BOISE, Idaho — Eric Rhead of West Jordan, UT benefited from the old adage about better to be lucky than good. Rhead scored his second win in the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series this past Saturday night at Rocky Mountain Raceways when then leader Jeff Hillock tangled with championship contender Steve Jones with four laps to go in the 125-lap NAPA Auto Parts sponsored event.
"Thank you for your interest and continued support of the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series. We hope you enjoy our regular news releases and can make it out to the track this season. See you at the races!"— Mike Minegar, President RMCS
Rhead inherited the lead on the final restart and held off a fierce challenge from Hillock and point leader John Newhouse over the final three circuits around the 3/8-mile paved oval. The victory was Rhead's second triumph of the season and vaulted him up to sixth in the championship standings with just two races left to go this season.
Hillock rebounded from the spin to finish second for his best career series finish. 2007 series champion John Newhouse finished third to record his fifth top five finish of the season and extend his championship lead over Steve Jones to 58-points.
Jones held on to finish fourth with Lonnie Lowder scoring his first career top five finish to round out the top five in the event.
CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series
NAPA Auto Parts "125"
Rocky Mountain Raceways
August 21, 2010
Finish Start Car # Laps Points
1 3 66 Eric Rhead 125 176
2 4 36 Jeff Hillock 125 171
3 8 26 John Newhouse 125 181
4 5 03 Steve Jones 125 158
5 10 25 Lonnie Lowder 124 142
6 1 92 Bruce Quale 124 139
7 7 73 Joe Miller 123 140
8 6 84 Zan Sharp 89 139
9 2 3 John Wong 84 124
10 9 4 Lynn Hardy 82 135
Race Notes:
Championship hopeful Brett Thompson was involved in a heat race crash with Dave Minegar and both cars were destroyed and unable to compete in the race. The damage to Thompson's car will knock him out of the championship chase and has ended his season with two races left on the schedule.
A-1 Heating & Air Conditioning Rookie-of-the-Year leader Eric Rhead won his second race of the season and second in a row at RMR.
John Wong made his first start of the season and finished 9th in a brand new car built and prepared by Thompson Motorsports.
Thane Alderman who has competed in the series for the last four season's broke down on his way from Las Vegas, NV and was unable to compete in the race.
Craig Bell driving a team car to Dave Minegar out of the Minegar Racing stables blew a motor in practice. Darren Jones also lost a motor in practice.
John Newhouse extended his point lead to 48-points in the championship chase over Steve Jones heading into the final two races of the season.
Lonnie Lowder scored his first career top five finish.
The economy or lack there of finally reared its head keeping several competitors at home due to lack of funding.
The next event for the RMCS is Saturday, September 4 at Meridian (ID) Speedway.
Updated Point Standings heading into the final two races of the season:
1. John Newhouse 1376
2. Steve Jones 1318
3. Lynn Hardy 1208
4. Brett Thompson 1167
5. Bruce Quale 1139
6. Eric Rhead 1017
7. Dave Minegar 1014
8. Thane Alderman 961
9. Zan Sharp 820
10. Joe Miller 772
The RMCS utilizes a racing format not found in ANY other regional touring series around the country. The top 20 qualifiers are inverted for every race putting fast time in the 20th starting position. This format ensures race fans see what they paid for and that is passing. Each driver is awarded three points per position gained in the event. Points are also awarded for qualifying and heat race finishes. Through the history of the series, the winning driver has averaged a 15th place starting position. To ensure competition, the RMCS pays it purse based on total point accumulation for the event and provides several special performance awards for each event.
The CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series is a regional touring series that allows all competitors to race and gain experience on different types of racetracks. It is a high-quality professional racing series that offers maximum opportunity at an affordable price serving the intermountain West. The motto of the series is to “Race Hard and Have Fun!” For all the latest news and information regarding the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series log onto www.rmcsracing.com. Follow all the racing action from throughout the West by logging onto www.racingwest.com.
