Champs back for 200

What started as a "spur of the moment" whim 14 years ago will be celebrated tonight as Raceway Park honors the past champions of the Montana 200 before its 15th anniversary race.

"I logged for about 20 years," Raceway Park founder John Slack said. "Then I went into road construction, then when all the greenies and the tree huggers shut the woods down, I didn't do nothing for a couple of years, and then I decided, well, I'll build a track.

"I'd only been to about four races in my life before I built this thing. It was a spur of the moment thing."

Ten of the 11 former champions will be on hand tonight and the 11th - Lance Wade, winner of the inaugural race in 1991 - will be represented by his father. They will all be honored during prerace ceremonies starting at 6:30 p.m.

And like the track, the Montana 200 was conceived on impulse in the early days of Raceway Park.

"I was sitting around having a couple of beers one day and (somebody said) 'Why don't you have a 200?'" Slack recalled. "I bought the property in August of 1990 and we started construction on the first of September. We'd done all the dirt work and put the asphalt down in the spring. We opened about a month later that year, around the first of June.

"We only had 16 cars the first year (for the 200). It was on a Sunday afternoon about 95 degrees, and we should never have done it. It took more out of the track in that one race because it hadn't cured. Cars came in and were full of little pebbles that came out of the asphalt."

Despite the rough start, word quickly spread throughout the Super Late Model community and the Montana 200 was almost instantly the showcase event for the track and an important stop for the circuit.

"I come here every time I can come, every chance I can get here," three-time Montana 200 champion Tom Sweatman said. "I really like this place, the people, the fans. This is a fun race. I mean really fun.

"It's a big deal for all of us late model racers. We race at probably 15, 20 tracks, and we get here and it's top of the line late model racers. The best guys around, this is where you come. The highest competition, and you'd better be on your ballgame."

Sweatman, who won in 1997, 2000 and '02, is one of only two multiple winners. Mark Groskreutz won in 1996 and the memorable 1993 race.

"That was a wet year," Slack said. "Before the race at about noon, some Canadians had a canoe and were paddling around the infield, that's how much water we had.

"We had a couple of accidents, and one car went into the water and splashed it all up on the track. Of course, we had to let it dry, but by that time the fog set in. Couldn't see your hand in front of your face, so we had to run about 25 laps under yellow to get the fog raised up so we could complete the race.

"That year we had 26 races scheduled, 13 of them were rained out. So that wasn't a good year."

Since the modest beginning in 1991 with 16 cars, the 200 has grown to a high of 45 in 2003. This year's event features 41 entrants.

"I never heard of the Montana 200 until a couple of racers from our area raced it and did well, said the place is fun, a good track," said Sweatman, a resident of Cosmopolis, Wash.

As the numbers grew over the years - as did the overall interest in racing as exhibited by the rise in popularity of NASCAR's Winston/Nextel Cup Series - so too the level of competitiveness between drivers and the amount of time spent working on cars.

"It gets tougher every year," Sweatman said. "People work hard at it. We work every night on my car at home, and it didn't use to be that way. People would work two or three nights a week and go race.

"Thursday we probably changed 10 or 15 things, and today we'll probably change another 10 or 15 things. I've raced a long time, and I can honestly say there's only been about two times I've climbed out of a car and said, 'Gosh, I don't know what I would change.'"

Practice resumes today at 1 p.m. The official opening ceremony is slated for 6:30. with a racing to follow. The Flathead Legends are also in action tonight with a 35-40-lap main event.