|
Irwindale, CA., Apr. 25 – It was Southern California Auto Club and Indian Guides Night at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale Saturday and members in attendance watched a pair of NASCAR Auto Club Late Model 40-lap main events on the banked half-mile. In a strong field of 28 cars, Travis Irving started third and won the first 40 over a pressing Nick Joanides in a relatively clean, 36-minute race with four cautions. Joanides, driving with a chipped bone in his right hand from an on-track incident last week, led all 40 laps from second starting slot in the second 40. That race had cars crashing, angry drivers, rough driving penalty and three yellow flags in a 39-minute contest for 24 starters who survived the first 40 with cars still intact.
The other three racing series in action had slim starting fields, so track officials shortened scheduled 35 or 30-lap main events to 20 laps. Nevertheless, drivers staged entertaining races. Daryl Scoggins won the Justice Brothers Mini Stocks main on the third-mile track with outside passes of the Rogers father and son team—Steve and Tyler Rogers. All seven starters finished the 7:11.132 all green-flag race. Ken Michaelian, 20, became a three-time 2009 Classic Stocks winner on the third-mile. He started last in the fully inverted, 11-car field and stormed into the lead on the sixth lap. Fastest qualifier/tenth starter Tommy Agosta raced into second place on lap 9 and finished four lengths in back of Michaelian's 1975 Dodge Dart. In a fully-inverted Vista Paint Super Stock feature on the half-mile, Larry Cerquettini started last in another low, eight-car field. He drove through the field quickly and was in the lead on lap 2. Then he held a steady 25-yard advantage over Rich DeLong III from lap 3 to the lap 20 checkers. The all-green flag race took 7:01.086 to complete. DeLong's new Five-Star Race Car Body Chevy Impala SS was identical to Cerquettini's car. All eight starters finished and the top seven drivers completed all 20 laps.
The TS@I evening could be called law enforcement night. Irving's No. 85 Toyota Camry is painted black and white to resemble one of his sponsor's (the California Highway Patrol) patrol cars. CHP Sergeant Mark Garrett is a familiar figure at the track in his role as a Southern California CHP public information office representative. He arrived at the track in his CHP uniform and changed into a racing uniform to take his maiden voyage in a race car. His mount in the Classic Stock field was the 1970s No. 17 Chevy “house car” that is parked permanently in the TS@I pit area. Celebrities and well-known visiting drivers such as Greg Pursley have raced the car in recent years. In mid-afternoon time trials, Garrett qualified nine seconds slower than the next slowest driver.
At 7:10 Garrett started in the front row of a 6-lap trophy dash for the slowest qualifiers. The novice racer had CHP on the car and led all six laps to edge fast-closing Jeff Elder by 0.214. Each year CHP recruits new officers at the track and also stages precision driving exhibitions with a group of CHP patrol cars. Garrett is a key CHP representative for those CHP outreach/PR efforts. He started from pole position in the 20-lap main, led five laps and finished ninth, down two laps in his first main event. In keeping with the law enforcement officer unofficial theme, mini stock winner Scoggins, from Sunland, is as LAPD cop. Following the first ACLM 40-lap feature, the TS@I musicologist in the announcing booth played the theme from Dragnet, actor Jack Webb's old LAPD television cop show during the 1950s, over the track's PA system.
ACLM 1st 40: All 28 starters took the first 40 lap race green flag at 7:36 pm with an eight-car inversion. Tim Huddleston, the FQ and co-point leader with Andrew Myers, started eighth. Relatively new ACLM drivers Davin Cravens, in a new Victory Circle-built car, and Tim Smith, a 23-year old rookie from Bakersfield, started from the first row. Cravens led the first 13 laps impressively despite intense pressure from more experienced drivers. It was the first time he had led a TS@I feature. Both drivers ran well all 40 laps and finished eighth and ninth (Smith). Irving's CHP Toyota ran second for six laps until Joanides passed him on the outside during lap 7 in the third and fourth turns. The top four drivers raced two by two wide in close formation until lap 14 when Irving made a daring and successful pass from third to first place. He went between Cravens and Joanides as they raced three-wide on the backstretch towards the third turn. Joanides also passed Cravens on lap 14 and chased Irving to the checkers, falling one length short of victory. “I wanted to race him clean,” Joanides said. It was Irving's second career ACLM feature victory at Irwindale.
Mike Johnson, the 52-year old Toyota All-Star Showdown 55-lap feature winner on January 24, finished third in a tight, four-car lead pack. Huddleston and Myers finished fourth and fifth, breaking their point lead tie and putting Huddleston ahead by two-points (140-138). Tenth starter Jeff Peterson, a 19-year old King Taco Super Truck second year driver and newcomer to ACLM racing, finished sixth in the No. 90 car raced by Lindsey King two weeks ago. Brandon Loverock, Cravens, T. Smith and Darren Cheek completed the top ten. Twenty of the 28 starters were racing at the conclusion and 19 drivers completed all 40 laps in the thriller. A lap 35 two-car crash in turn one eliminated the No. 61 car driven by Kenny Smith, a 21-year old from Bakersfield and brother of the ninth place driver. Heavy RF end damage prevented the car from competing in the second 40-lap race.
ACLM 2nd 40: With the starting field reduced to 24 by accidents, the second race started at 9:08 pm in straight-up order based on the finishing positions in the first 40. A five-car crash in the second turn involved cars 7, 55, 65, 59 and 52. A complete restart followed a five-minute clean-up. Joanides shot from the outside front row position past pole starter Irving's CHP pole car. M. Johnson took second from Irving on lap 13 as cars from second through sixth ran in close proximity. At lap 18 Irving got high in turn two, brushed the wall and slowed. Fourth place Myers tried to pass Huddleston for third spot at the end of the backstretch, but their cars made contact, sending Huddleston's No. 50 Justice Brothers HPR Chevy broadside into the wall. With serious right side damage, the three-time ACLM champion pulled to the grass in the fourth turn. Angrily he climbed out and walked onto the track twice as cars circled the track under caution. He gestured to Myers angrily. Racing director Lester Boyer sent Myers to the pits for rough driving and causing the crash. He drove Eugene Dewberry's Chevy to the pits and parked. On the restart sixth and seventh place cars made contact on the front straight. Logan Henson exited to the pits with his hood bent skyward. He returned with the hood removed before the green flag and finished 15th after dropping out on lap 33. Only 14 drivers finished and 12 cars completed all 40 laps.
Joanides, in his Jackson Race Cars-built Mr. Crane Loyd McGhee-owned Chevy Monte Carlo, opened a 25-yard lead by lap 25 and extended it to 30-yards (1.372 seconds) over Johnson's RCF-built Chevy by the lap 40 finish. He did so despite a lap 33 yellow flag for a solo spin at the starting line. Johnson, trying to catch leader Joanides on the restart, brushed the backstretch wall and left a long black line on it. He then settled for second. Tenth starter Darren Cheek, Irwindale's 2002 and 2007 super stock champion in his Camaro, enjoyed his best ACLM finish in his new Jackson Race Cars No. 62. It was only his fifth late model race. His best prior ACLM result was sixth. Sean Bennett, Jeff Peterson, ACLM rookie Dallas Colodny, Robbie Brand, 16-year old rookie Kyle McGrady, Cravens and 17-year old ACLM rookie Cassie Gannis, from Phoenix, rounded out the top ten. Huddleston's five-car High Performance Racing “blue crew” had significant damage inflicted to four of his five team cars
Following the second 40, 2008 AC Delco SLM track champion Joanides had climbed from fourth place to first after four of 18 scheduled ACLM races. His 182 points now leads Huddleston's 156 and Myers' 152. It was his second victory in four ACLM mains this season and his 22nd triumph at TS@I. He also has won three of four AC Delco SLM main events this year for an outstanding five for eight in feature victories--a .625 “batting” average. He is now the 2009 point leader in both the ACLM and ACD SLM series. He also led both of those two TS@I divisions simultaneously late in 2008 and almost won both championships. No driver in Irwindale track history has won championships in two divisions in the same season, much less in the top two prestigious series. The fastest lap in the first 40 was 19.146 by Johnson. The quickest lap in the second 40 was 19.420 by Joanides. Drivers used new tires in the first 40 and had to use them again in the second race, so lap times were slower. Following the race track officials pulled six cars to the technical inspection area in the pits and checked valve springs. All cars passed the tech inspection.
MINI STOCKS: Steve Rogers came from fourth starting slot in his Ford Pinto to lead both the original start and restarted first lap. Ryan Bragdon's Pinto started third and with Steve and Tyler Rogers running 1-2, he went to the outside and shot from fourth on lap 2 to third a lap later and second on lap 4. He slipped to third at lap 5. Scoggins saw his unusual success on the outside and moved past both Rogers drivers on lap 11 to move from third to first with outside passes through turns three and four. Steve led laps 12-16. Scoggin returned to the lead by going to the outside again on lap 17 through the same two corners and won the race by 0.332 over Steve and 0.661 over Tyler Rogers. FQ Kory Russell and Bragdon completed the top five.
CLASSIC STOCKS: CHP's Garrett paced the first five circuits as the fastest qualifiers advanced quickly through the field. K. Michaelian made an outside pass in turn four on lap 6 to assume command of the race to the end. He won by 0.645 over quickest qualifier T. Agosta, the 18-year old 2008 series champion. Dad Harry Michaelian was third, six seconds in back of his son. Tommy Mason, half of the Low Budget TV videography team, enjoyed his career-best fourth place in his revitalized 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo that had a new rear axle and engine improvements. Past series feature winner Jeff Elder was fifth in his 1975 Chevy Nova.
SUPER STOCKS: Scott Corrigan's Camaro led lap 1 of the VPSS main after starting second. Cars raced four-wide through turns three and four on the first lap without incident. FQ Cerquettini came from seventh to fourth in one lap and then raced into the lead on the second lap. He beat DeLong by 2.080 seconds. Showman DeLong added spice to his finish by spinning across the finish line to the infield. Kenny Brown's Camaro was third, five seconds back. Rookie Andrew Anderson, 16, was a VPSS career-bast fourth in the No. 44 Camaro. He is a TS@I feature winner in Bandoleros and a Legends veteran from Lancaster. Corrigan placed fifth.
Hard chargers selected by officials to receive $100 Race Car Factory certificates were: Johnny DeLuca (ACLM 1st 40) and D. Colodny (ACLM 2nd 40); K. Russell (JBMS); T. Mason (CS), and Gary Frankovich (VPSS). The fastest qualifiers by series were: (JBMS) - Russell at 17.443 (68.727 mph); ( CS) – Agosta at 17.614 (68.059 mph); (VPSS) – Cerquettini at 20.626 (87.268 mph), and (ACLM) – Huddleston at 18.879 (95.344 mph).
|
|
