Coming off of a season best 3rd place finish at Toyota Speedway, Jason Patison and the Speed Wong Racing Team traveled to Altamont Raceway Park for the Golden State Steel & Stair 200. The Jasper Engines sponsored #17 entry was fast right out of the trailer as the team made minor changes and posted the 6th fastest lap during the lone practice session. However, when qualifying came around Patison found the track conditions had changed drastically and the car became very loose, relegating him to a 14th starting position of the 33 entrants.
The team hoped that by the time the race started at 7:00pm the track would cool down and help tighten the car up. When the green flag dropped their hopes were realized, Patison and a much improved car began the charge forward. By lap 170 Patison was up to 4th place when race leader Mike David was spun coming out of turn 2. Patison swerved into the infield to avoid the spinning car and even though he never hit anything or even got out of shape Patison was put back in the field when the officials mistakenly thought he was part of the caution. Over the final laps Patison worked his way back up to 7th while team mate Jason Fensler went on to win the event.
“I’m happy that we got another top-10 but that call really hurt us, we definitely had a top-5 car tonight. I’m proud of my team and really proud of (Jason) Fensler, it’s awesome that he got his first series win in front of his hometown crowd.”
Patison and team will travel to Roseville, CA on October 25th for the final race of the 2008 season
Special thanks goes out to all of Patison’s crew members and Sponsors; Lucas Oil Products, Dixie Chopper, SuperClean, Jasper Engines, E3 Spark Plugs, Jim Beam, K&N Filters, Idiaz Label, and Fatheadz Sun Glasses for all of their support.
