NW Pro 4 Alliance gets rave reviews at Yakima Speedway

Yakima, WA, 6/21/09 by Kelly Hart

The NW Pro 4 Alliance is a traveling racing group made up of 4-cylinder Late Model styled cars from more than 5 different clubs and independent racers from all over the country. The Saturday night field featured over 30 cars with drivers from Florida, California, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and Washington in the field. It was a hometown driver however who came away with the win and second straight feature for the division as Prosser, WA Rick Thompson captured the 60-lap Main Event.

While the Main Event was slowed by 6 yellow flags and 3 red flags, the fans got to see plenty of daring passes and side by side racing action all over the half-mile oval. There were 4 lead changes feature 3 drivers with Thompson leading 40 total. Craig Forney looked strong leading the first 28 laps, and Kurt Madsen held the lead for a lap and a half when his car broke loose coming out of the 4th turn and spun wildly into the inside fence sections on the 34th lap with the field closing rapidly. There were many lapped cars and wherever the leaders went they seemed to be running in traffic as the NW Pro 4 Alliance started 26 cars in the main event.

The night started with Steve Thompson setting a new track record of 20.035 just barely missing breaking into the 19 second bracket. Tom Keehan and Rick Thompson won the Trophy Dashes, and John Musser claimed the 20 lap B Main Event.

There doesn’t seem to be any stopping the red-hot Randy Marshall, Jr. in the Burger Ranch Sportsman division. Marshall set fast time of 23.122 in time trials and won his Trophy Dash. The other Dash winner was Larry Norman. Mel Patnode and Kevin Taylor won the Heat Races. Mechanical woes shelved point leader Mel Patnode early in the Main Event, and points contender Reese Kastl went out on the 17th lap of the 30 lap finale with a smoking motor.

In the CWI Security / EZ Credit Auto Sales Hornets Greg Gargett is starting to gather a head of steam with another main event win. The point leader also won his Heat Race. Other winners in the Hornet division included Ryan Kallenberger and Josh Parmentier with Trophy Dash victories and Tim Breshears won the other heat.

For the Yakima Driving School Youth Hornets Kyler Conduff pulled off his second straight Main Event win, Joe Roberts won the Trophy Dash and Heat Race. Cord Jackman made his first appearance of the season.

There were four lead changes in the wild Bump To Pass feature. Jake Breshears led the final 5 laps for the win. Breshears also won the Trophy Dash with Donnie Stevens picking up the Heat Race victory.

YAKIMA SPEEDWAY RESULTS 6/20/09

NW PRO 4 ALLIANCE

FAST TIME: 03 Steve Thompson 20.053 new track record