BRIAN ICKLER TAKES SUPER LATE MODEL MAIN AT IRWINDALE.

IRWINDALE, California -- Rookie driver Brian Ickler clearly proved that he has all the right stuff to be a winner and completely dominated the second half of a 200 lap main event for the Lucas Oil NASCAR Super Late Model Series, October 1st, at the Irwindale Speedway near Los Angeles. Bryan Yeager and Ickler led a full field of 28 cars under the initial green flag but it was Brandon Loverock who quickly jumped into the lead and started running away from the pack. The race rhythm of the field was slowed seven times in the first 100 laps due to caution flags that included a turn four pile up on the fourth lap. The other serious incident was a red flag crash on lap 43 when Greg Pursley, following contact with another car, slammed hard into the turn three wall followed by an engine fire. Loverock led the first 100 laps, and picked up an extra $1,000 for leading at the halfway point, before the competition yellow came out for a brief break to allow the teams to change tires and make adjustments to their cars. During this period an inversion drawing was held and the number came up three meaning Loverock went to third and Ickler was moved to first. On the restart it was suspected that Loverock was going to make very quick work of returning to the lead because of his strong run during the first 100 laps. Much to everyone's surprise, his car started going backwards through the field. It was later reported that the car's set up just didn't agree with the new sticker tires that were put on during the break. Ickler, on the restart for the second half of the race, put on a tremendous show of strength and led the final 100 laps flag to flag to win the race by a three second margin. This was helped by the fact that there was only one brief caution flag, for a lap 169 spin out, that slowed his race rhythm. Dave Beat, Ron Esau, Eric Richardson and Michael Mulhall completed the top five. In victory lane the happy winner said "it was a great set up on the car. We actually didn't even change the set up from the first race to the second one we just put some new tires on it. We've been working so hard, it's our first year racing stock cars and to come out here and win the last one of the season feels great." A year ago Icker was racing off road desert vehicles in events such as the famed Baja 1000. When asked how he made the transistion from desert sand to aphalt ovals he said "some friends of mine, the McMillians, got me hooked up with Dan Whitt who is Brandon's dad who races the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks. They got me to go up and drive a car with Craig Raudman and Victory Circle. They got me into it and bought a car and we came out this year and raced."