JUSTIN PHILPOTT WINS WLM RACE AT STOCKTON 99 SPEEDWAY

STOCKTON, California — Justin Philpott had a hard time finding the words to describe his first Western Late Model main-event victory at Stockton 99 Speedway, but he knew what to do after driving under the checkered flag: He asked for the checkered flag.

Philpott then=2 0drove clockwise around the quarter-mile paved oval in celebration.

Philpott took the lead from Chris Hinkle of Lodi on the 28th lap and led the rest of the way to take the 50-lap feature Saturday night in front of a crowd estimated at 2,500. Philpott’s dad, David, a two-time track champion, finished 10th in the 12-car main after being wrecked in the trophy dash and suffering car damage. Matthew Philpott also competed in the race.

“I can’t even talk right now man,” Justin Philpott said before managing to convey that his trophy would go to grandfather John Philpott, who works extensively on the car.

Justin Philpott was lapping cars by lap 17, but Hinkle regained the lead on a restart on lap 19. Hinkle held on while Philpott pursued in a car that appeared to wobble a bit in th e turns. It was green-flag racing the rest of the way after Philpott took the lead.

David Philpott spun in turn 4 on lap 17, and Tim Spurgeon of Danville and Boyd Camper of Stockton were collected in the wreck. Camper’s car made its way onto Spurgeon’s for a moment. Spurgeon, who won the season opener, threw his gloves after exiting the car and had words and gestures for David Philpott as the field circled under the yellow flag. Camper returned to the race and finished a lap down.

Spurgeon led qualifying with a lap at 14.393 seconds, and Vito Ranuio of Modesto qualified second. Ranuio came on to finish second in the main, 2.858 seconds behind Justin Philpott. Doff Cooksey Jr. of Brentwood finished third.

Tony Noceti of French Camp and Chad Holman of Valley Springs won the Grand American Modified and Street Stock main events.

Noceti, who along with wife Carol is leasing the speedway and has spearheaded the renovation project that has brought back racing, took time out from work to get behind the wheel of his Modified racer for some play time.

Carol Noceti had a congratulatory hug and kiss waiting for Tony when he exited the car in front of the cheering crowd in the frontstretch. He said the car was sitting on the trailer, and the decision to race was made about 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

“It’s a great win here at the home track,” Tony Noceti said. “We’ve been building a racetrack. We haven’t had time to work on the old heap.”

The old heap led the 40-lap race from start to finish and held off Scott Winters of Tracy, the fast qualifier at 14.564 and last week’s winner, time and again around the oval. Winters made several moves on Noceti coming out of turn 2, trying to stick the nose inside Noceti’s back left bumper, but Noceti pulled away in the straights and won by .378 of a second.

Holman maintained a lead of three car-lengths over Jeff Ahl of Lodi throughout and won for the second week in a row, this time by .93 of a second. Holman said the team began working on the car about 5 p.m. Friday and went with the same setup as the previous week.

“That might be one of the few times I’ve been able to do that – win two in a row,” Holman said.

Eric Watson won the Bomber main and heat.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series continues this Saturday with twin 50-lap main events in the Late Model class. Also scheduled are the Modified, Street Stock and Bomber divisions.