IRWINDALE, California — Chris Holloway, a two and a half years veteran of Toyota Speedway at Irwindale Auto Club Late Model racing, earned his first victory in the competitive series Saturday in front of about 2,200 spectators. The 22-year old Bakersfield resident started fourth and led all but the first two laps. The six feature evening concluded with the fourth annual all-female demolition derby in the infield on Breast Cancer Awareness Night. Other main events on the half-mile went to veteran NASCAR touring series driver Bill Sedgwick in a 22-truck King Taco Super Truck 50-lap, all-green flag race. Rich DeLong III started fourth and led the final 22 laps of the 11-car Vista Paint Super Stock 30-lap main. His eighth 2010 victory and tenth overall gave him a 62-point lead and earned his first track championship with one race remaining in the 15 race season. Ted Stoneburner won his third Drive Train Late Model main in three events at TS@I this season.
The only race on the third-mile was a 35-lap race for Ken Porter Auctions Classic Stocks and open competition vehicles. It crowned winners in both open comp and classic stock categories. The event started six of the slower classic stocks at the back of the 20-cars/trucks field and inverted the first five starters based on afternoon time trials. The first ten finishers all earned $250 and all other finishers received $100 in the sixth race this season for the new open comp class. Impressive fastest qualifier Joe Anderson, 24, of Valencia, led laps 4-35 and won by 5.797 seconds in the original HPR No. 50 Chevy Monte Carlo raced by Tim Huddleston, the three time Auto Club Late Model champion. He lapped all competitors up to third place. It was the first late model ride for the S2 three-time 2010 main event winner in the HPR No. 59. The all-female demo derby lasted 22-minutes. Christine Thiebert, 19, earned the victory at 9:48 pm. The daughter of demo derby veteran and winner Bill Thiebert also won the 2009 all-female demo derby 52 weeks ago in a nine-car field.
ACLM: After 20 ACLM cars raced last week, only 12 car appeared this week. Several serious crashes prevented at least three cars from returning. Top ten points cars of Travis Irving and Kyle McGrady, plus the HPR No. 55 of Dylan Lupton were not repaired yet. Irving and McGrady dropped a position each in points. Other cars missing in action were the Nos. 3, 4, 7 16, 25, 47 and 56. The previous ACLM low car count this year was 14 on June 26. Fastest qualifier Mike Johnson, 53, started sixth with teens Michael J. Lewis, 19, and ACLM rookie Christian Copley, 18, on the front row. Eleven of 12 cars present took the green flag at 8:53 pm for the 40-lap main. Lewis, the son of many-time USAC National Midget car owner champion Steve Lewis, of Laguna Beach, was making his second stock car start and his first in a late model. The open-wheel 2010 Formula BMW road racing driver on circuits around the world drove his first stock car race on September 4 at TS@I in the S2 HPR No. 59 owned by Tim Huddleston. He qualified second fastest in an eight-car field and finished second in a 20-lap main event. This week Lewis wheeled the HPR No. 51 Monte Carlo and set sixth fastest qualifying time at 19.011, earning pole position.
Copley led the first two laps as Lewis dropped to sixth. On lap 2 leaving turn four the George Atkinson 65 and Darren Cheek 62 cars made contact, sidelining Atkinson's car. Cheek drove to the pits where his crew removed right side bodywork. During the track clean-up they sent him back to competition on the lead lap. On the double-file restart Holloway was outside Copley and he shot into the lead on his favorite outline line. M. Johnson took second from Copley on lap 7. At lap 20 leader Holloway had 15-yards on P. 2 Johnson. The second through fifth place cars waged an intense, two-by-two, side-by-side battle. Nick Joanides, Lewis, Taylor Cuzick and point leader Rod Johnson, Jr thrilled the crowd lap after lap without crashing. On lap 25 in the fourth turn newcomer Lewis made an ambitious inside pass for P. 3 on the inside of reigning ACLM champion Joanides. Afterwards Joanides visited Lewis' HPR pits to verbalize his anger over the move that caused him to avoid contact. Rod J took third from Lewis on lap 28 via an inside pass in the fourth turn. On lap 31 at turn two fourth place Lewis got into the back of his HPR teammate Rod J's No. 15, which spun out low. Team owner Huddleston was on the roof as the spotter for Lewis and was not pleased. Both of his drivers resumed racing from the back.
Leader Holloway lost his 15-yard lead thanks to the yellow flag. He chose the outside for the restart to retain his favored high line. M. Johnson had his preferred inside line and tried to launch into the lead at the lap 31 green flag. Holloway repulsed Johnson's aggressive bid at turn two and outran Johnson's No. 17 Chevy on the backstretch. He maintained his car length advantage during the final ten laps. Holloway's No. 44 Four Star Grapes Chevy won by 0.358 over M. Johnson. Arizonan T. Cuzick, 19, finished third, 1.032 back. It was his second-ever ACLM race in the Freightliner of Arizona No. 18 and topped his eighth place finish a week earlier. Chris Johnson had to hold his car in gear, yet finished fourth in; his second ACLM start this season. Point leader Rod Johnson charged past four cars, including his championship rival Joanides on the lap 31 restart, and finished fifth. Sixth place Joanides now trails ACLM rookie Rod J by 34 points with only one race remaining on October 16. Copley, Cheek, Lewis and Rodney Peacher were the other finishers and all completed 40 laps. The 21-minute race had two caution flags. Holloway ran the fastest lap of the race at 19.235 (93.579 mph) on lap 5. M. Johnson was the next quickest with 19.268 on lap 6.
KTST: The scheduled 40-lap super truck main received an extra ten laps to make it the longest of 13 races this year. The season high (by one truck) field of 22 ran 50 all-green flag laps in 16:58.562. FQ Matt Kimball, a first-time series feature winner two weeks ago, led the first 41 laps from pole position. Consistent KTST championship contender Todd Cameron, from Monrovia, started his No. 99 second and ran second all the way in pursuit of his first main event triumph. The first four trucks waged a close battle from lap 35 to lap 41 as they raced three-wide. They approached four trucks racing high and low for 15th position on lap 41. Somehow wily Sedgwick squirted past every truck on the crowded track and moved from third to first. Cameron retained second as Kimball slipped from first to third while the leaders lapped the four slower trucks. Later he lamented not passing the slower trucks sooner. Cameron trailed by 0.382 and Kimball by 1.170 at the checkers. Series rookie Ken Maler, Jr., 19, finished fourth (-1.738). Point leader Ryan Partridge, a ten-time feature winner this year, started fourth and finished fifth after transmission failures in the last two races caused retirements. His point lead slipped from 20 to 14 points over Cameron with one race remaining on October 16. Dennis Arena, Pat Mintey, Jr, Andrew Anderson, rookie Ken Brown and Jameson Spies finished sixth through tenth. Mintey, the 2006 and 2008 series champion, received the hard charger award and said he will retire and have his son drive his No. 35 Chevy S-10 next year. All 22 starters finished the competitive race that had position changes throughout the field almost every lap. Fourteen drivers ran all 50 laps.
VPSS: Thirteen cars, one shy of the season high, competed with a four car inverted lineup. FQ Rich DeLong III became the third and final leader on lap 9 and won the race over Eric Sunness. DeLong's No. 84 2009 Chevy Impala SS body by Five Star Bodies sits on the Camaro chassis that Jimmy Sloan raced to the 2005 VPSS track championship. DeLong ran the fastest lap of the race—20.986 (85.771 mph) on lap 3. Sunness turned the next quickest lap of 21.055 on lap 5. DeLong's victory was his third in a row and eighth this year. It secured his first VPSS track championship because he has a 62-point lead (686-624) over 2006/2008 VPSS champion Bryan Harrell with one race and 50 points remaining for a victory on October 16. The 10:42.582 all-green flag race was the first race at 7:10 pm. Second starter Bryan Harrell again drove the No. 94 Larry Sampson Camaro to replace his wrecked No. 55 Camaro. He led the first two laps and finished third, 11 seconds behind the winner. Sunness, the laps 3-8 leader, trailed DeLong by 0.309. Curtis White and Gary Read, in the DeLong Racing No. 44 Camaro, completed the top five and also ran 30 laps. First-time TS@I racer Adam Coonfield, a 26-year old identical twin from Modesto, came from ninth starting to P. 6, down a lap. Brad Keegan, Mark Brinksma, Jason DeLong, 33, and newcomer Zach Green followed. Pole starter Aaron Coonfield (Adam's identical twin from Riverbank, CA and also a Stockton 99 Speedway regular) was in P. 3 on lap 12 when he dropped out. Ten cars finished.
DRIVE TECH LATE MODELS: Six 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo racing school cars, transported to the track on a double-decked auto transport open-hauler, enabled students to race 25 laps on the half-mile for the third time this year. FQ Ted Stoneburner, from Sherman Oaks, started last and led laps 8-25 after his inside fourth turn pass of laps 3-7 leader Richard Smith, the fifth starter. He trailed the winner by a straightaway (4.548 seconds). Dennis Tarlton led the first two laps and settled for third, 8.591 seconds back. Rob Vining was fourth (-9.265 seconds) at the end. Front row starters Mike Zschoche and Jeff Smith were lapped and placed fifth and sixth. Stoneburner's third TS@I Drive Tech triumph this season came in his third different school car. He drove the 21 car to victory last week and used the 15 car during May. He is now the all-time leading winner in Drive Tech mains at Irwindale. The all-green light race, the third consecutive clean race Saturday, took 8:36.253.
KPACS/OPEN COMP: With 20 cars/trucks on the third-mile grid, the six classic stocks occupied the back rows as the slowest class. The varied field had super stocks, late models, SW Tour trucks and super trucks, a S2 car, a Drive Tech L/M, a winged modified and a winged Figure 8 in the field. Fastest qualifier Joe Anderson started fifth in Huddleston's original, oldest No. 50 late model. During qualifying at 3:30 pm Anderson set a new track record of 15.166 (79.045 mph) that eclipsed the former open comp third-mile record of 15.569 (76.999 mph) set by Austin Murphy in his No. 07 late model on 8/28/10. Rich DeLong III started his No. 84 winged modified (ex-Rick Crow No. 38) from second position. He jumped the start over pole-man Jeff Williams' truck and led three laps as the race director told him via radio to “give it (the position) back”. On lap 4 leader DeLong received the black flag and he visited the half-mile fourth turn for a stop and go penalty. He returned a lap down in mid-field. Anderson inherited the lead on lap 4 and opened an increasing lead over Craig Rayburn's super stock. On lap 7 Rayburn's No. 3 Camaro hit the turn one attenuator hard, ending his first race this year. Winged Figure 8 veteran/fourth starter Jerry Toporek, from Venice, ran second from lap 7 to the conclusion and trailed by 5.797 seconds. Williams, from the pole, was 14 seconds behind the winner and the only other driver on the lead lap.
Five drivers ran 34 laps with DeLong racing into P. 4 on lap 34. Jason Galvin, the TS@I assistant track announcer in the booth, borrowed a racing suit and helmet to became a first-time racer. He started 12th in the No. 44 DeLong Racing Camaro and broadcast his commentary clearly over the track PA system during the race. He ran fourth from lap l7 to lap 34 when car owner DeLong dropped him to his impressive fifth place finish in his racing debut. The first five finishers represented five different racing classes—late model, winged F-8, SWT Pro Truck, winged modified and super stock. Michael Zimmerman (SWT Pro Truck), Richie Altman (DTLM), Aaron Coonfield (SS) Robert Dezarov (SS) and Ken Michaelian (Classic Stock) completed the top ten. Michaelian received 50 first place points for his C/S class victory. A first lap spin by Altman in turn two caused a collision by the row four starting No. 43 Quick Pick Racing team driven by grandfather Ken Smith (KTST) and his grandson Andrew Porter (S2). Both vehicles exited via wreckers with serious mechanical carnage. The Coonfield identical twins started in the same row on a lap 7 restart after Rayburn's crash. After 24 minutes, Adam Coonfield placed 12th, down three laps in his second race of the night and first on the third-mile. Sixteen of 20 starters finished the open comp event.
DEMO DERBY: The all-female demo derby had five pink cars in the seven car field. Angela DeFazio, daughter of track GM/COO Bob DeFazio, drove the first car eliminated. The event lasted 22 active minutes with three cars vying for top dollar during the final ten minutes. At the checker, Christine Thiebert won in her pink and black no. 14 (her soccer number) station wagon. Tammy Kalb was second and Louise Johnson third. April Shaw-Johns, who has been in all four prior female DDs and won the 2008 event, placed fourth. Alisha Thiebert, 22-year old sister of the winner, finished fifth and past DD driver Cheryl Hyland took sixth.
