STOCKTON, California — Jim Pettit II got his first win of the current SRL Spears Southwest Touring Series Saturday night at the ‘Stranwold Properties 125’ on the Stockton 99 quarter mile oval. Despite starting the 125 lap event sixteenth, Pettit, the defending SRL champion, took the lead on the seventieth lap, and was never seriously challenged the rest of the way.
“We had some issues with qualifying, but my crew, like they always do, got down to business and the result speaks for itself,” according to Pettit. After the first two laps, the Prunedale, CA. driver moved into twelfth place, and for the next sixty-eight laps, slowly but surely, moved up one position at a time until talking the lead on the seventieth go round. “Like I tell the guys, you’ve got to be aggressive, but not too aggressive. Once I got into fifth on lap forty, I was pretty content there, and when the opportunity presented itself, I’d pass another car until I finally got out front. If my memory serves me right, I think it’s the first time this season that someone has come from that far back and won. I’m pretty proud of that.”
So far this season, Pettit has one win, five top fives, and six top ten finishes in eight starts. However, two DNF’s due to malfunctioning engines, has him third in the SRL point standings. Last season in winning the championship, he had four wins, two seconds, and a third in seven races. In the four seasons he has raced in the SRL, he has eight wins, fifteen top fives, and sixteen top tens in twenty starts.
Next week, the SRL goes to the half mile track at the Toyota/Irwindale Speedway for the ‘NTS, Inc 125’. “I’m looking forward to that,” says Pettit. “Between qualifying and the main event, there’s going to be an exhibition race for several of the past NASCAR Southwest Series champions of which I am one, so that should be fun. And then we’ll also be racing in the feature. Besides that, my engine’s running good so the engine man’s happy, the car’s handling good so the crew’s happy, the owner’s happy, my wife’s happy, I’m happy, so I feel we’re good to go.”
As he will be for the final two races of the season, Pettit will be driving the Quentin Bammer owned #03 Chevrolet, sponsored by Golden Gate Petroleum / Moeller Brothers / H.U.R. Performance Engines.
