IRWINDALE, California — It was a night of five exciting main events at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale Saturday, leading drivers from one series to rave about the action and close racing in other series. A crowd of 4,000+ on “Family Night”, with kids 15 and under admitted free, cheered after each exciting contest. Winners on the half-mile were three-time series champion Tim Huddleston, 39, in a 50-lap NASCAR Auto Club Late Model 50-lap race, and Rod Johnson, Jr., 19, in a 40-lap King Taco Super Truck event. It was the fourth victory of the season for both drivers in the last five features in their respective divisions. Huddleston's 42nd feature triumph broke his second place tie with Legends six-time track champion Tom Landreth for all-time total feature victories at the track.
Winners on the third-mile were Ken Michaelian, 20, in a last to first Classic Stocks drive aboard his 1975 Dodge Dart, and Donny St. Ours, 15, in a 26-car Legends field. It was his third Legends triumph this season. Michaelian, who is seeking his first track championship, won for the third time in a row and the seventh time in eight races this year. He now has a 46-point lead with four races remaining on the schedule. The final race of the night was a 20-lap Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8 race in the infield. Past series champion “Barefoot” Billy Ziemann led every lap for his second victory in six TS@I races this year. The only series point leader/feature winner was Michaelian. Race results tightened the point chases in four of the five series in action Saturday. Huddleston's victory left him only two points behind ACLM series leader Nick Joanides (406-404) after nine of 18 scheduled races.
ACLM: With a 75-lap ACLM main event scheduled as a preliminary race for the NASCAR Camping World 200-lap race and fireworks show next Saturday, a season-low 14 late models raced this week. Fastest qualifier Huddleston started third in his Justice Brothers High-Point Racing Chevy Monte Carlo. He engaged in a close three-way battle for the lead with his rookie protege Beau DeBard, the pole starter, and fourth starter Mike Johnson for the first half of the race. On lap 25 Johnson passed Huddleston cleanly for second place on the inside at turn four. Two laps later Johnson's Hot Wire Electrical Chevy used the same move in turn four to take the lead from DeBard. Nick Joanides had joined the lead battle to make it a quartet. On lap 30 in the second turn the key moment of the race occurred. Second place DeBard tried to retake the lead and ran into the left side of leader Johnson. Both cars moved up the track and opportunistic Huddleston shot past both drivers on the inside. Johnson dropped to fourth after DeBard and Joanides passed him as he regained control. Johnson charged back to second position on lap 32 and Joanides dropped DeBard to fourth and that's how they finished.
Huddleston led the final 31 laps and extended his lead to 30-yards (1.561 seconds) over Johnson, who had a steering problem (toe-out) after the lap 30 contact. Joanides noticed Johnson's steering problem and closed in, but he trailed by 0.196 at the checkers. DeBard was 3.128 second in back of the winner. Series rookie/ASA Truck veteran Dallas Colodny, from Reno, came from 13th slot to a closing fifth. Rookies Tim Smith, 23, and Kyle McGrady, 16, recorded their career-best finishes of sixth and seventh. Miles Copenhaver recovered from a spin into the start/finish infield on lap 5 to finish eighth. He was running ninth when contact sent him spinning. He returned to the track on the backstretch in 14th (last) position. Chris Holloway and Kevin Vernon completed the top ten with 13 of 14 starters racing at the end. The race time was 20.13.249. The only caution flag flew on lap 23 for track debris (the right side bodywork from Kenny Smith's No. 61). He continued non-stop and finished 11th. Johnson ran the fastest lap of the race at 19.309 (93.221 mph) on lap 2. Huddleston's best lap was 19.373 on lap 4.
KTST: A super truck field of 16 had a six-truck inverted starting lineup with fastest qualifier Bill Sedgwick sixth on the grid in his first race this season. Pole starter Ron Peterson, 49, led the first 12 laps in a six-truck pack that raced three-wide and nose-to-tail lap after lap without contact. Outside front row starter Grant Hebner, a 20-year old second year truck racer from Fallbrook, took the lead via an up the middle pass leaving turn four on lap 13. Third starter Rod Johnson, Jr. ran third from lap 10-13 and shot his Chevy S-10 past Peterson on lap 14 for second. He then engaged Hebner in an exciting side-by-side race, with Hebner high and Johnson low. Johnson took first for a lap on lap 18 with his fourth turn inside pass. Hebner went back to the point on lap 19 with his outside pass to the starting line and led the still tight six-truck front pack through lap 25. Johnson made his wining pass on the inside exiting turn four on lap 26. He ran off to a 25-yard winning margin over impressive Hebner, who dropped out of the last race with a carburetor float problem.
Action behind the lead duo was intense with positions swapped frequently. Peterson, point leader Pat Mintey, Jr. and Sedgwick traded third through fifth positions with Jeff Peterson lurking in sixth. Mintey was fourth on lap 25 and third three laps later, but R. Peterson and Sedgwick dropped him back to fifth on lap 34. The P. 3 through P. 7 positions then became the focus of position changing. Dennis Arena passed J. Peterson for sixth on lap 35 and the top seven positions ran in that order through lap 40. The 19:23.744-timed race had only one yellow flag on lap 2 despite all the close racing throughout the field. On the backstretch seventh place Todd Cameron and eighth place Matt Kimball, the 18-year old leading KTST rookie, made contact on the backstretch and both trucks veered up the track into the crash-wall just past the track entrance. Despite hard contact, both drivers climbed from their trucks uninjured. They were the only drivers in the DNF column. All 14 finishers completed 40 laps. Indicative of how close the top runners were, nine of the top ten finishers ran their fastest laps of the race on lap 3 or 4 and their times ranged from 20.046 (89.793 mph) to 20.172 (89.233 mph).
CLASSIC STOCKS: The first main of the night was a 30-lap run for a ten-car, fully-inverted field based upon qualifying times. Four drivers led the 9:01.516 all green flag race. Curtis Drye led the first three laps from third starting position. Second-year series driver Tommy Mason came from seventh grid position to lead his initial laps on 4-5. Fastest qualifier/ninth starter Tommy Acosta led lap 6-18. Point leader K. Michaelian came from tenth to take second on lap 8 and went to the inside in the third turn on lap 19 to take the lead for good. He won by 40-yards (2.562 seconds) over Agosta. Mike Colato, Jr. started eighth and finished third, 8.563-seconds behind the winner. Fourth place Mason, of Low Budget TV, dropped out on lap 25 with a broken transmission. Harry Michaelian (father of the winner) and Jeff Elder completed the top five with eight cars running at the finish.
LEGENDS: A tough field of 26 Legends for a 35-lap race set the stage for the competitive races to come. The race had three leaders and four lead changes. Gary Scheuerell led the first three laps from the pole. Then 15-year old Ryan Reed came from third slot in a four-car inversion to take the lead with an inside pass in turn two; he paced lap 4-11. Fellow 15-year old Donny St. Ours, the fifth starter, used an inside pass entering the first turn on lap 12 to take command through lap 27. Reed used an inside move on a lap 28 restart to move St. Ours up the track at turn two. Reed led through lap 34 of the 35 lap contest. On the final lap Reed held a one length advantage over pressing St. Ours when the last place (P. 19) car spun high in turn four as the leaders approached with the checkered flag waving for them. Reed moved up the track a bit and St. Ours quickly shot past him on the inside as they exited turn four. St. Ours won by three yards (0.132) over a disappointed Reed, who has four second place finishes in eight races this year and who figured he had his first win this year if the spinning car had not been a distraction. Chad Schug started second and ran third all the way in one of three cars bought from retired Larry Meredith. Fastest qualifier Dallas Montes, a 15-year old rookie from Bakersfield, started and finished fourth. He had to come from the back after being involved in a multi-car crash on lap 2 in the second turn. He ran his fastest lap on lap 30 and took fourth on lap 32. Scheuerell finished fifth. Nineteen drivers finished and 15 of them ran all 35 laps. The 29-minute race had five cautions, including the lap 2 crash that cost 17-year old, one-time feature winner Brandon Toy his point lead. He started sixth and got involved in the lap 2 crash, pitted and returned 26 laps down. He finished 23rd. Reed left the track without the first place race trophy, but he was first in points with 322 to 314 for second place Toy, who entered the race with a solid 32-point lead. St. Ours ran the quickest lap of the race (16.697) on lap 6.
OUTLAW FIGURE 8s: Fastest qualifier Billy Ziemann won his second Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8 race this year in a close 20-lap duel with fellow front row starter Rod Proctor, a two-time series winner at Irwindale this season. The all green flag race took only 6:30.740 and all eight starters finished. Point leader Steve Stewart and Tony Curtis finished third and fourth and also ran 20 laps. The fifth place driver was down one lap, with the next two drivers down two laps and the eight place driver down three laps, leading to many close calls at the infield intersection. The final checkered flag flew at 9:53 pm.
Hard Chargers by series were: (Classic Stx) – H. Michaelian; (Legends) – Michael Smith; (KTST) – Dalton Kuhn; (ACLM) – D. Colodny. Fastest qualifiers were: (Legends) – Montes – 16.931 (70.805 mph); (C/S) – Agosta – 17.581 (68.187 mph); (KTST) – Sedgwick – 19.890 (90.498 mph); (ACLM) – Huddleston – 18.809 (95.699 mph); (F-8s) – Ziemann – 19.165 (70.817 mph). The opening race of the night at 7:00 pm was a trophy dash for the six slowest Legends qualifiers. Nick Lundgren, from Monroe, WA, led all the way from pole position. He barely edged fast-closing Reno, NV driver Hunter Colodny. The 14-year old brother of the ACLM driver was racing at TS@I for the first time after winning rookie of the year honors at Shasta Speedway, in Anderson, CA last year when he finished fifth in points.
