SIMI VALLEY, California — Tim Huddleston and his #50 Justice Borthers Racecar Factory late model hit victory lane for the third race in a row this past Saturday night. Huddleston started from the pole position after setting fast time and a one being rolled on the invert die. With long time competitor Mike Johnson on his outside and two of his development drivers, Dallas Colodny and Beau Debard behind him in row two, Huddleston drove into turn one hard and turned it down to the bottom. By turn two he was clear and on his way to another win, leading all fifty laps. Although it was Huddleston’s son Trevor’s thirteenth birthday, it was Tim who turned his 41st career victory at the half-mile speedway.
The race of the night was that of Beau Debard and mike Johnson who fought for nearly all fifty of the laps exchanging positions back and forth. Debard was bested by the experienced driver of Mike Johnson but the two finished the race side by side and had it gone another 20 ft further, Debard would have finished second. This is his second podium finish in a row and he has now landed himself in the seventh position in points after a rough start to the season.
Keeping a close eye on Debard is fellow teammate and Rookie of the Year competitor Dallas Colodmy. Colodny had an impressive qualifying effort running a lap time only one thousandth faster then that of Debard. Colodny had small mechanical issues that prevented him from being a contender during the race. He managed to salvage a seventh place finish for the second week in a row. After blowing a motor last Friday in practice, the team is working to get the momentum back that they had at the beginning of the season. They are confident that the next race will show improved results.
Cassie Gannis qualified in the top ten, landing all five HPR cars in the top ten for the first time this seasons qualifying efforts. She ran uneventful in the eleventh position for most of the race. This wasa welcomed change as Cassie has unfortunately been caught up in some bad luck wrecks this season.
Travis Motley started the race in the fourth row and pressured his teammate Colodny until the only caution came out for a turn four spin on lap 8. Motley looked like he would earn a top five until he missed the shift on the restart and fell back to the 18th position. With forty laps of racing still to go, Motley raced his way back to a twelfth place finish.
High Point Racing finished the race with all five cars in the top twelve and without any damage. Look for all the cars to improve in the next late model race on June 13th. For more information on High Point racing visit www.highpointracing.com.
