ASA NorthWest Late Model Tour

Graham, Wash. (June 7, 2005) – Angela Cope, a 21 year-old Puyallup WA native, and her father/crew chief Darren have been looking for several Late Model events to participate in while she is briefly back in town, before returning later this month to North Carolina to join her twin sister in there quest to broaden their stock car racing careers.

With short notice, the father/daughter team elected to head north of the border to test their skills at the Lucas Oil ‘Can-Am 150’ Invitational event at Sun Valley Speedway in beautiful Vernon, BC. After setting fast qualifying time, winning the trophy dash, and then taking top honors in the 150-lap feature it is evident they picked the right event to attend.

“We had a great time overall at Vernon” stated Angela. “Sun Valley Motor Speedway is a awesome facility and we always like to run at new venues. Our crew was very busy Friday night at practice and on race day dialing in the car, and we found a combination that worked well at the fast tri-oval.” The Copes used a backup car for this event, as their primary car had been damaged at an earlier event.

17 Late model teams from throughout the northwest attended this first ever race which the management of Sun Valley Speedway hopes to make an annual event. The field was primarily drawn from teams that run regularly in two similar touring groups: the WRL – Western Racing League, an Alberta Canada-based late model touring program; and the LMCS – Late Model Challenge Series based in Washington State. Drivers hauled from Seattle WA area, British Columbia, and the Alberta region to attend this event, which had standardized rules allowing in a wide variety of Late Model style cars. The rules format proved to provide a balanced, competitive program.

The top-ten finishing order included: 2nd – Mark Sundberg of Seattle WA, 3rd – Barry Bishoff of Calgary, 4th - Grant Brown of Alberta, 5th – Rob Angus of Langley BC, 6th Brian Lavant of Calgary, 7th - Loran Payne of Renton WA, 8th - Randy Kozak of Kelowna BC, 9th – Steve Lee of Raymond, and 10th – Chris Stephenson of Calgary.

This event was the first of three special Late Model Challenge Series (LMCS) non-points events this season in addition to eight standard point races. The next scheduled race for LMCS is June 18th at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval – the ‘Washington 150’.