LINDSEY KING IS 1ST FEMALE FEATURE WINNER ON IRWINDALE HALF-MILE IN THRILLING LATE MODEL 40-LAPPER – BY TIM KENNEDY

Source: Tim Kennedy
Date: 08/04/2008

Fans cheered the memorable victory by the Cherry Valley resident. Most fans remained at their seats to hear her post-race comments at the finish line following the 9:34 pm conclusion of the final race of the night."That was a crazy race. It was a long time coming. I asked my spotter at the end if it was over. I was too focused and thought the race was about at the halfway point," King stated. "My spotter just said keep going during the race. Thanks to Nick (Joanides—the runner-up) for racing me so cleanly and holding off passing me," King continued. She thanked her car owner Tim Huddleston, High-Point Distributing, sponsor Racecar Factory and her crew chief. "I was excited to get a second try from second starting position. I got a bad start the last time (July 26) and finished second. I learned a lot in this class after racing Legends for a few years. It's been three years since my last main event win in a Legends race at Orange Show Speedway and in karting before that," the happy winner added.

King joined the HPD six-car ACLM team this season as a NASCAR Drive for Diversity Program development driver. She raced the No. 09 late model during the last two seasons for Team RA with her father Clyde King as her crew chief. Second finisher Joanides started third, took second on lap 12 and finished 0.218 behind King. Joanides, the point leader in both the ACLM and AC Delco Super Late Model premier weekly series at TS@I, spoke to the crowd as well. "I'd have been sad passing her. I'd have been the bad guy even if I passed her cleanly. I tried to win, but she did a great job. She had the momentum on the outside. I had to contend with Tim (Huddleston) on the inside during the closing laps, so he got my attention." Joanides has won three ACLM and eight ACD SLM main events this season.

HPD team owner/ACLM title contender Huddleston finished third, 0.562 behind his protege King, who drove the car he used to win the ACLM driving championship last year. He climbed from his new 2008 RCF-built Monte Carlo at the finish line and hugged King for the second consecutive week. He told the crowd, "I knew she would win a feature. I just didn't know when. I told her before you finish first you have to finish second and she did that last time." The top three finishers came to the press box afterwards and compared the AMB electronic scoring results sheet to see which of them had the fastest lap of the race. King also won that contest with a best lap of 19.458 (92.507 mph). Joanides' best lap was 19.497 and Huddleston's fastest lap was 19.498. Remarkably, the top 17 drivers all ran best laps from 19.530 to 19.933 and all 17 completed 40 laps. Nineteen of 20 starters starters finished. Joanides revealed that his car had an ignition switch problem again during Friday night open practice at the track. The same problem cost him two laps last week and he had to hold the switch to finish. "We installed a new switch Friday night and it was fine today," Joanides said.

Pole starter Dan DiGiacomo finished fourth, 3.238-seconds behind the winner. Race Control officials ruled that he had started too early in the fourth turn before the initial green flag. He led the first lap over Joanides and King, but officials ordered a yellow flag for a complete restart with all drivers in their original starting positions. Benny Moon, a USAC Ford Focus Midget winning driver, started fourth in the No. 51 HPD Ford Fusion and finished fifth in just his second ACLM race at Irwindale. He had won a FF Midget race on the track's third-mile during the 2005 USAC Midget Series Thanksgiving Night Grand Prix. Rounding out the top ten were Mike Johnson, former ACLM point leader Andrew Myers, who started tenth, Travis Irving, Kevin Callahan and Brandon Loverock. Joanides entered the race with a two-point lead over five-time feature winner Myers and double main event winner Huddleston and emerged with a four-point lead (506-502) over Huddleston. Myers now ranks third, 12-points back (494) after 12 of 18 ACLM scheduled races.

SUPER TRUCKS: Fastest qualifier Connor Cantrell, a 17-year old Valencia High senior, started sixth and became the third race leader on lap 30 of a 40-lap King Taco Super Truck main on the half-mile. He logged his fifth victory with his Hollywood Rentals.com Chevy in event nine of a 14 race season. He cut four points from the lead of Pat Mintey, Jr , who started seventh and finished third. Two-time feature winner Joe Herold, a NASCAR Elite Division touring series winner, started fifth and led laps 10-29. He passed outside front row starter Todd Cameron, the first nine laps leader. Cantrell took second on lap 12 and dueled outside running Herold on the inside lap after lap for 15 laps and made an outside pass cleanly to take the lead in the first two corners. Cantrell got a good run off turn four and pulled even with Herold next to the wall at start/finish. Once in front Cantrell pulled away to a 20-yard victory margin (1.065). At lap 20 Mintey was sixth; he raced hard to reach fourth by lap 26. He the staged a close battle with Mason Britton for third place and executed an outside pass in the final turns that netted him the final podium position by 0.216. Britton was fourth and Dana Higgins fifth Scott Dodd, John Sereika, Ryan Fortier, rookie Grant Hebner and Cameron completed the top ten. The 22- minute race had three caution flags, including one on lap 16 that sidelined impressive KTST rookies/second generation drivers Rod Johnson, Jr and Jeff Peterson.

PRO TRUCKS: The opening main event on the half-mile was the fifth West Coast Pro Trucks race at Irwindale this year. It was the ninth WCPT race of the season at three tracks. An inversion of two put series point leader and three-time winner Jeff Williams, the 2006-07 WCPT champion, on the pole. He led the first 16 laps in an intense duel with 19-year old paraplegic Ricky James, from Murrieta, and 17-year old rookie Dalton Kuhn, a Carlsbad High senior and resident of Vista in San Diego County. Kuhn, the son of past track champion and 23-time main event winner Dean Kuhn, was driving in only his sixth race after giving up football because of a knee injury. Kuhn, in a Dodge Ram, utilized a slowing truck to pass his teammate James on lap 11 as the three leaders ran virtually nose-to-tail. On lap 17 they approached two slower trucks entering the third turn. Kuhn shot to the inside and passed the slower trucks and leader Williams simultaneously. With his parents watching proudly from the pit area, Kuhn opened as 25-yard victory margin (0.463) in the all-green flag 14:23.494 race.

James, also a three-time WCPT feature winner this year, won the first two WCPT mains this year at Irwindale. He broke the T7 bone of his spinal column during a motocross crash in Texas three years ago. Yet he competed this week in the X Games adaptive motocross race at the Home Depot Center in nearby Carson. He also competed in the Los Angeles Marathon for the first time earlier this year and finished fifth in the hand cycle class. The inspirational driver also participated in an Ironman marathon and finished the 63-mile race in 7-hours, 14-minutes. His next goal is to race a late model stock car to continue challenging himself. Williams, trying for his third consecutive TS@I main event victory, finished third, 2.496-seconds behind the winner. Ronnie Davis, Jr was the only other driver on the lead lap in a race cut from the a scheduled 40 laps to 30. Takuma Koga, a former NASCAR GN West Series regular from Japan, was fifth. Nine of 13 starters reached the checkered flag.

USAC 'FF MIDGETS: The fastest of two series that used the third-mile was the touring USAC K & N Filters Ford Focus Midget Paved Track Series. A 12-car field took the green flag with the usual USAC six-car inverted starting lineup. Second starter Brennan Newberry, 17, led the initial 27 laps of 35 laps. His four-car Ron Sutton Winners Circle Driver Development Program teammate Jessica Brunelli, a 15-year old from Hayward ran second for 19 laps. Fastest qualifier Ian Miille came from sixth grid position and took second from Brunelli on lap 20 with an inside pass entering turn three. Their cars made contact exiting the fourth turn. Miille spun across the finish line to the infield, causing the first of; two yellow flags during the 14-minute race. Officials sent Brunelli to the back of the field along with Miille, handing second place to third starter Alex Bowman, from Tucson, AZ. He won the last FF Midget feature at Irwindale in his Beast chassis "comb-car" that races on both paved and dirt tracks. He had raced the same car two nights earlier at the Ventura clay track during the annual Ventura County Fair mid-week event. Point leader Bowman, 15, chased Newberry from lap 20-27. On lap 28 Bowman used an inside move from the starting line to the first turn to grab the lead for good. He then opened a 40-yard edge during the final eight laps and won by 1.916-seconds. Newberry held off his Sutton teammate and past Irwindale winner Brendan Langlois, from Canada. Miille charged back to earn fourth and took second place in points. Garrett Peterson, Brunelli, Justin Hommel, who slipped to third in points, Shawn Buckley, Nick Carlson and J. R. Williams, 73, from Carson City, NV, completed the top ten. All ten drivers completed 35 laps. Bowman extended his paved track series point lead from 13 to 28 points; he also ranks second in current USAC FF Midget Dirt Track Series points.

LEGENDS: A 30-car field of Legend coupes and sedans ran a wild, 26-minute race on the third-mile with eight yellow flags. The race produced three leaders. Fastest qualifier Gary Scheuerell led the first two laps from the pole. Five-time Irwindale Legends track champion Tom Landreth started second and paced lap 3-19 and 22-35. He scored his third victory this season and his 39th since Legends began racing for points at Irwindale in 2001. He ranks second in all-time feature victories at the track to Rip Michels' 55 triumphs in three series. Landreth, the 2001, 03, 04, 05 and 06 champion, lost the lead on lap 20 for two laps to Chad Schug. Drivers used the inside at turn three to assume the point throughout the race. Cole Cabrera, a newcomer from Exeter, drove the "Herbie" circle 53 coupe from 11th starting spot to a career-best second after he passed Scheuerell on the final lap. Double feature winner Ryan Reed, 14, also passed Scheuerell at the same time to finish third. Scheuerell took fourth and 2007 track champion Darren Amidon fifth. Schug placed sixth, with 14-year old Brent Scheidemantle, Cory Miles, Brandon Toy and Jake Engle next in order at the finish. There were 27 of 30 starters circulating at the finish, with 22 drivers on the lead lap.

Hard Charger Award winners selected by Race Control officials were: WCP--Davis, Legends--Mark Iungerich, KTST—Dodd, FF Midgets—Peterson and ACLM—Myers. Fastest qualifiers and their speeds by series were : (third mile)--Legends: Scheuerell (70.617 mph); FF Midgets: Miille (81.679 mph); (half-mile)--WCPT: James (89.539 mph); KTST: Cantrell (90.666 mph); ACLM: Huddleston (94.340 mph).

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