ASA NORTHWEST SPRINT CAR SERIES “DON HEIN MEMORIAL” PRESENTED BY SHEDS R US AT DOUGLAS COUNTY SPEEDWAY, ROSEBURG, OREGON APRIL 26TH, 2008

Source: ASA NSRA Media Relations
Date: 04/30/2008

The 2008 Championship season has begun ! The second scheduled race of the season became the first opportunity for the teams to start their run towards the championship as well as the first chance to compete on a racetrack. Unlike Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, WA a month ago the weather cooperated in Roseburg with sunshine and a 70 + degree day for the racers. Fifteen teams from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon unloaded their sprint cars at the track and set about preparing the cars for the day’s event.

The sprint cars went through their practice sessions to both get a feel for the track and their cars. Only the # 77 car didn’t get out on the track for practice as the Mike Sullivan Sr. car was late arriving at the speedway.

Qualifying was up next for the American Speed Association/Northwest Sprint Car Association (ASA/NSRA) sprint cars at 4 PM. Fourteen cars made their qualifying laps with the #98h car driven by Matt Hein setting quick time for the day at 12.626 seconds around the three-eighths oval followed by Andy Alberding in the # 76 car, the only other one to break the twelve second barrier with a 12.828 time. All but one of the rest of the field qualified in the thirteen second range, the # 37 car driven by Jim Brock qualifying at 15.109 seconds. Jim had just purchased the car, this being his third time on the racetrack with his sprinter. While not new to paved oval racing, Jim is new to sprint cars and was still very much getting a feel for his new acquisition. The # 77 car, the only MoPar powered car, driven by Mike Sullivan Jr. arrived at the facility too late for qualifying. The track did find time to allow Mike a short session on the track to check out the car, only to have an engine failure while hot lapping the # 77 car. The engine spit a rod as evidenced by the hole in the side of the oil pan. Unfortunately, about a half lap of engine oil was laid down on the track even with Mike Jr. pulling up to the outside of the racing surface once the car lost its engine.

With qualifying over the 4 lap A and B trophy dashes were set up. The field is split in half with the four quickest cars overall making the A dash and the four quickest cars in the second half of the field slotted for the B dash. The B dash started the 25z car driven by R.J. Fronsman, the # 82 car driven by Adam Roduner, the # 4 car driven by Greg Middendorf, and the # 25j car driven by Sierra Jackson. The finishing order was the # 25z, # 82, # 25j, and # 4. Sierra Jackson swapped positions with Greg Middendorf.

The A dash started the 33j car driven by Jeff Montgomery, the # 99d car driven by Rick Brown, the # 76 car driven by Andy Alberding, and the # 98h car driven by Matt Hein. Of note in the A dash the green was waved for the 4 car field but a yellow came out aborting the start for a front row that was not tight enough for the flagman. Under the caution the # 76 car experienced failure in the driveline sending Alberding into the pits. A call quickly went out to the alternate to join the field but the # 9 car of Brett Smith declined to join the field as he had already unbuckled and was out of the car. The cars on the track were being held under caution so the # 9 team chose not to come out on the track as they felt too much time would be used up in getting the driver buckled back in and the car readied for the track. The A dash went with three cars and the finishing order was # 33j of Jeff Montgomery, # 99d car of Rick Brown, and the # 98h car of Matt Hein.

Andy Alberding’s # 76 car was found to have a crucial bolt missing from the flange that attaches the torque tube to the rearend. In the pit area the # 76 crew determined the cause, disassembled the car as necessary to get to the offending parts, cleaned up and inspected the parts affected, found the suitable length and strength fastener needed, reassembled the car and made a check out/safety run of 3 laps on the racetrack. The time needed to successfully resolve the failure caused the # 76 car to miss its scheduled heat but the car and driver were ready to compete in the main event for the night.

Next up were the 8 lap heat races. Two were scheduled for the night. The starting order for the first heat was the # 17 car of Justin Mack, # 82 car of Adam Roduner, # 25j car of Sierra Jackson, # 51 car of Jake Mann, # 33j car of Jeff Montgomery, #76 car of Andy Alberding, and the # 37 car of Jim Brock. The # 76 and # 51 did not start the race. The finishing order for heat 1 was the # 17, # 33j, # 82, # 25j, and the # 37. Justin Mack led flag to flag for the heat race.

The # 51 car of Jake Mann failed to start for the same reason that the # 76 team couldn’t. The # 51 car had the driveshaft pull out of the quick change because of too much clearance. Their team had the same failure at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe at the first scheduled race during their practice sessions but for the opposite cause. The clearance for the driveshaft was to tight allowing binding which damaged the connection to the engine crankshaft. They couldn’t make it out for their heat race but did get the car repaired and readied for the main event.

The second heat race starting order was the #99r of Cory Lockwood, # 25z car of R. J. Fronsman, # 4 car of Greg Middendorf, # 57 car of Tony Thomas, # 9 car of Brett Smith, # 99d car of Rick Brown, # 98h car of Matt Hein, and the # 77 car of Mike Sullivan Jr. Due to the earlier engine failure of the # 77 car Sullivan Jr. was out for the night. On lap two of the heat the # 4 spun in turn four ending up in the infield on a dirt berm. Caution immediately came out to slow the field with the # 4 requiring a tow truck to remove the car from the track. After the track was cleared the heat race resumed with the finishing order of #99r, # 25z, # 57, # 98h, # 99d, # 9, and # 4 . Cory Lockwood led flag to flag for this heat race.

The main event for the night was the 40 lap Don Hein Memorial starting twelve of the 15 cars. The # 4 car was out for damage caused in the second heat race. Damage found for the # 4 was a twisted up belly pan, a broken left front brake fitting at the caliper, and an unknown problem in the handling of the car. After repairs were effected on the # 4 a checkout/safety lap session on the track revealed“twitchiness” in the car that wasn’t there previously. Greg Middendorf wisely decided to park the car for the rest of the night so as not to risk himself, his car, and other competitors on the track. The # 77 car had engine failu re, # 99d car had a rough running engine. The # 99d team investigated the cause of the roughness in the engine and thought they found the problem in a loose magneto. A checkout/safety lap on the track determined they hadn’t found it yet. Further inspection in the pits revealed the # 3 exhaust rocker was loose. That ended their night as the team strongly suspected a broken roller lifter on # 3 exhaust valve. That left twelve cars for the A Main.

The starting order with an eight car inversion was # 17 of Justin Mack on the pole, outside pole # 25z of R. J. Fronsman, 2nd row inside the # 82 of Adam Roduner, outside # 25j of Sierra Jackson, 3rd row inside # 57 of Tony Thomas, outside # 9 of Brett Smith, 4th row inside # 33j of Jeff Montgomery, outside # 98h of Matt Hein, 5th row inside # 99r of Cory Lockwood outside # 76 Andy Alberding, 6th row inside # 51 of Jake Mann, outside # 37 of Jim Brock. Before the green fell during warm up laps the # 51 darted into the pits. Jake had a distinct miss in the engine. A quick search revealed the number 4 plug wire had come loose from the spark plug. The crew determined that the end of the plug wire had broken but chose to wedge it back on and send the car back out. The # 51 car resumed his place in the lineup as the green had not yet dropped. At the green the twelve cars roared into action around the three-eighths mile paved track, the # 25z car taking the lead from the # 17. Only two laps were completed before the first caution came out for a spin and crash on the backstretch involving the # 76 and # 57 cars. As a result of the incident both cars were out for the night. During the caution the crew for the # 51 car called their driver back into the pits to check the plug wi re again. Using the well documented Duct tape the plug wire was more permanently adhered to the plug. Jake made it back out to join the field for the green. Once the green flew again the 25z car held the lead hotly pursued by the # 17 car. On lap 5 the # 33j car spun in turn 4 bringing out the caution. Again the green flag flew for lap 6 with the # 25z car in the lead with the # 17 right on his tail. The 33j car having caused the caution started at the back of the field starting the job of working his way to the front. On lap twelve the # 17 used the # 37 as a pick and drove around the # 25z car for the lead. Upon assuming the l ead Justin started to put some distance on R.J. On lap 21 the # 98h car attempted to dive down inside the # 25j in turn three causing contact and spinning the # 25j and # 82 cars. The # 37 stopped short to avoid hitting the # 25j car. Because of the positioning of the three cars the push trucks and tow truck effectively blocked the track forcing a red flag condition as the sprint cars had to stop to avoid hitting the track vehicles. After clearing the track and getting all cars refired including the three cars involved in the caution, the green came out again with the #98h car being sent to the back of the field. The # 25z car attempted a pass on the leader # 17 into turn one but was unsuccessful allowing Justin to increase his lead slightly. The # 17 was slowly pulling away from the # 25z car when on lap 24 the # 25z and # 25j made contact resulting in another yellow flag. Sierra Jackson in the # 25j car had her right front tire going down resulting in her slowing on the track and R. J. in the # 25z car lost power on the back straight. Sierra couldn’t avoid R.J. resulting in contact and spin. The # 25j team suspected her right front was damaged during the earlier red flag condition of which she was involved. As a result of this caution both cars retired from the race for the night. As the green flag fell for the last time this night the # 17 led, the # 51 car in second, the # 99r car in third and in fourth the # 33j car having worked his way back through the field. Over t he course of the next number of laps the # 33j car worked his way around the # 99r then battled with the # 51 car to move into second place. The # 98h car had worked his way into 5th place but could not challenge # 99r for fourth. Over the course of the last 6 laps Justin Mack in the # 17 was dirt tracking the car off turn two and four heavily hazing the right rear tire even though he had nearly a straightaway lead over the # 33j. At the finish of forty laps Justin Mack wheeling the # 17 car took the checkered flag followed by Jeff Montgomery in the # 33j, third going to Jake Mann in the # 51 car that had surmounted numerous problems all night. Cory Lockwood in the # 99r finished fourth followed by Matt Hein in the #98h car in fifth. Adam Roduner in the # 82 finished sixth, Brett Smith in the # 9 finished seventh, and Jim Brock in the # 37 was eighth. Of the twelve cars that started the A Main eight cars finished, the rest succumbing to damage or failures. Justin’s # 17 car had severe chunking of the right rear tire across the entire surface, the left rear showed severe chunking on the inside half of the tire. Justin completely used up his rear tires. About five more laps of that abuse to the rear tires and the # 33j of Jeff Montgomery could well have been the new leader. Justin just needed forty laps to collect the win this night !

Justin Mack has been racing four years and this was his first A Main event win and by virtue of his win takes the points lead by just one point over Jeff Montgomery. Third in the early season points is Matt Hein eleven points behind the leader. In fourth sits Jake Mann, fifth Andy Alberding, sixth Adam Roduner, seventh Jim Brock, eighth Rick Brown, ninth Sierra Jackson, and rounding out the top ten Cory Lockwood. Eleventh is Brett Smith, twelfth R.J. Fronsman, thirteenth Greg Middendorf, fourteenth Tony Thomas. Mike Sullivan Jr. sits in last place after Roseburg.

Additional notes: Age and gender always seem to get extra time. Here at Roseburg Cory Lockwood was on the verge of turning 17. On raceday he was still 16 years old. He was very disappointed in his qualifying time as it was towards the back of the field. However, in his heat race he sat on the pole and led from flag to flag. In the main event he started ninth and finished fourth. He ran all forty laps plus the additional 35 laps of caution during the race and after finishing fourth the car was rolled into the trailer the same as it cam e out, on all four tires without any damage. This is Cory’s first full year in the 360 winged sprint cars and his first race with NSRA this year. Towing out to Roseburg, finishing first in his heat race and fourth in the main would count as a pretty good day in my book. As with anyone racing at this level Cory has previous experience in race cars but only three previous races in the winged sprinter prior to the Don Hein Memorial race in Roseburg. This writer would have to say: Job well done !

The other young racer is Sierra Jackson, age 15 working on 16 this year. This is her second full year in the winged sprinters. While she didn’t have quite the success as Cory did she qualified 8th and held her own very well until circumstances caused her to retire from the race. Owner of the # 25j, Mike Jackson, has switched to Ford power for this year. He was convinced by long time friend and wrench turner on the car, Jim Burrow to try out the Blue Oval. The season will tell the tale for the Ford.

Both Cory and Sierra intend to run the full schedule of the ASA Northwest Sprint Car Series for 2008. Two highly motivated, determined, and focused young individuals adding an extra dimension to ASA/NSRA.

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