TOP 11 COUNTDOWN – JACOB GOMES


TOP 11 COUNTDOWN – JACOB GOMES

By Kevin Peters

 

Continuing our countdown of the Top 11 in Spears Southwest Tour Series points, Jacob Gomes, from Manteca, CA comes in next at position number 7. Jacob was the 2010 Spears Southwest Tour Series Rookie of the year and 2011 Championship Runner-up. In his 5 full seasons on the Tour, Jacob has never finished lower than 6th in the championship standings including a 3rd in 2013 and a 5th in 2012. His 4 wins are tied for ninth all-time and he also has 4 pole positions including a track record a Redwood Acres Raceway, his 58 consecutive starts is an all-time series record.

Jacob started his racing career at a young age racing Box Stocks at Delta Speedway at the age of eight in 2002. He achieved success early on in his career with 3 Baby Grand Rookie of the Year Awards and 3 Baby Grand Championships by the age of 15. In 2009 Jacob was the Nascar Whelen All-American Series National Rookie of the Year, competing at Stockton 99 Speedway in the Western Late Model Division. 2009 was also the first year that Jacob competed in the Spears Southwest Tour Series attending 3 events at the end of the season. His best finish was an impressive 3rd at the season finale at The Bullring at LVMS amongst a field of 28 competitors.

With all his early career success and his Spears Southwest Tour Series record, the Jacob Gomes Racing Team entered 2015 with their eyes on the championship. The 2015 Spears Southwest Tour Series Winter Showdown started off their season at Kern County Raceway. The Open Show got off to a good start with Jacob qualifying 9th in the star studded 52 car field. Jacob then secured his spot in the Main Event by finishing an impressive 2nd in his qualifying heat race. Jacob started the main in 6th position and ran between 6th and 8th the entire first portion of the event until problems took him from contention on lap 139. He would end up finishing in the 19th position.

The points season got underway at Madera Speedway where Jacob finished 9th, followed by an 11th place finish at Kern County Raceway. At his home track of Stockton 99 Speedway, things looked great when he set fast time for the event in qualifying. After pulling an 8 pill, Jacob would be forced to start the main from the 4th row, outside. On lap 39, while running 6th, Jacob was unable to miss the “Big One” and ended up losing multiple laps in the pits to finish a disappointing 10th on the evening.

At Irwindale Speedway, Jacob had another good qualifying effort timing in 5th out of the 21 cars. He would go on to finish 8th for his third Top 10 in four events, but it was not what he was looking for. The first half of the season hasn’t been as good as we wanted, Jacob commented. On July 4th, Jacob’s frustrating season continued. After finishing 4th, in the first Pacific Challenge Series event of the season at Stockton 99 Speedway, Jacob led to the lap 75 red flag in Mike David’s Super Late Model. During the red, however, burned ignition wires ended his winning effort and a good chance of winning at his home track.

With the second half of the season just around the corner, Jacob is still optimistic as he is only 75 points out of the championship lead. “We are ready for the second half of the season as we are bringing a new race car out to race, Jacob said. “We are looking forward to getting back to winning some races again” Jacob continued. That first event back will be at Redwood Acres Raceway in Eureka, California on August 1st. It is a track that Jacob is the one lap track record holder at, and would be a great place for Jacob to get his first win of the season.

In addition, Jacob also commented, “We would like to send out a special thanks to Bill Andreetta for everything he’s been doing for us all these years”