The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, made an April 17th visit to the Arizona based Havasu 95 Speedway for round two of their 2010 open wheel racing season. When the Canidae All Natural Pet Foods 75 was over it was Lake Havasu City home town racing hero Chris Gerchman's turn to party like a "Rock Star" in the Sunoco Race Fuels victory lane.
For Gerchman the series win was sweet redemption because his race, in the March 27th season opener, at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway was a complete disaster. In that event Gerchman crashed hard early in the race and left Blythe-California 19th in the series points. The Gerchman family racing team also spent the vast majority of the next two weeks completely rebuilding the right side of the race car.
Needless to say the racing Gerchmans arrived at their Lake Havasu City home track with both barrels loaded. A pre race inversion placed Chris Gerchman on the pole position and he more than took advantage of the opportunity when the green flag fell on the Canidae All Natural Pet Foods 75. By lap 17 he had a full straightaway lead on the entire field and it appeared that he was going to literally run away with this race. But the one thing that frequently disrupted Gerchman's race rhythm, as well as his race lead, were the six yellow flags throughout the event.
By lap 55 Riverside-California's Jim Mardis became a major player in this race. The series points leader, based on his season opening win, staged a furious assault on the race leader that featured several laps of side by side racing for the lead that had the full grandstand of spectators on their feet and cheering wildly.
The final caution flag of the race came out on lap 64 and it set up an 11 lap shoot out between Gerchman and Mardis. When the final green flag flew into the air, the race quickly became an another side by side, inch by inch, battle. With four laps left in the race Gerchman was finally able to get ahead of his rival just enough to secure his first win of the year as well as his fourth career series win.
It was a banner evening for Gerchman at his home track and his home town. First off he received $1,000 for winning the Canidae All Natural Pet Foods 75. He also received an additional $200 bonus for winning the Dart Machinery Trophy Dash. Making the evening even sweeter for Gerchman was the fact that he was declared the 209-2010 winter season track champion for the ASA sanctioned modified division.
Mardis closely followed the race winner under the checkers while Tim Morse, James Cole and Aaron McMorran completed the top five. Mardis also won the $100 bonus for setting the Budweiser fast time in qualifying with a lap of 15.602 seconds. Las Vegas driver Tom Lovelady won the E3 Spark Plugs $100 hard charger award. Scott Osbourne, another Las Vegas driver, won the $100 bonus from Geico Power Sports after taking first in the B main event earlier in the evening.
After parking his #26 Peggy's Sunrise Cafe/Bridgewater Homes/Gibbs Propeller modified in the Sunoco Race Fuels victory lane, a very happy race winner said "It was a very exciting race tonight. After that last race in Blythe we were really hungry for a win. We came out here and not only won the race but won the track championship too. That's just amazing. Now the ideal situation is to concentrate on winning the remainder of the series races. We're going to be running as hard as we can that's for sure."
Describing the final laps of the race, and the hard racing with Mardis, Gerchman said "there were a couple of caution flags at the end there that were really annoying. I knew that Mardis was definitely looking on the inside of me. I had my rear brakes adjusted a little wrong and I had to crank some of that out so I wouldn't get sideways going into the corners. But we were able to get it back together and kept charging forward."
After parking his #51 Rockstar Energy Drink/Jam Sportswear/Hot N Nasty/SB2 Sports Bar modified, Jim Mardis said the car was a little off during the first part of the race. "We just bided out time," he said adding "once we got into second I really thought we might have something for Chris. During a short run I had plenty for him but during the long runs he was just a little better than us. I managed to get under him a few times but I just didn't want to take a chance on crashing both of us. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. It's going to be a long season for both of us and tonight we're going home with race cars that aren't bent and that's better than putting it on a wrecker."
Burbank-California's Tim Morse came in third and helped his cause in the championship points standings with another top five finish. Describing his night at the Havasu 95 Speedway he said "we're happy with the finish although we struggled a little bit out there tonight. We weren't able to be here for the Friday night practice session and that may have hurt us on the pre race set up. The race was really good, we came away from it without any damage to our car. I want to thank James Cole for lending us a carburetor. I had a serious problem area with our carburetor and he loaned me a really good one."
But Morse's biggest concern of the night was at the tech inspection center where some questions were expressed regarding the shape of his car roof. Traditionally the modified cars roof has a slope at the back of them that blends into some side fins that adorns the trunk lid. The car Morse brought to the Havasu race was chopped off without the side fins.
Morse said "they told me that the car without the aero fins was not within the spirit of the rules. I showed them a copy of the rule book and explained that the car was indeed legal and then I was told that the other competitors were complaining about the car. I work by myself on that car and spend a lot of time on the set up as well as a lot of time on the front end geometry. I try different things including the body work. I don't think that aerodynamics really comes into play in a modified although everyone apparently thinks it does. I just tried to create a different look because it is a modified. It doesn't matter what you do on a body because it's not going to create extra down force yet there were complaints. I interpret the rules as saying you should be able to do what you want, as long as you're within the rules or at least within the spirit of the rules, to make the car look different and that's all I tried to do was go for a different look. I don't know if I'll have to change the car for the next race Vegas or not they say they're going to call me."
Series co promoter Greg Scheidecker said he wasn't sure that the top of the Morse car was within the spirit of the rules but added "the measurements, that are within the rules, says that if someone wants to go in that direction with their cars then the car is legal. To be honest, I don't feel that it's appropriate however, as the rules are written today which we have to live by, his car is very much legal. However, sometimes gray areas within the rules surface and the race teams take advantage of those situations. Apparently he found a loop hole that allowed him to do something that may not be within the spirit of the rules."
Scheidecker was thrilled with the performance of his race teams and said "at one point I thought that Chris Gerchman, because of the spectacular passes that he made to win the Dart Machinery Trophy Dash, was going to check out and leave everyone during the 75 lap feature. Granted he did get away from the pack at times, but when some of the other guys like Mardis, Morse and James Cole got their act together they were running for the win. To have four race cars within seconds of each other battling for the lead side by side and on each other's bumpers you just can't script better racing."
Scheidecker was also pleased to note a special visit by Jason Patision in the Canidae All Natural Pet Foods 75 and said "to have a defending series champion to come back and race, when he hasn't driven a modified in three or four years now, was just fantastic. His seventh place qualifying run today truly shows the stature of this driver. However he did find that this modified series has moved to the next level. But at the same time I'm very proud of Jason and it was great to have him come back and race with us." Scheidecker noted that Patison is spending this season racing in the NASCAR K&N Filter Pro Series East adding " he running a Chevrolet branded with Lucas Oil, and the Team Lucas members, in that series and I understand he's already scored a solid top ten finish that came in the series season opener in South Carolina where he drove the Lucas Oil/E3 Spark Plugs Chevrolet to an impressive eighth place finish."
Series co promoter Bill Rozhon, who's also the promoter of the Havasu 95 Speedway, was also very pleased with the results of the Canidae All Natural Pet Foods 75. We had over 25 cars again tonight and tells me that our series is really healthy," he said adding "I love the car count, the participation and the camaraderie between our teams. That battle for the lead tonight with Gerchman and Mardis was some great racing. In fact, there was good racing all through the field which is something the fans have become accustomed to from our series. Fortunately our race track here has two grooves and our guys really used them up tonight. Once again with Lucas Oil and Rockstar Energy Drink sponsoring our series, and Canidae sponsoring our race tonight, I just couldn't be more pleased with that. I think we really put on a really entertaining show for the fans tonight."
In addition to its title sponsors this racing series is supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas" which includes Lucas Oil Products Inc, Magnaflow Exhaust Systems, E3 Spark Plugs, General Tire, K&N Performance Filters, Geico Power Sports, Canidae All Natural Pet Foods, MAV-TV, Dart Machinery and Rockstar Energy Drink.
There is also a special of series sponsors including Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort & Casino, Sunoco Race Fuels, Frank's Radio, Racing Plus and MAC Tools.
