Husband & Wife Team Win Back-to-Back Race Titles at Columbia Motor Speedway!

Talk about keeping it "all in the family!"

Last season at Columbia Motor Speedway in Hermiston, OR, Dan Nelson of Kennewick won the Hornet Class championship. The hornets are the most contested and biggest class at the track with over 40 drivers running at least three races last year and 35 this season. The class averages at least 18 to 20 cars every Saturday night, with as many as 24.

Nelson, a manager at Perfection Tire in Kennewick, has been racing since he was a teenager. Last Saturday his wife, Holli Ruff-Nelson, clinched the 2012 Season Championship finishing 38 points ahead of D-2 Racing teammate Jacob Baugh. Ruff and Baugh finished nearly 300 points ahead of the 3rd place driver. Not only are Dan and Holli the first husband-wife team to win titles in any class at the track, Ruff became the first woman driver to win a main event. The couple recently welcomed a new addition to the family, Kendall, and no doubt Dan did plenty of baby-sitting while acting as crew chief in the pits!

The Hornet class are four-cylinder cars, with full safety cages, stripped out interiors,  racing seats and fuel cells, but use the stock engine, transmission and suspension. These cars will achieve average lap speeds well over 65-70 mph. on the 3/8 oval at Columbia Motor Speedway and are known for often racing three -- and even four  --cars wide!

Some of you may remember Dan Nelson drove the Newstalk 870 'Tax Slayer' Demolition Derby car to a 3rd place finish in the 2011 Benton Franklin Fair Derby.