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IRWINDALE, CA., Jun. 22 – Colin Fleming joined the ranks of Auto Club Late Model Series feature winners in a dominating performance on the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale banked half-mile Saturday during Whelen All-American Racing Series action. He started from pole position in a tough, 20-car field and led every lap of the scheduled 40-lap race. The San Diego resident wheeled the King Taco Chevy Monte Carlo owned by Tim Huddleston and backed by Justice Brothers High-Point Distributing and kept it in front all the way. Fleming was 35-yards in front of his team leader Huddleston in the race that ran under green light conditions to lap 38. Eighth place Miles Copenhaver spun out leaving the second turn, causing the first yellow flag of the competitive event. On the final restart the cars of Sean Bennett and Copenhaver spun together in the first turn, causing race control to order the yellow and checkered flags. The official finish showed 38 laps. Huddleston finished second (-0.151) and Nick Joanides was third (-0.382).
Speaking to the crowd of about 2,500 on students and teachers night, Fleming said, "I'm really excited. This is fantastic. This is my first win since 2004 (in a Formula Renault race in Germany). Fleming began racing in karts at age 7 and advanced through various open-wheel series such as Formula Atlantic in the USA and Formula Renault in Europe. He was a Red Bull driver development teammate of Formula One veteran and current NASCAR truck and ARCA stock car winner Scott Speed. Fleming shared living quarters with Speed in Europe. He said he would like to follow in Speed's footsteps in ARCA and NASCAR. This season in ACLM racing at Irwindale Fleming has scored best finishes of second, third and fourth, plus two dropouts in the first seven ACLM races. Fleming's 50 points Saturday moved him from seventh to fifth in current points and made him the leading rookie after eight of 17 scheduled ACLM 2008 races.
Third fastest qualifier Benny Moon, a 23-year old first-time ACLM driver on the TS@I half-mile, started second and finished an impressive fourth in his series debut. He drove Huddleston's No. 51 Chevy usually raced by Ryan Kaplan, who was racing a midget in the USAC National Midget Series two-day event at Knoxville, IA. Leading rookie Kaplan's second absence dropped him from sixth to tenth in current ACLM points among 44 drivers with points. Moon raced last season as a Bill McAnally driver development stock car driver at the three-eights-mile paved All-American Speedway in Roseville, CA near Sacramento. In 2005 Moon was a Ron Sutton Winners Circle driver development program USAC Ford Focus Paved Track series driver . He finished fourth in USAC California FF Paved Track Series final points. He had three feature victories that season, including the FF Midget 30-lap main event on the Irwindale third-mile on Thanksgiving evening during the Turkey Night Grand Prix for full midgets on the half-mile..
Huddleston said, "This is the best ever four-car result for our "blue crew" team. All four blue cars finished in the top six." His cars 55, 50, 51 and 59 earned positions one, two, four and six. Afterwards, Huddleston informed this writer that Moon will sub for Kaplan one more time this season. Jace Meier, the ACLM 2007 rookie of the year and a one-time ACLM feature winner in the No. 55 Chevy now driven by Fleming, will return for three races with the team in late July and August. Meier will drive the No. 56 Chevy vacated this year by series rookie Jennifer Greenberg, from Albuquerque. Meier has been attending college in North Carolina on a scholarship and has not raced this season while concentrating on his studies. Huddleston's expanded six car team also will see the No. 57 Chevy used by ACLM newcomer Beau DeBard, another of Ron Sutton's driver development program USAC FF Midget drivers who will debut soon in one of six Huddleston team cars.
Rounding out the top ten in the 16-minute ACLM feature were: Mike Johnson, Lindsey King, Daniel DiGiocomo, Andrew Myers, Sean Bennett and Kevin Callahan. All 20 starters finished and 16 drivers completed every lap of the 38 laps run. ACLM point leader Myers deserves special mention. Myers, a GN West multi-winner last year who also raced with NASCAR in the South, raced in the NASCAR Camping World GN West 200-mile road race Saturday afternoon at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. He qualified 19th and finished 17th on the lead lap in Joe Nava's No. 77 Toyota Camry. Following the Sonoma race, Myers flew on a chartered seven-passenger Citation jet with his family and girl friend from Napa to Brackett Field in La Verne, near Pomona. They drove west in a family car left at the local airport to TS@I to defend his ACLM point lead. Myers had won the first five of 17 scheduled ACLM features this season and held a 36-point lead (332-296) over Joanides as both drivers attempt to win their first Irwindale track championship.
Myers missed Irwindale time trials at 4:00, about the time his Sonoma concluded, so he knew he would have to start at the back of the ACLM race. "I arrived at Irwindale about 90-minutes before our race," Myers said. He took one hot lap in his No. 15 Eugene Dewberry-owned Chevy Monte Carlo in back of the six-car ACLM trophy dash field and pulled in before the green flag. Myers started in the back of the 20 car field and charged past cars inside and outside. He reached tenth place on lap 22, was ninth on lap 24 and eighth at lap 27. Without benefit of a yellow flag, he was still eighth on the final lap when sparks showed from the right front of his car with a possible deflating tire. When the yellow and checkered flags flew he was credited with eighth. His point lead decreased from 36 to 26 points (368-342) over Joanides. Myers would've dropped from first to second in points if he had not returned from Sonoma to race at Irwindale.
SUPER STOCKS: Greg Crutcher, in his 1975 Camaro, started second and led all 35-laps in the Vista Paint Super Stock main event on the half-mile. It was his second consecutive victory and third of the season, tying him with runner-up Bryan Harrell, who also has three of the six feature victories this year. Harrell and Crutcher are now tied for first place in points at 284. Harrell, in a 1977 Camaro, has set the fastest qualifying time for all six events this season. He missed the start of the drivers meeting and instead of starting third he had to start 14th in the 17 car field. Harrell charged forward and was third by lap 18. He made an outside pass of Rich DeLong III on lap 22 for second position and closed ground on Crutcher. The 29-minute race had five caution flags that enabled Harrell to close ground on the leaders. On the white flag lap with Harrell two lengths behind Crutcher, DeLong attempted to regain second from Harrell on the inside at turn four. Their cars bumped side-to-side and third place DeLong shot to the first turn of the third-mile after crossing the finish line. Larry Cerquettini and Jeff "Hibachi" Grill were fourth and fifth. Thirteen drivers finished and ten of them ran all 35 laps.
PRO TRUCKS: The touring West Coast Pro Truck Series had 11 trucks present for the series eighth race—the fourth at Irwindale. A 40-lap main was on tap, but the race concluded after 25 laps. Jeff Williams won his second consecutive Irwindale WCPT main event. He took the lead on lap 13 at turn four with an inside move and then sliding up in front of second generation driver Dalton Kuhn, 16. Kuhn, from the pole, led the first 12 laps. The rookie from Vista finished a career-best second. Ricky James, a 19-year old paraplegic ex-motocross racer, won the first two Irwindale WCPT mains this season. He was third on lap 12 when fourth place Christian Copley made contact and caused a caution flag although both trucks continued non-stop. Officials sent both trucks to the back for their involvement that brought out the caution flag. James raced back to third place by lap 20 and Copley placed ninth, minus part of his RF fender after additional on-track action. Takuma Koga, from Japan, and Neil Conrad were fourth and fifth. Ten trucks finished (nine of the lead lap) in the 18-minute race that had three caution flags.
LEGENDS: The scheduled 30-lap Legend Cars main on the third-mile had 24 starters and a zany finish with a pair of 14-year old rookies battling for the lead in front of five-time track champion Tom Landreth. Ryan Reed took the lead on lap 30 with an inside pass of fellow 14-year old Eric Gunderson as they entered the third turn on the last lap. Third place Darren Amidon, the 2007 Legends champion, also tried to move by Gunderson, but he made contact and Gunderson spun out. The yellow flag flew for an extra lap. Both Gunderson and Amidon had to start from the back and they finished 16th and 13th respectively. Reed, son of past GN West driver Mark Reed, from Bakersfield, won his second Legends feature this year at TS@I. Landreth, who was fourth when the Gunderson/Amidon incident took place, finished second (-0.179) and increased his significant 46-point lead to 72. Josh Geer, 31, enjoyed his season-best third place finish (-0.704).Geer said he would be getting married the next day and his fiancee and wedding party were in the grandstand. Teen Brent Scheidemantle and Mark Iungerich finished fourth and fifth, with 21 of 24 drivers finishing and 17 drivers on the lead serial. Brandon Toy led the first seven laps from the pole before Gunderson passed him on the inside at turn three. Gunderson paced laps 8-29 and Reed led the final two laps of the official 31 lap event.
PURE STOCKS: Eleven pure stocks qualified on the third-mile, ran a 30-lap main on the oval and then concluding racing with a 12-lap Figure 8 race on the third-mile and infield. Fastest qualifier Tommy Agosta, an 18-year old, second-year driver, started ninth in his 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo and took the lead on lap 8. He won the 30-lap near fully inverted lineup start by 15-yards (1.295-seconds). It was his second career victory and second in a row. Mike Colato, Jr. came from 11th to finish second with Ken Michaelian third. Lap 1-7 leader Ron Davis was fourth and point leader Chad Kelly placed fifth. The 12-lap Figure 8 race had Justin Good start outside in the first row. He led all 12 laps in his 1976 Chevy Nova. Davis put the nose of his car in front briefly on lap 5 after a four-minute red flag when two-time Figure 8 winner Chad Kelly challenging for the lead, had a wheel come off, causing him to spin out in turn one. Davis trailed by five yards (0.526). Ten drivers finished and eight completed all 12 laps of the 4:51.567 race. Colato, Agosta and brothers Ken and Harry Michaelian followed in positions three through six.
A pair of six-lap trophy dashes for the fastest qualifiers got racing underway at 7:00. Brandon Toy won his first Legends hardware in an eight-car race. Fleming, who passed teammate Lindsey King on lap 4 on the inside in turn four, won by 0.532 over Mike Johnson. King (-0572), Moon, Joanides and Huddleston followed. Announced hard charger award winners by series were: Kelly (PS oval), Grill (VPSS) and Travis Motley (ACLM).
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