LATHAM DEALS WIN IN RMCS RACE

Source: Magic Valley Speedway
Date: 06/13/2007

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- Bobby Latham III’s day last Saturday started out to be one he thought he’d like to forget. It ended up to be one he’ll want to remember. Latham, committed to his first full season in the Rocky Mountain Challenge Series, rounded up the victory in the Pepsi 125 held at Magic Valley Speedway - his first win in the series this season.

Latham came in to the night sixth in the standings in the series and was looking forward to having a good run Saturday evening, but right away Latham and his crew had their work cut out for them as problems with the car were noticed as soon as they unloaded the vehicle from the hauler.

“We got here and something happened to the car in transport or something,” Latham said. “The car was too wide and we had to tear the entire front suspension apart and redo do the geometry. In practice we were about twentieth out of 21 cars. The guys worked on it - then we were sixteenth in the second practice and qualified eighth.”

Nick Parker held the lead for the first 10 laps before Nick Gibson took over for the next 14 rounds. Then it was MVS owner/promoter Eddy McKean who charged to the front and led for the next 47 laps over Zan Sharp and later Latham as the two took turns at trying to run McKean down. Meanwhile John Newhouse and Bruce Quale were quietly moving up spots on the scoreboard and at lap 98, all four local drivers were in the top six of the field. The next lap had McKean getting loose in turn four and Newhouse trying frantically to avoid the spinning No.19 car. As the result of the incident, McKean was sent to the rear of the pack for the restart. With just twenty-five laps remaining in the race, Latham began to put a lot of real estate between him and eventual runner-up in the event Tom Hill – and the driver of the No. 3 car crossed the finish line 1.365 seconds over his nearest competitor.

“Today there were so many highs and lows – when we got here we were down and wanted to go home – then we ended up winning the thing. That was so hard – you don’t know how hard that was,” said an exhausted but ecstatic Latham. “We’re happy Johnny (Newhouse) did well tonight – and all the Twin Falls guys did good. It was awesome.”

Newhouse has had some tough luck so far this season and his third place finish was just what he needed to gain confidence in his program. Newhouse also set the fastest qualifying speed at 82.155 MPH and placed second in his heat race. Quale, coming off a poor showing at Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City, Utah, Memorial Day, finished fifth in the 125-lap main event with McKean coming in twelfth.

Dave Minegar of Boise, who entered the night with the lead in the point standings after an outstanding day at the Salt Lake City track, had a rough time at MVS and wound up nineteenth in the main event race.

Steve Jones earned his fourth main event win of the season in the Pepsi Premier division despite getting mired in traffic for the initial one-third of the feature division race.

Mike Greco took the lead at lap four after the third of three quick cautions early in the race caused TJ Woodhall, Sam Harris, Jr., Daryl Wert, Sam Harris, Sr., Dan Doan and previous main event winner David Patrick to make some hasty repairs in order to get back on the track for the green flag restart. Before long Jones and Rob Vest fought their way through the pack with Vest finally able to get around the jam in front of him – and Jones quickly followed.

Greco was cruising along with a nearly one-half track lead over Dan Pehrson at lap 34 when an untimely yellow flag came out as Pehrson hopped off the track in the turns three and four embankment. This brought Jones underneath Greco up for the restart with Rob Vest now joining the front of the pack. One more caution involving Wert, Patrick and Shelby Stroebel again tightened up the group for another restart, but Jones was able to maintain control and hold on for the win.

“Rob (Vest) is really good in traffic and he’s a good guy to follow through there,” Jones said. “If he’s in front of you just stay behind him – he makes all the holes – that’s for sure. We got a lot of lucky cautions tonight – if the cautions wouldn’t have fallen we’ve never would have caught Mike (Greco) or if TJ (Woodhall) wouldn’t have gotten torn up he would have been long gone – his car was fast. But sometimes being lucky is better than being good.”

Vest was pleased with his second place finish on the night but is still searching for his first trip to victory lane this season.

“The car was handing really well – Steve and I were side-by-side there for a long time until finally they messed up and we took off,” Vest reported. “He has a fast car and he knows how to get around here. One of these days though –I’m going to keep trying my hardest.”

Greco held on for a third place finish and Rick Fowble had an excellent run as he avoided trouble and placed fourth.

Jonathon Gomez determinedly stuck with Kevin Grubbs throughout the first 14 laps of the NAPA Pony Stocks main event race before taking over the lead after Grubbs spun out in turn three. From there Gomez kept his cool through four more cautions – the most spectacular one involving the No. 25 car of Billi Miles as she flipped her ride on the front stretch heading into turn one and landing right-side up – but not without a substantial amount of damage. Thankfully Miles climbed out of the car and gave a big wave to the cheering crowd as they realized she was uninjured. Jason Whited also received damage as he was involved in the caution and he was directed to march himself to the back of the field with just five laps remaining in the race.

Gomez’ win Saturday night was especially sweet after a mechanical infraction erased his victory the prior weekend.

“I got in a little trouble and had to find some parts to put this car back out here this week,” Gomez said from Victory Lane.” I’d like to thank everybody in the Pony Stock class for helping me with that.”

Gomez explains the difference between the prior “win” and last Saturday night’s.

“I get to take the trophy home this time,” he said.

The Manker’s Landscaping Teen Bees welcomed a new winner in Lane Albright who drove the “cow” car to the front of the herd in the 20-lap main event race.

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