Bakersfield, CA – SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series point
leader Derek Thorn continued his hot streak as he scored his second victory of
2010 by winning Saturday night’s Blackjack 121 presented by GoLiveStream.TV at
the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Thorn, who is in his first full season in the SRL, has two
wins, one second and three SRL qualifying track records in his Bob Strandwold
Racing Chevrolet in 2010.
In regards to his fast start of the season, the twenty-three
year old Thorn had these comments. “The coolest part is everyone volunteers
their time and effort on the car. Junior (Joiner) and I work well together and
I have full confidence in his abilities to get the car right for me.Junior’s shock program is awesome and
we never give up to make the car better, no matter where we are on the board”
“I’m pumped, it’s been a dream of mine to drive in the
Southwest Tour.I spent two years
racing in Wisconsin, moved to Bakersfield to work for Junior last year and didn’t
have anything lined up as far as driving.Then Bob (Strandwold) called to give me this opportunity, which I’m very
grateful. I also want to thank
Victory Circle, Approved Memory, Finish Line Signs and Joiner Motorsports.”Thorn concluded.
Bob Strandwold Racing had all three team cars in the top
five at the finish, with Thorn winning, Jonathon Gomez third and Auggie
Vidovich fifth.
“It was a great weekend for our entire team.We brought a brand new car out for
Auggie, Jonathan had a great run to finish third and what can I say about Derek,
his results tell his story.” commented Bob Strandwold.
After starting nineteenth in the twenty-nine car field, 2008
SRL champ, Jim Pettit II drove his famed #03 Golden Gate Petroleum/Swift
Springs Ford to a second place finish, earning the Five Star Race Car Bodies Hard
Charger Award.
“The car was so bad for qualifying that we planned to pit to
make adjustments at the first caution, but as the (air) pressures came up and
the race went on the car kept getting better and we were able to make it to the
front and challenge Derek in the closing laps,” said Pettit.“We‘ve obviously been struggling to get
the car to qualify well, but for the race it has been good enough to put us in
position to win.”It was Pettit’s
second consecutive podium finish.
After the competitive field completed qualifying, Thorn was
on top with a new track record of 14.551 seconds, followed closely by Ryan
Foster at 14.609 seconds.The top
twenty qualifiers were separated by less than four tenths of second, with the entire
field just three-quarters of a second off Thorn’s fast time. After a nine-car invert was drawn,
the front row was Olympia, Washington’s Jared Vorse and Bakersfield, California’s
David Mayhew.At the drop of the
green Vorse jumped to the lead, with Mayhew struggling to get up to speed.Down the back straight Vidovich made it
three wide for third.
The first yellow was dropped on lap 2 when Brandon Loverock
spun then pulled back on the track in front of the field.After the melee, Victory Circle
Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Carlos Vieira was left with major front-end
damage.
The running order for the restart was Vorse, Mayhew,
Vidovich, Thorn and SRL newcomer Eric Holmes driving the #18 Moeller Bros.
Chevrolet.Thorn moved past
Vidovich for third followed by Holmes, Thorn then made it by Mayhew for second.
On the lap 15 restart Vorse slipped up in turn two and Thorn
drove into the lead.Shortly
there after the field stacked up in the middle of turns one and two with Kevin
Vernon and Dallas Montes both suffering major damage.Defending series champ M.K. Kanke who was part of the turn
two incident would pull to the inside of the back straight-away with a broken
driveline.
By lap forty, the top ten running order was Thorn, Vorse,
Mayhew, Foster, Vidovich, Jonathon Gomez, Kyle Cattanach, Greg Voigt, Pettit
and Joe Farre’.
By the half-way point of the race the big movers of the race
were Pettit who had moved up from his nineteenth starting position to fifth,
and rookie Jacob Gomes who had moved his #16 Dell’Osso Family Farms Chevrolet
from twenty-sixth to ninth.
Shortly after the half-way point, SRL officials called for
the race to conclude at lap 110 instead of the scheduled 121 laps, due to fuel
consumption concerns resulting from the extended caution periods early in the
event.
At lap 70 the top nine were nose-to-tail, with Vidovich all
over Vorse for second and Pettit looking low on Vidovich for position.On lap 84, Pettit passed Vidovich on
the inside off of turn two, and set his sights on Vorse who had been showing
intermittent flames from his glowing right rear brake rotor.
With 20 laps to go, the top ten was Thorn at the point,
followed by Pettit, Gomez, Holmes, Vidovich, Gomes, Farre’, Brennan Newberry,
Voigt and Keith Spangler.
Now it was Pettit in the pursuit of the leader.The blue and yellow Ford of Pettit’s
would close to the bumper of Thorn’s Chevrolet entering the turns, only to have
Thorn gain back some of his advantage coming off the corners.
With 9 to go, Shawn Calderwood spun to bring out the
caution.Thorn pulled Pettit on
the restart, but Pettit once again closed the gap.Pettit was all over Thorn, while Gomes was trying to
displace Vidovich for fifth.
With 7 to go David Mantooth spun on the back straight, as Mantooth
pulled back onto the track, Pettit and Thorn split the #5 car at full speed
entering turn three.With
Mantooth off the pace entering turn 1, Gomes drove low onto the apron to avoid
him, made contact and spun, bringing out the final caution with 5 to go.
Thorn got another great start, to lead Pettit, Gomez,
Holmes, and Vidovich.With three
to go, Pettit got to Thorn’s bumper coming off turn four.Thorn held off the charging Pettit by
.34 seconds at the line for his second win of the 2010 SPEARS SRL Southwest
Tour Series season.The balance of
the top 10 were, Gomez, Holmes – who came from one lap down after pitting early
on, Vidovich, Farre’, Newberry who started 20th, Foster, Voigt and
Spangler.
The next race for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series is “The
Mid-Valley Iron and Metals 130” on Saturday, June 12th at Stockton
99 Speedway.
