IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY HAD QUITE A NIGHT

Source: Janet Peery / RacingWest.com
Date: 04/02/2000

The NASCAR Super Late Model race was won by Charles Utts of Camarillo (Calif.), but it was not an easy win as 2nd place runner, Greg Voigt went door to door with Utts right down to the finish. Third across the line was Ben Walker, Dan Holtz was good for fourth and AJ Dimarzo grabbed the fifth place position. Voigt was the winner last weekend in the season opener.

The three cars that were in inspection after the main were Utts, Voigt and Holtz. We will have to follow up to see what dropped Holtz to fourth and Walker up to third.

Other news of the night two Indy winners, Parnelli Jones and Roger Ward were in attendance. Last years champion Larry Krieger was at the track. He is competing in the NASCAR Southwest Tour this season.

Brian Kelley, was fifth quick in qualifying, but developed a miss in the engine during the main event that slowed what should have been a good run. He has a strong team behind him and with the season so young he is still a strong competitor for the championship.

Rookie competitor David Gilliland who had his hopes set on getting in some laps, made the field, only to have his rented engine go sour on him. Rather than risk blowing a motor and putting himself and the rest of the competitors in jeopardy, he made the wise decision to park the car. Look for him to be back at the next event.

Sean Woodside and Kazuto Yanagawa got together going into turn two and the No. 71 of Yanaga was sent into the wall. Yanagawa competed in Monroe at Evergreen Speedway last year where he finished 6th in the standings. The team will work hard and get the car ready for the next race in two weeks. The car itself is Rod Johnson's back-up car from last season.

The race was red flagged after the halfway point when there was a multi-car pileup on the backstretch. One of the more seriously damaged cars was that of the sophomore driver Tim Woods III.

Other notables in the event were Jimmy Insolo of NASCAR Winston West fame and Nick Joanides from the NASCAR Southwest Tour and multi series champion Del Dalrymple.

Ben Walker got quick time for the event at 18.450 seconds.

Full race story, notes of interest and finishing results will be posted shortly.

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