2019 TOP TEN – Blaine Rocha
As we continue our countdown of the top-10 in the Spears Srl Southwest Tour Series Championship Standings, we reach the driver of the Collins Motorsports #21 entry. Two-time SRL winner Blaine Rocha is the driver. Blaine finished in the eighth position at season’s end, with bad luck plaguing the team in the first half of the campaign. It was the second worst championship finish for the Oakdale, CA driver, since he went full-time with the series in 2015. It was an improvement over 2018’s 10th, however, and the team finished on the upswing over the season’s second half. Rocha had previous championship finishes of sixth, fifth and third.
Despite the difficult season, Rocha scored one top-five and four top-10’s, in the nine events. Each of those finishes were in the final two-thirds of the season, with three top-10’s in the final four events, as the team grew stronger. The highlight of the season was a fifth place run at Madera Speedway in June. He finished off the year with two sixths a seventh and a 25th in the final four, each in his new Port City Racecars Super Late Model. Rocha averaged a finish of 12.9 with a qualifying average of 12.0 during the season. He now tallies career totals of 51 starts with 15 top-five’s and 27 top-10’s.
The Fresno State Senior’s efforts, in 2019, were sponsored by MASROC Farms, Rocha’s Valley Enterprises and Masellis Drilling and Central Valley Auto Transport.
The 2020 season, for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series, will begin on February 1st, at Irwindale Speedway. The resumption of the All-Star Showdown will pay $25,000 to the winner of the 200-lap Feature Event.
Celebrating its nineteenth season in 2019, the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series is a regional stock car series competing on paved ovals in the southwestern portion of the U.S. “The SPEARS Southwest Tour Series…Where the Champions Race”.
