The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, brought its high level open wheel racing show to the Tucson Raceway Park for the June 12th running of the Rockstar 75. When the checkers flew over the field it was Lake Havasu City-Arizona's Chris Gerchman who parked his #26 Peggy's Sunrise Cafe modified in the Sunoco Race Fuels victory lane for the third consecutive time.
Gerchman's latest series win is part of his ongoing "sweet redemption tour." During the season opening event last March, Gerchman suffered a hard crash that left him at the bottom of the points standings. It also left the team with a short amount of time to rebuild the entire right side of the car before the next race.
Determined to get that sweet redemption, and back into the series' championship race, Gerchman scored back to back wins at his home track in Lake Havasu City and at Las Vegas. The pair of wins elevated him to fifth in the standings only 16 points from the leader going into Saturday night's race in Tucson.
Part of the success of this series is the incentives it offers the race teams. However there were some extra incentives connected to the Rockstar 75. The race featured a $10,000 purse with $1,400 going to the winner. Series officials also paid tow money to the top twenty teams in the points standings.
Gerchman started ninth in the race and quickly charged his way to the front. Two thirds into the Rockstar 75 he held a commanding lead en route to that third consecutive win. Gerchman was awarded the E3 Spark Plugs Hard Charger $100 bonus. That added to the Rockstar Energy Drink winner's check along with the tow money meant Gerchman left Tucson with an impressive $1,600 in winnings. His third win of the season also elevated him to fourth in the championship standings only 12 points away from the top.
Austin Barnes, Jim Mardis, P J Magna and Doug Hamm followed the race winner under the checkers to complete the top five.
Austin Barnes, in his #51A San Diego Dot Com modified, was most impressive with his second place finish in this race. The 15 year old Escondido-California native, who began racing at the age of 4, caught the attention of series promoter Greg Scheidecker who said "that kid drove the race of is life at Tucson, in my opinion it was his best series race ever for this talented young driver." Barnes' charge to second place also earned him the $100 Clean Pass Bonus from Magnaflow Exhaust Products. Additionally that finish also moves Barnes up to sixth in the current championship standings.
Riverside-California's Jim Mardis, in his #51 Rockstar Energy Drink modified, finished third at Tucson and elevated his championship hopes from a three way tie at the top to sole possession of the points lead.
Doug Hamm, in his #4x Crispy Critters Pest Control modified, has parlayed his latest series' top five finish to second in the points. The Las Vegas based driver appears to be having a banner year in the series and is now only four points away from Mardis.
James Cole was likely grateful for the tow money that came with the Rockstar 75. This team travels from their native San Antonio-Texas to participate in the series. Cole brought his #11 Screen Pro Graphics/Swenson Racing team home for a sixth place finish. Cole remains third in the current points standings only six markers away from the leader. Cole also won the $100 bonus from Budweiser for setting the fast time during the Saturday afternoon qualifying session. He blistered the Tucson Raceway Park's three eighths of a mile oval with a fast time of 15.49 seconds.
Burbank-California's Tim Morse completes the top five in the points standings. The driver of the #10 Morse Exhaust Systems modified finished finished seventh in the race and is only 14 points from the top of the standings. Making his Tucson weekend even sweeter was fact that Morse won the Dart Machinery Trophy Dash and the $200 bonus that comes with it.
Greg Scheidecker was pleased with the highly competitive nature of this race. "We had 23 cars start the race," he said adding "the first real hint that the Rockstar 75 was going to be so competitive came during qualifying. The fastest car ran a 15.49 second lap while the 18th car in the starting field ran a lap of 15.99. That's 18 cars qualifying within a half a second of each other. In fact, the qualifying margin among the top 13 cars in the starting field was a mere 15 one hundredths of a second."
Scheidecker also noted that once again the racing was close throughout the starting field with 13 cars finishing on the lead lap. He also noted that the race only had two yellow flags with both of them due to single car spins. "However, there was one red flag during the course of the Rockstar 75," he said adding "on lap 58 driver Bob Meese spun on the front straightaway and hit the inside K rail. We had to red flag the race so the track crews could put the rail back in place."
The Lucas OIl Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, returns to action on July 10th with the running of the R&L Carriers 75 at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino-California.
In addition to its title sponsors, the series is supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas." Team members include Lucas Oil Products, Magnaflow Exhaust Products, E3 Spark Plugs, General Tire, K&N Performance Filters, GEICO Power Sports, CANIDAE All Natural Pet Food, MAV-TV, Dart Machinery and Rockstar Energy Drink.
The series is also strongly supported by a group of associate sponsors that includes Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort & Casino, Sunoco Race Fuels, Frank's Radio, Racing Plus and MAC Tools.
