Racer John Zaretzke enjoys doing good turns
Bring all the Nextel Cup drivers to Evergreen Speedway, give them identical cars, and the Monroe driver will look forward to taking the checkered flag.
The aggressive line that Zaretzke takes in Turn 1 on Monroe's big oval might stop anyone from betting against him.
Zaretzke said his faith in his car allows him to make his trademark hard left that just barely keeps his tires on the asphalt.
"If you drive down there scared, it's not going to work," he said. "One day, I went down in there and said I was either going to crash or stick it. The car did just what I asked it to do."
The Monroe driver has been sticking it ever since, making that turn faster than virtually anyone else.
"The biggest thing is that I can trust what my race car is going to do because I helped build it," Zaretzke said of his Ford. "I know every aspect of the car and how to fix it. The race cars today are awesome and can do more than some think they can."
Zaretzke is a typical weekend racer. He works as a heavy-equipment mechanic during the week and races every Saturday night.
Mickey Beadle, the track president in his 26th year of running things at the 50-year-old speedway, has seen some of the best drivers in the world race at Evergreen.
"John is as talented as anybody who has ever been out here," Beadle said. "He's still young [32], so how many championships he eventually wins will depend on how long he races."
There was a time, Beadle said, when the best drivers proved themselves at short tracks like Evergreen on the way up the auto-racing ladder.
Now, it's as much a matter of image as driving talent.
"You have sponsors virtually dictating who the drivers are going to be now," Beadle said. "In the old days, image didn't matter. If you won, you drove. That's not true anymore. The corporations don't really want anyone who is colorful."
Zaretzke is, to say the least, distinctive. He sports dark-blue hair, dyed to match the paint scheme on his No. 51 car.
The blue hair started out as a publicity stunt four years ago.
"I thought it was the kind of dye that washed out in a day," Zaretzke said. "Two months later, it was still there and such a hit that I've had it ever since. It's a really good way to interact with kids. If you win the kids over as fans, the parents will follow."
Zaretzke definitely has a following in his hometown of Monroe.
A six-time winner at Evergreen this season, Zaretzke has been first, second or third in all 10 races and is a runaway points leader at the track.
After he finishes at Evergreen on Sept. 18, Zaretzke plans to race in Phoenix and North Carolina. In February, he'll run a series of nine races in nine days in Daytona, Fla.
Zaretzke dreams of driving full time on the Craftsman Truck series but doesn't hide his bitterness about not getting a top-level NASCAR ride.
"I've spent my entire life and worked real hard to go racing," Zaretzke said. "There are at least 10 drivers in the state who can race with anybody in the country, but the drivers are really overlooked in this part of the country."
But Zaretzke isn't contemplating moving.
"I make a decent living and pay all my bills," Zaretzke said, "and I get to go racing every Saturday."
Zaretzke comes from a racing family. His father, Carl Zaretzke, won seven Evergreen track championships. His older half brother, Quenton Borreson, lost an arm in an accident but still became a champion figure-eight driver.
On Jan. 1 of every year, Zaretzke decides where he'll race.
"Evergreen Speedway is as tough a place to race as anywhere in the world," Zaretzke said. "I definitely wouldn't be ashamed to come back next year."
Around the county
• Ryan Abrigo of Snohomish finished 17th overall at the U.S. Motocross Championship Series race at Washougal, Clark County, last weekend. Undefeated Ricky Carmichael of Clearwater, Fla., won both motos to stay undefeated in nine rounds on the series this year.
Racing in the 250-cc class, Abrigo finished 16th and 18th among the 50 riders who qualified for the final two motos. In his first race, Abrigo started about 23rd and made his way up to 18th by the end. In the second race, he got pinched at the start and found himself in 40th position at the first turn before reaching 16th.
Greg Crater of Renton also qualified and finished 28th and 22nd, for a combined overall finish of 27th, and Danny Moore of Yakima was 36th overall. In the 125-cc class, Brett Boehm of Duvall finished 34th overall.
• Erin Knox of Snohomish helped the U.S. junior women's four to a fourth place in the World Rowing Championships at Lake Banyoles in Spain, the best finish for any U.S. junior team.
In junior men's eights, Jesse Johnson of Mercer Island helped his crew to fifth, while Kari Stenbakken of Sammamish and partner Mindy Fiesler of Jacksonville, Fla., finished sixth in the finals of the junior women's pairs.
Emily Downing of Bellevue and Annie Gayman of Seattle helped the U.S. junior women's eight finish seventh. As a team, the U.S. team finished seventh.
• Nine members of the Pacific Karate Organization in Everett taught by former national champion Jerry Ferguson won medals at the USA National Karate championships in New Orleans on July 16-18.
Gold medalists were Troy Hirschkorn of Bellingham, Dana Exum of Arlington and Vienna Krumwiede of Everett. Silver medalists were Andrew Pearce and Savannah Pearce of Marysville. Bronze medalists were Ellie Exum of Arlington, Danielle Morgan and Tyson Morgan of Bellingham, and Tommy MacNaughton of Everett.
Tyson Morgan qualified for both the U.S. junior and senior national teams while Hirschkorn, Dana Exum and Ellie Exum qualified for the junior national team that will compete in the Pan American Karate Federation Junior Championships in Chile beginning Sept. 8.