TRIPLE-WINNER, NEW WINNERS, AUTO SOCCER & DEMO DERBY AT IRWINDALE

Source: Tim Kennedy
Date: 04/14/2008

IRWINDALE, California - Point leader Andrew Myers, of Huntington Beach, started seventh and won his third consecutive 40-lap NASCAR Auto Club Late Model feature in Whelen All-American action on the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale banked half-mile Saturday. About 6,500 spectators attended on Income Tax Buster/Pipe Trades Night. Myers was as hot earlier in the day as the 95-degree temperature when he set his third consecutive fastest qualifying time in a 28-car field. His winning ride--the No. 15 Eugene Dewberry-owned Chevy Monte Carlo--last competed in 2004 with Tony Green as the driver. Myers increased his Irwindale feature victory count to six, including an ACLM victory in his family-owned No. 44 Toyota of Escondido Chevy Monte Carlo, a Grand National West triumph and a Toyota All-Star Showdown preliminary victory.

In a change of format, the eight fastest ACLM qualifiers raced in a six-lap trophy dash with a fully-inverted starting lineup to commence racing at 7:00 p.m. The finishing order determined the main event starting order in the order of the trophy dash finish. Eighth quickest qualifier Travis Irving led all six laps from the pole and defeated veteran Mike Johnson, the third starter, by 0.639. High Point Distributing Race Team rookies Colin Fleming, 23, and open-wheel champion Ryan Kaplan, 21, finished third and fourth. Sean Bennett, Lindsey King, Myers and Tim Huddleston were fifth through eighth in the 1:56.433 race that had three passes for positions.

LATE MODELS: At the start of the feature outside front row starter Johnson outgunned pole starter Irving and led the first 23 laps. Myers, from seventh starting, and Nick Joanides, from ninth, carved their way through the field and were second and third on lap 17. With Johnson high and Myers low the duo raced evenly. A solo spin by a back-marker caused a caution flag on lap 24. When racing resumed, Myers shot to the inside entering the first and third turns and emerged with the lead that he held to the conclusion. Joanides passed Johnson for second on lap 26. With ten laps remaining the running order was Myers, Joanides, Johnson, Huddleston, Irving, Kaplan, Kevin Callahan, Bennett, Clay Wattenbarger and Chris Johnson. On lap 33 at the starting line the Callahan and Bennett cars made contact and both spun out as Wattenbarger took evasive action and cut to the infield, just missing Callahan's car. The final incident occurred on lap 37 when ninth place rookie Miles Copenhaver spun drivers' side into the first-turn crash-wall. A precautionary red flag flew to assist the driver, who emerged uninjured. A wrecker hauled the two-tone green wrapped Paul Copenhaver car back to the pits.

With three green flag laps remaining Joanides made his final passing attempts to no avail. He fell short of his first victory this season by 0.266. He now trails point leader Myers by 10-points. M. Johnson was 0.857 back with Huddleston fourth and Irving fifth. Johnson and Huddleston are now tied for third in points, 18 digits behind Myers. Rookie Kaplan, who relocated from Chico, CA to Noblesville, IN to complete also for the USAC National Midget title, finished sixth. He dropped two positions on the lap 33 restart and regaining them during the next two laps. Kaplan jumped from seventh to fifth in ACLM point standings with 34 drivers on the point chart after three events. Brian Jones, Wattenbarger, Terry Henry and Robert Rice completed the top ten. All 20 finishers in the 28-car field completed 40 laps in a 38-minute race. Winner Myers said, "Mike Johnson showed me how to run this track when I came out here as a late model rookie."

SPEED TRUCKS: Connor Cantrell, 17, started third and won his first King Taco Super Truck main event in a 40-lap event. It was his first victory on the half-mile and followed his four Legend Car triumphs on the third-mile where he raced since age 14. The personable young driver won series rookie of the year honors in both Legends and last year in the Super Truck series. He became the third race leader Saturday in his family-owned Chevy S-10. He jumped from second to first in points and now leads by six points. The race took 42 minutes because of six yellow flags. Fastest qualifier Paul Brennan led the first three laps before yielding to second fastest qualifier John Sereika, the pole starter. Sereika, trying to win his first Irwindale main event, paced the 24 truck field from lap 4-32 when he was penalized for failing to heed the warning from race director Lester Boyer about not jumping the green flag again. When Sereika accelerated again too early after the lap 33 caution Boyer sent him to the back of the now 21-truck field. Angrily, Sereika complied and then became involved in one of the two crashes in turn two on lap 37. He continued with LF fender damage. Sereika stopped at the starting line to vent his displeasure towards the race control booth. He then drove to the pits and parked.

Inside-running Cantrell, who had been trying to pass outside-running Sereika from lap 14, inherited the lead. He then had to hold off inside-running, multi-time truck series winner Joe Herold from lap 34 to the lap 40 checker. Cantrell edged Herold by five yards (0.449). Joe Anderson started last (24th) and finished an impressive third, 0.667 in back of the winner. Anderson broke his transmission after two afternoon practice sessions and was unable to qualify during 4:00 p.m group qualifying for the trucks. He borrowed a spare transmission from rookie Jeff Peterson's team and made it all the way to third place with 15 trucks racing at the finish. Dana Higgins, Dennis Arena, Mike Fortier, rookie Jeff Peterson, rookie Rich DeLong III, Kenny Smith and Brennan completed the top ten. Cantrell said, "Thanks to Joe Herold for racing me clean. I always race him clean. He could've got by me. This is a fun series." Runner-up Herold, a NASCAR Elite Division Southwest Series veteran, told the crowd, "These kids sandwiched me. They have the stamina." Third podium occupant Anderson thanked his crew and Peterson's team for enabling him to race following his earlier transmission failure.

MINI STOCKS: The first Justice Brothers Mini Stock race of the season produced a field of 19 four-cylinder sedans. Pole starter Daryl Scoggins and fastest qualifier Tom Dye, 54, swapped the lead four times from their front row starting berths. Scoggins' 1978 Ford Pinto led lap 1-17, 19 and 21-35, while Dye's 1979 Toyota Celica was on top on laps 18 and 20. Dye trailed first-time winner Scoggins by 30-yards on the third-mile (-2.048 seconds) after a 10:19.949-timed all-green flag race. Jacob Rogers, 18,came from seventh on the grid to earn third, 3.071-seconds back. Rich Garver and Dustin Morgan, 48, followed as 16 of 19 starters finished. Twelve drivers completed all 35 laps.

AUTO SOCCER: The second ever Auto Soccer event at Irwindale took place in the infield and required only seven minutes for the Pick Your Part team of five orange cars to defeat the Jan's Towing team of five black cars by a score of 1-0. It repeated their 1-0 victory on 11-3-07. A 450-pound empty round propane tank, painted white with black spots like a soccer ball, served as the "soccer ball". Nine big truck tires at each end of the infield were painted white and were arranged in a goal formation. A white demolition derby car served as the "referee car" and put the "ball" in play. Both teams had scoring attempts repulsed by defender cars. Robert Rice, in the orange No. 7 Chevy El Camino, made a break-away scoring drive. The late model/Figure 8 veteran driver pushed the "ball" with his front bumper towards the empty west-end goal. A late arriving defender black car got rammed out of the way by an offensive orange car. The "ball" rolled slowly into the undefended goal to cheers from the grandstand packed with enthusiastic spectators.

DEMO DERBY: A $2,000 nine-car demolition derby closed action shortly after 10:00 p.m. Drivers vied for the $1,000 winner's share on a watered and soaped infield arena for about 15-minutes. Richard "Flipper' Walker won in the No. 88 Ford LTD that had served as the Auto Soccer "referee car". Walker, a backstretch flag-man at the track, won his first demo derby at Irwindale. Bill Altfather (X-13), Joe Myers (20), Tom Tucker (Tow 1) and Brett Blawn (2) finished in the other money positions in second through fifth respectively with the balmy, summer-like temperature still in the mid 70s.

Fastest qualifiers during group qualifying sessions were Dye (MS) and Brennan (ST), plus Myers (ACLM) in a pair of individually timed laps by every car. Times were significantly slower than the existing track records because of the heat. Hard Charger award-winners were Dennis Arena (ST), Dusty Morgan (MS) and Robert Rice (ACLM) who was fresh from scoring the only goal in the Auto Soccer event. Rice came from 24th starting slot to tenth place in his recently re-bodied late model.

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