BAKERSFIELD, California — On Saturday, May 12th, 2000, just four days passed his sixteenth birthday, SRL Southwest Tour Series driver Justin Westmoreland began his stock car career at Madera Speedway. For the nine months leading up to that first race, Justin and his father Keith (the 1995 Madera Speedway Street Stock champion) worked on building a Street Stock for the day Justin would be eligible to compete.
"From the time Justin was five, he was coming to the races at Madera Speedway, so growing up all he wanted to do was race."— Keith Westmoreland
“From the time Justin was five, he was coming to the races at Madera Speedway, so growing up all he wanted to do was race.” Keith stated. “We got him a go kart at age eleven and traveled all over racing on the dirt and pavement.” After making the transition from go karts to Street Stocks then into the Late Models, Justin won 24 main events at Madera Speedway and the NASCAR Late Model championship in 2003 and 2005.
In 2006, the Westmorelands decided to move up to the SRL Southwest Tour Series. “We went to Shasta, we ran practice on Friday, but blew an engine on Saturday during practice so we didn’t get to race” said Justin about his first SRL race. “We had a lot of success at Madera, it was definitely time to move up, but the start we had in the (SRL) series definitely tested our drive. I’m glad we weathered the storm because it’s great to be a regular in the SRL…competing against the best drivers on the west coast.”
When asked about competing against the teams of top SRL drivers like Jim Pettit, Craig Raudman, Auggie Vidovich and M.K. Kanke, “It’s a dream come true for us to race against those guys, they are the best and have years of experience…they have all paid their dues to be where they are today in our sport.” said Justin. Keith then added, “It’s a privilege to compete with them, there are a lot of great people in the SRL…a prime example of the quality of people in this series is we destroyed our car in a crash at Altamont in 2007 and Greg Voigt gave us a chassis to rebuild the car and keep racing…we are still running that chassis.”
Coming off a season best fourth place at the May 23rd Madera Speedway SRL event, the Westmorelands are looking forward to returning to their home track this weekend. “We were down on the speed chart during practice. Once we put on our new set of tires to qualify the car was really good and obviously it was good during the race.” Justin commented on the previous Madera race. “It was great closing the deal, having a good car and getting a good finish…it made it even better with friends and family at the race.”
The SRL Southwest Tour Series “Performance Electrical 120” will headline a full night of racing at Madera Speedway this Saturday night, July 4th, which will also feature the NASCAR Western Late Models, ALSC’s, MST’s, Toyota’s and a Fireworks Show. Trophy dashes at 5pm, with main events starting at 6pm.
For more information, go to www.SRLSouthwestTour.com or www.racemadera.com.
