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NW motorsports: Superstocks descend on SRP

Paul Delaney
Correspondent
May 18, 2007

The Inland Northwest Superstocks are headed to the hills.

Make that "The Hill," the local racers' nickname for Spokane Raceway Park.

During its previous three years of existence, INSSA has been considered the late-model class at Stateline Speedway where they have run all but maybe a couple of three-dozen or so races.

This season, however, the group decided to do a little traveling and tackle the half-mile for a change. Still, Stateline will be the "home" track, hosting six of the nine races.

"With the two tracks virtually next door, INSSA has attempted to schedule events at both venues since its inception; however, no agreement could be reached," said INSSA spokesperson Shari Garber. "New management has opened the door for this opportunity and both parties are extremely anxious to get things under way."

Dave Garber, winner of the opener at State Line Speedway two weeks ago, leads the points race over Jeff Fenton going into the second event of the season. Garber finished out of the top 10 in points last season and hopes to carry the momentum from this win into Saturday's trip to Airway Heights.

Garber will make few changes to what has been a solid car.

"We're going to try to back up (what we did) last week," Garber said. "(We're) going through it (the car) three or four times and make sure everything's right."

Adjusting tire stagger, tire pressure and changing springs helps adapt for what is higher banking and faster speeds, upward of 120 mph versus 80 to 90 mph.

"There's one other car that's pretty fast that I worry about, but I think we have something for him," Garber said.

That mystery driver is Kevin Richards.

"He's pretty good up there," Garber admitted.

Richards, the 2005 INSSA champ, has been running the Late Model Challenge series most of the last year, and doing quite well. Until two weeks ago, that is, when the McClintock and Turk Chevy suffered a broken camshaft.

"It's tougher on the road," Richards said.

He's looking forward to racing at a place that's been kind to him in the past.

"Man, I've run a lot of races up there," Richards said. "I've only lost two up there. … We've got the place figured out pretty good. It's a spring and shock combination I've run up there before."

"The place is so much faster than a lot of the tracks around here. It's got a lot of grip," Richards said. "You get a lot more speed. In order to carry all that speed you have to turn at the end."

Also on the schedule are the Late Model 4s, Compacts and Hobby Stocks. Qualifying starts at 6 p.m. and racing starts at 7.