Van Dam to chase Brownfield Memorial title
ALK Promotions, September 18
Last year, Henry Van Dam was one of the many drivers who were looking forward to racing in the 1st Annual Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge at Grays Harbor Raceway. Henry, however, wasn’t able to race in the much anticipated event while everyone else did. A severe injury he suffered in a crash at Willamette Speedway in May had cut his 2007 short.
A year later, Van Dam is back at speed aboard the Van Dam Racing No. 33v Shark-powered Maxim, sponsored by Van Dam Dairy, Corliss Resources, Rich Van Dam Dairy, Shareway Industries and GMS MetalWorks. Van Dam, who won one of the last races in the history of Brownfield’s Northern Sprint Tour, will finally get the chance to race in honor of the late sprint car racer and promoter this coming weekend.
Friday and Saturday, the 2nd Annual Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge, running under the ASCS Northwest Region banner after being a Northwest Sprint Challenge Series event in 2007, will feature somewhere around 50 winged 360 sprint cars. All of the drivers, including Van Dam, will be going for the $10,092 first place prize on Saturday, one of the biggest paydays in 360 sprint car racing in North America.
Van Dam, who sits eighth in the ASCS Northwest Region points, has had a lot of success at Grays Harbor Raceway this season, winning two main events and finishing third in the weekly 360 sprint car points standings in a very tight points race. Even though he was two spots back, Henry was only ten points out of first place. Van Dam also thrilled the fans at the opening weekend for the ASCS Northwest Region at the Elma, Wash. track in May, where he drove from 17th to finish fourth.
Henry will have several of the top 360 sprint car drivers in the Northwest to contend with, as well as hot shoes coming from Idaho, California, Oklahoma, Iowa and North Dakota. Last year’s winner, Shane Stewart, came from Oklahoma. The attention brought upon the event from race team’s elsewhere in the country shows how big an influence Brownfield was.
The Northern Sprint Tour, which Brownfield created, ran from 1996 to 2006. After Brownfield was killed in an accident at Grays Harbor Raceway in June of that year, it was announced that 2006 would be the last year for the NST as it was. Grays Harbor Raceway was the track that Brownfield promoted and renovated into one of the west’s finest sprint car facilities, and Henry Van Dam had the honor of winning the NST’s final Grays Harbor Raceway race on Thursday, August 24, 2006.
Henry Van Dam, 26, is one of the top sprint car racers in the Pacific Northwest and one of the most popular. Van Dam has wins at both Skagit Speedway and Grays Harbor Raceway to his credit and also has a victory with the old Northern Sprint Tour in 2006. Henry has run at both Washington dirt sprint car tracks several times and has also run with the ASCS Northwest Region this season.
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Henry Van Dam’s sponsors
Van Dam Dairy
Shark Racing Engines
Corliss Resources
Shareway Industries
Rich Van Dam Dairy
GMS Metal Works
Speedmart Inc.
Jack Dilley Logging
D & L Equipment Repair
Enumclaw Suzuki
Char’s Barber Shop
Enumclaw Express Lube
Foothills Auto supply
Stanely Patrick Striping
Pete Voss
Bob & Joann Schumway
Enumclaw Auto rebuild
Fire Down Graphics
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Grays Harbor Raceway - Elma, WA: http://www.graysharborraceway.net
ASCS Northwest Region: http://www.ascsnorthwest.com
American Sprint Car Series: http://www.ascsracing.com
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