BAKERSFIELD, California — Three drivers in the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series have led the point standings in 2010, and those three drivers are at the top of the current championship battle. Twin Falls, Idaho’s Jonathon Gomez finds himself in the championship lead heading into this weekend’s 100-lap event at Roseville’s All-American Speedway. Gomez currently leads Prunedale, California’s Jim Pettit by 71 points, Derek Thorn is just two points behind Pettit, with Ryan Foster and Keith Spangler currently making up the balance of the top five in the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series championship chase.
“This series is tough, the guys we compete with are on their game every race and right now luck has been on our side which has put us in the points lead,” commented Gomez, who has finished no worse than fourth since the second race of the SRL season. “Ron (Copeland) and Craig (Raudman) do a great job preparing our car and we’ll continue with our game plan for the final two races, which is go to the race track to win…that approach has gotten us to this point, so we don’t plan any changes and hopefully we can continue our string of good finishes.” Gomez will compete in both the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series event and the K&N Pro Series race this weekend in Roseville.
A rare mechanical failure, while running second, caused Pettit his first DNF of the season on September 25th at Madera Speedway. Pettit and his team won’t give up the championship fight, “We never give up,” stated the 2008 SRL champion. “Our team enters every season with the goal of winning the championship and you know in racing things can change in a big way in an instant, so we’ll keep digging. Roseville and Vegas are good tracks for us, but Derek (Thorn) won at both tracks in the spring and Jonathon (Gomez) has been on a roll lately, so it’s going to come down right to the end.”
Lakeport, California's Thorn is just 73 points out of the championship lead in third is returning to the two tracks he’s already won at in 2010. "Roseville and Vegas were both great race tracks for the #2 BSR (Bob Strandwold Racing)/Joiner Motorsports Chevy this year. We’re excited to be going back as race winners. It’s unfortunate we had two great runs going at Stockton and Irwindale when we were caught up in other people’s incidents. It’s kind of frustrating but that’s racing. We had a great point’s lead going at the beginning of the season, its unfortunate were playing catch up now, but we’re going into these final two races focused on winning, what happens to Gomez and Pettit is out of our hands. So it should be fun."
The SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series will be at Roseville’s All-American Speedway for race nine of the ten race SRL 2010 championship season. The 100-lap event presented by Pocket Radar is part of a big weekend at All-American Speedway, which also features the NASCAR K&N Pro West Series.
For more information regarding this weekend’s event go to: www.billmcanallyracing.com, www.allamericanspeedway.com or www.srlsouthwesttour.com.
About the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series: Celebrating its tenth season in 2010, the SRL Southwest Tour Series is a regional stock car series competing on paved ovals in the southwestern portion of the U.S. http://www.srlsouthwesttour.com. “The SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series…Where the Champions Race”
About SPEARS MANUFACTURING: Spears Manufacturing is a world leader in plastic pipe fittings and valves. SPEARS’ maintains over one million square feet of manufacturing facilities in four states and nine distribution centers across the USA for worldwide distribution.
