IRWINDALE, California - Versatile Nick Joanides learned two days before the NASCAR Auto Club Late Model event at Irwindale Speedway that he had his first ride this season in the fan-popular series. The 36-year old veteran of the now defunct NASCAR Elite Division made the most of his opportunity. Joanides set third fastest qualifying time in a 28-car field, started on the pole and led all 40-laps to win the second ACLM feature of his career. Last year he drove the No. 10 Loren Bornstein Racing Chevy to a victory on the IS half-mile. That car was sold following the 2006 season. An estimated 5,500 spectators watched the Whelen All-American Series action on Auto Club and King Taco Family Night.
ACLM: Joanides, from Woodland Hills, received a telephone call Thursday from a Jackson Racing principal asking him to sub-drive the No. 77 Mr. Crane/J & M Construction Chevy. The car had won two Irwindale features this year with Aaron Staudinger, from Canyon Country, driving. At the last ACLM race (August 4) Staudinger, 33, drew the ire of track officials for two on-track incidents with other drivers during the main event. They black-flagged him for rough driving. As he exited the track, angry Staudinger drove over orange cones and took a short cut to his pit stall. Race director Lester Boyer posted a ruling that suspended Staudinger for one month to September 2 (two ACLM races) and fined him $250. His car owner, Loyd McGhee wanted to race and put Joanides in his No. 77 for the rest of the season.
Joanides has assisted the Speed Wong Racing team all year with set-ups and advice to its young drivers in the fleet of 16 racing cars and trucks in the super late model, late model, super trucks and legend car series. In fact, Joanides has raced a super late model, super truck and legend car this year for Speed Wong Racing. Driving for Speed Wong, he finished second in three consecutive main events this season to AC Delco SLM point leader Rip Michels. Joanides ranked 15th in SLM points, despite skipping six of the 13 races. His feature victory in the No. 77 ride Saturday made Joanides the seventh different ACLM main event winner this season in the 12th of 15 scheduled races. He set the third fastest qualifying time after getting settled into his new ride during two early afternoon practice sessions.
Dan DiGiacomo started his Monte Carlo fourth and took second place from Scott Jenkins in traffic on the front straight during lap 35. DiGiacomo trailed Joanides by 0.972. Rookie/fastest qualifier/third starter Jenkins, from Portland, OR, finished third, 2.059-seconds behind the winner. Jenkins' Justice Bros. High-Point Distributing teammates Chris Carmody, from second on the grid, and leading rookie Jace Meier, from fifth, followed. Meier, an 18-year old from Las Vegas, had flown in from North Carolina after enrolling in Belmont Abbey College where he will begin classes Tuesday. Meier's 42-points for fifth place moved him into a first-place tie in ACLM 2007 point standings. His car owner, Tim Huddleston-the 2005 ACLM series champion-entered the race with a 24-point cushion (426-402) over his protégé Meier. Huddleston started 27th in the 28-car field and could only race up to 17th position, giving him 18-points. Meier and Huddleston are now deadlocked at 444 points in a series in which 51 drivers have scored points.
A unique reason caused Huddleston's rare last row starting position. His first lap qualifying time during single car qualifying from 4:00-4:20 was a slow 23.078 (77.996 mph) because of mishandling. His time was well-below his 19.575 (92.237 mph) and 19.453 (92.531 mph) best laps during the two early afternoon practice sessions in which he ranked in the top five drivers in each session. In his pit stall, Huddleston's crew discovered the pin had come out of his left front shock absorber, causing the mishandling during his only qualifying lap. He had the slowest qualifying lap and had to start 27th. Huddleston's stated goal was to earn the hard charger award for himself and have his three other blue cars finish 1-2-3, putting all four of his cars at the finish line for post-race interviews. He did earn the $100 gift certificate award from Jeff Schrader's Racecar Factory for hard charger honors. His three other team cars finished 3-4-5.
Huddleston told the crowd he will field a fifth blue car (No. 57) at the next ACLM race (September 1) and for the final three races with past AMA moto-cross champion Jeremy McGrath driving. McGrath, a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. development driver, raced Saturday in a late model at a track in North Carolina. The ACLM feature was the cleanest and quickest of the year at IS. The all-green flag race took only 13:09.072. All 28 starters were racing at the finish, with 20 drivers on the lead lap. Bakersfield's Kevin Callahan, from seventh, had a race-long battle with sixth-starter Michael Wright and passed him just past mid-race. They finished sixth and seventh respectively. Wright, 31, now ranks third in ACLM points (434) only ten points behind co-leaders Huddleston and Meier. Jimmy Sloan came from 11th to eighth. Recent high school graduate Austin Grabowski was ninth and Richie Altman tenth.
PRO TRUCKS: James Weston made his second start of the year in a West Coast Pro Truck (WCPT) and led all 30-laps for his first series victory. The ACLM 2000 series champion at IS during the track's second season has been building All-Pro Racing Engines for years at his Santa Barbara-area race shop. He finished fourth in his first WCPT effort in round two of four scheduled races for the series at IS this year. Series point leader Jeff Williams started fifth as fastest qualifier and finished second, 0.519 back. David Timewell, just retired Arcadia Fire Department Captain Neil Conrad, and NASCAR Grand National West veteran Takuma Koga finished third through fifth in a 13-truck race. Officials shortened the scheduled 40-lap race to 30-laps following two caution flags.
For the first time in recorded racing history, two paraplegic drivers spun out at the same time. Ricky "Bobby" James, 18, started his third truck race from pole position as the fifth fastest qualifier. He was seventh on lap 29 when; his truck swapped ends and spun up to the turn two wall on the drivers' side. The T7 paraplegic lost his mobility from the chest down in a moto-cross crash two years ago in Texas. He gets around in a light-weight wheelchair, as does his mentor, Mike Young. Fellow moto-cross rider Young was paralyzed from the chest down years ago in moto-cross cycle racing and started racing pro trucks several years ago. Ironically, Young was the person who got James into WCPT racing and steered him to buy the ex-No. 45 Ryan Black multiple feature winning truck. Young was in eighth place and spun out low to avoid James' truck. Young restarted and finished eighth with ten of 13 trucks racing at the end of an 18-minute event.
LEGEND CARS: Fastest qualifier/five-time series champion Tom Landreth, 39, chased lap 1-24 leader Matt Hart after taking second spot on lap 9. With the first four drivers racing nose to tail , Landreth made his winning pass on lap 25 on the inside through the third and fourth turns to the starting line. Ryan Partridge, 19, also passed Hart a lap later. Hart, seeking his first win, spun out of third place on lap 28 in turn two and lost half a lap. Landreth's fifth victory in ten features this year was his fourth in a row and fifth in the last six races. It was his 34th feature victory at IS (all in Legend Cars), moving him into sole possession of third position on the list of all-time feature winners at IS. It broke his tie with Huddleston and left him two victories short of the second place 36 victories logged by 2002-03 ACLM champion Todd Burns. Gary Scheuerell, leading Legends rookie Cody Swanson, 16, and 22-year old point leader Darren Amidon, from Santee, completed the top five. There were 23 of the 26 starters racing at the checkered flag and 19 drivers ran all 30-laps. Landreth now trails Amidon by 36 points (466-430) with four races remaining in the 14-race schedule.
BANDOLEROS: Fastest qualifier Andrew Anderson, a 14-year old from Lancaster, started and finished first in his Briggs & Stratton-powered car. His brother Aaron, 11, started third and took second on lap 14 of the 15-lap, nine-car race on the four-degree banked third-mile track. Brianna Holley, 15, from Las Vegas, ran second from lap 5 through lap 13 and settled for third. Andrew Porter, 13-year old grandson of veteran driver Kenny Smith, and Tyler Fabozzi, 10, followed. All nine drivers finished and ran the full 15-lap distance. Winner Anderson then doubled-up and raced his Legend Car from 13th starting spot to a ninth place finish.
FIGURE 8: The Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8 race had eight starters. Brothers Steve and Rusty Stewart, from Long Beach, began the 25-lap race tied at 182 points for the series point lead after four of nine scheduled races. They qualified 1-2, started 1-2 and finished 1-2 in the final race of the night. Rusty trailed by 13.416-seconds. Billy Ziemann finished third and was the only other driver on the lead lap. He was 15 seconds behind the winner. Seven of eight starters finished the 8:14.243-timed, all green flag race. Steve now leads brother Rusty 232-230.
HARD CHARGERS: Recipients of $100 gift certificates were: (Bandoleros)-Eric
Sloan - P 9 to P6; (WCPT)- Dustin Vandermooren - P 10 to P6; (Legends)- Austin
Grabowski - P 21 to P 11; (ACLM)- Huddleston - P 27 to P 17. The six-lap ACLM
trophy dash for the third through tenth quickest qualifiers went to second
starter Altman, who led all the way. Joanides, Meier, DiGiacomo, Wright and
18-year old rookie Brian Wong, the son of Speed Wong Racing owner Darryl Wong,
followed. Fastest qualifiers were (Bandoleros)-Andrew Anderson - 18.924 (63.348
mph); (Legends)- Landreth - 16.955 (70.705 mph); (Figure 8)- S. Stewart - 18.868
(71.931 mph); (WCPT)- Williams - 20.674 (87.066 mph), and (ACLM)- Jenkins -
19.011 (94.682 mph).
