PRUNEDALE, California — For the first time in some thirty years of racing, the defending SRL Spears Southwest Touring Series champion, Jim Pettit II, will be driving a borrowed race car this Saturday night at the Stockton 99 Speedway.
"We haven’t given up, our team never gives up, but after our second engine let go, we were in a position of not being ready for Stockton. When the rods blow through the bottom of the motor, it’s pretty serious. So for Quentin to offer us his second car"— Jim Pettit II
According to Pettit, “Things just haven’t been going our way this year. The car’s been good, we’ve been competitive, but overall, our season has been terrible. We destroyed an engine and caught fire at Las Vegas, ran pretty good at the two Madera’s, then blew up our second engine and crashed at Irwindale with four laps to go. We just can’t put our finger on why we’ve had these engine problems.”
Faced with the possibility of not making the “Don Conti Memorial 99” presented by Performance Electrical Saturday night, a very generous offer by fellow SRL team owner, Quentin Bammer, Pettit will be driving the back-up car to the Moeller Brothers/H.U.R. Performance Engines Chevrolet of Todd Bammer.
“We haven’t given up, our team never gives up, but after our second engine let go, we were in a position of not being ready for Stockton. When the rods blow through the bottom of the motor, it’s pretty serious. So for Quentin to offer us his second car to run at Stockton, is unbelievable. I can’t thank him enough for giving me this opportunity. The SRL Series is important to us, and I felt like we were getting ready to let a lot of people down, so this is huge in many ways.”
So far in the five SRL races this year, Pettit has three top four’s, but the two blown engines and their resultant DNF’s have him in a tie for fourth in the Series point standings with five races to go.
“We’ve had the back-up car in our shop for several days now, and my crew chief, Duane Sharp, and the rest of the crew have been working on it to make it comfortable for me. Quentin puts out some good race cars, so with a little tweaking here and there, I think we’ll be very competitive Saturday night.”
