Auto Racing -- Hart back for big weekend on track

YAKIMA -- Just like getting back on a bicycle?

Maybe after five years away from racing it'll feel that way for Yakima's Chris Hart, but we're talking about a really fast bicycle.

Returning to Yakima Speedway as a driver for the first time since 2003, the 40-year-old former ace will take part in Saturday's ASA Northwest Tour event and help kickoff a big weekend at the track.

After the Tour's 125-lap feature on Saturday, the ARCA West Late Model Challenge Series will take over for a 150-lap race on Sunday.

Hart's return is not only significant for the Speedway, where he got his start 25 years ago, but for the Northwest Tour as well. When he was last racing in '03, Hart was at the top of his game with three of his six career wins on the Tour, which was then sanctioned by NASCAR.

And now ...

"I think it'll come right back," he said. "Once you do something as long as I did, it's not that big a deal missing some time. We should be competitive."

Hart's reappearance is courtesy of local businessman Brad Tidrick, whose son BJ will also be in the race. Hart, who will race BJ's former Tour car, visited Pacific Raceways in Kent for a Tour race this summer and ended up spotting for Mark Sundberg, a friend and teammate of Tidrick's.

"One thing led to another and this opportunity came up," Hart said. "The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to get back into it. I've been away long enough."

The last time Hart was at the controls was the 2003 Toyota All-Star Showdown in Irwindale, Calif., where he and the Jefferson brothers, Jeff and Jason, competed with the top drivers from NASCAR's regional circuits. Even after a five-year layoff, he doesn't expect to have much of a re-education.

"I hope to come out and run competitive," he said. "Top five -- or maybe top three -- that would be nice."

Tidrick, last year's Tour champion in the first season under ASA's jurisdiction, will join Hart with three other local drivers -- Travis Bennett, Owen Riddle and Christopher Kalsch. Bennett has collected four Tour wins in the last two seasons.

The man to beat, based on his stellar season, is Bothell's Gary Lewis, who has won two of the Tour's five races and has been a regional force in other races. Canadian Pete Harding, winner of the Tour's season opener in Yakima on May 24, will return and race alongside his son, Shane.

In Sunday's ARCA West event -- the NAPA 150 -- the red-hot Lewis will double back and go for a possible sweep. There is a pit break planned for 100 laps, setting up a quick dash for the $2,300 winner's check over the final 50 circuits.

This race will also be filled with local talent, including weekend double-ups Tidrick and Riddle.

Longtime Yakima racer Erick Hargraves, who recently moved to Idaho, earned his first ARCA West victory in his last start at Wenatchee and sits third in points after seven of nine races. A victory Sunday on his home track would go a long way toward closing the gap on point leaders Wes Rhodes and Jared Vorse.

"I just try to roll with it all when it comes to the points," said Hargraves, who is attending North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene. "We don't want to push the envelope to hard but it's a track we know. The mindset is to go out there and try win just like we do each week, but more so at home."

Mike Longton, the Yakima Speedway's Late Model season leader, is also entered in Sunday's field.

This marks the second year in a row the Speedway has ramped up for its annual Fall Classic (Oct. 3-4-5) with a Labor Day weekend doubleheader for the region's top Late Models. Wenatchee's Garrett Evans (ARCA) and Bennett (NWT) were the '07 winners.

For more details, see This Week on Track on page 2C.

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