Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 04/17/2005

BAKERSFIELD, California -- Bloomington, California's Eddie Secord took advantage of a late race caution and won the April 16th Lucas Oil Pro 4 Challenge Series 40 lap feature at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. Secord, one of the more dominant drivers in this series, passed MIke O'Hara with five laps left in the race to take the win.

Rob Kimele and O'Hara led the field under the initial green flag with Kimele taking the lead. The first yellow caution flag came out on lap 8 when Adrianne Murlin spun in turn two and slammed hard into the backstretch wall. The Corona, California driver was uninjured but the damage to the car was too great for her to continue. At the same time oil was discovered in the middle of turn three and it required nine caution laps to clean up both areas of the track.

After the restart, O'Hara passed Kimele for the lead on lap 20 and appeared to be on his way to the win. However, the field bunched again when the final yellow flag of the race came out on lap 32 due to Kimele's turn two spin.

All this while Secord used a great deal of patience, as well as the outside racing line, to work his way through the field. He moved into the top five on lap 21, he was third on lap 25 and was in second, right behind the race leader, by lap 31. When the green flag dropped on the final restart of the race, Secord made very quick work of taking the lead.

The final five laps of this race was very intense and O'Hara found himself shuffled right out of the lead pack. Jim Snow, Rex Lockwood, Tim Carruthers and Shawn Steele completed the top five.

In victory lane a very happy Secord said "the first part of the race I just had to basically sit back and wait for some guys to make a few mistakes. I'm not used to passing on the outside here but, man, that groove worked and it got me into the top five. When that last yellow came out I knew I had to get the guy, (O'Hara), on the first restart I could get."

When Secord is busy driving race cars he building them for a variety of customers and he almost found himself in a position of being beat by the cars he built. "I built four brand new cars that were out here tonight. The guy that was in second was in my father in law's past car. The guy in third was in a brand new car that I just built and there's three or four more of them that were in the field that were mine also. Even if I did finish second to one of my own cars I would still feel like I won," he said with a smile.

See Also .:

• Mesa Marin Raceway Track Page

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