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Irwindale, CA, May 17-- Predictability was the order of the night Saturday in Toyota Speedway at Irwindale NASCAR Whelan All-American Weekly Racing Series action. Past feature winners started in the front row and won four of the five main events run on a balmy, mid-80s evening. About 1,800 spectators at the track simultaneously watched the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star race from Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina live from 4:00 to 8:00 pm Pacific time on a Lucas Oil-sponsored 20 ft X 27 ft TV screen positioned outside turn four. A special promotion to honor military personnel on Armed Forces Day had admission incentives and a parade of military vehicles before the National Anthem.
Nick Joanides led the four winners by winning the AC Delco Super Late Model 50-lap featured race on the banked, half-mile. It was his fifth consecutive victory in the series, including a pair of twin-main event triumphs. The fastest qualifier spun two as the inversion and started second. He drove the No.71 J & M Construction 2008 Jackson Racecars Chevy Monte Carlo owned by Loyd McGhee and sponsored by Mr. Crane and several construction-related firms. Joanides passed early leader/pole-sitter Dan Moore on the fifth lap and led the final 46 laps in a close three-way dogfight with Moore and Travis Thirkettle.
Tom Landreth also started second as fifth fastest qualifier and led all 30 laps of the Legend Cars main on the third-mile. It was his 38th career main event triumph at Irwindale in his three-quarter size replica 1934 Ford coupe. The five-time track champion (2001, 03, 04, 05, 06) increased his point lead from 46 to 58 points as he seeks his sixth Legends championship in eight point seasons at Irwindale. In the first main of the night fastest qualifier Aaron Anderson, 12, started and finished first after leading all 20-laps on the third-mile in a field of eight D & D Construction Bandolero cars. In the final race at 10 p.m, Steve Stewart, the 2005 and 2007 Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8 champion, started second and won a nine-car F-8 race. He passed his brother Rusty, the pole sitter and lap 1-12 race leader, in traffic on lap 13 and won by five-yards (0.614).
The only exception to the parade of front row winners was Connor Cantrell, a 17-year old Chevy S-10 driver, in the King Taco Super Truck 40-lap main. As fastest qualifier in the 18-truck field, the former Legends four-main event winner and one-time 2008 Super Truck winner came from sixth starting spot. The Valencia High School junior became the third race leader on lap 33 when he made an outside pass leaving the second turn and dropped lap 2-32 leader Pat Mintey, Jr. to second. A late race three-truck crash in turn two cost Cantrell his ten-yard lead, but he reopened the same advantage during the final three laps and defeated Mintey by 0.652. Mintey and Cantrell climbed one position to first and second in points (176-160) with Joe Herold, the absent point leader dropping to fourth in points with 142.
SLM: Pole-sitter Dan Moore, the series point leader after seven races, out-gunned fellow front row starter Joanides and paced the first four laps. A two-car crash at the end of the first lap had both cars spin across the starting line with the left front of the Luis Martinez, Jr. car perched atop the drivers side of Charles Price's two-time 2008 feature winning car. Price pitted and returned seven laps back; he finished 16th. On lap 5 Joanides, a veteran NASCAR Elite Division touring series driver, made his pass for the lead on the inside in turn four. Third starter Thirkettle and Moore waged a spirited three-way duel for the lead to the closing laps. Thirkettle took second from Moore via an inside pass in turn four on the ninth lap, but he could not overtake Joanides although he remained on his back bumper all ;the way. He trailed the winner by 0.334 at the end. On lap 48 third place Moore drifted high in turn two and lost two positions. Derek Becker, 20, placed third. Stephen Peace was fourth, 3.800-seconds behind the winner, and Moore was fifth, 3,820 back. Scott Conaway, Andrew Allen, rookie Randel King, 16, David Ross and Ryan Becker, 27, completed the top ten. Fifteen of 19 starters finished and 12 drivers ran all 50 laps of the 31-minute, three caution flag race. Joanides, who dropped out early in the first main this season, climbed from fourth to third in points. He is eight points behind second place Conaway and 22 digits behind point leader Moore.
SUPER TRUCKS: Josh Barker led lap one from the pole. Third starter Mintey took charge on lap 2 and held a narrow lead over Barker and Todd Cameron for most of the race. On lap 32 fourth place Cantrell tried to go between the second and third place trucks of Cameron and Barker as all three drivers exited the fourth turn in close quarters. The hole closed and trucks made contact, with Barker's truck bouncing off the wall into Cameron's truck, which suffered body damage and a flat RF tire. Cameron continued and inherited second position. He made his winning pass a lap later on the outside leaving the second turn. Rookie Grant Hebner placed third. The lap 38 second turn crash involved Dana Higgins, rookie Jeff Peterson and Bob Barker and sidelined the trucks of the latter two drivers. Paul Brennan and racing grandpa Kenny Smith completed the top five. Thirteen of 18 starters finished and ten drivers completed all 40 laps in a 28-minute event.
LEGENDS: Landreth's dominant drive over a pack of battling teenagers left them fighting for second position after three yellow flag incidents. Fastest qualifier Donny St. Ours, a 14-year old Bandolero graduate and Speed Truck racer, finished second, 15-yards (0.795) behind Landreth. Rookie Eric Gunderson started fourth and finished third, with 13-year old Brent Scheidemantle, another Bandolero grad, fourth and Mark Borchetta fifth. Sixteen of 20 starters finished, with 13 drivers completing all 30 laps in an 18-minute race.
BANDOLEROS: Quickest qualifier Aaron Anderson, 12, led all 20-laps in his Briggs & Stratton-powered Bando. Misty Balser, from Acton, started third and finished second, 0.863 behind the winner in her first TS@I competition on the third-mile. Al Simpson, 11, was third, 2.133-seconds back. Mikael Lovas and Eric Sloan, 12, followed in a 9:31.712 race with one caution flag. Sixth place Lexi Moore, 9, took over the series point lead from former leader Aubree Porter, 13. A mechanical problem stopped Porter's car at the fourth turn and required a tow back to the pits. Lexi, whose racing hero is Danica Patrick, joined her dad Dan (SLM Series) as Irwindale series point leaders.
FIGURE 8: The battling brothers Stewart started in the front row and made the point battle a family affair between the two fastest qualifiers and fellow front row starters. The veteran Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8 drivers from Long Beach finished one-two with Steve 0.614 ahead of Rusty, the 2001Irwindale F-8 champion, at the 10:02 p.m conclusion of a 6:30.644 all-green flag race. Six drivers finished and four of nine starters ran all 20 laps. It was the third consecutive victory for Stewart this year in three races.
Derek Becker, the youngest of three SLM racing Becker brothers at age 20, led all six laps of the SLM six-lap trophy dash for the six fastest qualifiers with a fully inverted start. Fastest qualifiers were Anderson (Bandoleros)--63.533 mph; St. Ours (Legends)--70.377 mph; Cantrell (Super Trucks)--90.135 mph; Joanides (SLM)--97.784 mph, and R. Stewart (F-8)--72.338 mph. Hard Charger Award winners were (LC)-Mark Iungerich, (ST)-K. Smith, (SLM)- Toni McCray, daughter of long-time NASCAR West driver Rick McCray. She came from 18th to 12th and was the last driver on the lead lap. Robert Rice (F8) took the F8 hard charger honors in a Chevy pure stock. Mason Britton, from Sacramento, received a $100 longest tow award from track management to help defray the cost of fuel. A“Tug O War” between a Toyota Tundra and a Ford F-150 at the third-mile infield went to the Tundra in a quick pull, tire-burning victory before the Figure 8 final event of the night.
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