SAN BERNADINO, California — Jim Pettit II made up for a poor qualifying attempt Saturday night during the ‘Citizens Bank 135’ on the Orange Show Speedway’s quarter mile oval and took his time to take his place on the podium. Starting fifteenth out of a twenty-four car SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series field, the veteran Prunedale, CA. driver slowly gained one position at a time, finally moving into third place on lap 129 where he finished the 135 lap event.
"The outside groove worked for me. I think I was about the only one that used it."— Jim Pettit II
According to Pettit, “Except for qualifying, we had a great race car. We just can’t get it to qualify on new tires right now. During practice on Friday, we were turning some really good laps, but on old tires. If we can figure this tire thing out, we’ll have a better chance of winning one of these things. We just can’t keep starting that far back, especially on short tracks, with such great drivers in this series.”
Prior to the race, there had been some speculation about the outside groove of the track. “The outside groove worked for me. I think I was about the only one that used it. Don’t get me wrong, I had to work at it to pass, but it was there. When I did, they gave me room, but nothing extra.”
“We were good on long runs, and when that last yellow flag came out for oil on the track, I was in third. I felt we had come a long way from starting fifteenth so I didn’t want to take a chance on getting into an altercation with the two guys up front not knowing what might happen with the cars having cooled down due to the yellow. So with a couple of laps left to go, I almost got under the #2 car, but I thought third is better than the hook, so I got on the binders. He got second and I got third”.
Following a disappointing nineteenth place finish in the SRL opener three weeks ago when, running fifth, he suffered a broken suspension, Saturday nights third place finish jumped him up to eighth in the point standings.
“Overall, I thought it was a good race and the fans got their money’s worth. A lot of them came in the pits afterwards and they all seemed to be pretty happy.”
The next event for the SRL and the Jim Pettit II Golden Gate Petroleum/ Top of the Hill Performance / Mo’s Gold / Swith Springs #03 Ford, will be May 8th for the ‘GoLiveStreamTV / Blackjack 121’ at the ‘Bullring’ at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
For more on Jim, go to www.jimpettitracing.com
