PUTMAN TAKES ASA SPEED TRUCK CHALLENGE SEASON OPENER AT BLYTHE

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 03/04/2007

Some hard work, during the winter off time, paid off huge for Jim Putman and company and it allowed the team to win the season opener for the ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series, March 3d, at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speeday, a quarter mile paved oval located in Blythe-California. Putman's strong performance allowed him to lead all of the laps in the Smart and Final 100 in a performance that can only be descirbed as totally dominant.

Putman and Andy Allen led the starting field under the initial green flag with Putman immeadiately displaying his race long dominace by jumping into the lead. His race rhythm was disrupted on lap 16 when the first of five caution flags flew when Jacob Hawkin's truck went spinning around of the front stretch. Before the field could get restarted the second yellow of the race quickly came out when debris was discovered on the track.

Under green again, Putman floored his Dodge and started pulling away from the rest of the field with fellow Dodge driver Victor Pfluger in tow.It wasn't long before the pair of leaders began pulling away from the rest of the field. Their race rhythm was disrupted again, on lap 44, for the event's third caution flag when the trucks driven by Cole Houser and Tim Allen tangled and spun in turn three.Under green again, Putman hit the throttle again and began to pull away and it wasn't long before he and Pfluger had a half lap lead over the field again. However, that all ended when the race's fourth yellow flag came out, around lap 70, when Jacob Hawkins and Tim Allen went spinning through turn three.

Under green again, Putman and Pfluger again took off from the field to continue their two man race. But the effort didn't last very long. All this while Bear Rzenowiecky and Darren Young, teammates from United Nissan Racing, were running third and fourth and racing each other really hard for several laps. The inevitable contact came on lap 88 when Young accidentally tapped his teammate's rear bumper and Rzenowiecky did a 360 spin in traffic on the frontstretch. The remainder of field played heads up and no one hit the spinning truck. But the incident resulted in both of them being sent to the rear of they field and it ruined any chance the pair had for a top five finish.It also brought out the fifth, and final, yellow flag of the race at a point in time when leader Putman really didn't need to see a caution flag.

Under green for the final time, Putman and Pfluger again took off for the final time and completed the final seven laps of the race. Austin Murphy, Andy Allen and Kenny Smith followed them under the checkers to complete the top five. In victory lane Putman was estatic and said "the truck was just outstanding.Chris Hines, at Arrowhead, prepped the truck for me. We tested over the winter and found some really good things with out set up. It was just unbelievable, the truck was just on rails all night long. I can't thank those guys enough, I was just inside of it going around and around and the truck just basically went there itself."

When asked if there were any concerns about the final yellow flag coming out with seven laps left in the race, Putman replied "no I didn't have any concerns at all I knew we had something for them and we had been running at about 75 to 80 percent. There was no pressure so I just sort of left it there. We started with a new tire this year with a 70 compound and nobody really knew what it was going to do. We just babied the tires the entire race and now it looks like we can lean on it a little harder."

The ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series has a week off before it returns to action, March 17th, where the teams will face another daunting challenge on a paved quarter mile oval at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino.

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