PRUNEDALE, California — Jim Pettit II says he’s really looking forward to the 2010 SPEARS SRL Southwest Touring Series season, if for no other reason than he’s back in his old familiar race car, the number 03 Ford. “We’ve been working all winter getting my old car back together, so it’ll be nice to be back in something I’ve driven before. And two of my long time sponsors, Golden Gate Petroleum and Top of the Hill Performance are also back, and we’ve added Moeller Brothers and Mos’ Gold, so things look pretty good at the moment.”
The 2008 SRL champion didn’t have the best of luck last year, having two motors go away; one of which caused a fire that did considerable damage to his car and the second causing him hit the wall and again, damaging his race car. However, a fellow SRL car owner loaned Pettit a back-up car, and he was able to finish out the season with a fourth place finish in the final point standings.
The opening race for the SRL, the ‘Mo’s Gold 125’ presented by Ameripride Uniform Services, is Saturday night, March 27th, at All American Speedway in Roseville, CA. According to Pettit, “This should be quite a night of racing. Not only will the SRL be there with our Late Models, but also it will be the inaugural event for the SRL Legends Tour, as well as the NASCAR K&N ProSeries-West. I think it should draw quite a crowd.” In his two prior SRL appearances at AAS in 2008-09, Pettit has two thirds. The third in 2008 was his worst finish in the seven-race season, his other finishes being four firsts and two seconds.
Pettit says he has another reason he’s looking forward to the upcoming season. “We have a great group of drivers signed up this year and if most of them make it to the races, we should have some good fields of cars. There are a bunch of veterans and a good crop of rookies, all of which should make for a very competitive season. If I hope to win another championship, I’ve got my work cut out this season. This year just might be the start of something really big for the SRL.”
So far in his four years of racing in the SRL, the Prunedale, CA. driver has twenty-two starts, eight wins, sixteen top fives, seventeen top tens, and a championship. In his thirty years of racing, he has over 300 wins on both asphalt and dirt, fifteen championships, back to back NASCAR Southwest Series championships, and in 2006 was voted one of the top twenty-five drivers in the country in the twenty-five year history of the NASCAR Winston Weekly Racing Series.
