Casey Diemert Classic” presented by Windmill Inns at Douglas County Speedway, Roseburg, Oregon June 21st, 2008

The sixth scheduled race of the 2008 ASA/NSRA Championship season held at the Douglas County Speedway greeted the fifteen teams from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon with early morning rain yielding to heavy clouds and high humidity following up with clear skies with eighty degree temperatures by mid afternoon. Three practice sessions were scheduled for the winged sprint cars. Just before the first practice session two of the three diesel eighteen wheeler style race trucks, there for exhibition, took to the track for a practice session. One of the diesel trucks got out of shape down the backstretch of the three-eighths mile track ending up on the concrete barrier in turn three. Being a heavy truck the onsite tow truck could not lift the vehicle. To remove the big truck required equally heavy equipment to get the rig off the wall and back to the pit area. Additionally, three concrete barrier sections required replacement. All this threatened to reduce the ASA/NSRA sprint cars from three practice sessions to two. The track personnel extended the time for the practice sessions making the time available for the sprint cars to complete all three practice sessions.

Of note, Jake Mann’s #51 car had nagging problems for the team. The crash at Meridian Speedway just three weeks ago left the Waller & Sons owned team a tight schedule to disassemble the car to have the frame properly repaired and then reassembled for this race. The first practice session revealed a rough running engine forcing Mann to pull in to the pits after only two laps. The culprit was found to be a loose coil wire. That solved the second practice session presented another problem, that being water temp shooting up to 240 degrees forcing Mann yet again back to the pits early to allow the team to completely bleed the cooling system. The third practice session held no issues for the Mann driven #51 car. Other teams were finding their chassis’ tight not allowing them to get off the corners as they’d like. The #77 Mike Sullivan Sr. owned car was leased by Jim Diemert for this race, Jim supplying his own engine for the car. Driven this day by five time ASA/NSRA champion Rick Brown the team continually found handling issues every practice session. That team could be found in their pit area discussing and making adjustments between each practice session attempting to refine the cars’ handling.
Qualifying for the night’s action was run under still cloudy skies with the #98h of Matt Hein setting quick time at 12.601 seconds around the three-eighths mile oval. Others in the twelve second range around the circuit included Andy Alberding in the #76 at 12.618, the #9 of Brett Smith at 12.872, Justin Mack in the #17 at 12.875, Tony Thomas wheeling the #57 car at 12.944 and the #4 of Greg Middendorf at 12.948 seconds. The rest of the field were in the thirteen plus second range.

After qualifying and directly after the National Anthem a three car side by side tribute lap to Casey Diemert was run to the roaring approval of the crowd on hand. Local heroes, five time ASA/NSRA champion Rick Brown in the #77 car, 2007 ASA/NSRA champion Andy Alberding in the #76 car, and Matt Hein in the #98h car paid tribute to Casey Diemert.

After ceremonies honoring Casey Diemert the four lap B Trophy Dash was next on the schedule. The #77 Rick Brown driven car stayed on the track from the tribute lap and was joined by the 4a car of Ray Douglas on the pole, the #77 outside front row, the #99r driven by Cory Lockwood inside second row, and the #51 car of Jake Mann outside second row. At the green Brown used the outside line through turns one and two to get around Douglas to take the lead coming down the backstretch. On the same lap Mann worked his way around both Lockwood and Douglas to settle into second place at the completion of one lap. Mann set out after Brown, both cars hazing their right rear tires off turn two and four for the next three laps. Brown held his advantage to the checkered flag followed by the #51 of Jake Mann, the #4a of Ray Douglas in third, with the #99r of Cory Lockwood finishing fourth.

The A Trophy Dash of four laps brought out the four quickest cars from qualifying. The #17 of Justin Mack held the pole, outside pole the #9 of Brett Smith, second row inside the #76 of Andy Alberding, outside second row the #98h wheeled by Matt Hein. The pole sitter got too much of a jump on the field causing the race director to call for a yellow flag and a restart for the A Trophy Dash. The four cars lined back up, the green flag unfurled this time for a good start. Mack jumped out to the lead with Alberding getting under Smith in turn one to take second place coming out of turn two. On lap two Hein challenged Smith for third going into turn one but couldn’t get around Smith. Over the course of the remaining laps Mack, Alberding, and Smith heavily hazed their right rear tires off both turns two and four. After lap one the positions didn’t change resulting in a finishing order of Justin Mack in the #17 winning, #76 of Andy Alberding second, the #9 of Brett Smith in third, and Matt Hein finishing fourth in the #98h car.

Next up were the 8 lap heat races. Two were scheduled for the night. Heat one featured the #82 car of Adam Roduner on the pole, the # 13 car of Mike Basher on the outside pole, #77 car of Rick Brown inside second row, the #51 of Jake Mann outside second row, the #4 car of Greg Middendorf inside third row, the #17 car of Justin Mack outside, and the #76 car of Andy Alberding in the fourth row. After the green flag and within the first lap Basher had worked his way around Roduner to take over first place. On lap two Mann got around Roduner to take over second place. Mack and Alberding had worked themselves up to third and fourth respectively by lap four. On lap four Brown went wide in turn four allowing Roduner and Middendorf to get around him. On the last lap coming out of turn four Middendorf made a pass on Roduner just before the checkered flag. The finishing order for Heat one was Mike Basher in the #13 car winning, the #51 car of Jake Mann second, Justin Mack in the #17 car third, fourth to the #76 car of Andy Alberding, fifth to Greg Middendorf in the #4 car after the last lap last turn pass of six place Adam Roduner in the #82, and the #77 car of Rick Brown in seventh.

Heat two brought out the #25z car of R. J. Fronsman on the pole, outside pole to Ray Douglas driving the #4a, second row inside the #99r of Cory Lockwood, outside second row Sierra Jackson in the #25j, inside third row Tony Thomas in the #57, Brett Smith outside third row in the #9, the #98h of Matt Hein inside fourth row, and Jim Brock in the #37 outside fourth row. With the green flag waving Fronsman got a good start holding onto first place for all eight laps. Over the course of eight laps Lockwood lost two places from his starting position. After the heat race Lockwood reported his car was tight. Entry into the corners was good but the car would severely push coming off turns two and four. Over the course of the eight laps Jackson worked her way into third followed by Smith into fourth. Smith was dirt tracking his car off turns two and four heavily hazing the right rear providing a smoke show for the fans but blistering his right rear in the process. Douglas held his starting position throughout the race, Hein advancing one position from seventh to sixth. Both Lockwood and Thomas slid backward in the eight laps. At the checkered flag R. J. Fronsman in the #25z finished first leading flag to flag, second went to Ray Douglas in the #4a, third to the #25j of Sierra Jackson, fourth to Brett Smith in the #9, fifth to the #99r of Cory Lockwood, sixth to Matt Hein in the #98h, seventh the #57 of Tony Thomas, eighth to Jim Brock wheeling the #37 car.

The #9 of Brett Smith withdrew his car from competition after Heat two and before the start of the A Main due to mechanical issues. Cory Lockwood’s team had set about substantially loosening up the #99r car, the car having a severe push coming off both turns. The #77 team continued to work to make adjustments on the car to get the car to handle over more than four laps.

The main event for the night was the Casey Diemert Classic forty lap A Main. Fourteen of the fifteen cars would roll out for the green flag, only the #9 of Brett Smith not making the call due to withdrawing from competition after his heat race. The starting grid with a ten car invert had R. J. Fronsman in the #25z car on the pole, outside pole #13 Mike Basher, second row inside Ray Douglas in the #4a, outside the #99r of Cory Lockwood, third row inside Jake Mann in the #51 car, outside the #25j of Sierra Jackson, fourth row inside Greg Middendorf in the #4, outside the #17 of Justin Mack, fifth row inside Andy Alberding in the #76, outside Matt Hein in the #98h, sixth row inside the #82 of Adam Roduner, outside Tony Thomas in the #57, seventh row inside the #77 of Rick Brown, and outside Jim Brock in the #37 car. As the green flag waved over the field Fronsman held his number one position for lap one. The #17 of Mack started working the outside line to begin moving forward from his eighth starting position. On lap two Hein dove under Mann to take over fourth moving Mann back to fifth, the #4a of Douglas quickly fading back from his starting position of second. At the completion of lap four Alberding had moved into eighth place getting under Middendorf coming out of turn four. Mack had also moved around Middendorf in the first four laps putting himself into seventh place. Fronsman continued to lead on lap nine but was getting pressure from second place Basher. Mack and Alberding had advanced their positions to sixth and seventh respectfully by lap nine. Alberding had moved around Mack and both he and Jackson were putting pressure on Mann for fifth. Lap thirteen saw Jackson try hard to get under Mann in turn one but couldn’t make the pass. In turns three and four Mann got real loose getting his car sideways but not losing his fifth position. On lap fourteen the lead changed, Basher getting around Fronsman to take over first place using Roduner in the #82 as a pick. Lap sixteen saw Mann lose three more positions to Jackson in the #25j, Alberding in the #76 and Hein in the #98h car. On the eighteenth lap Mann and Hein got together down the backstretch bringing out the first caution flag. Mann was trailing a long stream of sparks while Hein had a flat tire. Both went into the pits with Hein returning after changing his tire and being placed at the rear of the field. On the restart Alberding went to work on Lockwood and Jackson. He got under Lockwood and started working Jackson. Alberding got under Jackson but she would not give up fourth easily. She held the outside line with Alberding forcing him to stay low out of both turns. Alberding did finally clear Jackson for fourth taking two laps of side by side racing to do so. Meanwhile Basher had stretched his lead over Fronsman to a straightaway length. During lap twenty Fronsman started to slow on the track and went wide in turns three and four staying slow on the front stretch. Fronsman headed into the pits off turn one thinking he had a low or flat right front tire from the bad handling of the car. With Fronsman off track the positions changed behind the leader Basher, Lockwood moving to second, Alberding to third, Jackson to fourth and Mack to fifth. By lap twenty-three Alberding had moved around Lockwood to take over second place. Hein had started at the back of the field on the restart at lap seventeen and by lap twenty-seven had worked his way up to eighth in the field of thirteen cars. Lap thirty Hein spun coming off turn two to bring out the second caution of the night. Hein needed a tow truck to remove the car from the track having a broken rear shock. During this caution the #25z of R. J. Fronsman returned to the track. The #25z team found that the front tire was not down or flat but that the rear tires had lost pressure causing the feel Fronsman experienced earlier. The rear tire bleeders designed to keep the tire pressure constant were suspected of malfunctioning. During this caution the #51 car returned to the track having corrected their problem. The #51 team found a sheared off left front shock bolt allowing the left front to drop on the ground creating the shower of sparks earlier in the race. On the restart not two laps were completed before the yellow was flown again for the #4a car spinning off turn two on the backstretch. During the caution the #57 of Thomas was black flagged for a loose and flapping front wing. Thomas ducked into the pits to have his crew remove the front wing and rejoined the race still under caution. The #98h of Matt Hein had also replaced their broken shock and were ready to rejoin. The ASA/NSRA officials held the #98h in the pits as rules state if a car causes two cautions the car may no longer race in the event. Once again the green flew for lap thirty-one with Basher in the lead but only to the first turn. Alberding dove under Basher in turn one coming out of turn two in the lead. From the green flag on lap thirty-three to the end of the race Mack worked to get past Jackson but could not make the pass. Over the last two laps it appeared Mack had used up his right rear and couldn’t make the attempt to take away fourth from Jackson. The finish of this exciting race had Andy Alberding in the #76 winning the Casey Diemert Classic, Mike Basher finishing second in the #13, the #99r of Cory Lockwood in third, fourth to Sierra Jackson in her #25j, fifth to the #17 of Justin Mack, sixth to Greg Middendorf in the #4, seventh, the five time ASA/NSRA champion Rick Brown in the #77, eighth to Tony Thomas in the #57, the #37 of Jim Brock ninth, Matt Hein tenth in the #98h, eleventh to the #4a Ray Douglas, twelfth to the #25z of R. J. Fronsman, thirteenth to Jake Mann in the #51, and fourteenth to the #82 of Adam Roduner.

With this being the sixth race of the 2008 Championship season and both Jake Mann and Matt Hein finishing in the back half of the field Andy Alberding, along with the two teens Cory Lockwood and Sierra Jackson running the full ASA/NSRA series, these three are poised to move up from their fourth, fifth, and sixth season points positions. After the Meridian, Idaho two race Diamond Cup weekend Matt Hein leads the points with 236, Jake Mann in second with 218, Justin Mack third at 196, Andy Alberding fourth with 193, Cory Lockwood fifth at 178, Sierra Jackson sixth with 173, R. J. Fronsman seventh at 168, Jeff Montgomery having missed now three races has dropped from first to eighth and will lose more positions after this race, Adam Roduner holds ninth at 154 and rounding out the top ten Greg Middendorf with 149. After this race the point positions will change !