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Kanke Finishes And Wins
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- Created: Sunday, 12 September 2010 02:55
- Written by Dan
KANKE FINISHES and WINS
BAKERSFIELD, CA - For just the second time in 2010, defending SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series champion M.K. Kanke of Frazier Park, CA finished a race. And for the second time in 2010, Kanke and his RPM Motor Sports team were in Victory Lane, following Saturday night's "NTS, Inc. 100" at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.
"We took care of the car early," said Kanke. "I let the front runners go hard early and waited for the right time to move forward. My guys always give me a great car, Watkins just freshened the engine so we were ready for a good run. This series is so tough, it reminds me of the days we ran with guys like Hornaday, Dan Press and Carelli in the Tour...it's that tough now."
Kanke had to hold off a hard charging Jason Gilbert in the green-white-checkered finish. Gilbert had these comments after the race. "Based on the July race at Irwindale, I knew that we had a decent shot of coming up through the field and getting a good finish." Gilbert continued, "Tire management is key with the new softer tires...our patience early in the race paid off big at the end. Not sure we would have had anything for Kanke, as he appeared to have the same game plan as us, but didn't have to come from 18th on the starting grid."
Finishing third was Ryan Foster, followed by new point leader Jonathon Gomez, with Jim Pettit rounding out the top five. Gomez set fast time at 17.87 and later drew an eleven-car invert to set the thirty-car starting line up.
At the drop of the green, Kyle Cattanach lead the field until Brennan Newberry took the point on lap two. The racing was intense at the front and by lap five the lead changed again as Derek Thorn moved past Newberry. By lap ten, it was Thorn, Newberry, Gomez moving up from this eleventh starting position to third, Ryan Reed fourth and Ross Strmiska.
The top five remained the same until lap 19 when Thorn's night ended, as the championship leader hit the spinning car of Bobby Hodges coming off of turn four.
On the restart, a multicar incident in turn two brought out the red flag for a six-minute clean up to remove the cars of Greg Voigt and Chris Holloway.
By the time the green flag fell again on lap 23, it was Gomez at the front, followed by Reed, Strmiska, Eric Holmes, Cattanach, Joe Farre', Kanke, Pettit, Foster and Newberry rounding out the top ten.
Lap 31, Strmiska displaced the sixteen-year-old Reed for second. Kanke cracked the top five six laps later. He then moved past Holmes for fourth, then Reed for third by lap 44, when the caution flew for the third time when Troy Ermish blew a right front tire and slammed the turn four wall and collected Carlos Vieira.
At the half-way point of the race at lap 50, the top ten was Gomez, who was looking for his second consecutive win at Toyota Speedway, Strmiska second, followed by Kanke, Holmes, Foster, Cattanach, Reed, Farre', Pettit and Newberry.
The red flag was brought out again on lap 56 when Jacob Gomes and Farre' made contact on the front straight-away sending Gomes into the outside wall and coming to rest at the entrance to turn one. Both Dan Holtz and Holmes retired from the event during the caution period. . Kanke had just moved into second before the caution and on the re-start it was the defending SRL champion on the bumper of the now series point leader Gomez.
The top five remained the same with Kanke dogging Gomez for the lead until a lap 68 caution after a two-car incident resulted in the #14 Primetime Racing entry of Rex Lockwood retiring with the right-side sheet metal peeled off the car.
Back to green, on lap 73 Kanke made an inside move on Gomez in turn two for the lead and slowly extended his lead as he ran some of his fastest laps of the race.
On lap 86, Gilbert of Dublin, CA was the car on the move as he advanced into the top five from his 18th starting position.
The race was slowed once again on lap 92 for the stalled car of Jared Vorse along the back straightaway wall. Top five; Kanke, Foster, Gomez, Gilbert and Strmiska.
Back to green, Kanke again was extending his lead, Gilbert moved past Gomez and then Foster for second before a lap 98 caution after Kevin Callahan, Pettit and Strmiska got together in turn two while fighting for fourth. Strmiska's night was finished due to hard contact with the wall.
The green, white, checkered finish resulted in Kanke winning his second race of the year by .683 seconds over Gilbert, who was the Five Star RaceCar Bodies Hard Charger award winner. Foster scored his best finish of the year in third, Gomez held onto fourth and the point lead, Pettit was fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Newberry in sixth, Dallas Montes seventh, followed by Keith Spangler, Farre' and Strmiska.
The SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series next stop of its championship season is at Madera Speedway on September 25th for the "Mid-Valley Iron and Metals 125".
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
