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rialto concrete products 100 source nascar public relations date 05 16 2005daytona beach florida defending nascar autozone elite division southwest series champion jim pettit ii from prunedale continued his quest for a second series title by winning the rialto concrete products 100 saturday night at mesa marin pettit held off a persistent charge from auggie vidovich throughout the race to take the victory by a mere seconds ahead of burney lamar dan holtz and bud pole award winner jeff jefferson rounded out the top five jefferson of naches has won the season ending bud pole award for the past four consecutive seasons on the northwest series and he hopes he can continue that streak in his first full time southwest series jefferson toured the high banked half mile paved oval with a quick lap of mph to top the speed charts in nick lynch kanke greg pursley and vidovich rounding out the fast five after qualifying jefferson in his lemay auto museum tri county parts dodge drew a six car invert to the 100 lap race and would start sixth putting pettit on the pole with vidovich outside front row for the third consecutive seeing vidovich take the lead on the opening lap in the past two southwest series races pettit was ready to pounce as the field of 27 cars took the green pettit motored his racing for the missing ford into turn one beating vidovich at his own vidovich settled into the field quickly sorted out behind the lead duo but with only 100 laps in which to race everybody was determined to take advantage of any series veteran kanke of frazier park asserted his perricone juices chevrolet under vidovich on lap three letting the former champ know his was on his vidovich prevailed and the kanke fell in line in third greg pursley and nick lynch rounded out the top five at lap 10 with jefferson burney lamar eddy mckean dan holtz and brandon riehl completing the top ten in the running held the point at lap 26 when he started lapping pettit was able to move effortlessly through the lap traffic and build a small lead on during this green flag run doug mccoun suffered mechanical troubles ending his night with a disappointing 27th place asserted his dodge into the mix by passing lynch on lap 28 for sixth and setting up a race long battle with lamar and the first caution came out on lap 40 for nick lynch as he cut a right front tire and slammed the outside turn one lynch and his crew would return to the race and finish the quick yellow saw the field restart on lap 43 with pettit out front followed by vidovich kanke pursley and but as quickly as the green flew the caution came our again as sunoco rookie leader dustin jones careened off the inside backstretch wall after contact with another car on the jones was uninjured but his car was heavily race restarted again on lap 50 with pettit holding the point with vidovich in pursuit followed by a determined kanke who was looking for his fifth mesa marin that victory would elude kanke as he cut a tire and had to pit dropping him two laps down under as kanke pitted jefferson got underneath pursley for third while lamar and mckean battled side by side for several pursley took third back on lap 53 with mckean passing jefferson for fourth on the outside in turn four on lap third caution came out on lap 59 for sunoco rookie david mayhew when his chevrolet made contact with the turn two mayhews night was while under caution brandon riehl suffered ignition trouble ending his night riehl has been one of the fastest cars at each southwest series events this season but bad luck has sidelined his efforts so pettit continued his domination on the lap 64 final caution came out when keith spangler was sent spinning down the back stretch after contact with another spangler was able to rejoin the field and would finish lap 85 pettit and vidovich broke away from the rest of the field and put lapped cars between them and the rest of the top lamar was in third with jefferson in fourth with mckean rounding out the top mckean was looking for a way around jefferson when his pontiac got loose in turn four dropping him back to ninth with only ten laps to the lap 90 mark pettit was still in control of the race but vidovich was asserting himself pressuring pettit at each lamar held down the third position with holtz moving by jefferson for eric holmes was running sixth while sunoco rookie ryan foster had moved up to seventh from his 22nd starting mckean was back to eighth followed by greg voigt and stan silva mckean made a late race charge passing both foster and holmes over the final three laps to move back to the sixth as the checkered flag flew pettit was able to hold off vidovich by a mere seconds to claim his first victory of the year and regain the series point lead after four southwest series races are hard to win pettit auggie was better than i was in turns one and two but i had the advantage in turns three and it was great racing with auggie and i know he wanted to win a third straight race but i felt this placed owed me one and finishing second was not an really cant be disappointed to finish second vidovich we had a great car and we had another great was excited to finish third with a car that was not quite we struggled all day trying to make the car turn lamar we are happy with the finish as it feels like a win after the day we have a top three finish gives us a lot of momentum heading to luck has plagued dan holtz all season but a forth place finish is just what the doctor i just love racing here at mesa marin holtz just when i get down on myself we have a solid it was fun racing the guys tonight and bring the car home in one my hats of to jim and his crew for the pole award winner jeff jefferson started sixth and finished fifth to record his second top five finish of the the car was fast but so were a bunch of others and we just missed it a bit jefferson this series is tough and you have to be right every lap and we just got tight loose and could make it any further claimed his second consecutive bud pole award with a quick lap of mph to lead 27 drivers in the race took just 40 minutes and 26 seconds to complete at an average speed of the action was slowed four times for 18 laps of ryan foster claimed the powerade power move of the race award for improving the most positions in the 100 lap event burney lamar received the featherlite award for improving the most positions from the previous 22nd to ryan foster was also the top finishing sunoco rookie of the year candidate for the third straight race with an eighth place southwest series will return to mesa marin raceway in october for a special 300 lap event sponsored by star the event will feature live pit stops drawing the top drivers from all over the western united next event for the southwest series will be saturday june 4 at colorado national speedway in erie the race is a combination event with the midwest series featuring the best drivers from two series of nascars autozone elite pettits winning car is a port city chassis with a ford power plant from top of the hill pettit is involved with racing for the missing featuring tyrone bryant of fort wayne our racing for the missing is effort is such an essential part of what each and every community should be aware of which is to educate each family member about being safe and having an open line of communication with each other so they feel comfortable in letting each other know where they are while away from home pettit
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Tags : rialto concrete products 100 nascar autozone elite division southwest series
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