Matt Hein wins the 3rd running of the Rory Price Memorial !

The American Speed Association/Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association (ASA/NSRA) teams returned to Evergreen Speedway for the third running of the Rory Price Memorial (RPM).  Rory lost his life in a testing accident March 31, 2006 at Evergreen Speedway.  Close friends and relatives made a commitment to honor Rory Price thus the RPM was born.  With this third running of the Rory Price Memorial organizers have worked hard to make this a premier event for open wheeled racers, a race that teams want to come participate in to honor the memory of Rory Price.  Event organizers certainly did that by nearly quadrupling the winner’s purse and providing product donated from manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for each racer in attendance.  An extra 1000 dollars was put up if the quick qualifier would start at the back of the field and win.  That challenge was accepted by the quick qualifier of the night. 

Hein started the twenty car, thirty lap A Main in sixth position as a result of a twelve-car invert sandwiched amongst numerous tough competitors.  Ahead of Hein sat Robby Vaughn in the #8, R. J. Fronsman in the #25z, Robert Beck in the #3 and Matt Mansell in the #14.  Behind Hein was Justin Mack in the #17, Mike Basher in the #13, Sierra Jackson in the #25j, Andy Alberding in the #76, and Jeff Montgomery in the #33j.  The quick qualifier of the night, Randy Bauer in the #5 started dead last in twentieth position.    With the drop of the green Vaughn in the #8 took the lead into turn one with Hein making his move on the outside through turns one and two to take over the second position.  Beck powered his way into third moving Fronsman back a position to fourth.  The pole sitter, Dunlap in the #15 was being quickly shuffled backwards.  Mansell had moved forward getting around Fronsman to take over fourth, Basher had moved to sixth from his eighth starting position and the #33j of Montgomery had worked his way up to seventh, advancing five positions when the first caution came out on lap four for the #5 of Randy Bauer ending his opportunity to collect an extra thousand dollars.  Bauer had a repeat of his heat race after just four laps wherein the car would lose forward momentum.  The engine would free rev, causing Bauer to shut it down.  This time he coasted around the track bringing out the caution.  During the caution the #01 of Root left the track as well, a victim of an overheating engine, Root commenting he was seeing 260 degrees on the gauge.  The green flag waved again on lap four as the #8 of Vaughn held the top spot followed by Hein, Beck, Mansell, Fronsman, Basher, and Montgomery.  Hein went to work on Vaughn repeatedly attempting to pass both on the outside in the turns and the inside.  On lap eight Hein again tried Vaughn on the high side but got loose and Mansell seized the opportunity to slide under Hein to take away second.  On lap twenty Vaughn started having push problems in his car and lost the top spot to Mansell as well as second to Hein, Vaughn sitting now in third place.  With twenty-one laps complete Basher in the #13 spun in turn three bringing out the caution for only the second time.  Basher spun on his own a power steering pump failure causing his wheels to lock hard left.  With the field reformed the green waved again with Mansell leading, Hein second, and Vaughn third.  Vaughn drove into turn one hard on the outside and lost it hitting the wall bringing out the caution again.  After the race Vaughn reported, “ I went into turn one on the outside and the car just wouldn’t turn”.  Reforming the field Mansell led, with Hein second, but now Beck sat in third with Montgomery in fourth.  On the restart the field made it though turns one and two but by the third turn the #15 of Dunlap was coasting on the inside of the track bringing out the caution again.  The green flag unfurled yet again for lap twenty-one and Hein started to work on Mansell for the top spot.  On lap twenty-four Hein dove down inside Mansell in turn one but couldn’t get under him and had to back out allowing Montgomery to close up right on his tail.  Hein spent the next two laps catching back up to Mansell and tried him on the outside going into turn one on lap twenty-six but again failed to get around.  Working hard again to close up on Mansell, Hein finally got around Mansell going into turn one on lap twenty-eight using lapped traffic as a pick to take over the top spot.  Less than two laps later Matt Hein took the checkered flag with Mansell in second, Montgomery in third, Beck in fourth, and Fronsman in fifth.  Sixth went to Jackson, her first time on the five-eighths oval, seventh to Coleman, eighth to Mack, ninth to Alberding, tenth to Brown who had repaired the car from damage received in Heat One.  Eleventh through fifteenth were Zema Jr., Smith, DuBois, Davies, and Brock.  The last five sixteenth through twentieth Dunlap, Vaughn, Basher, Bauer, and Root did not finish.

No trophy dashes were run which provided the eight lap heat races as the first taste of competition for the twenty-one drivers.  Heat one proved detrimental for two drivers.  The start of the heat had Dunlap (#15) on the pole, then Middendorf (#4), Fronsman (#25z), Brown (#99d), Basher (#13), Alberding (#76), and Brock (#37).  At the green Middendorf moved into first in turn one followed by Brown into second.  Alberding moved up to third within two laps getting around Basher, Fronsman, and Dunlap.  Brown was challenging Middendorf on laps three and four and finally got a good run out of turn four attempting to pass Middendorf on the outside down the front stretch.  Brown and Middendorf touched wheels on the front stretch sending both into spins in turn one.  The red flag waved over the field bringing all cars to a stop on the front stretch.  Middendorf impacted the turn one wall heavily doing significant damage to his car.  Middendorf’s tail cone was moved over substantially leaking methanol.  His chassis had bent from the motorplate back with the rear suspension completely torn up.  Both drivers were out of their cars quickly as the safety, emergency, and fire crews arrived.  Middendorf’s car was finished for the night, but the #99d of Brown was set upon by the crew as soon as it touched down in it’s pit stall to access and then repair the damage to be ready for the A Main.  With the wreckage cleared and the track cleaned up the cars were pushed off now with Alberding leading followed by Fronsman, Basher, Dunlap, and Brock.  The last four laps saw no change in positions.

Heat two had DuBois (#7) on the pole then Smith (#97s), Beck (#3), Hein (#98h), Jackson (#25j), Montgomery (#33j), and Root (#01).  At the green Beck made a daring move driving down inside the pole sitter into turn one coming out of turn two with the lead.  Just as one lap was completed the yellow waved for the #01 of Root, he coasting in to the pits.  On the restart Beck lead with DuBois next then Smith, Hein, Jackson, and Montgomery.  On the restart Smith, Hein, Jackson, and Montgomery quickly moved around DuBois.  Hein set his sights on Smith for second while Jackson and Montgomery tussled for fourth.  At the start/finish line on lap four Hein moved around Smith to take over second, a lap later Jackson and then Montgomery moved around Smith taking over the third and fourth places.  Hein challenged Beck for the top spot over the next two laps and made one last attempt to take the lead coming off turn four on the final lap.  The finish was very close but Beck held on for the win followed by Hein, Jackson, Montgomery, Smith, and DuBois. 

Heat three had Zema Jr. (#82) on the pole then Vaughn (#8), Mansell (#14), Mack (#17), Coleman (#44), fast qualifier Bauer (#5), and Davies (#46).  At the drop of the green Zema, Vaughn, and Mansell went into turn one three wide with Vaughn taking the lead out of turn two down the backstretch followed by Mack.  Bauer had moved into third place on the backstretch of lap one.  At the start of lap two Bauer moved around Mack to take second with his sights set on Vaughn for the lead.  Out of turn two Bauer moved around Vaughn to take the lead.  At the completion of lap four Bauer suddenly slowed into turn one bringing out the caution, his car coasting down the backstretch and requiring a push truck to get the rest of the way around the track to the pits.  With the #5 cleared the field reformed with Vaughn again in the lead, followed by Mack, Zema Jr., Mansell, Coleman, and Davies.  In the remaining four laps Mansell moved up to second putting Mack back to third, Coleman moved up to fourth with Zema Jr. getting moved all the way back to fifth.  Vaughn took the checkered followed by Mansell, Mack, Coleman, Zema Jr., and Davies.  

Twenty-one cars would take the green for qualifying.  The fast qualifier, Randy Bauer in the #5 clicked off a 19.328 second lap, nearly two-tenths quicker than second quick Jeff Montgomery in the #33j with a lap time of 19.502.  Third went to the #76 of Andy Alberding: 19.615, fourth #44 of Todd Coleman; 19.645, fifth #25j of Sierra Jackson, her first time on this track; 19.778, sixth #13 Mike Basher; 19.803, seventh #17 Justin Mack; 19.914, eighth #98h Matt Hein; 19.937, ninth #99d Rick Brown; 19.990, tenth #14 Matt Mansell; 20.145, eleventh #3 Robert Back; 20.392, twelfth #25z R. J. Fronsman; 20.411, thirteenth #8 Robby Vaughn; 20.600, fourteenth #97s Brian Smith; 20.678, fifteenth  #4 Greg Middendorf; 20.716, seventeenth #7 Randy DuBois; 20.914, eighteenth #15 Dan Dunlap; 22.198, nineteenth #46 Larry Davies; 24.273,  twentieth #01 Rally Root; 24.505, and twenty-first #37 Jim Brock; 24.604.

Twenty-two cars unloaded for the RPM and had two practice sessions to get their cars attuned to the five-eighths oval.  At the end of the second practice the #51 of Jake Mann chunked up his right rear at the end of the backstretch going into turn three and spun the car backing it into the outside wall.  Extensive damage to the rear of the car rendered it done for the day and possibly for the season.

The last two races for the 2008 ASA/NSRA Championship will be September 26th and 27th at Meridian Speedway in Meridian, Idaho.  The final two are billed as the Championship Weekend with two races in two days, each paying its own set of points for the night.  Matt Hein has increased his fragile point lead over Andy Alberding to forty-one points and seventy-one points over third place Sierra Jackson with Justin Mack just nine points behind Jackson.  Meridian is Jackson’s home track and with the maximum of eighty points to be earned at each race the 2008 Championship won’t be decided until the checkered flag falls after the second night of racing in Meridian.