Gilbert-Arizona's Darren Young was all smiles on the evening of July 5th following an excellent evening of ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series, ASA-STC, racing at the Orange Show Speedway, OSS, in San Bernardino-California. Driving his familiar black #18 United Nissan Racing-Sudden Impact Chevrolet S-10, Young took command of the 100 lap feature just prior to the half way point of the race and never looked back en route to this second series win of 2008 in a race that was riddled with the presence of ten caution flags.
Young scored a hat trick at the OSS on this evening that began with qualifying. He toured the quarter mile paved oval and turned in a lap of 13.862 seconds. Not only was that good enough for the pole position, and the important five bonus points that comes with it, but it was also a new series track record. The second phase of the hat trick came when the two time series champion won the six lap trophy dash. He completed the trifecta with an impressive win in a Speed Truck that was clearly superior to the entire field. Making the night even sweeter was the fact that this event was a double points race and the win allowed Young to add some padding to his points lead in his quest for a third series title.
But this is not to imply that Young had an easy night of it. First off the pre race roll of the inversion dice moved his starting position from inside of row one to the inside of row three. Fellow Gibert-Arizona driver Jeff Catlin, in his Arrowlane Racing-DJ Safety-Sikwidit Clothing Chevrolet Colorado, led the starting field under the initial green flag and, for the first 40 laps of the race, it appeared that he was going to add his name to the first time 2008 winners list. However Young showed a remarkable amount of patience and quietly worked his way to the leader's tail gate and made his winning move on the low line heading towards turn one. Season rival and two time race winner Todd McLauchlan followed him under the checkers to take second in his Institutional Cabinets and Millwork-Ultra Boats-Airgas Toyota Tacoma, while Andy Allen, driver of the RJ Allen Inc Demolition and Excavation Chevrolet Colorado was third. Shawn Steele was especially impressive with his fourth place finish and was the hard charger of the event. Steele started his Scotton Tools-K&N Filters-Freedom Grill-Graphic Concepts Dodge Dakota dead last and did a magnificent job of working his way to a top five finish.Series rookie Joey Licata in his Throttle Racing Products-Anarchy Clothing Dodge Dakota completed the top five.
After the race Young thanked the members of the United Nissan Racing team for their usual job well done and said "I'm telling you that this United Nissan truck right off of the trailer was a rocket. We only went out on the track for practice two times yesterday and ran five laps each time. The truck was so good that we decided to load it up and went to watch the guys race at (the Toyota Speedway) at Irwindale. It was definitely a thrill to race here tonight. I think what was the most fun was the pre race roll of the dice that had us starting in fifth. It was an excitement getting around those guys. It was really a lot of fun. Commenting on his blistering qualifying run earlier in the evening Young said "I lucked out and managed to break my old track record in qualifying. We pulled out another hat trick tonight and God I love that and we even extended out points lead."
Equally excited about the race at the Orange Show Speedway was ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series President Jay Rutherford who said "the race was a little wild, a little rambunctious tonight but you've got to hand it to these series' drivers because what has happened over the past few series races was green to checkered flag races without yellows. Then we came out here, (to the OSS), to a true bullring where they tell me that there's two passing lanes here but I think there's only one. I thought that this was a fairly good race for not having any room on the track."
The series will return to action on July 19th for a 75 lap feature at Toyota Speedway In Irwindale which is a venue where the ASA-STC always shines at. Commenting on their return to Irwindale Rutherford said "I think they shine there because it's such an easy track to race on. In comparison Orange Show Speedway is a driver's track. The track at Irwindale is so wide and so long that it's very easy to race on. The last two times we were there we didn't see any yellow flags. We went right from the green flag to the checkers."
