IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (July 19, 2010) – With a strong contingent of Superior Crankshaft guests and employees on hand, Kyle Cattanach drove the Bammer Motorsports #88 Superior Crankshaft Chevrolet to a fifth place finish on Saturday night at TOYOTA Speedway in Irwindale, Calif.
The fifth place finish boosted Cattanach to fourth in the series standings, just 88 marks off of first place.
“Kyle did an amazing job in the home race for our company,” Motorsports Marketing Manager Marty Melo said. “Thanks to this run, we will probably come back in September with a few more associate sponsors on the car!”
Cattanach began the weekend consistently running in the top-ten and top-five in Friday afternoon practice, despite being one of the few cars that did not sticker up.
In Saturday’s two practices, Cattanach continued to look like a car that could contend for the victory. Practices were held under 100 degree conditions, with the “SPEARS 100” starting at 9 p.m. the temperatures had dropped down to 80 degrees.
Cattanach and Crew Chief Mark Lundgreen worked to find a balance that would be fast in both qualifying and race-trim, and hit the jackpot with a second-fast qualifying time of 17.864 seconds around the half-mile oval.
The time was also a full tenth under the existing track record.
After a nine-car invert, Cattanach started eighth out of 24 starters. After some shuffling early on, Cattanach was still eighth at lap 12.
The battling started to heat up by lap 20 before a caution flew on lap 22. On the restart, the Superior Crankshaft guests in turns three and four were given a scare as Cattanach went through the smoke to avoid several spinning cars.
Cattanach moved up into sixth on the restart, and then began a long side-by-side duel with Auggie Vidovich. On lap 45, after eight side-by-side laps, Cattanach completed the move.
With a pair of cautions on lap 51 and 53, Cattanach maintained fourth on the board.
The lap 53 restart proved to be Cattanach’s strongest, as he negotiated between Nick Joanides and points leader Derrick Thorn to make it three-wide. From the middle, Cattanach passed both cars to take over the third position.
Cattanach ran tough the rest of the way despite fading tires, and held on for a solid fifth place finish. The run improved Cattanach’s championship hopes in the touring series that will be dark until a return to TOYOTA Speedway in September.
“Saturday’s event was the culmination of an entire season of building the SP Racing program,” CEO Cheryl Archer said. “We are very excited about not only what 2010 will bring, but the future of Kyle Cattanach and Superior Crankshaft in motorsports.”
Kyle Cattanach is sponsored by: Superior Crankshaft, PepperJack Kennels, Joe Gibbs Driven, Shell Fast Track Food & Fuel, Encore Metals, B&B RV, Shell Sportsman Express, Blakesley Sports Media, and supports the Shanesway Foundation.
