KANKE HOLDS OFF PETTIT FOR WIN AT SRL OPENER

The winning crew...and driver ;) Photo of the MK Kanke team by Dave Farr

BAKERSFIELD, California — It was an epic battle of two of the sports most successful short track drivers, M.K. Kanke and Jim Pettit II. Kanke won Saturday night’s SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series “SPEARS MANUFACTURING 111”, but Pettit made a late race charge to do all he could to wrestle the win from his long time Southwest Tour rival and friend.

Earlier in the day, track record holder Ross Strmiska set the fastest time (14.495 seconds) of the 27 cars that took the green during qualifying for the “SPEARS MANUFACTURING 111”. Strmiska pulled an 11 for the invert, which put a lot of good cars in front of him for the start of the race. Olympia, Washington’s Jared Vorse and Goleta’s Greg Voigt shared the front row, Kanke started third with Madera’s Justin Westmoreland fourth.

At the green, Vorse jumped ahead into turn one and charged away into the lead on lap one, followed by Kanke, Westmoreland and Voigt. Vorse wasted little time pulling a sizable lead over his pursuers until the first caution of the night on lap 12, involving Strmiska, David Ross and Brennan Newberry. All three drivers pitted for repairs, with Strmiska removing the nose and hood before returning. Newberry unfortunately was finished for the night.

Back to green, Vorse again distanced himself from Kanke, who was followed by Westmoreland, Voigt and Eddie Secord. The top five remained unchanged until lap 30 when Pettit moved into fifth, followed by Jonathon Gomez and Derek Thorn.

Vorse continued out front with a comfortable lead over Kanke until lap 40 when Vorse’s #20 Knight Fire Protection Chevrolet slowed momentarily due to ignition issues.

The yellow came out on lap 51 due to Jacob Gomes spinning in turn 2. Back to green Vorse maintained second position until lap 55 when he slowed again, with Pettit moving past into second, followed by Westmoreland, Thorn, Eric Holmes and Gomez.

Lap 60, caution flew once again, then the red flag was put out, as Carlos Vieira and Secord got together with the end result being Vieira’s #51 parked on top of Secord’s Dodge in turn 3. Secord suffered second-degree burns on his left arm and foot from the hot water from the engine of Vieira’s Chevrolet.

Back to green, Westmoreland was under intense pressure from Thorn, while Pettit was staying with Kanke upfront.

By lap 70, Thorn and Holmes had moved past Westmoreland for third and fourth respectively while the two veterans up front were setting up the chess match that would play out in the late laps of the race. Fifth was Westmoreland, Dallas Montes was sixth, followed by Strmiska who had worked his way up to seventh from his lap twelve incident that destroyed the front of his #90 Mid-Valley Iron and Metals/ Mainline Equipment Chevrolet.

Lap 81, Gomez and Ken Benhamou made contact on the front straight, spinning Gomez and sending Benhamou to pit lane with damage.

The green flew on lap 83, Holmes was pressing Thorn for third, and opening up a gap over Westmoreland in fifth. Kanke lead Pettit by two car lengths.

With 20 to go Pettit started to apply the pressure to Kanke, looking for his options to attempt a pass. Thorn had pulled away slightly from Holmes, Westmoreland remained fifth, with Strmiska charging his way up to the top six.

With 10 to go, the final the caution flew due to Gomez coming to a stop on the back straight away. This set up the battle everyone in the Bullring had waited for as Pettit pulled to the bumper of Kanke’s familiar red #33 Chevrolet. For the restart, the top 10 was Kanke, Pettit, Thorn, Holmes, Westmoreland, Strmiska, Keith Spangler seventh, followed by Gomes, Dave Byrd, and Mike Mendenhall.

Back to green, Pettit closed in on Kanke. With seven to go, Pettit drove inside of Kanke entering turn three, Kanke slammed the door. Pettit lost ground, but regrouped for another charge.

Entering turn three for the final time, Pettit again drove to the bottom, Kanke again slammed the door, the two veterans made hard contact, but both held on with Kanke winning by .217 seconds over Pettit at the line. Thorn was third, Holmes fourth, Strmiska up to fifth, followed by Jonathan Mawhinney, Gomes, Spangler, Byrd, and Mendenhall rounding out the top ten.

“We were both racing tonight in the memory of Jim’s Mom, so with us finishing one - two, makes for a pretty special night,” stated Kanke. “We started towards the front and that allowed us to not push the car until we had to, and I really had to push it there at the end to hold Jim off.”

It was Kanke’s eighth SPEARS Southwest Tour Series career win, which moves him to third on the all-time series win list.

“I have to thank Dan and Kathy and our entire team, we had to go to the back up car late Friday and our team worked really hard getting the car ready for Saturday, Leon and everyone did a great job and gave me a winning car.” Kanke added.

For Pettit, it had been an emotional weekend for him and his team as it was their first race since the passing of Jim’s Mom, Pat Pettit, in December.

“We have to be happy with our weekend. Mike’s a tough competitor, and I knew I would have to be really aggressive if I was going to get by, and that isn’t the way we like to win,” stated Pettit after the race. “We qualified better than usual here, Duane (Sharp) and the guys gave me a great car, I tried to be patient moving though the field and once I got into second I knew I had to save the car and see what I had for Mike at the end. It’s a little frustrating not to get the win, but I’m sure the fans enjoyed the show.” Pettit added.

The next race for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series will be the “World’s Champion Hand Cleaner 140 presented by AmeriPride Uniform Services” Saturday, April 16th at All-American Speedway in Roseville.