Jul 23, 2010 - Gomez Fly’s to Victory in Spears Manfacturing 100
Bakersfield,
CA – The margin of victory was only .012 seconds, or just inches, but winner
Jonathon Gomez of Twin Falls, Idaho had to travel over 2700 miles to get his
second SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series win of 2010.
Gomez,
who moved to second in the 2010 SRL championship standings after his win on
Saturday night at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, was also competing in the
NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Portland International Raceway in
Portland, OR over the weekend.Gomez’s travel schedule brought him from Twin Falls to Irwindale on
Friday for SRL practice.Saturday
morning he flew to Portland for his K&N Pro Series practice sessions, then
returned to Toyota Speedway just in time to belt in his Heritage Cattle/Century
Boatland Chevrolet to qualify third in the field.Before the weekend was over, Gomez would travel over 4200
miles before returning home in Twin Falls.
Starting
from his seventh starting position after the nine-car invert, Gomez took the
lead on lap 18 from Ryan Foster and drove to a photo finish victory over a hard
charging Derek Thorn by a margin .012 seconds at the checkers.
Thorn set a new qualifying
track record for the SRL at 17.635 (102.070 mph). Eleven drivers beat the SRL
one lap record of 18.095 (99.475 mph).
At the drop of the green
flag Auggie Vidovich moved into the lead from his
third starting position to lead the first ten laps. Fifth place starter Foster moved to the lead on lap 11 and
remained at the point until Gomez took over the point from Foster with an
outside pass coming off the fourth turn. The first of seven cautions flew on
lap 22.
On lap 25, Thorn had
moved up from his ninth starting position to over take Foster for second.Twenty laps later Foster moved back
ahead of Thorn to reclaim second.
At the half-way point of
the race at lap 50, the top ten was Gomez, Foster, Thorn, Nick Joanides making
his first SRL start, Kyle Cattanach, Vidovich, sixteen year old Ryan Reed,
Carlos Vieira, Justin Westmoreland and Jacob Gomes who had moved up from the
rear of the field due to mechanical issues.
At lap 66 the caution
flew once again for a spin by Vieira and Thorn off Turn 2.Thorn would pit for a tire change.
On the restart it was
Gomez, Foster, Cattanach, Voigt and Joanides. On lap 80, Voigt was up to third,
Cattanach now fourth and Gomes up to fifth.
Seven cars tangled on
lap 88, with all those involved driving away.On the Lap 90 restart Thorn was now up to eighth.Gomez, Foster and Voigt were nose to
tail.Lap 95 saw Gomez out front,
with Foster, Voigt, Gomes, Westmoreland and Thorn battling for positions.
Foster and Voigt made
contact on the front straight sending the damaged Glenhaven Resort #41 of
Foster spinning and eventually towed to the pits.
Gomez led Voigt, Gomes,
Thorn, Westmoreland, Cattanach, Keith Spangler, Joanides (with a deflating rear
tire), Ryan Reed and Eric Richardson in the top ten. At lap 96
Thorn's # 2 Chevrolet jumped to second and on the inside of Gomez. The two cars
completed lap 98 with Gomez in front by 0.017 seconds. Thorn edged into the
lead and led lap 99 by 0.007 seconds. Gomez refused to lose the lead he held
since lap 18 and rubbed his way ahead of Thorn on the outside of turn two as
they banged fenders “about four times on the final lap” according to both
drivers. Coming out of the fourth turn Thorn had the advantage by inches, side-by-side
towards the waving checkered flag, with Gomez edging ahead by less than a
fender at the finish line, 0.012 the margin of victory.
“My car was really good on
long runs. I wanted it to go green all the way. I hated those yellows. It took
five laps to get going after yellows. It was well worth the flight from
Portland.” stated Gomez from the winner’s circle.
Thorn addressed the
crowd, “I'm disappointed. The car was good. I had a left rear tire go flat.
He's my teammate so I couldn't get into him too hard.”
Voigt was 0.257 behind
Gomez for third. “The longer the race the better. My car kept getting better.
SRL puts on the best short track racing.”
A race fan was quoted
after the race, “The best finish to a stock car race that I’ve ever seen at
Irwindale (Toyota) Speedway.”
Twenty of 24 starters
were racing at the finish with 19 cars on the lead lap. Gomes, Cattanach,
Spangler, Joanides, Ross Strmiska, Reed and Clay Wattenbarger completed the top ten.
The
SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series will take its six-week summer break and return
to Toyota Speedway on Saturday, September 4th for the “NTS, Inc
100.”
# # #
About
the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series: Celebrating
its tenth season in 2010, the SRL Southwest Tour Series is a regional stock car
series competing on paved ovals in the southwestern portion of the U.S. http://www.srlsouthwesttour.com.“The SPEARS SRL Southwest
Tour Series…Where the Champions Race”
About
SPEARS MANUFACTURING: Spears Manufacturing is
a world leader in plastic pipe fittings and valves. SPEARS’ maintains
over one million square feet of manufacturing facilities in four states and
nine distribution centers across the USA for worldwide distribution. For
more information go to http://www.spearsmfg.com.
Follow the SPEARS SRL Southwest
Tour Series on facebook (Spears Srl Southwest Tour) and on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/SRLSWTourSeries <http://www.twitter.com/SRLSWTourSeries>
