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Thorn Cleans Up at Roseville
Bakersfield, CA - Derek Thorn drove to his third career SPEARS Southwest Tour Series victory Saturday night at Roseville's All American Speedway. Thorn took the lead on lap 13, to go on to win the World's Champion Hand Cleaner 140 presented by AmeriPride Uniform Services.
After qualifying third, and starting outside row two, Thorn was second at the end of lap 1 and followed early leader Zane Lovelace until lap 13 when he moved to the point. The All-American Speedway 1/3 mile was tight quarters for the 26-car field, ten caution flags and lapped traffic were the only things that slowed Thorn on his way to victory. Thorn set the fastest lap of the race on lap 16.
"Roseville has been good to us (two wins in three starts), but I've struggled with trying to figure it out, it's a tough place." Thorn commented after the race. "The car was the best turning car I have ever had, Junior (Joiner) has something figured out with our JRI shocks and Eibach springs. We were out front so that let us run the line the car wanted, which helped save the Hoosier Tires. It was a great run for us, but we had some close calls, luck was on our side."
"Last year we came out strong and then suffered some set backs which took us out of the championship. This year with the support of SP Crankshaft and Sigma Engineering we should stay strong all year and hopefully be there in the championship hunt all season", Thorn added.
2010 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series Rookie of the Year Jacob Gomes set the fastest time in qualifying with a lap of 13.26 seconds. Cole Cabrera qualified second, Thorn third, Eric Holmes fourth and Zane Lovelace fifth. A couple of surprises in qualifying were Jim Pettit, in sixteenth and winner of the season opener, M.K. Kanke in twenty-second. Gomes pulled a seven for the invert to set the line up for the 140-lap event.
Before the field ever pulled off the grid, Jonathan Mawhinney, who was scheduled to start from the pole, suffered a broken timing chain to end his night before ever taking the green.
At the drop of the green Lovelace jumped to the lead from the pole, Thorn moved to second and Dallas Montes was third at the end of lap 1. The first caution flew on lap 5, when Jonathon Gomez made hard contact with Jared Vorse, sending Vorse spinning into the infield and Gomez to the pits for repairs.
The caution flew again for debris one lap later and it was on the ensuing restart that Thorn made his move to the lead. The top five were Thorn, Lovelace, Montes, Holmes and Gomes until the caution flew once again on lap 28, when Holmes, Cabrera, Tim Smith all spun to avoid the spinning car of Scott Sanchez. Holmes ended up parked under the rear of Cabrera's Ag Source/Maxum Petroleum Ford; both drivers would lose three laps before returning to the field.
At lap 50, the running order was Thorn, Lovelace, Montes, Gomes, Carlos Vieira, Eric Schmidt, Pettit, Strmiska, Dave Byrd, and Keith Spangler in tenth. On lap 55, the top 10 changed as Lovelace suffered a flat left front tire and Eric Schmidt spun to avoid getting into Vieira to bring out the caution. Vieira move to fourth, Pettit up to fifth.
At the half-way point of the race, Thorn was in control at the front, Gomes was showing patience in second, Pettit was up to third, Vieira fourth, Spangler was fifth, Kanke sixth.
By lap 100, the top six remained unchanged, Justin Westmoreland was seventh, Vorse was up to eighth after his lap 5 incident, Montes was ninth, and Bear Rezesnowiecky tenth.
The caution fell for the eighth time on lap 118. On the restart it was go time for everyone in the top ten.
With three to go, Westmoreland and Spangler made contact in turns 3 and 4 racing for position, the caution flag was out for the final time.
For the three lap shoot out it was Thorn, Gomes, Vieira, Pettit - with a tire going down and Vorse making up the top 5.
Green flag, Thorn pulled away, and Vorse moved passed the slowing Pettit.
At the checkers, Thorn first, Gomes second, Vieira with a career high third, Vorse who drove from the rear of the field, Pettit, Kanke, Strmiska, Byrd, Spangler and Westmoreland rounding out the top 10.
After two of ten SPEARS Southwest Tour Series events, Thorn is now in the points lead with 345, Kanke second at 330, Pettit third with 325, Gomes 316 and Strmiska at 301.
Next race for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series is May 14th at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the StreamPayPerView.TV "Blackjack 121.
About the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series: Celebrating its eleventh season in 2011, 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.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SRL Media
April 5, 2011
Bakersfield, CA - It was an epic battle of two of the sports most successful short track drivers, M.K. Kanke and Jim Pettit II. Kanke won Saturday night's SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series "SPEARS MANUFACTURING 111", but Pettit made a late race charge to do all he could to wrestle the win from his long time Southwest Tour rival and friend.
Earlier in the day, track record holder Ross Strmiska set the fastest time (14.495 seconds) of the 27 cars that took the green during qualifying for the "SPEARS MANUFACTURING 111". Strmiska pulled an 11 for the invert, which put a lot of good cars in front of him for the start of the race. Olympia, Washington's Jared Vorse and Goleta's Greg Voigt shared the front row, Kanke started third with Madera's Justin Westmoreland fourth.
At the green, Vorse jumped ahead into turn one and charged away into the lead on lap one, followed by Kanke, Westmoreland and Voigt. Vorse wasted little time pulling a sizable lead over his pursuers until the first caution of the night on lap 12, involving Strmiska, David Ross and Brennan Newberry. All three drivers pitted for repairs, with Strmiska removing the nose and hood before returning. Newberry unfortunately was finished for the night.
Back to green, Vorse again distanced himself from Kanke, who was followed by Westmoreland, Voigt and Eddie Secord. The top five remained unchanged until lap 30 when Pettit moved into fifth, followed by Jonathon Gomez and Derek Thorn.
Vorse continued out front with a comfortable lead over Kanke until lap 40 when Vorse's #20 Knight Fire Protection Chevrolet slowed momentarily due to ignition issues.
The yellow came out on lap 51 due to Jacob Gomes spinning in turn 2. Back to green Vorse maintained second position until lap 55 when he slowed again, with Pettit moving past into second, followed by Westmoreland, Thorn, Eric Holmes and Gomez.
Lap 60, caution flew once again, then the red flag was put out, as Carlos Vieira and Secord got together with the end result being Vieira's #51 parked on top of Secord's Dodge in turn 3. Secord suffered second-degree burns on his left arm and foot from the hot water from the engine of Vieira's Chevrolet.
Back to green, Westmoreland was under intense pressure from Thorn, while Pettit was staying with Kanke upfront.
By lap 70, Thorn and Holmes had moved past Westmoreland for third and fourth respectively while the two veterans up front were setting up the chess match that would play out in the late laps of the race. Fifth was Westmoreland, Dallas Montes was sixth, followed by Strmiska who had worked his way up to seventh from his lap twelve incident that destroyed the front of his #90 Mid-Valley Iron and Metals/ Mainline Equipment Chevrolet.
Lap 81, Gomez and Ken Benhamou made contact on the front straight, spinning Gomez and sending Benhamou to pit lane with damage.
The green flew on lap 83, Holmes was pressing Thorn for third, and opening up a gap over Westmoreland in fifth. Kanke lead Pettit by two car lengths.
With 20 to go Pettit started to apply the pressure to Kanke, looking for his options to attempt a pass. Thorn had pulled away slightly from Holmes, Westmoreland remained fifth, with Strmiska charging his way up to the top six.
With 10 to go, the final the caution flew due to Gomez coming to a stop on the back straight away. This set up the battle everyone in the Bullring had waited for as Pettit pulled to the bumper of Kanke's familiar red #33 Chevrolet. For the restart, the top 10 was Kanke, Pettit, Thorn, Holmes, Westmoreland, Strmiska, Keith Spangler seventh, followed by Gomes, Dave Byrd, and Mike Mendenhall.
Back to green, Pettit closed in on Kanke. With seven to go, Pettit drove inside of Kanke entering turn three, Kanke slammed the door. Pettit lost ground, but regrouped for another charge.
Entering turn three for the final time, Pettit again drove to the bottom, Kanke again slammed the door, the two veterans made hard contact, but both held on with Kanke winning by .217 seconds over Pettit at the line. Thorn was third, Holmes fourth, Strmiska up to fifth, followed by Jonathan Mawhinney, Gomes, Spangler, Byrd, and Mendenhall rounding out the top ten.
"We were both racing tonight in the memory of Jim's Mom, so with us finishing one - two, makes for a pretty special night," stated Kanke. "We started towards the front and that allowed us to not push the car until we had to, and I really had to push it there at the end to hold Jim off."
It was Kanke's eighth SPEARS Southwest Tour Series career win, which moves him to third on the all-time series win list.
"I have to thank Dan and Kathy and our entire team, we had to go to the back up car late Friday and our team worked really hard getting the car ready for Saturday, Leon and everyone did a great job and gave me a winning car." Kanke added.
For Pettit, it had been an emotional weekend for him and his team as it was their first race since the passing of Jim's Mom, Pat Pettit, in December.
"We have to be happy with our weekend. Mike's a tough competitor, and I knew I would have to be really aggressive if I was going to get by, and that isn't the way we like to win," stated Pettit after the race. "We qualified better than usual here, Duane (Sharp) and the guys gave me a great car, I tried to be patient moving though the field and once I got into second I knew I had to save the car and see what I had for Mike at the end. It's a little frustrating not to get the win, but I'm sure the fans enjoyed the show." Pettit added.
The next race for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series will be the "World's Champion Hand Cleaner 140 presented by AmeriPride Uniform Services" Saturday, April 16th at All-American Speedway in Roseville.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2010
SRL Media
GOMEZ WINS SPEARS SRL SOUTHWEST TOUR SERIES TITLE
Bakersfield, CA - Jonathon Gomez was crowned the 2010 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series champion Saturday night at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Gomez entered the night needing a 14th place finish or better to clinch his first touring series championship. The 26-year-old driver from Twin Falls, Idaho drove to a 3rd place finish and the championship in the "RealFast.TV 200 presented by K&N Filters".
"I'm just so thankful for the opportunity that my team and Bob Strandwold gave me to be in a position to win a championship in a major series like the SRL. Ron (Copeland) and Craig (Raudman) did an excellent job preparing the car all year, with no mechanical failures all season which is what it took to win this championship against all these great teams in the SRL."
Gomez qualified second for the championship finale, under the track record at 14.447 seconds. Fast qualifier Ross Strmiska drew a seven for the invert, which put Gomez in the 6th starting position.
At the drop of the green, Gomez slid back to 9th position before working his way up to 5th by lap fifteen, positioned right behind his closest championship rival Jim Pettit II.
"Right up to the start of the race I was pretty calm and felt like it was any other race with our usual plan in place to do all we can to go out and win. But once the green flag dropped I had never been so nervous in the racecar. I wasn't myself, I had a hard time hitting my marks and paranoia set in every time I heard a strange noise."
By lap 35, Pettit moved up to 2nd behind early leader Joe Farre', while Gomez settled into 4th behind Dan Holtz. On lap 65, Gomez moved past Holtz for third.
"I couldn't worry too much about Pettit, he was strong like he always is, and I just needed to stay focused."
Lap 72, Pettit was doing all he could to win his second SRL title and moved passed Farre' for the lead, Gomez maintained 3rd.
By the time the cars pulled in for service on lap 100 for the scheduled halfway break, Gomez had dropped back to 8th position.
During the break Gomez's Heritage Cattle Company-Century Boatland team went to work to on the Bob Strandwold owned #22 Chevrolet, changing four Hoosier Tires, adding SUNOCO Race Fuel and prepping the car for the final 100 laps.
On the restart for the second half, Gomez quickly gained two spots when Holtz made contact with then 3rd place runner Jared Vorse, sending both Vorse and Holtz to restart at the rear of the field. Gomez was back to 3rd by lap 106, positioned behind Brennan Newberry, who was looking for his first SRL victory and Pettit who was trying to hold on to gain maximum championship points. On lap 108, Newberry drove into the lead.
"With the help of my spotter Dave Reed, I was able to settle down during the second half, I wanted to finish in the top three, but thought we still had a chance at the win."
On lap 116, Derek Thorn moved into 4th position, now Gomez was sandwiched between his two closest championship rivals, as Pettit maintained 2nd.
On lap 129, Gomez now had mirror full of the defending SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series champ, M.K. Kanke, who had slowly worked his way up to the front after starting 20th in the twenty-six car field. On lap 154, Gomez gave up 4th position to Kanke. Pettit regained the lead on lap 171 by passing Newberry.
"I trust and respect Mike (Kanke) so it was fun racing him at the end, I didn't want to push it, but if I could make a clean move on him I would. I still thought we had the car to win at that point."
With four laps to go, Gomez moved past Kanke for third and went on to his eighth straight top five finish of the year and the 2010 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series championship.
On the year, Gomez and his Heritage Cattle Company-Century Boatland team put together wins at Stockton 99 and Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, and a string of eight top five finishes to close out the year with an average finish of 5.2.
Gomez, driving in his first full year in the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series, also competed full-time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and ran select other events in 2010. Gomez and his team will be honored on January 22nd at the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series Championship Awards Banquet at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield.
"I just want to thank everyone again for the opportunity they gave me this year, Bob Strandwold, my team and my sponsors; Century Boatland, Heritage Cattle, United Oil and my Dad for all he's done."
Gomez will be back in action with the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series at the nationally televised November 27th "Lucas Oil California Classic" at Toyota Speedway.
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. For more information go to 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 http://www.twitter.com/SRLSWTourSeries.
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- Written by Dan
- Details
- Written by Dan
SRL Media
October 19, 2010
HOLMES WINS AT ALL-AMERICAN SPEEDWAY
BAKERSFIELD, CA - With a lap 99 pass, Eric Holmes won Saturday night's SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series 100 presented by Pocket Radar at Roseville's All-American Speedway.
Holmes made an outside move on lap 98 to move past Jim Pettit II for second and drew even with race leader Dan Holtz on lap 99, to go on for his first SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series victory for car owner Quentin Bammer.
Holmes margin of victory over Holtz was .45 seconds; the 100-lap race took a total of 39 minutes and 16 seconds to complete. Holtz set a new qualifying track record of 13.090 seconds and pulled a five for the invert, which put Auggie Vidovich on the pole for the start of the race.
At the drop of the green, it was Vidovich jumping ahead of outside front row starter Ross Strmiska, followed closely by Brennan Newberry, Holtz and Jacob Gomes.
By lap 20 the top four had pulled away slightly from the field until Gomes, M.K. Kanke and Pettit began to reel in the leaders once lapped traffic slowed the progress of the top four.
The race remained green until a lap 34 incident involving the second and third place cars of Strmiska and Newberry in turns 1 and 2, both drivers spun but got going to restart in positions ninth and tenth.
On the lap 38 restart it was Vidovich still leading, followed by Gomes, Holtz, Kanke and Pettit. Holmes was up to sixth from his ninth starting position. Seventh was Thomas Martin, Derek Thorn eighth, Newberry ninth and Strmiska tenth.
Gomes began to pressure Vidovich for the lead, as Pettit put the pressure on Kanke for fourth. Caution flew again on lap 43 due to a spin in turn four and again on lap 57 for debris. While under caution, defending series champion Kanke pitted to change a flat front tire.
On lap 66, the battle of the race began as Gomes pulled his Thunder Valley Casino Resort Chevrolet to the outside of Vidovich for the lead, at the line they were door to door. At lap 67, Gomes was the leader by just inches at the line, Vidovich moved the 17 year old Gomes up in turn two and moved back into the lead, but Gomes battled back to draw even on the inside coming off turn four. Lap 71, Gomes back into the lead, Vidovich now working the outside to re-take the position.
Lap 74, Vidovich made the cross-over move to take the lead, Gomes chased hard into three and four making contact and spinning the 2003 NASCAR Southwest Tour champion out of the lead. SRL rules states, "Any competitor having contact with race leader, resulting in the leader spinning and or being eliminated from competition will be put to the back of the field". While under caution Vidovich then drove up to spin Gomes, which lead to Vidovich being black-flagged.
On the lap 78 restart it was now Holtz, followed by the 2008 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series champion Pettit, Holmes, and Newberry back up to fourth, Martin and Strmiska up to sixth. Holtz protected the bottom, while Pettit applied the pressure first low then high for the lead. Troy Ermish and Ryan Foster tangled bringing out the caution to set up a ten-lap shoot out to the end. The final caution flew on lap 95 due to an incident involving Josh Combs and Chris Winter.
On the restart, Newberry dove below Holmes to challenge for third, the top five were nose to tail. With three to go, Holmes moved to the outside of Pettit for second, while Pettit was glued to Holtz's bumper, with Newberry trying to displace Pettit. Two to go it was still Holtz, with Holmes by inches over Pettit for second, Newberry with the best seat in the house, followed now by SRL point leader Jonathon Gomez.
White flag, Holmes led by inches on the outside of Holtz, the capacity crowd on their feet, Holmes cleared Holtz going into turn three. At the checkered it was Holmes, Holtz, Pettit, Newberry, Gomez, Strmiska, Kanke, Joe Farre', Carlos Vieira and Keith Spangler rounding out the top ten.
Entering the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series championship finale at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Gomez leads the championship standings with 1414 points, Pettit is second with 1353, Thorn is third at 1316, followed by Foster at 1248 and Spangler in fifth with 1224. Gomes is the leading driver in the Victory Circle Chassis Rookie-of-the-Year standings and Newberry leads the "K&N Filters' Young Guns" championship.
The October 30th "RealFast.TV 200 presented by K&N Filters" is the final SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series points event of 2010. The SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series will compete in the Lucas Oil 'California Classic' at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on November 27th, with television coverage provided by the Versus Network.
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>
