IRWINDALE, California -- Two of the all-time leaders in main event victories at the half-mile banked Irwindale Speedway did what they do so often Saturday night at the eastern Los Angeles County speedway. Both veterans won a competitive stock car feature in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Tim Huddleston won his 32nd Auto Club Late Model main event and second consecutive 40-lap triumph. He is now the third most prolific winner at IS. Then Rip Michels followed with his track record 49th Irwindale triumph in the featured AC Delco Super Late Model 50-lap event in front of about 1,500 spectators. Todd Burns ranks second with 36 victories.
Three other series in action Saturday used the banked third mile oval. Five-time Legends track champion Tom Landreth started his replica 1934 Ford coupe from pole position as fastest qualifier in a 27-car field. He led the final 29 laps of a 30-lap race for his 30th main event triumph at IS. It was his first victory this season and he became the fourth different winner in five races. A 30-lap BG Products Pure Stock race went to fastest qualifier Jeff Elder in his 1975 Chevy Nova. He started second and led all the way to become the fifth winner in six races this year, including two figure 8 races. The first of five mains went to Eric Sloan, 10, in a nine-car, 15-lap Bandolero race. He started seventh and passed race-long leader Ashlee Ambriz, 14, on lap 11 entering turn one following a caution. It was his second consecutive victory. Andrew Anderson, 14, finished second.
Huddleston led the final 39 laps. His four Chevy Monte Carlo "blue wave" cars captured three of the top four finishing positions after occupying the first four positions on lap 33. The three trailing cars owned by Huddleston's Justice Brothers High-Point Distributing firm were in close proximity exiting turn two on lap 34 when second place Chris Carmody pushed up into the backstretch wall. The April 28 winner incurred damage and drove to the pits for repairs under caution to remove debris. He lost one lap but returned to action. Huddleston's pair of rookies ran two-three to the finish. Las Vegas resident Jace Meier, a USAC Ford Focus Midget graduate, took second from fastest qualifier/sixth starter Scott Jenkins, of Portland, OR with a clean, non-contact pass on the inside entering the first turn on lap 35.
Second starter Aaron Staudinger, the May 12 feature winner, led the first lap and waged position battles with all four Huddleston cars. Staudinger ran third from lap 14-31, second on lap 33 and sixth a lap later in position-swapping for second through sixth. Staudinger was fifth on lap 37 and then he passed Jenkins for third on lap 39. He trailed winner Huddleston by 1.659 to qualify for the final podium position. Runner-up Meier, driving Travis Thirkettle's 2006 Late Model track championship car, started third as the fourth fastest qualifier in an impressive 33-car field. He trailed winner Huddleston, by 1.597 and tied his best previous finish at Irwindale. His 48-points enabled Meier to jump from fourth place to the point lead by six points over his employer Huddleston (234-228). His team-mate and former point leader Carmody dropped to fourth place (30-points off the lead). Carmody, after losing a lap for repairs following his lap 34 wall contact, finished 23rd with 25 of 33 starters still racing at the checkers and 22 drivers on the lead lap.
Michels, Irwindale's 2002-03 SLM champion and 2006 NASCAR Elite Division Southwest Series touring circuit champion, keeps adding to his IS track records. His fifth consecutive SLM Division feature victory in Bob Bruncati's 2007 Ford Fusion tied a SLM 2004 record set by Greg Pursley in Irwindale's premier in-house series. Michels also recorded his fifth straight fastest qualifying time and sixth in eight events run so far in the 19 race season. The 40+ driver earned only two points opening night (March 24) when he did not finish. His 50-points Saturday moved him from third place to a tie for second in points at 332 with Andrew Phipps, the 2005 track champion as a SLM rookie. They are 18-points behind SLM rookie/point leader Travis Thirkettle, the 2006 Late Model champion.
As quickest qualifier in a 20-car field spun a six as the feature race inversion. He worked into second place by lap five and chased second starter Thirkettle to lap 15. Then Michels made an inside pass through the third and fourth turns to take the lead he would not relinquish. He won by 0.474 over Thirkettle, who enjoyed his career-best SLM finish. In eight races consistent Thirkettle also has three thirds, a fourth and three sixths. He had to repulse hard charging Nick Joanides, who was trying to get his fourth consecutive second place to Michels and now has six consecutive top three finishes. Joanides, aboard a Speed Wong Racing Monte Carlo, had to settle for third, 0.705 behind Michels. David Beat and Phipps finished fourth and fifth in the 20-car field. Fourteen drivers finished and 12 ran all 50 laps.
A lap after relinquishing the lead to Michels, Thirkettle tried to re-pass him exiting the second turn. Their cars made contact and both cars wiggled and continued in place as Joanides closed and made it a three-way battle. On lap 25 a four-car incident on the backstretch involved Dan O'Donnell, Dan Moore, Mike Price and Linny White in sixth through ninth place respectively. All four cars were sidelined with body-work or mechanical damage. Tayler Malsam, from Seattle, started 19th and was ninth on lap 37 of 40 when eighth place Austin Grabowski moved left on the backstretch, sending Malsam spinning to the infield. He restarted, lost a lap and finished 21st. Officials penalized Grabowski as the cause of the spin and sent him to the back behind Malsam and he finished 22nd.
Irwindale's two female drivers in the Late Model Division had career-best results on Irwindale's half-mile. Veteran Candace Muzny started 23rd and Lindsey King, a LM rookie and recent front-runner in Legend Cars, started 25th. They raced forward together and swapped positions three times (laps 11, 29 and 40). King made the final pass on the final lap approaching the finish line and finished eighth. Muzny took ninth, five seconds behind the winner. Sixteen male drivers finished behind the female duo who are showing great desire and tremendous improvement this season.
Legends winner Landreth started next to his father Bob in the front row. With Father's Day approaching on June 17 Tom let Bob lead the first lap before he took charge on the second lap and led the balance of the 30-lap race. Point leader/third starter Darren Amidon ran second from lap 3 through 28. Then Scott Anderson, a visitor from Austin, TX, charged his replica Ford coupe past Amidon and took second four laps from the finish. He trailed the winner by five yards (0.353) on his first visit to Irwindale. Amidon settled for third and increased his series point lead from 22 to 30-points as he tries to win his first Irwindale championship.
Michelle Rouse started 11th and chased winner Elder home in the Pure Stock 30-lap race. She won the last main event and said she wants to equal her victory total of two series features last year. Ron Davis finished third and increased his point lead to 10. Brian Jones led all the way in the Late Model trophy dash from third starting spot in a six-lap race for the 28-33rd fastest qualifiers. Hard charger award winners were (PS)-Dave Foster (10th to 6th); (LC)-rookie Cody Swanson (18th to 6th); (LM)-Brian Jones (31st to 13th), and (SLM)-Gary Jenkins (16th to 6th). Jenkins said the award helps because "we've had a bad luck year and had to replace two rear clips after crashes." Fastest qualifiers were Ashlee Ambriz (Bandoleros), T. Landreth (LC), Elder (PS), Jenkins (LM) and Michels (SLM).
PODIUM QUOTES: (Late Models)-P3 Staudinger said, "It's nice to be in the top three again. Fighting these blue cars (Huddleston's four-car team) is tough. They race as one." P2 Meier thanked his team and backers and added, "My mom could not be here tonight because she took a second job." Huddleston told spectators from the finish line, "These blue birds were flying tonight. Jace Meier finished second again. I look up to that kid. He's going to be a super-star in this sport." Later, Huddleston told the media and said, "It was a magic night. I've never had an experience in a ride like that. It got into the turns great. It is impossible to get it any better. I told my crew to measure every inch of the car to see what we did right and not change a thing."
(SLM)-P3 Joanides told spectators, "I didn't have enough bite on the bottom to get by the 5 car for second. This is our sixth straight top three." P2 Thirkettle stated, "I was too loose. We're trying to figure it out and working day and night to catch that blue car (Michels)." He thanked his wife and family for their support. Michels admitted, "They're catching me and roughing me up a little. It was the luckiest save I had all my life. I had no idea he was coming. I want to race side-by-side. That's fun. Tonight wasn't our best, but it was good enough."
