IRWINDALE, California -- Due to a lack of sponsorship, Nick Joanides had not yet raced in 2003, however thanks to a last minute partnership with Jackson Race Cars and Gail Chase, he made his season debut in the Nascar Featherlite Southwest Series at Irwindale Speedway this Saturday, with sponsorship help coming from Colorfast and Kadee Construction.
Nick and the team tested at the track last Friday with very positive results and those results continued to race day as they qualified a strong 13th out of 40+ cars.
Nick knew the car would be strong at the end of the race, but chose to be patient in the early stages. By the mid-way point, he climbed to the 8th position. The final caution flag flew around lap 80. By lap 100, Nick had climbed into the top 5 when the transmission popped out of gear. Before Nick could discover the problem, he dropped back to 8th. At lap 125 through the end of the race, Nick's lap times were 3/10ths of a second quicker than the leader, however every time he gained ground, the transmission popped out of gear and continuously did so throughout the second half of the race. Nick did however manage a strong 6th place finish on the lead lap.
"I'm really proud of this entire Jackson Race Cars team, the car was just awesome. Had we not had the problem with the transmission, I think we would have contended for the win. But all in all, I can't complain, it was a good run for our first race back this year!" Joanides said.
