BAKERSFIELD, California — For just the second time in series history, the teams of the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series will travel to the beautiful 3/8 mile oval of Rocky Mountain Raceways in West Valley City, Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City.
" This year we decided to try something different and with the help of Berkley, we organized a fishing tournament for our teams."— Brian Olsen
This Saturday, Rocky Mountain Raceways will host the “NAPA Auto Parts 125”, the sixth race of the 2012 SPEARS Southwest Tour Series championship season. As the series starts its second half of the 2012 campaign, Derek Thorn holds the championship lead over defending series champ, Jim Pettit II, and 2009 series champ, M.K. Kanke.
Thorn, who has finished in second position or better, in four of the first five races in 2012, finished a close third at Rocky Mountain Raceways in 2011, behind race winner Jacob Gomes and Kanke, who finished second.
“Rocky Mountain is a great track for our style of cars,” stated Thorn. “It’s the biggest track we run on all year and the stands were packed last year. It was a lot of fun and we’re really looking forward to the trip this week with our Campbell Motorsports team.”
In 2011, Jacob Gomes picked up his third win of the year at Rocky Mountain Raceways, by winning the “Century Boatland 115”.
“Last year the Rocky Mountain race was awesome”, stated the defending race winner Gomes. “Kanke and Thorn battled us for the win with just a few laps to go, but we were able to hold on. We‘ve had some tough races lately, so we’re really looking forward to making the trip to Salt Lake, we’re looking forward to a good run for Sunnyvalley Smoked Meats, and winning the SRL Fishing Tournament on Friday.”
More than 36 members of the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series will compete in the “Berkley/SRL Fishing Tournament” on Friday morning of race weekend.
“Last year we put together a golf outing for the teams while we were in Salt Lake. This year we decided to try something different and with the help of Berkley, we organized a fishing tournament for our teams,” commented the SRL’s Brian Olsen. “Berkley Fishing stepped up in a big way and will supply the boats and all the gear for our guys who are competing in the fishing tournament.”
The teams of the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series will arrive at Rocky Mountain Raceways on Friday afternoon for an open practice from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, then return on Saturday for the “NAPA Auto Parts 125”, qualifying is scheduled for 6:40pm, main events starting at 7pm, with fireworks following the race.
