The RJ Allen 100 at Irwindale Speedway
On Saturday night March 23, 2019 Irwindale Speedway hosted
34 Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late models presented by Lucas Oil for
the ‘RJ Allen Inc.100‘ presented by Traffic Management Inc. The SRL Modified
Series and the South West Tour Truck (SWTT) series shared the card for a night
full of racing excitement on the ½-mile progressively banked Irwindale oval.
The program opened with qualifying for all classes, and the
SRL Southwest Tour late models destroyed the existing late model track record
of 17.272 seconds. The first car to eclipse the old record was multi-time
Irwindale track champion Trevor Huddleston with a best lap of 17.091 seconds,
before Dylan Lupton took to the track and re-set a new track record of 17.055
seconds.
Once time trials were over, the top five late model
qualifiers all recorded laps below the old track record while the 2018 Bay Cities
Racing Association (BCRA) champion, 14-year-old Jesse Love, in his first race
on a half-mile track, piloted his #38 Naake-Klauer Motorsports Toyota Camry to the
16th fastest time of the 33 cars that took qualifying laps. The
fastest SRL Modified qualifier, Trevor Christani reset the record for that
class with a fastest lap of 18.424 seconds which broke the old record by .046
seconds.
The evening’s racing program opened with a 35-lap feature
for the South West Tour Trucks, with the top six qualifiers fully inverted, so
the fast qualifier Ronnie Davis Jr. started on the outside of the third row in
his #78 truck. Davis used the low groove to move forward and took over from the
early leader Curtis Brown in turn two of lap two, while Davis’ his nearest
competitor Ron Nava was black-flagged from second place and assessed a
stop-and-go penalty for passing before the starting line at the start of the
race.
The penalty against Nava left Davis with a huge lead of 12
car lengths over the new second place runner Mike Kelperis. As the race
progressed Davis built up a large lead of over five seconds at the checkered
flag over Kelperis, Steve Reeves, Robert Vandermooren and Ron Nava who
recovered from his early penalty to finish in fifth place.
The SRL Modifieds took to the oval for their first 40-lap
segment after the top eight qualifiers re-drew for their starting positions.
Jason Irwin took the lead from his outside front row starting position, while
behind him back in the pack, cars ran four-wide through the fourth turn on the
first lap. Teammates Ryan Schartu and Dylan Cappello settled into second and
third place with fast qualifier Christiani in fourth place.
The top four cars separated themselves from the rest of the
pack, and after the restart following a caution flag on lap 17, Christiani
began to work the low line through the turns and by lap 22 challenged Irwin for
the lead. The orange-and-black #24 rode the low line into the lead on lap 22
and Christiani steadily pulled away to win comfortably over Cappello, Irwin, Justin
Johnson and Schartu. The race’s big
mover was Ryan Partridge who started 16th, went a lap a down early
in the race and battled back to finish eighth.
The top eight Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late
model qualifiers also re-drew for starting positions for their first 50-lap
segment, with 2018 SRL champion Jeremy Doss and Linny White on the front row and
Lupton the fastest qualifier starting on the outside of the third row. At the
drop of the green, Doss surged to the point with Derek Thorn in second and
Preston Peltier in third place. After
several caution flag periods, Peltier moved to the lead trailed by Thorn, Doss
and Lupton, with Jesse Love back in the in 16th place. At the drop
of the checkered flag on lap 50, Peltier took the victory with Doss in second,
Thorn third, Lupton fourth, Jacob Gomes in fifth and Craig Raudman sixth while
the young phenom Jesse Love finished 17th.
The second SRL Modified 40-lap segment took the green flag
with the top seven finishers from the first segment inverted which resulted in
exciting side-by-side action with race cars three wide through the corners at
times. Jeremy Kay held the point for the first seven laps, while the first
segment winner Christiani settled into second place.
By lap 15, Christiani was pressuring Kay for the lead by
utilizing the low groove through the turns, and the #24 car took the lead on
lap 18. Christiani then began to stretch his lead which was up to 1.2 seconds
to lap 30, and grew to 1.7 seconds by lap 35. Trevor Christiani took the second
segment victory by 2.1 seconds over Jeremy Kay, Dylan Cappello, Ryan Schartu,
and Justin Johnson. With his two victories, Christiani was declared the night’s
overall SRL Modified winner.
For the night’s final event, the second Spears Manufacturing
SRL Southwest Tour late model 50-lap segment, the top ten finishers in the
first segment were inverted for the start, with winner Preston Peltier on the
outside of the fifth row in the 28-car field. From the start, action was torrid
with the top half of the field running in close order. The race’s first caution
flew when 2018 SRL runner-up Eric Schmidt’s #05 wound up in the outside wall
exiting turn two on the second lap.
After the restart on lap five, the #33 car of M.K. Kanke hit
the turn four wall, then on lap eleven the #71 car of Kyle Neveau slid into the
turn two wall from second place, then rebounded and grazed the right front
fender of the third-place car driven by Peltier. Neveau and Peltier’s #18 both
continued; Peltier in third place behind Thorn and Doss, but Neveau fell back
into the field.
During the middle laps of the race, there were three
separate incidents on the backstretch, as contact between cars caused
spin-outs, with the third incident the most serious as Neveau’s car slammed in
the third turn wall drivers-side first after apparent contact with Brandon
Loverock’s #72. The hard contact necessitated a red flag, but the driver
emerged uninjured but the car suffered heavy damage.
Peltier held the lead for the lap 31 restart ahead of Jeff Bischofberge,
Jeremy Doss, Dylan Lupton and Jacob Gomes with young rookie Jesse Love in
twelfth place. Unfortunately, on lap 39, Love’s evening came to an end as the
cars of Cole Moore and Jack Wood made contact entering turn one, with Moore
hard into the outside wall, which left Love nowhere to go but into the outside
wall. The accident brought out another red flag, and all three cares were
eliminated but none of the drivers were injured. Young Jesse expressed
frustration in the pit area after the race, as his chance for a top ten finish
in his first SRL Southwest Tour appearance was lost through no fault of his
own.
Preston Peltier's winning machine following post-race inspection
After the race restarted, Peltier held a comfortable lead
over Bischofberge, while the machines of Doss, Lupton Craig Raudman and Jace
Hansen fought for third place, with the running order of those four cars changing
literally every lap. The finishing order of the second segment was Preston
Peltier, Jeff Bischofberge, Raudman, Hansen, Lupton and Doss in sixth. By
winning both segments, Peltier claimed the overall victory in the ‘RJ Allen 100
presented by Traffic Management Inc.’ and the $5,000 winner’s check.
Irwindale Speedway’s favorite son, Trevor Huddleston, suffered
problems with his #50 machine all night and was never a factor. In his
post-race interview, the new track record holder Dylan Lupton shared that while his car was fast in
qualifying, it never handled well in traffic, although the adjustments that the
crew made during the break improved the car’s handling for the second segment,
Lupton could not match the speed of the leaders.
On Saturday night March 30 Irwindale Speedway will present
the ‘NAPA Auto Parts 150’ for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West cars together
with the ‘Night of Destruction,’ presented by LKQ Pick Your Part. All the
K&N West cars and stars are expected to be on hand, including Brittney Zamora,
Jagger Jones, Ryan Partridge and the K& N Las Vegas race winner Hailie Deegan. Also on tap will be the Saugus Speedway
Reunion with Grand Marshal Ron Hornaday Jr. Spectator gates are scheduled to
open at 4 PM with the first race at 7 PM.
Check out the
websites for the series mentioned in this article at:
For further information about Irwindale Speedway, check out
the website at:
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