STOCKTON, California — This past Saturday night was round 18 at Stockton 99 Speedway and the Modified division featured a 60 lap main event for the Tri Holiday Classic Finale. The Star Grand American Modifieds is a series within the NASCAR Whelen All American Modified series. As the Star GAM drivers compete for their own points and payouts provided by Star Racing Supply, they will also be competing in the NASCAR Whelen All American modified series as well.
Points leader, Nick Lyons was the driver to beat in the division posting fast laps in both practice sessions and coming out on top for the number one qualifier for the group. Lyons posted a fast lap of 14.483. Followed by William Camara second and Jessica Clark third. Camera took home his second consecutive Trophy dash victory with a close finish holding off Lyons for the win.
Nick Lyons was the highlight of the show being the driver to beat. An invert of seven was drawn for the Whelen division setting Lyons on pole for the grid. William Camera started 12th and Clark started 17th. Keegan Walmer and Lyons raced side by side into turn one and Walmer would exit out in front taking the early lead. Caution flag on lap one as three Whelen drivers collided in turn four. Walmer and Lyons restarted the field. In the opening laps, both Camera and Clark had progressed well with Camera in ninth and Clark in 13th by lap three. By lap eight, Lyons had enough power over Walmer to inch out for the lead and Winters followed through to battle with Walmer for second. Caution flag on lap ten brought challenges for Lyons as he had to restart with veteran Winters next to him. Lyons and Winters restarted the field and Winters took the lead in turn one. Lyons was left to battle for his second place position.
At this point both Camera and Clark were running consistent in their current positions of seventh for Camara and 14th for Clark. On lap seventeen a caution was thrown which allowed Lyons to give Winters another challenge for the lead. However, Lyons didn't have enough power for the lead and tucked in behind the leader. A group of yellows occurred bringing Camara up to ninth and Clark to eleventh on the lap 31 caution. Winters and Lyons restarted the field and Lyons suffered on the restart as Winters once again took the lead leaving Lyons to battle with Philpot as Philpot would pass Lyons for second. On lap 37, Camara got collected in a wreck that happened in turn one but was able to continue on in the tenth position on the restart. Clark safely avoided the wreck and restarted in seventh. On lap 42, Lyons passed Philpot for second while Camara passed Clark for ninth and Clark fell back to eleventh. On the final lap, Lyons ran out of fuel crossing the finish line in sixth still collecting a win in the Star GAM division. William Camera suffered a few positions landing ninth and a third in the Star GAM division. Jessica Clark ran well with a solid eighth place finish and a second in the Star GAM series.
" Rough night for us in the #20 machine. We started 12th and worked our way up to 4th. The car was coming in good and we definitely had a top 3 car until Romano and I were fighting for position and a 3-wide incident coming out of 4 sent me and Romano spinning into the wall and I caught air down the front stretch. With my steering broken and the wheels toed out went from 19th to 6th. I passed 4 cars from turn 2 through 3. We ran 30 extra laps due to cautions and half of us were running out of fuel. We definitely wanted to repeat last week and get another win, but bad luck cut us short. I would like to thank Mike from D&M Auto Salon for all your work and all of my supporters," stated William Camara.
Next up for the STAR Grand American Modifieds is the 2012 championship finale on September 15th at Stockton 99 Speedway. The division will be featuring twin 40 lap main events. For more information on Stockton 99 Speedway or the Whelen All American Modified Series presented by Star Racing Supply visit www.Stockton99.com website or call 209-466-9999.For more information on Star Racing Supply visit www.StarRacingSupply.com. The Racer's store is located 8581 Younger Creek Dr, Sacramento, CA 95828 or call 916-914-1284
Star Racing Supply is the new Stockton 99 track vendor with a physical store at the track offering over 400 brands of racing parts and supplies. Star Racing Supply is the official source for tires and fuel for Stockton 99 Speedway. Star Racing Supply is working to become the new Modified headquarters for Northern California. Star Racing Supply offers four brands of Modified chassis including Racecar Factory, Ellis, Port City and Wenteq. Star Racing Supply is supplied with a full fabrication shop to offer chassis services as well as provides all the parts and materials to build, race and maintain Modified race cars
2012 Whelen All American Series Modifieds Presented by Star Racing Supply Schedule:
April 28th Twin 40s
May 5th w/K&N 60 laps
May 26th Tri Holiday Race 1 & 60 laps
June 9th Twin 40s w/SRL
June 16th Twin 40s
June 30th Tri Holiday Race 2 & 60 laps
July 21st Twin 40s
August 4th Twin 40s
September 1st Tri Holiday Classic Race 3 & 60 laps
September 15th Twin 40s
