BAKERSFIELD, California -- Mike Alexander won his second NASCAR Late Model feature of the year, September 1st, at Mesa Marin Raceway. The Communications Enterprises 50 was part of Thursday Night Thunder and round three of the Chase for the Championship being held on the half mile paved oval in Bakersfield.
A J Destefani and Gene Fife led the field across the line to start the 50 lap feature. Destefani led the first three circuits before Alexander made his winning move to take command of the race for good. >From that point it was clearly evident that Alexander had the field covered.
His race rhythm was slowed twice by caution flags. The first came on lap 11 when Josh Horn and Jeff Destefani tangled in turn three. Destefani spun up the track and smacked the wall. The second yellow flag was the one that hurt the most for race winner Alexander. It came on lap 47 when Cody Pruitt and Ray Robinson made contact and spun out in turn one.
The result was another Mesa Marin green-white-checker finish that almost cost Alexander the race due to a ragged restart that nearly got him rear ended by the second place car of Travis Thirkettle. Explaining the situation, after the race, Alexander said "I had my darn foot on the brake. I pushed the brake in and grabbed a gear and thought, aw man, and then I grabbed the clutch and said thank God I almost screwed up. I told myself to stay focused, hit your marks and fortunately it was our night tonight."
Alexander was thrilled with the performance of his Oak Gallery Chevrolet and said "it's been a long time since I've had a car that handled that flawless. I could go into the turn and let it roll and get up on the throttle. It just felt great. The crew worked their tails off, we came out here and tested twice during the week and the car was flawless they did an awesome job."
Travis Thirkettle, Eric Richardson, Tim Huddelston and Roy W. Degeer completed the top five. In preliminary events Jeff Smith and Alexander won heat races while Degeer won the trophy dash.
Commenting on his second place finish Travis Thirkettle, a regular at the Irwindale Speedway, said "it was great, it was a total rebound from the last time we raced here. We're going to be back for the next race. I've never won a race here, except for a heat race, and I want to win that October Classic. I think a Thirkettle should win the last (Late Model) race here."
His father is Jim Thirkettle a five time Mesa Marin track champion and an icon from NASCAR's Southwest Series. His stellar career has been a huge influence that has guided his son's career.
"If I would have known that this track was closing I would have been racing here this year. I always thought it would be here, I always thought I could come back to it, I really took it for granted. I really wanted to race a lot here," Thirkettle said.
The main focus of the night was Mesa Marin Raceway's Chase for the Championship which began August 6th with the top ten drivers from the regular season points standings. Going into the Thursday Night Thunder event, Bakersfield's Eric Richardson began the evening with a single point lead over Cody Pruitt. After the two heat races of the evening were concluded, Richardson was a single point behind Pruitt.
Richardson lined up 12th for the main event and his game plan was simple: finish ahead of Cody Pruitt, Josh Horn and Roy Degeer. With a combination of hard racing and consistent lap times, Richardson finished third and wound up with a 15 point lead in the championship standings.
Commenting on his night Richardson said "it turned out to be a great night for us. Things weren't looking that good, (early in the evening), but my crew is great and they came through again."
