ROSEVILLE, California — Jim Pettit II had an up and down Saturday night at All American Speedway in Roseville, CA., in the 2010 season opening event for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour. The downside was a broken race car and a nineteenth place finish.
Despite a poor qualifying effort that saw him start twelfth in the twenty six car field, he had worked his way up to fifth by lap seventy-four. According to the 2008 SRL champion, “We had a good race car and I was running in the top five where I wanted to be at that part of the race, and there was a wrecked car in front of me, and when I went to whoa down, the trailing arm bracket in the rear end broke, and around I went. I lost several laps as my guys worked on it, but we got back out for some more laps and actually gained a couple of spots which helped us in the points.”
Regarding his qualifying Saturday night, Jim said, “I’ve been having trouble qualifying lately, but we’re working on some things to try and help that. The way the competition is in the SRL, it’s tough to even get a top three when you’re starting back on the fifth row. I’d like to start up near the front for a change, and have them chase me. So, like I say, we’re working on it.”
As for the upside. “We had Pro Football Hall of Famer, Fred Bilentnikoff, in our pits Saturday night, and it sure made up for a poor night of racing. It was the first race he’d been to, so we gave him a head-set so he could get an idea of what goes on during a race, and he said he was not only impressed with everything that went on but he had a great time as well. As I told my wife, it wasn’t all that bad a night.”
The next event for the SRL and Jim and Verionica Pettit’s #03 Golden Gate Petroleum / Top of the Hill Performance Ford will be Saturday night, April 17th, at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, CA.
