18 WINS BLACKJACK 121
Bakersfield, CA – Jim Pettit won Saturday night’s “GoLiveStream.TV Blackjack 121” by leading every lap at the Las Vegas Bullring. Pettit had to hold off the challenges of Greg Pursley, and then Jonathon Gomez and finally the late race charge from series point leader Derek Thorn. At the checkers, it was Pettit by .297 seconds over Thorn, Ross Strmiska was third, followed by Zane Lovelace, and Cody Hodgson who finished a career best fifth. The win was Pettit’s record tying 13th career SPEARS Southwest Tour Series victory.
“First, I want to say that we dedicate this win to my Mom with it being Mother’s Day weekend,” stated Pettit. “Vegas was the first race we ran without her, after her passing two years ago, this is our first win at Vegas since then, so it’s fitting to dedicate this to her.”
Pettit, who started on the outside front row of the 29-car field, jumped to the lead on the first lap, as he cleared pole setter David Ross as the two cars exited turn 2.
A lap 6 restart saw Hodgson miss a shift, which ignited an eight-car pile up, which resulted in Tracy Bolin coming to rest on his roof just inside Turn 1. No one was injured, but many drivers were finished for the evening, including Keith Spangler, Troy Ermish, Dave Byrd, Andy Allen, and Bolin.
The race was slowed by four cautions, and took just over 1 hour and 3 minutes to complete the 121 laps. It was Pettit’s first win of 2013, to go with his two runner up finishes so far this season.
“This feels really good for our team, our guys work so hard. I appreciate all their hard work, all the work HUR puts into the engine program and all that Quentin (Bammer) does to be sure that we’re competitive, it feels really good to get the win for all of them.” Pettit added.
Pettit and Thorn are now tied with the most all-time career SPEARS Southwest Tour Series wins at 13 a piece. Thorn leads Pettit by 10 points in the championship standings, 530 to 520. Jason Gilbert maintains 3rd in the standings, Strmiska moved up to 4th, Lovelace is 5th, with Greg Voigt, Carlos Vieira, Jacob Gomes, Jeremy Doss and Ken Benhamou rounding out the top 10 in the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series championship.
The next event for SPEARS Southwest Tour Series will be Saturday, June 1st at Redwood Acres Raceway in Eureka, CA. It will be the first appearance ever by the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series at the historic 3/8-mile oval.
For more information, please go www.SRLSouthwestTour.com.
