Auto Racing -- Evans Wins Race At Monroe

MONROE - Garrett Evans, the most successful driver in the 11-year history of the NASCAR Northwest Tour, added to his stature last night by winning the Sno-Country Ford 100 at Evergreen Speedway.

Evans, 40, of Ardenvoir, Chelan County, took the lead on Lap 6 in his Ford Thunderbird and never trailed again en route to winning his 38th Tour race out of the 170 that have been run since the late-model stock-car series begin in 1985.

His most successful venue has been Evergreen's .646-mile oval, where he has won 13 times, six more than his closest rival, Ron Eaton of Tacoma.

Eaton, like Evans a three-time series champion, got off to a rough start in defense of his 1995 title. Going into Turn 1 of his first qualifying lap, Eaton's Pontiac careened into the wall. Damage forced him into his backup car, a Chevrolet, but he worked himself up to a 11th-place finish after starting at the back of the 32-car field.

Kelly Tanner of Woodinville, who has resumed racing after taking last year off to concentrate on his racing parts business, finished second, followed by Gary Lewis of Bothell and Pete Harding of Surrey, B.C. All drove Chevrolets.

After passing Martin Rosler for the lead going into Turn 3 of Lap 6, Evans had only to contend with Tanner and traffic. Coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 91, Tanner made what turned out to be his final challenge by pulling up right behind the leader.

Later, he said he wasn't up to the challenge physically because of his long layoff from racing.

"I just flat wore out the last 20 laps," Tanner said. "The car was good. It was the driver that lacked a little bit."

Evans credited his car's motor for providing the straightaway speed he needed to stay in front of Tanner.

Evans' margin of victory was 2.3 seconds.

The race was slowed by four caution periods (for 26 laps), two of which resulted in the race being red-flagged to a stop. None of the drivers involved in accidents were hurt.

Earlier, during time trials for the winged sprint cars that shared last night's billing, Myron Gemmer of Lakewood recorded the fastest lap ever run by any class of race car on Evergreen's biggest oval. Gemmer's time of 19.175 (121.28 mph) bettered the mark of 19.542 posted by Rick Veenstra in a super-modified last July.

The sprint-car main event was won by Trevor Montgomery of Victoria, B.C., over Bob Burrow of Everett.