White Cashes in at Irwindale in the “All-Star Showdown 100”
Bakersfield, CA – Linny White survived Saturday night’s “All-Star Showdown 100” for the Spears Pro Late Models presented by Sigma Performance Services, to reach the checkered flag first. The race was called on lap 55 due to curfew, and a pileup that ended the caution-marred event on Irwindale Speedway’s outer ½-mile oval. The win was worth $10,000 to the three-time Spears SRL Southwest Series Super Late Model victor, in what was his first start in the Pro Late Model Series.
Dylan Zampa surprised a few, when he cranked out the fastest lap in qualifying, for the 34 Spears Pro Late Models on hand. His lap of 19.024 seconds earning him $500 from the Apache Rental Group. The top four competitors were within 0.02 seconds of each other with Jeffrey Peterson second, weekend long dominator Linny White third, Bradley Erickson fourth, and Kyle Keller fifth. Zampa pulled the number eight envelope for the invert, putting Washington’s Kasey Kleyn on the pole. Former ARCA Menards Pro Series West champion Sean Woodside lined up alongside Kleyn with All American Speedway racer Kenna Mitchell third.
At the initial green flag, Woodside jumped to the lead, with Kyle Keller and Linny White taking advantage of the outside line to move to second and third. By the end of lap two, Jeffrey Peterson had moved around Kleyn for fourth and Zampa would follow a lap later the get in the top-five. White immediately challenged Keller on the outside, getting by on lap three. Peterson used the low line to supplant Keller from third a lap later, before the caution came out for an incident on lap six for Ethan Meyers and Aiden Daniels.
The lap seven restart found White jumping to the front from the outside row, and Petterson challenging Woodside on the inside, finally clearing his teammate on lap 11. Zampa worked to the inside of Keller, finally taking fourth on lap 13. A couple of laps later, Zampa found himself in the third position after making quick work of the #45 of Woodside. Keller’s top-five run came to an end on lap 18, when he pulled his Pro Late Model to the pits, putting Erickson into the top-five. A Kenna Mitchell spin in Turn 2, on lap 31, put an end to the longest green flag run of the evening, with White leading Peterson, Zampa, Woodside, and Erickson.
The restart saw Linny White hold the lead, but a lap later, 2022 Spears Pro Late Model champion Seth Wise was sent into the spin cycle, bringing out the third caution of the night. Amileo Thomson got the worst of it however, ending up in the Turn #1 wall. The fourth restart found White and Peterson racing side-by-side with Peterson nudging ahead on lap 35, just before Ryan Martin spun into the front stretch K-rail entering Turn 1 for a red flag. White was given the lead back by rule, and the race restarted with Peterson to the outside, but the yellow came out immediately for a Mike Weiman crash in Turn 1.
The lap 37 restart found White and Peterson side-by-side again for the lead, with Zampa hot on their trail. On lap 40, Peterson cleared White for the lead, but White battled back to the inside, repeatedly challenging for the lead, with Zampa on his tail. On lap 50, the caution came out for the halfway break, with Peterson getting the edge by a half car length. Zampa was third followed by Woodside and Nick Joanides.
With time approaching 10:00 PM, the drivers were notified that the white flag would come out at 9:59 PM, giving the field an urgency to get to the front, and a little less than 15 minutes to do so. The restart saw Peterson and White side-by-side again, with Peterson choosing the outside line. After the completion of one lap, Zampa dove to the bottom making it three-wide coming off Turn 2. Zampa led at the line, but White attempted to jump back to the inside of Zampa entering Turn 1. Contact between the two sent Zampa sideways and back up the track into Peterson, who had pulled even with Zampa at the end of the front straight. Peterson spun and hit the outside wall in Turn 2, ending his fine effort on the flatbed on lap 53. Zampa continued on, blending back into the second position.
The final restart was declared a five-lap shootout or a race to the next caution. Zampa lined up on the inside with White in the upper groove. White got a great restart and emerged with the lead in Turn 2. As the filed crossed the line on lap 54, Kyle Gottula made contact with Holly Clark and soun into the inside K-Rail entering Turn 1. The field raced around the half-mile to the yellow/checkered, when a multicar incident occurred in Turns 3 and 4. With the accident, the field reverted the finish to the final fully completed on lap on lap 54.
White was declared the winner with Zampa later credited with second, due to the scoring on the previous lap. Sean Woodside was third followed by Nick Joanides, Trevor Huddleston, Jake Bollman, Seth Wise, Bradley Erickson, Kasey Kleyn, and Brody Armtrout. Tim Huddleston caught up with Linny White in Victory Lane after the wild event, for his thoughts on the race.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you (track promotor Tim Huddleston)”, White stated in Victory Lane. “You gave us a great facility to race at and you brought in some great sponsors to be involved with. We have brought some good sponsors with Apache (Rental Group), Sierra Speed, Swift Springs, and Clay Wooster who owns the car. I couldn’t do it without my guys this week. It is a team effort. At the end of the day, we are holding the trophy, and that is not the way we want to do it. We would like to see it come to the end and run the full 100. I’d like to see all the fenders on the car, but at the end of the day, we are here to win.”
Zampa was reserved after a narrowly missing out on the $10,000 victory.
“First off, I gotta thank the Zampa Motorsports crew”, Zampa declared. “They bust their butts all weekend here, we ran two cars. We had a really good car at the halfway break, and we didn’t even touch it. I knew we had a fast car, and I knew we were faster than both of them (Peterson and White). I just can’t thank my sponsors Sierra Speed Technology, Anderson Logging, Allied Propane, Allied Auto, the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, and everyone else that is on-board. We just can’t do it without them.”
The next event for the Spears Pro Late Model Series presented by Sigma Performance Services is the “Winter Showdown” at Kern County Raceway Park on March 25th. Dylan Zampa scored his first of four season victories at the event, bringing home a $3,500 payday.
Results:
- Linny White, 2. Dylan Zampa, 3. Sean Woodside, 4. Nick Joanides, 5. Trevor Huddleston, 6. Jake Bollman, 7. Seth Wise, 8. Bradley Erickson, 9. Kasey Kleyn, 10. Brody Armtrout, 11. Aiden Daniels, 12. Mike Beeler, 13. Christian Bazen, 14. Tyler Herzog, 15. Sheldon Cooper, 16. Hans Beeler, 17. Mike Regelman, 18. Ethan Meyers, 19. Howard Holden, 20. Nash Youngren, 21. Sammy Solari, 22. Michael Zimmerman, 23. Parker Malone, 24. Kenna Mitchell, 25. Holly Clark, 26. John Sereika, 27. Ethan Cheek, 28. Kyle Gottula, 29. Jeffrey Peterson, 30. Kyle Keller, 31. Eric Bewley, 32. Mike Weiman, 33. Ryan Martin, 34. Amileo Thomson.
