Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 08/13/2007

When the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series arrived at the California Speedway in Fontana last weekend there was a little concern among the teams regarding the California 125. In the past when the West Series came to this speedway they raced on the traditional two mile, D shaped, oval. However this year NASCAR decided to make the regional touring series' visit to Fontana a little more interesting. This race was ran on the California Speedway's massive 2.4 mile, 21 turn, road course. It was a format that the West Series drivers had never seen before and it turned out to be a highly entertaining race.

It didn't take Jason Bowles long to figure out the new California Speedway layout and the 42 lap race around the challenging road course. Bowles left his Ontario-California home last Saturday and made the short drive down the freeway to the speedway to begin what would turn out to be an excellent weekend. Bowles blistered the road course and put his Sunrise Ford/Turbo Torq Ford Fusion to earn his first series' career pole after turning in a lap of 119.420 MPH.

He was equally formidable during the race. He led the race for a total of three times including a final pass on lap 33 when he took command of the race for good. His own track performance was greatly enhanced by conserving his tires and brakes along with some good pit strategy. Tire wear was another concern in this race due to the combination of the road course's tight turns combined with the high speeds the cars hit on the steeply banked turns on the speedway's oval. Bowles commented on that in victory and called the tire wear situation difficult. "The tire that we had to run today, due to the high speeds on the oval portion, was really hard and it seemed to lose grip really quick. That's why taking care of your equipment today was so huge," the race winner added.

The one person that had everyone's attention was Brian Ickler the driver of the NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet who began Saturday at the California Speedway with a frustrating situation. During the final practice session he blew a tire and slammed hard into the turn two wall. The first impulse from his Bill McAnally Racing crew was to roll out the back up car. But Ickler was adamant about repairing the car and felt it could be restored to its former status as race winning contender. The lenghty repairs caused the team to miss qualifying and that meant Ickler had to take a provisional and start the race in last place. Despite that extra added pressure reparing the car still turned out to be a good call.

Ickler roared under the initial green flag like a man on fire and moved all the way to 15th by the end of the first lap. By lap four he was in the 11th position and then raced his way into the top ten three circuits later. During the final three laps of the race Ickler was in second and running hard to chase down Bowles. Unfortunately he just ran out of laps and time but everyone was extremely impressed with the effort in a badly battered race car.

Also impressive was the effort of series' rookie David Mayhew. The Young Atascadero-California driver was one of the race leaders enroute to a solid third place finish in his Golden Gate Petroleum/RCR Chevrolet. Mayhew is enjoying the opportunity of a life time as a new member of the Richard Childress Racing Driver Development Program.

Finishing fourth was Fairfield-California's Jim Inglebright who led several laps during the middle portion of the race in his Jelly Belly Candy and Sportsbeans Chevrolet. Inglebright is no stranger to racing on, and winning at, road courses and showed that expterise by quickly adapting to the California Speedway's 2.4 mile course.

Rounding out the top five was series champion Mike Duncan in his Lucas Oil/Ron's Rear End Chevrolet. Duncan's first experience with the California Speedway's road course was going to be interesting to watch. Last January,while attending the ground breaking for the new speedway being built in his hometown of Bakersfield-California, Duncan expressed some displeasure over NASCAR's decision to change the annual California Speedway event from the oval, which he won last year, to the road course. Prior to last Saturday's race Duncan said he was" just going to ride around and watch what everyone else does." By lap 24 he apparently had seen enough. That's when he took command of the race and held the point for eight laps before he gave up the lead to come onto pit road.

An honorable mention goes out to driver Eric Richardson. During qualifying the young rookie driver in his Green Frog Roasting Company.Com Chevrolet earned an impressive eighth place starting spot on the grid. After coming down pit road for his first stop in the race there was a near altercation with another car that cost him a lot of time in the pits as well as valuable track position. He had fallen back to 19th place. But with some hard charging, combined with good pit strategy, Richardson came back through the field and impressed a lot of on lookers with a sixth place finish.

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