SANTEE, California — What a special night as ‘road course ringer’ Jeff Catlin took his first oval win in the ASA Truck Series last Saturday night. Catlin was all smiles and said ‘this is the most memorable win of my career” as he dominated the day at TOYOTA Speedway. He thanked Scott Franchimone of “Upfront Motorsports” for all his hard work and for giving him a rocket to race, as well as all his sponsors like Barrett Jackson Auto Auctions, HR Springs and many others. Catlin was fastest in practice, was fast qualifier (verifying if it was a track record), and brought home a victory. Jeff’s teammate, Darren Young, is also from Arizona and finished right behind him in second. The top five included Taylor Miinch, Matt Jaskol and Branden Underwood. Miinch brought his #5 ATK Motorsports Chevy all the way from the back to threaten the top two for awhile, but after 75 laps nearly caution-free, Miinch had to settle for third, but maintained his championship points lead.
There were a few ASA Truck Series veterans that returned to the series with United Nissan this race who showed they hadn’t forgotten how to handle a race truck. Matt Jaskol, from Las Vegas, finished fourth and Joe Farre, who does double duty in the SRL Southwest Tour Series, came home seventh. It was great to have drivers come back and race in the series after all these years. Series regular, Branden Underwood, finished fifth in only his second time ever to Irwindale.
There were some trucks that had some mechanical difficulties for drivers like #77 Jeremiah Wagner, #03 Mike Herda and #33 Ryan Partridge. The fans may have thought the fast #33 of Partridge pulled into the infield at lap 52 because he was too tired from racing in four different divisions in one night, but he had a sway bar bolt break and cause him to lose a possible top five finish. #9 Jason Black, #7 Logan Mainella and #76 Jeff Barrister rounded out the field in a great race on a summer evening at Irwindale. When the night was done, Catlin wanted to honor the passing of some friends’ family members and knew their “spirits were watching over me” during the whole race. The team went on to celebrate “Upfont Style” later that night.
Our series takes the month of August off for vacations and time to ‘regroup’ for a four race shoot out for the championship starting in Vegas at the Bullring on Labor Day weekend.. Information about that race and updates for the series can be found at www.asatruckseries.com. There are now ASA Truck Series T-shirts and hats available for sale at the track and on the website.
If you would like to find out more about the ASA Truck Series and how your company could be part of the growing excitement across the nation about this dynamic series, contact Todd or Lisa McLauchlan at 619-596-6816 / mcracers@prodigy.net or go to www.asatruckseries.com. Our Facebook page is: asa-truck-series and we have a YouTube page as well with exciting videos to view.
