable with just a lap to go around the large .646-mile asphalt oval, four-time series champion Montgomery roared his way around the Super Speedway of the West to catch Church and pass him coming out of turn four for the stunning victory.

For Montgomery, that win at the Monroe track was a long time coming. After at first winning the 2002 Doug James Memorial, Montgomery was disqualified for a rules violation. In both races the ASA/NSRA ran in Monroe in 2001 Montgomery lost the lead after cutting down a rear tire and his comeback bid in the August race that year came up only a car length short, losing to Rick Brown.

Brown, the 14-time open wheel champion out of Oregon, won the Doug James Memorial in 2001 and also received credit for the win after Montgomerys disqualification in 2002. His bid at a fourth straight ASA/NSRA win on the Monroe oval ended when mechanical problems forced him off the track in the 2003 Doug James Memorial.

In 2000, Geoff Wade narrowly held off future World of Outlaws star Jason Solwold, long a master of Northwest dirt tracks, for the win in the Doug James Memorial.

The Doug James Memorial is the first of two events the ASA/NSRA has scheduled at Evergreen Speedway this year. The other is Saturday, September 15, two weeks before the NSRA closes the season with a two-night event at Meridian Speedway near Boise, Idaho. After the Doug James Memorial, the next scheduled event is the Don Hein Casey Diemert Memorial Classic at Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Ore. on April 28.

Track activities will start early on Saturday, with pit gates opening at 11 a.m. Practice for the ASA/NSRA, as well as the local super stock class, is scheduled from 1:00 p.m. to 3:35. Front gates will open for spectators at 3:30 and qualifying is expected to start at 4:00 with heat races starting just after 5:30.

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