Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 03/09/2008

There's no doubt about it. Jason Black has arrived as a major player in the ASA, TVT 24-7, Speed Truck Challenge Series. He proved it March 8th by winning the series' 2008 season opener at the Havasu 95 Speedway in Lake Havasu City-Arizona. It was the young driver's first ever series win. But it wasn't an easy one. Black had to fend off a serious challenge from Dallas Colodny who was also seeking his first series win. A late in the race caution forced a green white checker finish.

Black began his excellent evening in Lake Havasu City early in the afternoon during qualifying when he scored his first ever series fast time. Black's Chevrolet toured the quarter mile oval and turned in a lap of 15.860 seconds which was a new track record for the Havasu 95 Speedway. The hot lap also entitled Black to participate in his first ever series trophy dash which he finished in second behind Colodny.

Prior to the race there was the customary roll of the inversion dice which came up four. That put series veterans Andy Allen and Darren Young on the front row a move that would loom large later in the evening. Colodny and Black lined up behind them in row two. Young paced the 16 starters for two green flag laps before Allen pulled up alongside and they began racing door to door. Allen, racing on the inside line, drifted up the front stretch towards Young who nudged the wall trying to give the Allen truck some room. Young slammed on his brakes to avoid the inevitable accident. Allen sailed into turn one out of shape and slammed into the wall. He wasn't injured from the extremely hard hit but the same could not be said for his truck. The field was stopped under red flag conditions to allow safety crews to clean up the track.

Under green again Young led one more lap before the damage from tapping the wall caused his truck to get extremely tight. Black passed him to take the lead for good on lap 11. The new race leader appeared at first to be strong enough to separate himself from the field. But that ended on lap 28 when the yellow flag returned this time due to rookie drivers Karl Forman and Donny St Ours who made contact coming off of turn four. St Ours wound up spinning his truck down the front stretch.

By lap 69 the presence of lapped traffic created an influence on this race. By lap 85 Colodny was starting to reign in the race leader. Colodny got the break he was looking for on lap 87 when a truck driven by Joey Licata Jr stalled between the third and fourth turns to bring out another yellow caution flag. Still riding under yellow three laps later, ASA Speed Truck officials envoked their policy of allowing all trucks on the lead lap to move to the front of the line and let them race to the finish. This turned out to be huge for both Black and Colodny because it spared them the traffic jam the lapped trucks were frequently causing. Under the green flag again the five trucks still on the lead lap took off to settle the outcome of the race between them. The effort only lasted two laps before the final caution flag came out due to Kevin Smith's spin on the backstretch. That final flag also set up the green white checker finish. Black got a great restart and that allowed him to open a one truck length lead which was just enough to lead Colodny under the checkers. Paul Bonaccorsi, Todd McLauchlan and Darren Young completed the top five.

In victory lane an extremely happy Jason Black celebrated with his family and said "this has been a great night. We set best time, and a new track record, in qualifying and we almost had the trophy dash where we finished second. I just couldn't ask for a better truck. My team did a really good job tonight. We ended up victorious with our first Speed Truck win and hopefully it won't be our last." When asked about his reaction when he realized that this race was going to end with a green white checker finish he said "I was actually glad to hear that because the 08, (Colodny), hasn't had a win in the Speed Truck Series either. It was the best time to watch two people real hungry for the win because you know they're going to try everything that they have to be victorious. With four laps to go we had a restart and I knew he was hungry for it. It was a real good night and I'm glad that I'm the one that came out in the lead". On the subject of the presence of lapped traffic Black said "the only problem with that was the fact that they were racing at the top of the track in the fast groove so I had to stay on the bottom which really cooked up the tires. The hotter the tires got then the slicker my truck got. I had to back off to get the tires to cool down so I could get back to my race rhythm and try to pull away from the second place guy."

When asked what the family owned race team was going to do to celebrate their first win, Black laughed and said "I wish we could go to Disneyland but we'll probably just hang out at the bar tonight."

Jay Rutherford, President of the ASA,TVT 24-7, Speed Truck Series said that other than the reason for the first caution flag he was thrilled with his season opening race. "We had a rough start to the race with that incident between the 22, (Allen), and the 18, (Young), but to see that nine truck, Jason Black, who never won a race before, never sat on a pole put it all together and take this thing tells me it's an awesome start to our 2008 season."

The series will return to action on March 22nd at the always challenging Tucson Raceway Park. Commenting on his next race Rutherford said "Tucson is a really great track. Everybody loves racing there. I particularly like racing there because it's such an awesome facility. It's a high banked, three eighths of a mile, oval and I think it's going to be an awesome race."

Rutherford is also pleased with the young drivers who joined his series this year and added "That's what this series is all about. Bring those youngsters in, move them up and make professional race drivers out of them. Here at the ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series we certainly think that we're doing that and you can see the parity in the field. The entire field tonight was separated by half a second between first and last. Yeah, I think we're doing it."

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