IRWINDALE, California — As with several other SRL drivers Saturday night at the Toyota/Irwindale Speedway, lady luck smiled on Jim Pettit II, then frowned, then smiled, then just plain went away and left him with a wrecked race car.
The event was the fifth for the SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series for 2009. Lady luck was smiling as the Prunedale, CA. driver qualified a solid second. Then she frowned as a twelve car invert put him eleventh on the starting grid. However, by lap eleven she was smiling again as he was in third. She was still smiling when he was running third right behind the leaders on lap ninety-six. Four to go. She left the race track and he blew a motor, hit the fence, and finished thirteenth.
According to Pettitt, “That’s just about the way things are going this year. Me and the guys can’t figure out why we’re having such horrible luck this year. We definitely had great luck last year, everyone did their job, and now we’re having problems that we don’t have control over. There were several guys that had motor problems Saturday night, so I don’t know what it is that we’re suddenly having these problems. I’ve lost two motors this year for the first time in twenty years.”
Despite the poor finish, Pettit has his Golden Gate / Top of the Hill Performance / BizzwthBuzz.com Ford in a tie for fourth in the SRL point standings. So far this year he has three top four finishes in five starts. His two finishes outside the top ten were the results of the blown engines.
