STOCKTON, California — Jim Pettit II got his first win of the 2011 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series Saturday night on the paved quarter-mile oval at the Stockton 99 Speedway. The ‘Jackson Rancheria 135’ also marked his eleventh SRL win, the most in the Series eleven year history.
Starting ninth in the twenty-one car field, he moved up one position at a time over the course of the 135 lap event, winning by almost a car length.
According to Pettit, “We struggled all weekend but we weren’t as fast as we wanted to be. We didn’t have the best race car, but we won the race, for which I am very thankful. But we won it because of certain situations that occurred on the track. For the first time in my racing career, the officials used pink spray paint to mark the tires during qualifying tech. Why, I’ll never know. But I said, “Wow”, is it a sign from my Mom, pink was her favorite color, like maybe she was rootin’ for us and we were going to have a great night tonight?”
Last December, Pettit’s Mother passed away, and he repainted the former yellow car number, 03, pink, in her memory.
“Like I said, I figured we had a fourth or fifth place car, but a lot of things happened in front of us that I had no control over. Like guys making bad decisions, having problems, crashing, and the next thing I know, we’re leading the thing. I remember thinking, with about ten laps to go, this would be my first win since my Mom’s passing, and are we really going to win this thing for her, my Dad, and the crew? And then with two laps to go, we had another yellow. I thought, oh no, not this. We were having a battle with Keith Spangler, and he was fast, driving hard, but racing me clean. But we went on to win it.”
With the win, Pettit stays in contention for the championship. “Yeah, we’re only forty-eight points out of first, and seven out of second, so with three races to go, we’re definitely still in the hunt.”
The next race on the SRL schedule is September 24th at Madera Speedway in Madera, CA., and Pettit will be there in his blue and yellow number 03, sponsored by Golden Gate Petroleum, Swift Springs, bizzwithbuzz.com, Mo’s Gold, Fred Morgart Recycling,
Top of the Hill Performance, and the Fred Biletnikoff Foundation. For more information on Jim, please visit his website at jimpettitracing. com, where you will also find links to the SRL, as well as RacingWest for all your racing information.
