Matt Hein takes fifth in the Daffodil Cup, retains NSRA points leadThis past weekend Roseburg, Oregon driver Matt Hein made his first trip to Western Speedway in Victoria, British Columbia to take part in the prestigious Daffodil Cup race. After his first time racing on the 4/10-mile, slightly-banked oval, which he described as being “different, but fun,” Hein came home with a fifth place finish to retain his lead in the Northwest Sprintcar Racing AssociationDriving the Hein Racing No. 98 Shaver-powered Beast sponsored by Coastline West Insulation, Independent Motor Rebuilders, Tonka Excavation LLC, Long’s Building Supplies, C&R Striping Company and Oregon Tool & Supply, Matt raced for nights at Western Speedway, qualifying and running a heat race on Friday the 14th and running a pair of special heats and the 45-lap feature on Saturday the 15th.Out of a solid 25 cars entered, Hein was second fastest in qualifying with a lap of 14.003 seconds around the track. After taking fourth place in the A-Dash, Matt started sixth in his heat race and drove to a third place finish to secure his place in the front half of the feature line-up on Saturday night.Hein was invited to race in the “Off the Island” heat race on Saturday, which featured all of the cars that weren’t based on Vancouver Island, where the track is located. Of the ten drivers, almost all of them Americans, Hein finished fifth. He later took part in the special “Battle of the Border” race, which featured the three fastest American qualifiers and three fastest Canadians qualifiers from Friday. The side with the most points would split $900. Hein easily won the race himself by more than three seconds, and helped the American team take some money from the Canadians.Because of sizeable invert, Hein started 12 in the main event that was originally scheduled for 50 laps but cut to 45. Hein slipped back to 14th on the start and struggled with a tight car early on. When a red flag came out part of the way through the feature, Hein’s crew made some changes to the car and immediately saw improvement as the car performed much better, eventually turning a 14.622 second lap on Lap 21. Hein moved up to seventh by Lap 23 and on Lap 37 he took over the sixth position.Hein would be the sixth driver to cross the finish line, but would be Daffodil Cup winner Richie Larson was disqualified in post race inspection, which moved everyone up one more position. With second place points man Jeff Montgomery missing the feature due to a crash, this helped Matt further increase his points lead as he looks for his second straight NSRA championship.The next event on the schedule for Matt and the ASA-affiliated NSRA is the annual Don Hein Memorial, run in memory of Matt’s grandfather, at Matt’s hometown Douglas County Speedway, scheduled for August 29th. On Saturday, September 12th, Matt will defend his Rory Price Memorial title as the tour makes its only stop at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington. The tour closes its 2009 campaign at Meridian Speedway, just outside Boise, Idaho with two nights of racing on Friday and Saturday, September 25th and 26th.At 21 years of age, Matt Hein is one of the top pavement sprint car racers on the west coast, having multiple main event victories to his credit along with the 2008 Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association championship. Matt would like to thank all of his sponsors and fans for their great support. For more information on Matt and his race team, including photos, apparel and race schedule, check out Matt's website at http://www.heinracing.com.- - -Matt Hein's sponsorsCoastline West Insulation
Independent Motor Rebuilders
Tonka Excavation LLC.
Long's Building Supply
C&R Striping Company
Cam Cat Tractor
Oregon Tool & Supply
Dirksen & Sons Oil
Double R Powder Coatings
Shaver Race Engines
Kaeding Performance
Bell Helmets
Douglas Welding Supply- - -Matt Hein
http://www.heinracing.com
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