Jacob Gomes Grabs Wild West Shootout Win at Redwood Acres Raceway

Bakersfield, CA – Jacob Gomes entered Saturday nights “JM Environmental Inc Wild West Shootout Money Talks 127 presented by Big Valley Sanitation” having only one start with the Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series in 2024. But career start number 137 was well worth the long trip to Eureka, CA, as he grabbed the $15,000 win and his 17th career triumph, breaking a tie with legendary “Tour” racer Jim Pettit II, for second on the all-time series wins list.

“To win $15,000 is really cool”, Gomes exclaimed! “To beat Jim Pettit, and to be on a list and beat him is kinda cool. It’s a great bonus for all the things (Crew Chief) Mike Keen does to have two drivers, among winningest drivers, who have come from the Campbell Motorsports team with Derek Thorn and everybody there. It just shows how great Mike and Derek are in everything they do. To get on a list and be up there at the top is great. We will see if Jim gets back out there in a car and beats us, then we will have to do it again.”

Dylan Zampa drew first blood Saturday night, grabbing the RaceCals Fast Time Award with a lap of 15.890 seconds, edging Gomes by 0.020 seconds. Blaine Rocha clocked in third, with Dane Nissen, Austin Herzog, and Buddy Shepherd the redraw participants. Shepherd grabbed the #1 pill to start on the pole, with Rocha lined up to his outside. Austin Herzog and Gomes made up row number two, with Zampa and Nissen the last of the redraw participants.

Taking the green flag, Rocha and Shepherd battled side by side for three laps, with Rocha finally clearing Shepherd in the outside line. Gomes advanced to third as Herzog settled into position in fourth. The field fell in line, saving their equipment for later in the event, as they clicked off the first 40 laps without incident, taking the Competition Caution.

The restart saw Gomes fight his way to the inside of Shepherd to take the runner-up position on lap 42. Meanwhile Dylan Zampa got to the inside of Herzog to grab fourth. On lap 51, Gomes made his move getting inside of Rocha for the lead, emerging with the top spot on lap 52. When the field took the scheduled lap 75 break, Gomes led Rocha, Shepherd, Zampa, Herzog, Nissen, Eric Schmidt, Brandon Barnwell, Mike Beeler, and Scott Sanchez.

After teams made adjustments, Gomes jumped out to the lead over Rocha, with the standings holding steady, until the first incident related caution on lap 98, for a spinning Romeo Venza. When the green returned on lap 99, the waiting game had ended. The top two rows battled side by side for several laps, before Gomes was able to secure the lead from Rocha. Zampa was able to fight by the outside of Shepherd closing on the back bumper of Rocha. By lap 108, Zampa began peaking to the inside of Rocha, battling side by side with the two-time series winner who was holding the outside line.

On lap 117, Zampa was finally able grab the spot from Rocha and take up pursuit of Gomes. He slowly began to close on Gomes but ran out of laps when the checkered fell on lap 127. Meanwhile, Rocha and Shepherd battled side by side for the third position with Rocha able to stave off the challenge for third. Gomes took home the $15,000 victory and continued his hot streak in the series, with Zampa, Rocha, Shepherd, and Herzog the top five.

Gomes talked about his race strategy after the rich win.

“We were trying to get a feel for the race and figure out what we would have to do for the halfway break to see where those guys were going to be at and what they were gonna do” Gomes recalled. “So, we just rode there to figure out what we were gonna need and save my stuff. I knew we were going to get a caution there (Competition Caution at 40 laps), so I just rode it out. We got to him (Rocha) a little quicker than we thought and got by him. We just kinda paced ourselves and made the adjustments we needed there to have the best car at the end.”

Dylan Zampa had a strong race finishing second, but he felt he may have waited a bit too long to move forward, to have a shot at winning the $15,000 winner’s purse.

“Right before the race, me and my dad were talking on the front stretch about strategy, and he said just ride it to the break, we will make an adjustment, and we will go from there”, Zampa recalled. “I may have taken that too far maybe. When I got up behind Buddy and was running fourth, maybe I should have picked off that one position and then maybe I could have restarted on the inside of the 98 (Rocha) sooner and had a closer shot of getting to the 16 (Gomes). But the Zampa Motorsports crew worked their butts off this weekend and threw all kinds of stuff at the car this weekend. I have to really thank them the most. They are the ones that brought the car home in P2. We got a quick time and a P2 and not that much damage, so we will take that.”

Zampa knew Gomes had a fast car out front, but he wondered if could have caught Gomes, had he reached the runner-up position sooner.

“When I got back to second, I kinda started to get back into rhythm. We were maybe a tenth or half a tenth better. Maybe if we had more laps, maybe we would have caught him, maybe not. But it would have been hard to pass him because he looked pretty good too. We were lacking just a little bit of drive, and we had just enough to get by those guys that were fading just a bit. I just have to thank all my sponsors, Apache Rental Group for one, for sponsoring us for the last two years. I want to thank Randy Hedrick with Sierra Speed and Technology, for giving us the racecar to actually do this. I need to thank him the most. Also, Anderson Logging, Myles Anderson and the whole Anderson family for sponsoring us six or seven years since I started racing. Myles was here with us this weekend, helping my dad Crew Chief, so that was a big help.”

Blaine Rocha has been knocking on the door of Victory Lane for several seasons. The two-time series winner was disappointed that he couldn’t get back there Saturday night, and he wasn’t sure what they could have done to make the car better.

“We are not really too sure right now”, Rocha stated in frustration. “It got really inconsistent lap to lap. I can’t explain what the deal was, but we were really good yesterday and really good this morning.”

Rocha continued, regarding his battle with championship leader Buddy Shepherd over the last half-dozen laps. “I was trying to stay ahead of him, and it is for points, so that is the guy I need to beat right now. I’m just pretty disappointed right now, and I need to get a win here soon, to boost the confidence up. I know we can do it. The last couple of races at Colorado and here, we just didn’t quite have the car we needed. The guys have been working hard, but I’m not sure what I need to do differently.”

The next event for the Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series will be the second round of the JM Environmental Wild West Shootout series at Stockton 99 Speedway. Shepherd and Rocha will continue their battle for the championship, and Gomes will attempt to grab his third victory of the 2024 campaign on September 21st.

Results:

1. Jacob Gomes, 2. Dylan Zampa, 3. Blaine Rocha, 4. Buddy Shepherd, 5. Austin Herzog, 6. Dane Nisson, 7. Eric Schmidt, 8. Brandon Barnwell, 9. Mike Beeler, 10. Romeo Venza, 11. Scott Sanchez

Celebrating its twenty fourth season in 2024, the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series is a regional stock car series competing on paved ovals in the southwestern portion of the U.S. “The SPEARS Southwest Tour Series…Where the Champions Race”.

Story, PC: K. Peters, SRL Media