BALDWIN PARK, California — Coming into the fifth race of the NASCAR ACDelco Super Late Model 2009 season, Position One Motorsports drivers Luis Martinez Jr # 03-King Taco/Eibach Springs/Molecule and Mackena Bell # 30-NASCAR Drive for Diversity/ Mackena Bell Motorsports/ K. Dub Creative Web Design/ K. Bell Tile & Marble/Sciarroni Bros Racing, McBride Machine/Bell Helmets/NGK Spark Plugs showed up looking to improve their point standings. The drivers current point standings for the weekend stood with Martinez in the twentieth spot with 58 points and Bell in tenth with 102 points. With this weekend's race being a Twin event, chances for making up ground were very good.
Qualifying:
Continuing his recent strong qualifying efforts from previous weeks, Martinez took his #03 King Taco car and completed a great 2-lap run. The effort was good enough to qualify him third on the grid. Meanwhile, Bell went out and put in 2 incident free laps which put her in the twelfth starting spot. The field was inverted, which for Martinez meant he would start on the pole. This was the first race Martinez would start at the front of the field.
Race 1:
Starting first and twelfth, Martinez and Bell took the green flag and battled it out with the 22-car field. Martinez spent the first part of the race sandwiched between two track veterans #71 Nick Joanides and #12 Rip Michaels and holding the third place position. Bell was fighting in the middle of the pack, battling side by side for the eleventh position. The race pace was interrupted by a caution only twice, on lap #15 and lap #30. With the race coming to a conclusion, Martinez had managed to protect his third place standing while Bell finished in the twelfth spot.
Race 2:
Starting in the exact same positions that they finished their last race, both drivers started the race in fine form however, when Martinez went low in turn #1 on the first lap, his fellow competitors unfortunately did the same resulting in a 2-car incident that brought out the yellow flag. Martinez was sent to the back of the pack for what officials deemed unnecessary contact. Disappointed, but not deterred, Martinez quickly sliced through the field once the green flag dropped. By lap #9 Martinez had caught up to teammate Bell and battled her for the ninth spot. By lap #8 Martinez had passed ten cars and sat in the eighth spot. Martinez would eventually end up eighth as the race came to a close. Bell's fortune took a turn for the worse. After moving up three spots to ninth on the twenty-third lap, her #30 Super Late Model slammed into turn #3 after suffering a broken upper "A" arm. Officially finishing the race in seventeenth.
Position One Motorsports will compete again on May 16th when the seventh race of the NASCAR ACDelco Super Late Model series is scheduled to occur.
Luis Martinez Jr - Driver: “Overall it was a good finish for both races despite the unfortunate incident during race #2, but even after that it was fun driving from the rear all the way to eighth place. Great team effort overall and a big thanks to my sponsors”
Mackena Bell - Driver: “After having a clutch slipping problem for race #1 we worked through that and we were having a good race #2 before it ended on lap 23. Still, despite the premature finish, a lot of this weekend was positive. We had our best qualifying yet, the Position One Motorsports team continued their hard work and we are gelling as a team. We'll be back in two weeks and we're going to fight for that top-10 finish. Many thanks to my sponsors for their help.
About Position One Motorsports:
After competing in the Formula TR Series in 2007 and 2006 and finishing 3rd in the Championship both years, Position One Motorsports entered the 2008 racing season looking to continue its success as a participant in the Whelen All American NASCAR Weekly Racing Series events at Southern California's Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. At the conclusion of the season the team finished 9th in the points. For 2009 Martinez and newcomer and NASCAR Drive for Diversity participant Mackena Bell, will race the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Housed in a state-of-the-art facility in Southern California, Position One Motorsports continues to support an array of go-kart ventures.
For more information on Position One Motorsports and its partners, visit www.position-one.com
