South Sound 6-24-06

“As I said two weeks ago in Roseburg, the Deaver team is back where they need to be,” these words coming from Craig Deaver moments after his second ASA/NSRA win in a row in the hotly contested and dramatic A Main event at South Sound Speedway. Even before the first cars passed the starting line in what could prove to be the First Annual Rory Price Memorial, fans knew that this would be an event filled race. As the green flag was given Jake Mann in the 51 car pressed the gas peddle, and his car pushed up the track knocking the point’s leader and driver of the 76 car, Andy Alberding into the wall. This caused a caution flag before the race had really begun. Cameron McLean, number 26 and Todd Coleman, number 44 attempting to stay out of harms way got tangled up in the crash. Mann and McLean were unable to finish the race and Alberding and Coleman were sent to the back of the pack.

When the green flag dropped for the second time, Jeff Bird wasted no time jumping out to the front with Justin Mack and Craig Deaver in tow. Mack made many unsuccessful challenges for the lead and was warned for rough driving after running over the left rear tire of Jeff Bird. On the next lap Deaver made a move to the outside of Mack, forcing Mack into the infield. This caused a caution and sent Mack to the back of the pack. Mean while Alberding was pushing towards the front, and had worked his way to eighth, when disaster struck again right in front of Alberding. Jr Ray had made a clean pass the inside of Dale Petry for the sixth position when Petry tried moving down the track to block Alberding from getting by, Ray's rearend broke, sending his car spinning to the inside of the track where he smacked the wall. Alberding and Petry moved to the bottom of the track and just missed Ray’s spinning car. In a fit of rage Ray jumped from his car and threw his helmet at Petry’s car, who he thought spun him around the packed grandstands cheered him on.

Just laps later Craig Deaver and Jeff Montgomery made their move to the outside of Bird for first and second, “I blistered my left rear and the right rear was going away too.” Bird told me later. Bird would drop to the fifth spot and finish there. Up front Montgomery went to work on Deaver, during one caution Montgomery pulled up next to Deaver, letting him know he was there and he was going to push Deaver to the finish. “I knew Montgomery was there, that’s why I just drove it as hard as I could. I knew if I stayed low and drove hard he would have to drive around me on the outside and that’s hard to do on such a tight track like this one.” Said Deaver. Montgomery made one finish push at Deaver when the white flag came out, he drove the car in hard and with lapped traffic in front of Deaver tried to make a move to the outside, Montgomery yet again came up short.

Brian Smith who started on the pole dropped back to fifth and then started his march back to the front Smith would finish third giving him his best finish of the year and his first podium finish. Alberding made is way from last to four in what proved to be a survival of the fittest race, with only twelve of the twenty that started finished. Bird would fight off Pat Bliss for fifth, Bliss was sixth, Todd Coleman made his way from the back to finish seventh, Ralph Deaver was eighth, Justin Mack was ninth and Greg Middendorf rounded out the top ten.

Andy Alberding was drawn for the Hoosier tire give away awarding him one free tire. The Jimmy Utt trucking $100.00 cash finishing spot went to the car that finished 18th, Monte Zema Jr. was the man awarded the money.

In the B Main Robert Beck, who was racing in memory of Rory Price, jumped out front and held on for the transfer spot and the win. Ralph Deaver challenged him late in the race, but Deaver was unable to apply any threatening pressure and finished a comfortable second. Finishing third was Monte Zema Jr. Rounding out the transfer positions were JR Ray, Dan Fisher, Todd Coleman, Pat Bliss, and Cam McLean, respectively.

Heat one Tony Thomas jumped out front, but felt the challenges from Justin Mack who ran a strong second place, until he made contact with Thomas in turn three. Allowing Montgomery, who started in the back of the field, to slip by Mack for second. Heat two showed Matt Hein jump to the lead, but was short lived as Brian Smith moved his way to the front and took the lead from Hein. Jake Mann, the second fast qualifier of the night, battled his way to the front and was able to steal the fifth position when Ralph Deaver made contact with Cameron McLean in turn three, then two laps later coming out of turn four for the checkered flag, Mann made his move to the inside of McLean to the inside and the pass for the final transfer spot. Heat three was all Craig Deaver, who had a less than par-qualifying performance was much the best, he jumped out front and ran away from the crowd. Alberding, the night’s fast qualifier finished in four and saved his transfer spot, and was making a move on Jeff Bird for the third, but Bird was able to fight off the challenge. Dale Petry was able to fight off Deaver for only a couple laps, but was then able to hold off Bird and Alberding and capture an impressive second place finish.

ASA/NSRA brought another exciting qualifying run to South Sound, as Craig Deaver called in Roseburg, “I guarantee someone will break the track record in South Sound.” And Andy Alberding delivered breaking his own track record, but first Jake Mann threw out a scare for Alberding by coming out with an impressive 11.89, while holding the car sideways through all four turns, and breaking the mark of 11.91 set by Alberding just weeks ago during the first stop at South Sound. But Alberding with his cage a little rattled stepped up was able edge out Mann’s new mark by a mere 2 hundredths of a second and reset his own mark with a 11.87.

Montgomery lost a motor during an early practice session, and the crew immediately went into the trailer, and pulled out the back up motor. The crew was able to get the motor installed and ready to run just before qualifying, preventing him from losing his spot in qualifying. By going to the back up motor Montgomery took on an extra 100lbs. And Russell Root hit the wall in a practice session bending the front axel, he tore the axel off the car and was able to straighten it out, allowing him to also qualify in position.