ROSEVILLE, California — Jacob Gomes and Matt Scott stole the show in the Late Model Twin 44 races at All American Speedway Saturday night by each finishing one-two in both races. Gomes dominated the first race, with Scott doing all he could do to catch him. This resulted in some thrilling side-by-side racing between the two drivers that brought the fans to their feet. Gomes edged out Scott for the win. In the second Twin 44, Scott had the advantage over Gomes and raced his heart out to take the checkered flag with Gomes finishing second.
Gomes, who made his second appearance at AAS this year was happy with the win, but said the team struggled throughout the weekend. "We didn't get to practice on Friday. A bolt came out of the motor, and today we broke our rear end. We were loose all day, but it's pretty good to win."
Scott raced like a man on a mission in both races. "We made some adjustments between the first and second race to help get us off the corners better,” Scott said. “It gave us some bite to get past people a little bit quicker. I was not racing side-by-side that much and that really helped. I could race in clean air.” This is Scott's sixth win this year. Gomes, John Moore, Ron Chunn, Jason Romero and Chris Scribner followed Scott across the finish line.
18 Late Model cars qualified for the Twin 44s. Romero, home for the weekend from Charlotte, NC, where he competes in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, qualified his No. 8 Folsom Lake Asphalt car fourth. He finished third in the first Twin 44 and fifth in the second Twin 44. Romero also won the trophy dash.
Gomes spun a five invert for the second race, putting Chunn on the pole. At the green Chunn led the field with Scribner following in second. Scott moved to second on lap 19, with Gomes running in fourth. Chunn led the first 25 laps before Scott passed him for first. On lap 28, Gomes passed Chunn for second. Meanwhile John Moore moved up to fourth, and on lap 36, Moore moved to second. Scott continued to lead and took the checkered flag, followed by Gomes, Moore, Chunn and Romero.
Scott Winters pulled off a huge win in Modified racing after qualifying number one, and then being disqualified for his car being too wide, which put him to the rear of the starting field. This is Winter's eighth win of the year.
Winters moved up to ninth by lap two, and by lap 14, he was in fourth. Winters took over second on lap 18, and took the lead on lap 23. Winters raced race leader Dan Jinkerson hard before taking over the lead. Jinkerson finished second, Jason Philpot third, Josh Brock fourth and Tyler Wentworth fifth.
"We found a cracked wheel at the shop this morning and changed the wheel," Winters said. It (the car) was slightly wider and we did not re-measure the width so we did not know that. There is a rule you can only be 78 inches wide and we were a tick wider," Winters said.
"After we qualified, we came in and went through tech, and they found the car was just a smidge too wide. We had just broken the track record which was ours, but by being disqualified the record doesn't hold."
"We drove from the back to the front. This team is awesome. We have eight wins and we are leading in points. There was a lot of tough competition out on the track. We were fortunate to avoid the wrecks, and get it up front tonight."
Wayne Crossland and Mickey Owens battled for the Street Stock win with Owens taking the checkered flag. Matt Cockrum qualified on the pole followed by Chris Lambert, Mickey Owens, Richard Poppert Jr., and Wayne Crossland.
Crossland led until lap five when Owens took over and from there on out Owens led every lap. Crossland finished second, Cockrum third, Lambert fourth and Kevin Owens fifth.
Next Saturday, September 4, All American Speedway will present the Toyota/TRD 100-lap Late Model race, along with racing in Street Stocks, Modifieds, Bombers, and WSRA. For more information go to: www.allamericanspeedway.com.
