THORN BATS 1000 AT KCRP IN 2015

BY ALLISON GRIFFITH, For The Californian  / Photo provided by KCRP

It was a fast paced evening at Kern County Raceway Park Saturday for the 2nd Annual CITGO Lubricants Fall Shootout.

The Spears Southwest Tour DC’s RV Center 100 presented  by Race For Autism.net had 96 consecutive laps of green flag racing.

Dominating at his hometown track, Derek Thorn not only had the No. 1 qualifying time of 17.592, but went on to w1n his second feature of 2015 at KCRP.

“We can leave here with our heads held high, knowing we’ve won.” said Thorn, who also won the the last Southwest Tour race held at KCRP in April.

Thorn fought his way from the sixth position, taking first place going into turn four on lap 35.

From then on Thorn showed how fast his car was, lapping all the way up to the seventh position.

Bobby Hodges, who started first, finished second.

“It was a long run, definitely wore me out,” Hodges said of the nonstop racing. “I tried to hold on to Derek, but he’s unreal out there.”

Finishing third, Jacob Gomes was able to rack up more point for the season and is now only three points behind Greg Voigt with just one race remaining. Voigt placed fourth.