The SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series will be bringing their high energy motorsports show to the Rocky Mountain Raceway, in West Valley City-Utah, this Saturday night for the running of the Napa Auto Parts 125.
"With the SRL Spears Southwest Tour season now at the half way point, don't overlook the experience of Pettit when it comes to getting the job done when the pressure of a points title is in play."
There are two principals involved in the series championship points profile. At the top of the standings is Derek Thorn, a young driver with a lot of talent and a bright future in racing. Second in the standings, 19 points from first, is Jim Pettit II, an experienced driver with multiple championships in the world of regional touring racing.
With the SRL Spears Southwest Tour season now at the half way point, don't overlook the experience of Pettit when it comes to getting the job done when the pressure of a points title is in play. He has more than proved that he's championship caliber. In his career he's won no less than 14 NASCAR sanctioned championships. That includes two back to back championships, 2004 and 2005, in the former NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Series, a regional touring racing environment that was so competitive that winning just one single race was difficult.
The teams from that former NASCAR series began racing their elite style stock cars in the new formed SRL. That migration included Pettit and his Get Ur Done crew. Pettit and company clearly proved they intended to continue their high level of competitiveness with a business as usual approach. He backed up that intention by winning the SRL championship in 2008 and then winning it again last year. He still stands out as being the series only two time champion. His personal stats in the series is nothing short of astounding. Pettit has 47 starts and 12 wins which means he's won nearly 25 percent of those starts. He also has 34 top five finishes and 39 top tens.
Pettit and company began 2012 with a surprise move when he announced he was moving to a new team owned by Quentin Bammer. The traditional #03 Ford became the #18 Chevrolet backed with a stout sponsorship program featuring Moeller Brothers Body Shop, HUR Engines, Golden Gate Petroleum, BizzwithBuzz.Com, Swift Springs and Hamke Race Cars.
During the SRL Spears Southwest Tour's 2012 season opener, last April at the Stockton 99 Speedway, the Pettit team was riding in third when a flat tire forced a pit stop with nine laps to go. Pettit returned to the track in 20th and charged his way back to tenth during the final moments of the race. That's what champions do.
The team made quick work of shaking off the effects of that flat tire and bounced back with a second place finish at the Madera race, a third in Las Vegas and another runner up finish at Stockton 99. On June 30th the team returned to Madera and scored that all important first win of the season after Pettit made his winning move on the final lap of the race. That's something else that champions do.
There's a wise old saying that goes: "you just can't beat experience." You can fully expect to see Jim Pettit using all of his experience this Saturday night at the Rocky Mountain Raceway and applying that experience towards winning his third SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series' championship.
