MADERA, California — Jim Pettit II scored a hard earned fourth place finish at Madera Speedway Saturday night during the SRL Spears Southwest Touring Series “Holliday Classis Series”, presented by Performance Electrical. The event was a 130 lap race over the third mile oval.
Starting eleventh out of a sixteen car field, Pettit lost a position in the first twenty-five laps, but then starting a slow drive towards the front. During the next thirty laps, he worked his way up to seventh. On lap 55 he was in seventh, and for the next forty-seven laps went from seventh to sixth, sixth to seventh, until lap 102 when he moved into fifth, and with four laps to go, into his finishing fourth place.
“We took a car that wasn’t as good as it needed to be, but we got up into the top five and we’re pretty happy with the outcome. We had a couple of issues that kept us from being even better, but we’re going to work on that. We had to go out first in qualifying, and they had run a race prior to that and it didn’t leave much rubber on the track and it was really slick, so I didn’t do as well as I would have liked. But, that’s the way it goes. Secondly, the stagger on the rear tires went away, so I was tight in the middle of the corners, but I feel that’s something we can work on for the future. But the motor ran good, the car came off the corners good, so it turned out to be a whole lot better than a couple of other races we’ve had.”
So far this season, Pettit has four top four finishes in seven races, but two DNF’s due to malfunctioning motors, has him in third place in the SRL point standings. He is currently driving a Chevrolet, instead of his customary Ford, that has been loaned to him by fellow SRL car owner, Quentin Bammer. According to Pettit, “The change from Ford to Chevy has been different for me and my crew, but we’re working in it, and knowing my crew, we’ll get ‘er done.”
Although it’s a different car, it still bears the number 03, is blue and yellow, and has Golden Gate Petroleum, Moeller Brothers, and H.U.R. Performance Engines as his sponsors.
The next race for the SRL Series is set for October 3rd for a second appearance of the season at Stockton Speedway in Stockton, California.
