2008 Year-in-review: Henry Van Dam
ALK Promotions, January 11
Henry Van Dam had an eventful 2008 race season. Regardless of how it went, anything would’ve been better than his 2007 season that was cut short by a severe neck injury. Thankfully, 2008 saw some success for Henry aboard the Van Dam Racing No. 33v Shark-powered Maxim, sponsored by Omlid & Swinney Fire Protection & Security, Van Dam Dairy, Corliss Resources, Rich Van Dam Dairy, Shareway Industries and GMS Metal Works.
Henry ran the entire schedule of the new ASCS Northwest Region and competed for the 360 sprint car track championship at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. The race season had just started in most of the Pacific Northwest when Van Dam immediately showed everyone that he was back in full force.
The May 17th weekly show at Grays Harbor Raceway saw Henry run second in the main event. A week later at the same track, the ASCS Northwest Region opened its inaugural season with a dandy A-Main event that involved Henry dueling with eventual series champion Jayme Barnes for the win. As popular as Barnes is, many people in the grandstands were pulling for Henry as it was that same weekend a year earlier when he broke his neck in a crash at Oregon’s Willamette Speedway.
After a hard fought battle with Barnes, Van Dam settled for the runner-up spot in that Saturday night race. The next night, Van Dam made the run of the night as he raced his way forward from 17th to finish fourth and earn his third Top-5 finish in as many races. Van Dam emerged from the opening weekend second in the ASCS Northwest Region point standings, just four tallies behind Seth Bergman.
May 31st saw another weekly race at Grays Harbor Raceway and this time Henry broke through and put a smile on many faces, winning his first main event in over a year. Two weeks later, Henry did it again, winning a second 360 sprint car main event at Grays Harbor. After his victories and other strong efforts, Van Dam found himself in the lead atop the point standings in the 360 sprint car division at Grays Harbor.
June saw Van Dam also make a couple of trips north to Skagit Speedway, just outside of Burlington, Wash. Henry first went up on June 7th after the ASCS events in Oregon were washed out by rainfall and Skagit was virtually the only dirt track in the Northwest that ran at all that weekend. Van Dam ended up starting 17th in the A-Main event, and again he wowed the Skagit fans with another run through the field to a fourth place finish. Two weeks later, he took his 360-powered car and raced against the bigger, faster 410ci motors in the prestigious Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup event. Henry couldn’t get out of the C-Main race but was still the highest finishing driver with a smaller 360ci motor.
July started with a fifth place finish in weekly competition at Elma, but things went downhill the rest of the month. A hard crash the next week at Elma was followed by a horrible ASCS Northwest Region Speed Week that saw virtually nothing but bad luck and a pair of bent up cars happen for Van Dam, who fell out of contention for the touring title. The last week of the month saw another bad deal happen at Elma as Van Dam was leading early when he spun out. True to his nature, though, Henry stayed composed and roared back through the field to finish second and end the month on a semi-positive note.
Henry got things back on track in August with fourth place finishes at Elma on August 16th and 23rd. Sunday night, August 31st saw Henry race again with the ASCS Northwest Region at Grays Harbor Raceway. Van Dam finished seventh and picked up a little bonus money for his forward movement through the field. The next night, Henry opened the month of September by taking his 360 car out to play with the world-renowned World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and their high end 410ci motors. A very dry track helped on the horsepower front and Van Dam actually won the C-Main event, keeping any one of a number of potent 410-powered cars from transferring. Van Dam again was the highest finishing driver with a smaller motor under the hood.
September 6th was the season championships at Grays Harbor Raceway and Van Dam came into the evening fourth in the point standings but not very far behind the leaders. In a rather eventful race that saw the points leader crash out of the lead after contact with the second and third place points drivers, Van Dam made it through that melee unscathed and went on to finish third in that race. When the points were tallied, Van Dam finished third in the season standings, but was only ten tallies behind champion Jay Cole.
Two weeks later Van Dam raced in the 2nd Annual Fred Brownfield Memorial Sprint Challenge, the event he was forced to sit out the year before with his injury. Van Dam didn’t get the best pill draw and ended up starting near the front of one of the B-Mains on the first night. His season took another turn in that event.
In another stroke of goofy bad luck, Van Dam’s right rear wheel literally broke at the hub and the wheel itself came flying off the car, right as he was sliding through turn one. Just as it appeared the car was going to flip upside down as it got into the loose stuff at the top of the track, Henry managed to save it and not do any further damage to the car. Henry’s night was over but he at least was good spirited about it, showing off the broken wheel hub to people who came by his trailer in the pit area after the races.
Saturday night, September 20th saw Van Dam finish second in his heat race. Points from Friday’s program and Saturday’s heat races were combined and Van Dam had to race in one of the B-Mains, where Henry finished second to secure his place in the Brownfield Memorial main event. Starting in the back of the field, Henry moved his way forward and found himself in tenth by lap 11 of the 40-lap event. Henry raced with Mitch Olson and Chad Groves throughout the rest of the event, and was running eighth when the checkers fell.
Two weeks later Henry race at Central Washington State Fair Raceway in Yakima for the first time in two years as the annual two-day fair event, which usually sees the grandstands packed with fairgoers, was the closing event for the ASCS Northwest Region. Henry posted finishes of eighth and tenth in the main events to finish eighth in the Northwest Region point standings.
Henry closed his 2008 season with a trip to Tulare, Calif. for the annual Trophy Cup race at Thunderbowl Raceway in late October. The popular three-day event, which was a points event that wasn’t necessarily won by the driver who took first place in the final main event, saw a variety of formats used during the event to produce good racing and make it difficult for anyone to make the A-Main all three nights. Van Dam was one of just a handful of drivers who pulled the trick. After finishing 12th in the Saturday finale, Van Dam was 20th in the Trophy Cup point standings out of about 60 entries.
Henry Van Dam, 27, is one of the top sprint car racers in the Pacific Northwest and one of the most popular. Henry would like to thank all of his sponsors (list below) who supported him in 2008. He hopes to have his plans for the 2009 season figured out and announced in the near future.
- - -
Henry Van Dam’s sponsors
Omlid & Swinney Fire Protection & Security
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
Stanley Patrick Striping
Pete Vos
Bob & Joann Schumway
Enumclaw Auto rebuild
Fire Down Graphics
|
|
|
