October 22, 2000 – Mesa Marin Raceway – In 2000 Dan Holtz, who finished second in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Late Model Stock Car Series for Mesa Marin Raceway, had to drive the wheels off a loose #16 to win his 2nd Annual Race of Champions Trophy. He drew a #6 for a start position, but when the green flag flew he was behind the slower line of traffic and was shuffled back to fourteeenth, which was mid-pack of the twenty-two Late Model contenders. That set up his quest for the lead as defending champion of this special event sponsored by Golden West Trailer Sales.
The top five points leaders from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Orange Show Speedway, Irwindale Speedway, Cajon Speedway, and Mesa Marin Raceway were locked into starting positions if they chose to participate. Then Friday night’s Late Model "Big O Tire 200" acted as the qualifying race for the remaining positions in Sunday’s race. Besides the prestige of winning the event, $20, 075 was up for grabs.
In 1999 as a rookie Late Model Stock Car driver Dan Holtz had to drive hard in the pre-event to even qualify for the 1st Annual Race of Champions. Then by the luck of the pre-race qualifying draw for position, Holtz found himself on the pole fending off the competition.. Once Holtz captured an early lead noone was able to get by him, thus, he was crowned the first winner of Late Model Stock Car Race of Champions.
During the first 50 laps of the 2000 event, the champions were all jockeying for position. They wanted to be in the right place to come back after the break to win the 25-lap dash for $3,000 cash award.
Tommy Fry, Jr. of Irwindale Speedway inherited the lead and held it until lap 74 of the 75-lap main feature. But it wasn’t a cake-walk. Fry was continually challenged by Craig Raudman, who qualified for the Race of Champions by winning Friday night’s Big O Tire 200, Mike Duncan, Mesa Marin’s 2000 Late Model Track Champion and Holtz, last year’s winner
After the break Holtz was behind Fry and Raudman with Mike Duncan in 4th. Raudman was pushing hard on Fry and Holtz was pushing Raudman as he continued to control a very loose race car through the turns. Going into the last few laps Raudman and Holtz made contact and Raudman went sideways collecting Duncan in the incident. Holtz moved up behind Fry for the re-start and was able to finesse the pass for the lead giving him his 2nd consecutive win in the 2nd year of the Race of Champions Invitational.
"This is great," said Holtz. "Our team needed this win. We’ve had a tough go the last half of the season. We needed to get back on track and winning the Race of Champions for the 2nd time is what we needed. The competition was even greater this year. Many thanks to Mesa Marin for putting this on and Golden West Trailer Sales for putting up the money to encourage the guys to come out. This is great."
Tommy Fry ended up 2nd followed by Sean Woodside, former Saugus Speedway Champion, Brandon Miller , Irwindale Speedway, and Rod Johnson, 2000 Track Champion from Irwindale Speedway.
Results: Dan Holtz, Tommy Fry Jr, Sean Woodside, Brandon Miller, Rod Johnson, David Beat, David Brandon, Dick Cobb, Jim Wulfenstein, Ray Hooper Jr, Del Dalrymple, Stephan Sadler, Kenny Christensen, Joe Bubbico, Kevin Small, Dave Quartaro, Bobby Aldridge, Mike Duncan, Craig Raudman, Greg Voigt, John Tyczki Jr, Brian Branson.
