MONROE — Saturday night at Evergreen Speedway I had the pleasure of spending a few moments with an amazing young man and his family.
Luis Torres, 14, of Granite Falls and his parents Luis and Maria Torres, and three siblings were guests of the speedway on Saturday, enjoying all the action from the VIP booth.
Luis, who is just wrapping up his eighth-grade year at Granite Falls Middle School, has Asperger’s Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. Here’s the link to an earlier article on Luis by Herald Writer Eric Stevick.
The amazing thing about Luis is his knowledge of auto racing history, particularly NASCAR history. I threw some pretty tough trivia notes at him — going back to the days when I was younger than him — and Luis came back with the right answer every time.
The one time I thought I’d stumped him, Luis explained to me that I wasn’t right, and then we both had a good laugh at my expense.
His father had recently been laid off from a job he’s held for three years, so the family greatly appreciated the speedway’s generosity. While I was visiting them and Luis’ middle school principal, Dave Bianchini, there was plenty of laughter and excited talk at the prospect of seeing auto racing in person for the first time.
In addition to being pestered by a would-be reporter, Luis spent a few minutes with NASCAR Drive for Diversity racer Natalie Sather, and got a signed “Speed Sather” T-shirt. Later on he gave the command to start engines and he dropped the green flag for one of the feature races.
In memoriam: Before the racing program began on Saturday, there was a moment of silence at the speedway in honor of Elly Ellsworth, who passed away on Thursday after a long battle with breast cancer.
Elly was well-known in the local racing community, not least as the wife of longtime announcer and ASA Northwest Late Model Tour director Scott Ellsworth. A Memorial service will be held at the Christian Faith Center at 13000 21st Drive SE, Everett Wash., 98208 at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9. The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to their local Hospice Organization.
Additionally, the 50-50 raffle on Saturday at Evergreen went to support the 3-Day Breast Cancer Awareness Walk, with more than $400 being donated.
Doctor, doctor: After winning the Super Figure 8 feature, Shane Sawin was quick to thank his car owner, three-time FEAR champion Vern Deitz.
Deitz made his way from the pit to congratulate Sawin, and track announcer Kelly Hale was able to ask him some questions over the announcing system.
“He’s doing a wonderful job,” Deitz said of Sawin. Asked if he was going to be back in a car racing this season, Deitz said he had wanted to be in the recent 60 Minutes of FEAR. But, as he had recently had shoulder surgery, Deitz needed to get cleared by his doctor.
“I lied to him and told him I was racing in a late-model, and he said ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’” Deitz said of the conversation. “Then I told him the truth and he said ‘Absolutely not!’”
Brother can you spare a gasket: Former Mini-Stock champion Nat Barber blew a head gasket before the racing program began Saturday, and true to form for that division he had all the help he could ask for as he made repairs.
Once they got everything back together, Barber was given a couple laps to shake it down, but things still weren’t right so he borrowed a back-up car from Kris Harriss for the feature race.
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