FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Garber begins defense of title

Doug Pace
Correspondent
April 25, 2008

After 22 years of racing, Spokane's Dave Garber has seen plenty of competition come and go in many battles for stock car victories in the region.

With this weekend's season opener for the Inland Northwest Super Stock Association set for Garber's home track of Stateline Speedway, the competition may come from all directions – including his own family.

Following in the shoes of his father, Bruce, Dave Garber is a late-model champion and will be out to prove that he has the equipment to do it again. With nephew Colton learning the trade and brother Dan always in the mix, 2008 could be an interesting year, according to the Spokane native.

"I like racing with my family and I'm looking forward to one day rubbing doors with Colton, plus I know that Corey Allard, Rusty Webb, Shelby Thompson and Andy Brown will be tough to beat on any given night," Garber said.

The biggest challenge this weekend may be the track surface itself, Garber said. Winter has not let go of her grip on the Inland Empire and many race teams have yet to get a full practice session in this spring.

"The track is going to be green," he said. "It will mean that we'll take a whole lot of stuff to the track and throw everything at the race car and see how it goes."

Opening the season as the defending INSSA champion does not hurt, Garber said.

"We should be pretty good right out of the box," he said. "The plan is to keep the car in one piece and finish up front. A first-place run would be nice, but a top two or three would be good for points because it's a long season."

That season usually includes several regional stops to make up a championship chase. In 2008, INSSA travels away from Stateline just once, with a trip to Montana Raceway Park in Kalispell on May 10.

With an almost exclusive run at Stateline this season, the INSSA series should provide exciting racing as each team will have plenty of time to find the right setup for their cars, Garber said.

"I think it's an advantage (to run almost all of the series races at Stateline), but it doesn't always play out that way. I am excited to be running there with a good tire from Hoosier that's a lasting tire and can give us all year to work with it."

Garber plans to venture away from Stateline this season in hopes of earning a win on the prestigious ARCA West Late Model Challenge series, he said.

"We are planning to run the ARCA shows in Wenatchee, the big (Memorial Weekend ARCA) race in Ronan, Mont., and the Montana 200 and Idaho 200. It's going to be exciting to go to Ronan this year for that race. We've run well there in the past and it's a big race for them up there."

The Memorial Weekend event pays $10,000 to the winner and $900 to take the green flag. Garber expects many of the region's best drivers to compete.

Racing begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Post Falls facility. Also scheduled will be Northwest Pro 4 Trucks, Hobby cars and Vintage Racers.

Weather forced the cancellation of last weekend's events at Stateline. On the schedule were season openers for the Northwest Modifieds and the INSCA Sprint Cars.

Both groups have been given makeup dates later in the season.

INSCA opens May 3 while the Northwest Modified series is set to begin May 17.