Evergreen Speedway notes: Going for the dream

Published 1:04 am Sunday, April 26, 2009

MONROE — Roaming through the Evergreen Speedway pit area on Saturday, helping drivers wherever he could including Street Stock racer Casey Branch, was Howard Harriman of RH Motorsports.

Harriman, of Bothell, has been helping racers at Evergreen for years, putting to use the knowledge he gained there, including what he learned helping his son Richard, who previously raced late-models at the Monroe track.

Richard Harriman, 21, wasn’t with his father, but he was still deeply involved in racing on Saturday. Richard Harriman is a tire specialist for Johnny Davis Motorsports, and was at Talladega Superspeedway with the No. 01 Nationwide Series car driven by Mike Wallace on Saturday.

After racing late-models at Evergreen, Richard Harriman switched over to sprint cars, racing all over the West Coast and winning a series rookie of the year and championship. That got him noticed, and he moved to the Charlotte, N.C., area — the heart of NASCAR country — to see where he could go in racing.

Although he’s got a crew job for now, Howard Harriman said his son hasn’t given up on driving, and they hope to put together enough sponsor money to make a start or two in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series later this year.

Howard Harriman said his son has been approved by NASCAR to race at two tracks — ORP at Indianapolis and Martinsville, Va., — and he’s been provisionally approved for two more, including Phoenix.

For more information on Richard Harriman and his racing efforts, his father invited fans to visit www.rhmotorsports.net.

Car counts: There were nine entries in the Super Late Model division for the third race of the season on Saturday, an increase of two from April 18.

Additionally, there were 12 Super Figure 8 cars, 23 Stinger 8s, 31 Hornets, 10 Youth Hornets and 15 Street Stocks.

A Marvel-ous rule change: One of the rule changes made at Evergreen Speedway this season, appreciated by the fans, was the decision to allow drivers in the Hornet division to paint their cars any color they liked.

In the past Hornet’s were required to be yellow — like the insect — which often made it difficult for folks in the grandstands to tell who was who on the track, especially in a large crowd of cars.

With the help of his son, Richard Morgan Jr. took full advantage of the rule change. Morgan, who lives on Camano Island, painted his No. 11 Hornet red and asked his son Benjamin, 4, to decide what additional artwork to add.

Benjamin chose Spiderman, so dad obliged, adding some Spidey decals and painting webbing on the car.

Zaretzke returns, sort of: Saturday night at Evergreen Speedway marked the return to competition of three-time late-model champion John Zaretzke. Not as a driver, but as a team owner.

Zaretzke’s JZ Motorsports put together the Super Late Model of Steve Ptacek, and Zaretzke was there to oversee the first race of the season for the team.

Ptacek, who is in his second season racing late-models at Evergreen, had the fastest time qualifying, but that didn’t seem to impress the boss too much.

“Fastest time of this bunch, anyway,” Zaretzke said, before breaking into a smile.

Too-Cool returns, too: Veteran track announcer “Too Cool” Terry Buell made a return to the booth for Saturday’s races. Buell, who also served as the assistant promoter at the speedway, made a career change before the season started, but agreed to return on a part-time basis to announce.

For the first two races of the season, the lead announcing duties were handled by another veteran racing voice, Scott Ellsworth.

Ellsworth was moonlighting from his primary job as director of the ASA Northwest Late Model Tour.